Jacqueline Audry

Infobox actor
name = Jacqueline Audry


imagesize =
caption =
birthname =
birthdate = September 25 1908
birthplace = Orange, Vaucluse, France
deathdate = death date and age|1977|06|22|1908|11|25
deathplace = Poissy, Yvelines, France
othername =
occupation = Film director
yearsactive = 1946–1973
spouse =
domesticpartner =

Jacqueline Audry (1908–1977) was a French film director who started making films in post-war France and specialised in literary adaptations. [cite book
last = Austin
first = Guy
title = Contemporary French Cinema: An Introduction
publisher = Manchester University Press
date = 1996
pages = 81
url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-Bbxa3q3ZZAC
isbn = 0719046114] She was the first commercially successful woman director of post-war France.cite book
last = Tarr
first = Carrie
title = Cinema and the Second Sex: Women's Filmmaking in France in the 1980s and
publisher = Continuum International Publishing Group
date = 2001
pages = 251
url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gABdCSelJSIC
isbn =0826447422 ]

Biography

Audry was born September 25 1908 in Orange, Vaucluse, France.cite web
title = Jacqueline Audry
language = French
url = http://cinema.encyclopedie.personnalites.bifi.fr/index.php?pk=13524
accessdate =2008-03-31 ] There were few opportunities for female directors under Nazi occupation.cite book
last = Kedward
first = Harry Roderick
authorlink =
coauthors = Nancy Wood
title = The Liberation of France: Image and Event
publisher = Berg Publishers
date = 1995
pages = 105
url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-dpIT3UV0T4C
isbn =1859730876 ] Audry worked as an assistant to directors Jean Delannoy, G. W. Pabst and Max Ophuls and in 1943, directed a short film of her own, "Le Feu de paille", with the help of the Centre Artistique et Technique des Jeunes du Cinéma (now La Femis).cite book
last = Foster
first = Gwendolyn Audrey
authorlink = Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
title = Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary
publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group
date = 1995
pages = 27
url =http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-kJHa7KqnQ4C
isbn =0313289727 ] The end of the second world war and the liberation of France provided increased opportunities for women, but they still faced prejudice in the film industry.

Audry's first feature film was "Les Malheurs de Sophie" in 1946. This was based on the popular novel of the same name by the Comtesse de Ségur. No copies of this film, which was censored for its "politically inappropriate" riot scenes, exist. Unable to raise funds for her next film, she had to wait three years before making "Sombre dimanche". In the 1940s and 1950s, she directed three films based on Colette novels; "Gigi", "Minne" and "Mitsou", all three with actress Danièle Delorme. "Mitsou", which featured sex outside of marriage, was heavily censored. In 1951, Audry directed "Olivia", based on Dorothy Bussy's 1950 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Set in an all-girls boarding school, "Olivia" depicts a lesbian love story between a schoolgirl and her headmistress.cite book
last = Darren
first = Alison
title = Lesbian Film Guide
publisher = Continuum International Publishing Group
date = 2000
pages = 156
url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6ef_efGtpoYC
isbn =030433376X ] At the time, the film was very controversial and was censored in the United States and the United Kingdom. Edwige Feuillère was nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Foreign Actress for her part as Mlle. Julie, the headmistress. [cite web
title = Film Nominations 1952
publisher = British Academy of Film and Television Arts
url = http://www.bafta.org/awards/film/nominations/?year=1952
accessdate =2008-04-06 ] The film has been called a "landmark of lesbian representation". [cite book
last = Mayne
first = Judith
title = Framed: Lesbians, Feminists, and Media Culture
publisher = University of Minnesota Press
date = 2000
pages = xix
url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=emGeAcZPLeIC
isbn =0816634564 ] She frequently collaborated with her sister, the novelist and screenwriter Colette Audry.cite book
last = Pallister
first = Janis L.
coauthors = Ruth A. Hottell
title = Francophone Women Film Directors: A Guide
publisher = Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
date = 2005
pages = 76
url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P15tyiOSRz0C
isbn =083864046X ]

Audry's film style was traditional and at odds with the French New Wave. Her films had a feminist slant however. Many of them had central female characters and they often gave a radical view of gender roles and female sexuality. [cite book
last = Leahy
first = Sarah
title = Casque d'or
publisher = I.B.Tauris
date = 2007
pages = 30
url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JfZoVMVZXGwC
isbn =1845113683 ] Audry died on June 22 1977 in Poissy, Yvelines, France in a road accident.

Filmography

*1946: "Les Malheurs de Sophie"
*1948: "Sombre dimanche" (also known as "Gloomy Sunday")
*1949: "Gigi"
*1950: "Minne"
*1951: "Olivia" (also known as "The Pit of Loneliness")
*1954: "No Exit"
*1956: "Mitsou"
*1967: "Bitter Fruit"

References

External links

*imdb name|0041642|name=Jacqueline Audry
* [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:198514 All Movie Guide]