Albin Théodore Denys Colomb de Daunant (21 November 1922 – 22 March 2006) was a French writer, poet, photographer and filmmaker, best known for his work on the multi-award-winning 1953 short film ''
White Mane
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
''. An aristocrat and modern dandy, he was an iconic figure of France's rural Camargue region.
Biography
The son of Auguste Colomb de Daunant and L. Carenou1, Denys Colomb de Daunant was born into a
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
family in the
Gard
Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;"Denys Colomb de Daunant", Au Diable Vauvert '' The Colomb de Daunants were major landowners and ran a number of traditional ''
mas
Mas, Más or MAS may refer to:
Film and TV
* Más y Menos, fictional superhero characters, from the Teen Titans animated television series
* Más (Breaking Bad), "Más" (''Breaking Bad''), a season three episode of ''Breaking Bad''
Songs
* Más ( ...
'' and factories.
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he had to flee France for having insulted a German officer. He attempted to rejoin the Free French Forces in Morocco, but was captured while crossing the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
and imprisoned.
Returning to the Camargue in 1947, at the age of 25, he purchased the Cacharel ''mas'' in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where he was to live for more than sixty years, transforming it in the process into a rustic horse-riding centre with no running water, electricity, or telephone line. Cacharel became one of the area's best-known '' manades'' for both horses and
Camargue bull
Camargue (, also , , ; oc, label= Provençal, Camarga) is a region of France located south of Arles, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône delta. The eastern arm is called the ''Grand Rhône''; the western one is the ''P ...
s. Though this remained his base, he travelled a lot and became friends with many of the prominent cultural figures of his time, including
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Chagall
Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...
,
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
, and
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
. He was close to
Frédéric Mistral
Joseph Étienne Frédéric Mistral (; oc, Josèp Estève Frederic Mistral, 8 September 1830 – 25 March 1914) was a French writer of Occitan literature and lexicographer of the Provençal form of the language. He received the 1904 Nobel P ...
, and contributed to the latter's
Occitan language
Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Ital ...
magazine ''Aïoli''."La Petite Histoire de notre Hôtel" Hotel de Cacharel website /ref>
In 1948 he married Monique Bonis, the granddaughter of Colomb de Daunant's spiritual forebear, iconic Camargue pioneer
Folco de Baroncelli-Javon
Folco de Baroncelli-Javon (1 November 1869 – 15 December 1943), was a French writer and cattle farmer. As an influential ''gardian'' (a kind of Provençal cowboy), he is an important figure in the traditional lifestyle and culture of the ...
.
He was the manager of the bullfighting ring at Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer, and sometimes took part in bullfights himself.
With
Albert Lamorisse
Albert Lamorisse (; 13 January 1922 – 2 June 1970) was a French filmmaker, film producer, and writer of award-winning short films which he began making in the late 1940s. He also invented the strategic board game ''Risk'' in 1957.
Life
Lamor ...
and
James Agee
James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time Magazine'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. ...
, Colomb de Daunant was one of the screenwriters of ''
White Mane
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
'', a short film released in 1952 that focused on the wild horses of the Camargue, and much of it was filmed at the ''mas'' de Cacharel. With Lamorisse he also co-authored the novel of the same name that appeared in 1953.
He spent much of his life fighting to protect the cultural heritage of the Camargue, campaigning for example against the encroachment of electricity pylons. He avoided using electricity himself, and was known in France for perpetuating the image first embodied by
Folco de Baroncelli
Folco de Baroncelli-Javon (1 November 1869 – 15 December 1943), was a French writer and cattle farmer. As an influential ''gardian'' (a kind of Provençal cowboy), he is an important figure in the traditional lifestyle and culture of the ...
of the Camargue as an area of tough men and wild animals – at times, indeed, he even dressed in traditional clothing from Baroncelli's time.
He died on 22 March 2006 at the age of 85, survived by two children, Florian and Sylvie Colomb de Daunant.
Works
Bibliography
*''La nuit du Sagittaire'', 2006, ()
*''Camargue'', 1955 (with
Jean Proal
Jean Proal (16 July 1904 – 24 February 1969) was a French writer.
Life
He wrote some short stories aged twenty-four and twenty-five then his first novel ''Tempête de printemps'' at age 28.
Writers such as Jean Giono, Roger Martin du Gard, ...
)
Filmography
As director:
* ''
Corrida interdite
Corrida may refer to:
* Bullfight
* Corrida (horse)
Corrida (1932 – probably 1944) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse who won races in France, Belgium, Germany and England and is regarded as one of the top fillies of the 20th century w ...
White Mane
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
'') (1953) (also screenwriter)
* ''
Aux frontières du possible
''Aux frontières du possible'' (''To the Boundaries of the Possible'') is a French television show that was broadcast from 1971 and 1974. The show was created by Henri Viard and Jacques Bergier, based on the latter's book ''Scientific Espionage' ...
'' (1974)
* ''
Alerte au minotaure
Alerte may refer to:
Ships
* French brig ''Alerte'' (1787)
*, various ships of the Royal Navy
People with the surname
* Charles Alerte (born 1982), Haitian footballer
*David Alerte (born 1984), French sprinter
See also
*''The Cruise of the Ale ...