Henri Georges Clouzot Biography
Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907 - 1977), once billed as the "French Alfred Hitchcock," was the director known less for his turbulent personal life than for his indelible contributions to modern cinema. After debuting with the unusually lighthearted mystery "The Murderer Lives at Number 21" (1942), Clouzot drew the ire of both the Vichy press and the resistance movement in occupied France for his dark drama "The Raven" (1943) . Condemned as a collaborator, due to the latter film's perceived negative portrayal of the French people, Clouzot was banned from cinema for life after the liberation of France. With the help of advocates like Jean-Paul Sartre, the sentence was reduced to two years, allowing the writer-director to return to prominence with a series of well-received projects. His recognized masterpieces came in the next decade with the gripping suspense tale, "Wages of Fear" (1952) followed by the claustrophobic thriller "Diabolic" (1955). A rare documentary, focusing on the life and work of his longtime acquaintance, "The Mystery of Picasso" (1956), and a psychological drama starring Brigitte Bardot, "The Truth" (1960), brought Clouzot into the next decade. By then, however, the influential film critics of the Cahiers du Cinema had dismissed the director's work as easy, unimportant entertainment. Although chronic illness and personal difficulties prevented him from regaining his vaunted status during his lifetime, history would soon place Clouzot as one of the most influential and important directors of the 20th century.
