Georges Franju
Encyclopedia
Georges Franju was a French
filmmaker. He was born in Fougères
, Ille-et-Vilaine
.
, Franju had several different jobs. These included working for an insurance company and in a noodle factory. Franju was also briefly in the military in Algeria
and was discharged in 1932. On his return, Franju studied to become a set designer and later created backdrops for music halls including Casino de Paris and the Folles Bergère.
In the mid-thirties, Franju and Henri Langlois
met through Franju's twin brother Jacques Franju. As well as creating the 16 mm short film Le Métro, Langois and Franju also started a short-lived film magazine and created a film club called Le Cercle du Cinema with 500 francs he borrowed from Langlois' parents. The club showed silent films from their own collections followed by an informal debate about them amongst members. From Le Cercle du Cinema, Franju and Langlois founded the Cinématheque Française
in 1936. Franju ceased to be closely related with the Cinématheque Française as early as 1938, and only became associated it strongly again in the 1980s when he was appointed as the honorary artistic director of the Cinématheque. In 1937, Franju and Langlois co-founded another less successful film journal titled Cinematographe which had only two issues. In early 1940, Franju and Dominique Johansen co-founded another organization to promote cinema called Circuit Cinématographique des Arts et des Sciences which closed on May 31, 1940.
and the industrialism following World War II
influenced Franju's early works. His first documentary, The Blood of Beasts (French: Le Sang des Bêtes) was a graphic film of a day inside a Paris slaughterhouse
. The second documentary, commissioned by the government in 1950, was Passing By the Lorraine (French: En Passant par la Lorraine). The film was commissioned as a celebration of the modernization of the French industry, but Franju's film showed his view of the ugliness spewing forth from monstrous factories. Franju's third film commissioned by the French government, Hôtel des Invalides (1951), was a look at life inside a veterans' hospital. The film was commissioned as a tribute to the hospital and the War Museum, but Franju turned it into a film against the glorification of militarism. Franju later said that Hôtel des Invalides was his favorite of his three "slaughter" films.
With The Keepers (French:La Tete Contre les Murs) in 1958, Franju turned toward fiction feature films. His second feature was the horror film
Eyes Without a Face
(French:Les Yeux sans Visage) about a surgeon who tries to repair his daughter's ruined face by grafting on to it the faces of beautiful women. His 1963 film Judex
was a tribute to the silent film serials Judex
and Fantomas
. In Franju's later years his film work became less frequent. Franju occasionally directed for television and in the late seventies he retired from filmmaking to preside over the Cinématheque Française
. Georges Franju died on November 5, 1987.
, Claire Clouzot described Franju's film style as heavily influenced by his predecessors. Clouzot described it as "a poignant fantastic realism inherited from surrealism and Jean Painlevé
science cinema, and influenced by the expressionism
of Lang
and Murnau". Franju's focus on the film was on visuals which he claimed marked a director as an auteur. Franju claimed to "not have the story writing gift" and was focused on what he described as the "putting into form" of the film.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
filmmaker. He was born in Fougères
Fougères
Fougères is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany, in north-western France.-Sights:Fougères' major monument is a medieval stronghold built atop a granite ledge, which was part of the ultimately unsuccessful defence system of the Duchy of Brittany against...
, Ille-et-Vilaine
Ille-et-Vilaine
Ille-et-Vilaine is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country.- History :Ille-et-Vilaine is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
.
Early life
Before working in French cinemaCinema of France
The Cinema of France comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad.France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its early significant contributions. Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle...
, Franju had several different jobs. These included working for an insurance company and in a noodle factory. Franju was also briefly in the military in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and was discharged in 1932. On his return, Franju studied to become a set designer and later created backdrops for music halls including Casino de Paris and the Folles Bergère.
In the mid-thirties, Franju and Henri Langlois
Henri Langlois
Henri Langlois was a French film archivist and cinephile. A pioneer of film preservation, Langlois was an influential figure in the history of cinema...
met through Franju's twin brother Jacques Franju. As well as creating the 16 mm short film Le Métro, Langois and Franju also started a short-lived film magazine and created a film club called Le Cercle du Cinema with 500 francs he borrowed from Langlois' parents. The club showed silent films from their own collections followed by an informal debate about them amongst members. From Le Cercle du Cinema, Franju and Langlois founded the Cinématheque Française
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...
in 1936. Franju ceased to be closely related with the Cinématheque Française as early as 1938, and only became associated it strongly again in the 1980s when he was appointed as the honorary artistic director of the Cinématheque. In 1937, Franju and Langlois co-founded another less successful film journal titled Cinematographe which had only two issues. In early 1940, Franju and Dominique Johansen co-founded another organization to promote cinema called Circuit Cinématographique des Arts et des Sciences which closed on May 31, 1940.
Film career
In 1949, Franju began work on a series of nine documentary films. The Nazi occupation of ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the industrialism following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
influenced Franju's early works. His first documentary, The Blood of Beasts (French: Le Sang des Bêtes) was a graphic film of a day inside a Paris slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
. The second documentary, commissioned by the government in 1950, was Passing By the Lorraine (French: En Passant par la Lorraine). The film was commissioned as a celebration of the modernization of the French industry, but Franju's film showed his view of the ugliness spewing forth from monstrous factories. Franju's third film commissioned by the French government, Hôtel des Invalides (1951), was a look at life inside a veterans' hospital. The film was commissioned as a tribute to the hospital and the War Museum, but Franju turned it into a film against the glorification of militarism. Franju later said that Hôtel des Invalides was his favorite of his three "slaughter" films.
With The Keepers (French:La Tete Contre les Murs) in 1958, Franju turned toward fiction feature films. His second feature was the horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
Eyes Without a Face
Eyes Without a Face
Eyes Without a Face is a 1960 French-language horror film adaptation of Jean Redon's novel, directed by Georges Franju, and starring Pierre Brasseur and Alida Valli. During the film's production, consideration was given to the standards of European censors by setting the right tone, minimizing...
(French:Les Yeux sans Visage) about a surgeon who tries to repair his daughter's ruined face by grafting on to it the faces of beautiful women. His 1963 film Judex
Judex (1963 film)
Judex is a French-language crime film remake of the 1916 French film serial of the same name concerning the adventures of pulp hero Judex...
was a tribute to the silent film serials Judex
Judex
Judex is the title of a 1916 silent French movie serial concerning the adventures of Judex who is a pulp hero, similar to The Shadow, created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède.-Concept:...
and Fantomas
Fantômas
Fantômas is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre .One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appeared in a total of 32 volumes written by the two collaborators, then a subsequent 11...
. In Franju's later years his film work became less frequent. Franju occasionally directed for television and in the late seventies he retired from filmmaking to preside over the Cinématheque Française
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...
. Georges Franju died on November 5, 1987.
Film style
In her study of French cinema since the French new waveFrench New Wave
The New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
, Claire Clouzot described Franju's film style as heavily influenced by his predecessors. Clouzot described it as "a poignant fantastic realism inherited from surrealism and Jean Painlevé
Jean Painlevé
Jean Painlevé was a film director, actor, translator, animator, critic and theorist. He was the son of mathematician and twice prime-minister of France, Paul Painlevé.-Upbringing:...
science cinema, and influenced by the expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
of Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
and Murnau". Franju's focus on the film was on visuals which he claimed marked a director as an auteur. Franju claimed to "not have the story writing gift" and was focused on what he described as the "putting into form" of the film.
As director
| Year | Film | English title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Le Metro | co-directed with Henri Langlois Henri Langlois Henri Langlois was a French film archivist and cinephile. A pioneer of film preservation, Langlois was an influential figure in the history of cinema... |
|
| 1948 | Le Sang des bêtes | Blood of the Beasts | |
| 1950 | En passant par la Lorraine | ||
| 1951 | Hôtel des Invalides Hôtel des Invalides (film) Hôtel des Invalides is a 1952 short documentary film directed by Georges Franju.... |
||
| 1952 | Le Grand Méliès Le Grand Méliès Le Grand Méliès is a 1952 short documentary film directed by Georges Franju about the life of the film pioneer Georges Méliès.-Cast:* Jeanne d'Alcy as Herself* François Lallement as Narrator * André Méliès as Georges Méliès... |
||
| 1952 | Monsieur et Madame Curie | ||
| 1954 | Les Poussières | ||
| 1954 | Navigation Marchande | Film renounced by Franju. | |
| 1955 | A propos d'une rivière | ||
| 1955 | Mon chien | ||
| 1956 | Le Théâtre national populaire | ||
| 1956 | Sur le pont d'Avignon Sur le pont d'Avignon "Sur le pont d’Avignon" is a French song about the Pont d'Avignon that dates back to the 15th century. This song is a popular preset on Yamaha Keyboards.... |
||
| 1957 | Notre-dame, cathédrale de Paris | ||
| 1958 | La Première Nuit | ||
| 1958 | La Tête contre les murs La Tête contre les murs Head Against the Wall is a 1958 French drama film directed by Georges Franju and starring Pierre Brasseur, Paul Meurisse, and Jean-Pierre Mocky. The story follows Francois who is institutionalized by Marbeau for daring to defy his wealthy father. Francois' verges of insanity during his... |
Head Against the Wall | |
| 1959 | Les Yeux sans visage Eyes Without a Face Eyes Without a Face is a 1960 French-language horror film adaptation of Jean Redon's novel, directed by Georges Franju, and starring Pierre Brasseur and Alida Valli. During the film's production, consideration was given to the standards of European censors by setting the right tone, minimizing... |
Eyes Without a Face | |
| 1961 | Pleins feux sur l'assassin | Spotlight on a Murderer | |
| 1962 | Thérèse Desqueyroux | Therese | |
| 1963 | Judex Judex (1963 film) Judex is a French-language crime film remake of the 1916 French film serial of the same name concerning the adventures of pulp hero Judex... |
||
| 1965 | Thomas l'imposteur | Thomas the Impostor | Entered into the 15th Berlin International Film Festival 15th Berlin International Film Festival The 15th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from June 25 to July 6, 1965.-Jury:* John Gillett * Alexander Kluge* Ely Azeredo* Monique Berger* Kyushiro Kusakabe* Jerry Bresler* Karena Niehoff* Hans Jürgen Pohland... |
| 1965 | Les Rideaux blancs | The Moment of Peace | Les rideaux blancs segment |
| 1965 | Marcel Allain Marcel Allain Marcel Allain was a French writer mostly remembered today for his co-creation with Pierre Souvestre of the fictional arch-villain and master criminal Fantômas.... |
Short documentary about the writer | |
| 1970 | La Faute de l'abbé Mouret La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret is the fifth novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Viciously anticlerical in tone, it follows on from the horrific events at the end of La Conquête de Plassans, focussing this time on a remote Provençal backwater village.The plot centres on the... |
The Demise of Father Mouret | |
| 1974 | Nuits rouges Nuits Rouges Nuits Rouges is a film directed by Georges Franju. The film was released in the U.S. in an English-dubbed version by New Line Cinema under the title Shadowman in 1975.The movie is based on the TV series L'Homme Sans Visage.... |
Shadowman | |
External links
- Georges Franju at Allmovie