Jean Grémillon

Biography

Jean Grémillon was a French film director. After directing a number of documentaries during the 1920s, many now lost, Grémillon had his first substantial success with the dramatic feature Maldone in 1928. Over the next quarter-century, he directed twenty more feature films, of which he is best known for five made between 1937 and 1944: Gueule d'amour (1937), L'Étrange M. Victor (1938), Remorques (1941), Lumière d'été (1943), and Le Ciel est à vous (1944), all but the first starring Madeleine Renaud. Grémillon rejected what he referred to as "mechanical naturalism" in favor of "the discovery of that subtlety which the human eye does not perceive directly but which must be shown by establishing the harmonies, the unknown relations, between objects and beings; it is a vivifying, inexhaustible source of images that strike our imaginations and enchant our hearts." He died on November 25, 1959 in Paris, France.

Directed

1. Stormy Waters (1941) — Director
2. Lady Killer (1937) — Director
3. The Woman Who Dared (1944) — Director
4. The Strange Monsieur Victor (1938) — Director
5. Summer Light (1943) — Director
6. The Lighthouse Keepers (1929) — Director
7. Little Lise (1930) — Director
8. The Love of a Woman (1953) — Director
9. White Paws (1949) — Director
10. Dainah the Mixed (1932) — Director
11. Misdeal (1928) — Director
12. Guard! Alert! (1937) — Director
13. The Strange Madame X (1951) — Director
14. The Sixth of June at Dawn (1947) — Director
15. La Dolorosa (1934) — Director
16. The Charms of Life (1949) — Director
17. The House of Images (1955) — Director
18. For One Cent's Worth of Love (1932) — Director
19. Chartres (1923) — Director
20. André Masson and the Four Elements (1958) — Director
21. Alchemy (1952) — Director
22. Les désastres de la guerre (1949) — Director
23. La photogénie mécanique (1924) — Director
24. The Royal Waltz (1936) — Director
25. Haute-Lisse (1956) — Director
26. La vie des travailleurs italiens en France (1926) — Director
27. Les pattes de mouche (1936) — Director
28. Gonzague (1934) — Director
29. Astrology or the mirror of life (1952) — Director
30. In the Heart of the Ile de France (1954) — Director
31. Un tour au large (1926) — Director
32. Casting Ella Maillart (1926) — Director
33. Essais au bord de la mer (1926) — Director

Also appeared in

1. The Charms of Life (1949) — Narrator
2. Astrology or the mirror of life (1952) — Narrator (voice)
3. Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma (1978) — Self (archive footage)