Jacqueline Audry (25 September 1908 – 22 June 1977) was a French

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

who began making films in post-

World War II 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 ...

France and specialised in

literary adaptation Literary adaptation is the adapting of a literary source (e.g. a novel, short story, poem) to another genre or medium, such as a film, stage play, or video game. It can also involve adapting the same literary work in the same genre or medium ju ...

s. She was the first commercially successful female director of post-war France.

Biography

Audry was born in

Orange, Vaucluse Orange (; Provençal dialect, Provençal: ''Aurenja'' or ''Aurenjo'' ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in southeastern France. It is ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Because there were few opportunities for female directors during the

Nazi occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 ...

, Audry worked as an assistant to directors

Jean Delannoy Jean Delannoy (12 January 1908 – 18 June 2008) was a French actor, film editor, screenwriter and film director. Biography Although Delannoy was born in a Paris suburb, his family was from Haute-Normandie in the north of France. He was a P ...

G. W. Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...

and

Max Ophüls Maximillian Oppenheimer (; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls (; ), was a German-French film director who worked in Germany (1931–1933), France (1933–1940 and 1950–1957), and the United States (1947–1950). He made near ...

and directed a short film of her own, ''Le Feu de paille'' (1943), with the help of the Centre Artistique et Technique des Jeunes du Cinéma (now

La Femis LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

). The end of

and the

liberation Liberation or liberate may refer to: Film and television * ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War * "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode * "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode Gaming * '' Liberati ...

of France provided increased opportunities for women, but they still faced prejudice in the film industry. Audry's first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

was ''

Les Malheurs de Sophie ''The Misfortunes of Sophie'' (French: ''Les Malheurs de Sophie'') is a 1946 French comedy drama film directed by Jacqueline Audry and starring Madeleine Rousset, Marguerite Moreno and Michel Auclair.Palmer & Michael p.69 The film is based on t ...

'' (1946). This was based on the popular novel of the same name by the

Comtesse de Ségur Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

. No copies of this film, which was censored for its "politically inappropriate" riot scenes, exist. Unable to raise funds for her next film, she had to wait a couple of years before making '' Sombre dimanche'' (1948). In the 1940s and 1950s, she directed three films based on

Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...

novels; '' Gigi'' (1949), ''

Minne Minne, a Middle High German word for "loving remembrance", may refer to: *Courtly love in the German courtly tradition * Frau Minne, a personification of romantic love in German courtly tradition People * Danièle Djamila Amrane-Minne (1939–2017 ...

'' (1950) and ''

Mitsou Mitsou Annie Marie Gélinas (born September 1, 1970, in Loretteville, Quebec) is a Canadian pop singer, businesswoman, television and radio host, and actress. She is credited as Mitsou Gélinas when acting, but records simply as Mitsou (the Fre ...

'' (1956), all three with actress

Danièle Delorme Gabrielle Danièle Marguerite Andrée Girard (9 October 1926 – 17 October 2015), known by her stage name Danièle Delorme, was a French actress and film producer, famous for her roles in films directed by Marc Allégret, Julien Duvivier or Y ...

. ''Mitsou'', which featured sex outside of marriage, was heavily censored. Audry directed ''The Pit of Loneliness'' (''

Olivia Olivia may refer to: People * Olivia (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Olivia (singer) (Olivia Longott, born 1981), American singer * Olívia (basketball) (Carlos Henrique Rodrigues do Nascimento, born 19 ...

'', 1951), based on

Dorothy Bussy Dorothy Bussy ( Strachey; 24 July 1865 – 1 May 1960) was an English novelist and translator, close to the Bloomsbury Group. Family background and childhood Dorothy Bussy was a member of the Strachey family, one of ten children of Jane St ...

's 1950 semi-

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

novel, ''Olivia''. Set in an

all-girls Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

, ''The Pit of Loneliness'' depicts a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

love story between a schoolgirl and her headmistress. At the time, the film was very controversial and was censored in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Edwige Feuillère Edwige Feuillère (born Edwige Louise Caroline Cunatti; October 29, 1907 – November 13, 1998) was a French stage and film actress. Biography She was born Edwige Louise Caroline Cunatti to an Italian architect father and an Alsace-born mo ...

was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Foreign Actress for her part as Mlle. Julie, the headmistress. The film has been called a "landmark of lesbian representation". She frequently collaborated with her sister, the novelist and screenwriter Colette Audry. Audry's film style was traditional and at odds with the

French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

. Her films had a feminist slant however. Many of them had central female characters and they often gave a radical view of gender roles and female sexuality. Audry retired from feature films after ''Bitter Fruit'' (1967), but she co-directed with Wojciech Solarz a Polish-French miniseries of the life of

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

in 1973. Audry died in a road accident in

Poissy Poissy () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Pisciacais'' in French. Poissy is one of ...

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207. She was married to the

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Pierre Laroche Pierre Laroche (1902–1962) was a French journalist, screenwriter and novelist. He was active in the French film industry from the 1940s to the 1960s. Laroche collaborated with Jacques Prévert on the script of '' Les Visiteurs du Soir'' (1942) ...

with whom she collaborated on film scripts on a number of occasions.

Filmography

Among the 16 films Audry directed were: * ''

The Misfortunes of Sophie ''The Misfortunes of Sophie'' (French: ''Les Malheurs de Sophie'') is a 1946 French comedy drama film directed by Jacqueline Audry and starring Madeleine Rousset, Marguerite Moreno and Michel Auclair.Palmer & Michael p.69 The film is based on t ...

'' (1946) * ''

Dark Sunday ''Dark Sunday'' (French: ''Sombre dimanche'') is a 1948 French drama film directed by Jacqueline Audry and starring Michèle Alfa, Paul Bernard and Marcelle Derrien.Bessy & Chirat p.451 The film takes its name from the French title of the song " ...

'' (1948) * '' Gigi'' (1949) * ' (1950) * ''

'' (US title: ''The Pit of Loneliness'') (1951) * ''

The Blonde Gypsy ''The Blonde Gypsy'' (French: ''La caraque blonde'') is a 1953 French drama film directed by Jacqueline Audry and starring Tilda Thamar, Roger Pigaut and Gérard Landry.Pallister & Hottell p.78 Cast * Tilda Thamar as Myra Milagros * Roger ...

'' (1953) * ''

Huis clos ''No Exit'' (french: Huis clos, links=no, ) is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The play was first performed at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in May 1944. The play begins with three characters who find themselves waiting ...

'' (''No Exit'') (1954) * ''

'' (1956) * '' It's All Adam's Fault'' (1958) * '' School for Coquettes'' (1958) * ''

Le Secret du chevalier d'Éon ''Le secret du Chevalier d'Éon'' is a 1959 French-Italian film. It stars Andrée Debar and Gabriele Ferzetti. It is loosely based on the life of Chevalier d'Éon Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont or Charlott ...

'' (1959) * '' Girl on the Road'' (1962) * '' Bitter Fruit'' (1967)

References

External links

*Retrospective with photos, posters, scripts, and documentation: *Bio, photos, clips: *Bio: Clips: *
Allmovie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Audry, Jacqueline 1908 births 1977 deaths People from Orange, Vaucluse French women film directors French film directors Road incident deaths in France 20th-century French women

Biography

Filmography

See also

References

External links