French film director, producer, writer, and dramatist. His work includes the novels
Fanny (1932; filmed 1961) and
Manon des sources (1952; filmed 1986). His autobiographical
La Gloire de mon père/My Father's Glory (1957) was filmed in 1991. He regarded the cinema as recorded theatre; thus his films, although strong on character and background, fail to exploit the medium fully as an independent art form.
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