Jean-Louis Curtis
Writing
Biography
Jean-Louis Curtis (22 May 1917 – 11 November 1995), pseudonym of Albert Laffitte, was a French novelist best known for his second novel The Forests of the Night (French: Les Forêts de la nuit), which won France's highest literary award the Prix Goncourt in 1947. He is the author of over 30 novels. Curtis was born in Orthez, Pyrénées-Atlantiques. He attended the Bordeaux Faculty of Arts after secondary studies in his hometown. He then became a student at the Sorbonne before traveling to England from September 1937 to July 1939. In August 1939, he was mobilized as part of the Air Force from January 1940. He transferred to Morocco in May 1940. At the end of September 1940, he demobilized and returned to France and taught at the lycée de Bayonne. He passed the agrégation exam in English with success in 1943. He then taught as an English professor at the lycée de Laon. In August 1944, he took part in the Corps franc Pommiès, the campaign for the liberation of France. In 1946, he published his first novel, Les Jeunes Hommes. In 1947, he won the Prix Goncourt for his novel Les Forêts de la nuit. He was one of the founders in 1948 of the literary monthly La Table Ronde. In 1955, he left teaching to devote himself to writing. From 1963 to 1972, he was a member of the Advance Revenue Commission at the National Film Center. In 1972, he received the Grand prix de littérature de l'Académie française for all of his work. As a specialist in Shakespeare, he was responsible for the French subtitling of television adaptations of plays by the English playwright, produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985, and broadcast in France in the mid-1980s. He was elected a member of the Académie française in 1986. He has written several collections of pastiches on contemporary events such as the student revolts of May 1968 and the socialist victory in France in May 1981. Martin Seymour-Smith said of Curtis in the early 1980s: He is one of the best of the 'conventional' novelists now writing in France, but is very uneven: he is not worried about originality of technique, and prefers to concentrate on what he can do well, which is to anatomize bourgeois societies and 'artistic' communities. The author Michel Houellebecq made a homage to him in a long passage in La carte et le territoire (prix Goncourt 2010). Source: Article "Jean-Louis Curtis" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For
Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.
Apostrophes
Louise lives alone and seems to like it that way. She has been through a divorce and the recent death of her mother. Recently, she has moved to Annecy, a moderate-sized city, to take work as a schoolteacher. She encounters a much younger man, Luigi, an Italian who is down on his luck. Though he moved to France to find work, he was robbed of his money and papers and is stranded. When he helps her bury her dogs, which her neighbour has poisoned for barking, their relationship grows to a new level.
Dear Louise
No description available.
Les Célibataires
Back from the war, Marceau Le Guern remembers. Educated in an orphanage run by Dominican brothers, he fell into misery when he left it. His only asset was his good looks, which did not escape the attention of Madame Alice, a shady woman who persuaded him to pose for pornographic photos meant for lonely aging women. Marceau also served as a gigolo before the war and captivity put an end to this juicy business. Now he wants to start a new life, all the more as ha has found love in the person of a pure young lady named Dominique. But Madame Alice won't hear of it...
Gigolo
The psychotic son of a film producer becomes obsessed with a beautiful blonde starlet while in Cannes, lures her to his hotel room and strangles her. His mother finds out, but can she keep her mouth shut to protect her son? Meanwhile, the young killer meets another pretty blonde...
The Woman Is a Stranger
The dramatic failure of a couple, Véronique and Gilles, who can't solve their everyday problems. On the verge of breaking up, they're reunited at the last minute.
A Young Couple
In this uneven tragedy by director Philippe Ducrest, a misunderstanding brings out the murderous side of one of the protagonists. The popular Michel Galabru makes one of his early screen appearances as a thief who in his haste to escape from the law, stuffs a diamond necklace he has just stolen into a purse in a store. The woman who buys the handbag takes it home without inspecting its interior and leaves it where her husband notices it, opens it up, and sees the valuable necklace. Immediately jumping to the conclusion that his wife has been up to no good, his reaction leads to a separation -- and much worse.
The Cross and the Banner
No description available.
Peniaze alebo život
No description available.