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Jean-Louis Barrault

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Jean-Louis Barrault
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(born Sept. 8, 1910, Le Vésinet, France — died Jan. 22, 1994, Paris) French actor and director. He made his acting debut in Paris (1931) and joined the Comédie-Française (1940 – 46) as an actor and director. He and his wife, Madeleine Renaud, formed their own company (1946 – 58) at the Théâtre Marigny. There they performed a mixture of French and foreign classics and modern plays that helped revive French theatre after World War II. He was appointed director of the Théâtre de France (1959 – 68) and later directed at several other Paris theatres (1972 – 81). He appeared in more than 20 films and was best known for his role in The Children of Paradise (1945).

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French Literature Companion: Jean-Louis Barrault
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Barrault, Jean-Louis (1910-94). French actor, manager, and director. A disciple of Dullin, Artaud, and Decroux, he emerged in the 1930s as an actor of outstanding expressive power. His productions are noted for their physical inventiveness. Stylistically eclectic, he enriched the vocabulary of the stage with mime and oriental techniques, developed a form of ‘total theatre’ best illustrated by his productions of Claudel, and did much to promote the emerging ‘New Theatre’ of writers such as Ionesco, Duras, and Vauthier in the 1950s. With his partner Madeleine Renaud, considered by many the leading actress of her time, he was a towering presence in French theatre for half a century.

[David Whitton]

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Jean-Louis Barrault
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Barrault, Jean-Louis (zhäN-lwē bärō'), 1910-94, French actor and director. A pupil of Charles Dullin, he joined the Comédie Française in 1940. After World War II he organized his own company at the Théâtre Marigny with his wife, actress Madeleine Renaud. Barrault's precise, imaginative physical style was influenced by his study of mime. He is best remembered for his Hamlet and as the mime in Marcel Carné's film Children of Paradise (1944).

Bibliography

See his autobiography Memories for Tomorrow (tr. 1974). His other writings include Reflections on the Theatre (tr. 1951) and The Theatre of Jean-Louis Barrault (tr. 1961).

Actor: Jean-Louis Barrault
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  • Born: Sep 08, 1910 in Vésinet, France
  • Died: Jan 22, 1994 in Paris, France
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '30s-'40s, '60s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: The Children of Paradise, Abel Gance's Beethoven, La Nuit De Varennes
  • First Major Screen Credit: Les Beaux Jours (1935)

Biography

French actor Jean-Louis Barrault studied acting with Charles Dullin and pantomime with Etienne Decroux while supporting himself as a bookkeeper and flower salesman. Under the direction of Dullin, Barrault made his stage bow in 1931 in Volpone. Never content with mere performing, Barrault became a director with the stage production Autour d'une mere in 1935, the same year that he made his first film, Les Beaux Jours. Five years later, Barrault joined the Comedie Francaise as actor/director. With many of his Comedie Francaise associates -- including several who'd been marked for arrest by the occupying Nazi troops -- Barrault appeared in his most celebrated film, Les Enfants du Paradis (1945). As mime-actor Deburau, whose unrequited love for enigmatic femme fatale Arletty shapes the destiny of his life, Jean-Louis Barrault delivers a matchless performance that is still being studied in acting and mime schools today. In 1959, Barrault organized his own acting company with his wife, actress Madeleine Renaud; as a result, he all but pulled out of filmmaking, except for cameos in such films as The Longest Day (1962). And in 1968, still the rebel he'd been in the days when he hid French Underground members on the set of Les Enfants du Paradis, Jean-Louis Barrault was removed as director of the Theatre de France when he sided with students and strikers during the May Riots. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Jean-Louis Barrault
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Jean-Louis Barrault

Jean-Louis Barrault, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1952.
Born 8 September 1910(1910-09-08)
Le Vésinet, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France
Died 22 January 1994 (aged 83)
Paris, France
Spouse(s) Madeleine Renaud (1940-1994)

Jean-Louis Barrault (8 September 1910, Le Vésinet, Yvelines – 22 January 1994) was a French actor, director and mime artist, training that served him well when he portrayed the 19th-century mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau (Baptiste Debureau) in Marcel Carné's 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise).

Jean-Louis Barrault studied with Charles Dullin in whose troop he acted from 1933 to 1935. At 25 years of age, he met and studied with the mime Étienne Decroux. From 1940 to 1946 he was a member of the Comédie-Française where he directed productions of Paul Claudel's Le Soulier de satin and Jean Racine's Phèdre, two plays that made his reputation.

Over his career, he acted in nearly 50 movies including Les beaux jours, Jenny, L'Or dans la Montagne and Sous les Yeux d'occident.[1]

In 1940, he married the actress Madeleine Renaud. They founded a number of theatres together and toured extensively, including in South America.

He was the uncle of actress Marie-Christine Barrault and sometime sponsor of Peter Brook. He died from a heart attack in Paris at the age of 83. Jean-Louis Barrault is buried with his wife Madeleine Renaud in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.

Jean-Louis Barrault, Reflections on the Theatre:

"In fact it is the simplest things that are the most tricky to do well. To read, for example. To be able to read exactly what is written without omitting anything that is written and at the same time without adding anything of one's own. To be able to capture the exact context of the words one is reading. To be able to read!"[2]

Dr. Cordelier and M. Opale

Perhaps the greatest display of his skill as a mime is in the 1959 made-for-TV movie directed by Jean Renoir, Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier[3] (The Testament of Doctor Cordelier, a.k.a. Experiment in Evil), based on Robert Louis Stevenson's novella, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in which Barrault, unaided by any additional make-up, editing or camera tricks, completely transforms himself, entirely on-screen, in an unbroken sequential shoot, from the noble Dr. Cordelier into the evil and wicked M. Opale.

References

  1. ^ IMDb list of film appearances
  2. ^ Jean-Louis Barrault, Reflections on the Theatre. London: Rockcliff, 1951
  3. ^ IMDb entry for Cordelier

External links

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jean-Louis Barrault".  Read more

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