Jacques Doniol-Valcroze

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze — Biography

Born in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on 15 March 1920, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze was a multi-hyphenate figure in French cinema who worked as a critic, director, screenwriter and actor. In 1951 he co-founded Cahiers du Cinéma with André Bazin and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca, editing it until 1957 and championing directors such as Orson Welles, Howard Hawks and Nicholas Ray. He turned to directing with L'Eau à la bouche (1959), followed by Le Cœur battant (1960), La Dénonciation (1961) and L'Homme au cerveau greffé (1971), and also published two novels. In 1968, the year nationwide strikes shut down the Cannes Film Festival, he founded the Directors' Fortnight through his own Society of Film Directors, intended to open the festival to lesser-known filmmakers and national cinemas. As an actor he appeared in L'Immortelle (1963), Le bel âge (1960), Out 1 (1971) and Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). His friend François Truffaut cast his young daughter Florence in a small role in the short film Une Visite, shot in Doniol-Valcroze's own apartment in 1955; that year he also served on the jury at Venice, and on Berlin's in 1964. Married to actress Françoise Brion, Doniol-Valcroze died of a ruptured aneurysm in Cannes on 6 October 1989.