Claude Autant-Lara

Biography

Claude Autant-Lara (August 5, 1901–February 5, 2000) was a French film director and later Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Born at Luzarches in Val-d'Oise, Autant-Lara was educated in France and at London's Mill Hill School during his mother's exile as a pacifist. Early in his career, he worked as an art director and costume designer, his best-known work in this vein was possibly for Nana (1926), a silent film directed by Jean Renoir. Autant-Lara also acted in the film. As a director, he frequently created provocative movies, saying "if a film does not have venom, it is worthless". In the 1960s, he turned his back on the New Wave movement, and from then on he had no popular successes. On 18 June 1989, he came to public notice again, controversially, when he was elected to the European Parliament as a member of the National Front and the oldest member of the assembly. In his maiden speech, in July 1989, he caused a scandal by expressing his "concerns about the American cultural threat", provoking a walkout by the majority of the deputies. In an interview granted to the monthly magazine Globe in September 1989, he accused ex-President of the European Parliament and Holoca…

Directed

1. La Traversée de Paris (1956) — Director
2. The Red Inn (1951) — Director
3. Love Is My Profession (1958) — Director
4. The Count of Monte Cristo (1961) — Director
5. Le Rouge et le Noir (1954) — Director
6. Fric-Frac (1939) — Director
7. The Green Mare (1959) — Director
8. Devil in the Flesh (1947) — Director
9. The Oldest Profession (1967) — Director
10. Sylvia and the Ghost (1946) — Director
11. The Game of Love (1954) — Director
12. Thou Shalt Not Kill (1961) — Director
13. Douce (1943) — Director
14. Marguerite of the Night (1955) — Director
15. The Seven Deadly Sins (1952) — Director
16. Franciscan of Bourges (1968) — Director
17. Keep an Eye on Amelia (1949) — Director
18. The Gambler (1958) — Director
19. The Marriage of Chiffon (1942) — Director
20. Potatoes (1969) — Director
21. Josefa's Loot (1963) — Director
22. Love Letters (1942) — Director
23. Enough Rope (1963) — Director
24. Good Lord Without Confession (1953) — Director
25. Courier of Lyons (1937) — Director
26. News Item (1923) — Director
27. A Woman in White (1965) — Director
28. Lovers Woods (1960) — Director
29. Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love! (1961) — Director
30. The Mysterious Mr. Davis (1939) — Director
31. Gloria (1977) — Director
32. The Stream (1938) — Director
33. Black Humor (1965) — Director
34. A Woman in White Revolts (1966) — Director
35. To Build a Fire (1928) — Director
36. Ciboulette (1933) — Director
37. The Regattas of San Francisco (1960) — Director
38. Buster se marie (1931) — Director
39. The Incomplete Athlete (1932) — Director
40. Plumber in love (1932) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Nana (1926) — Fauchery
2. The Man of the Sea (1920) — Un des copains (uncredited)
3. Backbiters (1927)
4. My Name Is Anna Magnani (1980) — Self
5. Cinépanorama (1956) — Self
6. Spécial cinéma (1974) — Self
7. The Bardot mystery (2012)
8. Les Rendez-vous du dimanche (1975) — Self
9. Ciné regards (1978) — Self