Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches, better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline, was a French novelist, polemicist, and physician. His first novel Journey to the End of the Night (1932) won the Prix Renaudot but divided critics due to the author's pessimistic depiction of the human condition and his writing style based on working class speech. In subsequent novels such as Death on the Installment Plan (1936), Guignol's Band (1944) and Castle to Castle (1957) Céline further developed an innovative and distinctive literary style. Maurice Nadeau wrote: "What Joyce did for the English language...what the surrealists attempted to do for the French language, Céline achieved effortlessly and on a vast scale."
Gérard de Nerval was the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, a major figure of French romanticism, best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection Les Filles du feu, which included the novella Sylvie and the poem "El Desdichado". Through his translations, Nerval played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, including Klopstock, Schiller, Bürger and Goethe. His later work merged poetry and journalism in a fictional context and influenced Marcel Proust. His last novella, Aurélia ou le rêve et la vie, influenced André Breton and Surrealism.
Louis Marie Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down", Malle made documentaries, romances, period dramas, and thrillers. He often depicted provocative or controversial subject matter.
Pierre Eugène Drieu La Rochelle was a French writer of novels, short stories, and political essays. He was born, lived and died in Paris. Drieu La Rochelle became a proponent of French fascism in the 1930s, and was a well-known collaborationist during the German occupation. He is best known for his books Le Feu Follet and Gilles.
Alain Robbe-Grillet was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon. Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on 25 March 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat No. 32. He married Catherine Robbe-Grillet.
Michel Butor was a French poet, novelist, teacher, essayist, art critic and translator.
Jacques Rigaut was a French surrealist poet. Born in Paris, he was part of the Dadaist movement. His works frequently talked about suicide and he came to regard its successful completion as his occupation. In 1929 at the age of 30, as he had announced, Rigaut shot himself, using a ruler to be sure the bullet would pass through his heart.
Michel Déon was a French novelist and literary columnist. He published over 50 works and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prix Interallié for his 1970 novel, Les Poneys sauvages. Déon's 1973 novel Un taxi mauve received the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française. His novels have been translated into numerous languages.
Maurice Ronet was a French film actor, director, and writer.
The Fire Within is a 1963 drama film written and directed by Louis Malle. It is based on the 1931 novel Will O' the Wisp by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, which was inspired by the life of poet Jacques Rigaut. The film stars Maurice Ronet and features Léna Skerla, Jean-Paul Moulinot, Bernard Tiphaine, Bernard Noël, Jeanne Moreau, Jacques Sereys, and Alexandra Stewart in supporting roles. The score consists of music composed by Erik Satie and performed by pianist Claude Helffer.
Alexandra Stewart is a Canadian actress.
Alain Borer, is a French poet, art critic, essayist, novelist, playwright, writer-traveler, signatory of the Littérature-monde manifesto, and eminent authority on the works of Arthur Rimbaud. He has been Professor of Art at L'École supérieure des beaux-arts de Tours since 1979 and Visiting Professor of French Literature at the University of Southern California since 2005. He received the Kessel Prize for his novel Koba, as well as the 70th Prix Apollinaire for his play Icare & I don't (Seuil). In 2010, Borer was awarded the 10th Pierre Mac Orlan Prize for Le Ciel & la carte, carnet de voyage dans les mers du Sud à bord de La Boudeuse (Seuil), and the Maurice Genevoix Prize from the Académie Française in 2011. Alain Borer was made a Knight (1985), then Officer (1993) of Arts and Letters in the French Legion of Honour, and is President of the Printemps des Poètes association. Alain Borer additionally received the Édouard Glissant Prize in 2005, awarded by the University of Paris VIII for all of his achievements.
Joachim Trier is a Danish-born Norwegian filmmaker. His films have been described as "melancholy meditations concerned with existential questions of love, ambition, memory, and identity." He has received numerous nominations including for a Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Cesar Awards, and three Cannes Film Festival Awards.
Oslo, August 31st is a 2011 Norwegian drama film directed by Joachim Trier. It is the second film, along with Reprise (2006) and The Worst Person in the World (2021), in Trier's Oslo trilogy. The film is a homage to, and loosely based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle's novel Will O' the Wisp (1931) and Louis Malle's feature film The Fire Within (1963).
The Man on Horseback is a 1943 novel by the French writer Pierre Drieu la Rochelle. It is set in Bolivia and tells the story of a dictator who tries to create an empire. The novel explores the author's ideas about political momentum and its origins. The allegorical narrative, complex plot and romantic verve make the novel stand out from Drieu's previous works, which are written in a realistic style and largely autobiographical.
Hotel Acropolis is a 1929 novel by the French writer Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. The French title is Une femme à sa fenêtre, which means "a woman at her window". The narrative is set in Athens and revolves the love affair between the wife of a French diplomat and a young communist leader who is sought by the police for a terrorist attack he has committed.
Jean-René Huguenin was a French writer. He began writing articles for La Table ronde and Arts at the age of 20. In 1960, he published his first and only novel, La Côte sauvage, which became a critical success and was praised by François Mauriac and Julien Gracq. The book was published in the United States in 1961 as The Other Side of the Summer and the United Kingdom in 1963 as A Place of Shipwreck. On 22 September 1962, Huguenin died in a car accident at the age of 26.
Alain Erlande-Brandenburg was a French art historian and honorary general curator for heritage, a specialist on Gothic and Romanesque art.
The Oslo trilogy is the Norwegian drama films Reprise (2006), Oslo, August 31st (2011) and The Worst Person in the World (2021). The three standalone films are all set in Oslo and feature the actor Anders Danielsen Lie in a leading role. They were directed by Joachim Trier who co-wrote them with Eskil Vogt.
