Louis Delluc
Directing
Biography
Louis Delluc was an Impressionist French film director, screen writer and film critic. He was born in Cadouin in 1890. His family moved to Paris in 1903. After graduating from the university, he became a literary critic. During the First World War, he was married to the Belgian actress Ève Francis, who acted in many of his films. In 1917, Delluc began his career in film criticism. He went on to edit Le Journal du Ciné-club and Cinéa, establish film societies, and direct seven films. He was one of the early Impressionist filmmakers, along with Abel Gance, Germaine Dulac, Marcel L'Herbier, and Jean Epstein. His films are notable for their focus on ordinary events and the natural setting rather than on adventures and antics. Many of his early film writings for French newspapers were collected in the volume Cinema et cie (1919). He also wrote one of the first books on Charlie Chaplin (1921; translated into English in 1922). Delluc directed his seventh film, L'Inondation (The Flood), in 1924. Filming took place in very poor weather conditions and Delluc contracted pneumonia. He died in Paris several weeks later, before the film was released. The Prix Louis-Delluc, created in 1937, is named in his honour.
Known For
Produced for television by Claude-Jean Philippe, the « Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma », recounts the history of French cinema from its birth to the beginning of the 1960s. With commentary read by Jean Rochefort.
Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma
Militis, a sailor, returns to a bar where he finds Sarah, the girl he once loved and is still attracted to. However, he is now married to an exotic woman who took care of him during an illness.
Fièvre
After the death of her mother, Germaine moves in with her father in a small town near the Rhône river. She falls in love with a young man, Alban, already engaged.
The Flood
A vamp seduces a banker and breaks with him when she's obtained all that she wanted.
Prometheus, Banker
A fifty year old woman, scarred by a life of disillusionment and regret, returns to the place where she lived twenty years before, to rekindle happier memories. She meets a young woman, the daughter of the current owners' of the property, who is on the point of abandoning her home just as she did, all those years ago...
The Woman from Nowhere
Coveted by two different men, a woman turns to a third man instead.
Spanish Fiesta
Etchégor, a wealthy Basque peasant is in love with the beautiful American Majesty Parnell. Her husband, about to be arrested for theft, seeks to forge an alibi.
Ernoa's Way
When a Parisian bank clerk is tasked with transporting valuable stock certificates to Nice, his scheming rival steals the documents to ruin him and win over a wealthy heiress. Boarding the same train, a group of passengers unites to thwart the villain, leading to a dangerous showdown as he resorts to extreme violence to cover his tracks.
Train Without Eyes
The tragedy of a man, about to kill himself, contemplating his past in a series of flashbacks.