André Hunebelle

André Hunebelle (born September 1, 1896 in Meudon , † November 27, 1985 in Nice ) was a French film director .

Life

Hunebelle first studied mathematics at the École polytechnique in Palaiseau . His studies were interrupted by the First World War, in which Hunebelle was temporarily drafted as a soldier.

Hunebelle then worked as an art glass blower between 1926 and 1935 . In 1927 he had his first own exhibition. He created glass works of art, in particular vases and glasses , which corresponded to the fashion of the time and were very successful with the public; artistically, his work can be attributed to the Art Déco movement .

In the early 1940s, Hunebelle then turned to film . He founded his own film production company Production Artistique Cinématographie and initially worked exclusively as a film producer. He produced the films Feu Sacré (1941/1942) with Viviane Romance , L'Inévitable Monsieur Dubois (1943), Florence est folle (1944), Leçon de conduite (1946) and Carrefour du crime (1947) , among others . From 1948, Hunebelle also worked as a film director.

Hunebelle has worked as a director in almost all film genres. He has made dramas, melodramas , comedies , adventure films, and costume films . He realized numerous light comedies in the American style, which he skillfully adapted to the tastes of the French cinema audience. He often worked with the actors of the French boulevard theater , including Louis de Funès , but also the Les Charlots . In 1953 he made the successful film adaptation of The Adventures of the Three Musketeers , starring among others Georges Marchal , Bourvil and Gino Cervi .

He then specialized mainly in adventure films with Jean Marais ; with Marais he shot the costume films Knight of the Night (1959), My Sword for the King (1960), In the Sign of the Lily (1961) and The Count with the Iron Hand (1962). From the mid-1960s onwards, he had great success with the Fantômas series, which has now become cult , which he staged in the style of modern agent thriller and consciously used slapstick; he used Marais and de Funès as an opposing duo to attract the public. He also used similar stylistic devices from the Fantomas series in his modernization of the Graf von Monte Christo fabric with The Avenger from the Coffin (1968).

The scripts for his films were mainly written by Jean Halain , a close associate of Hunebelle. In February 1978, Hunebelle's last film premiered in France. It was a remake of his first 1948 film as a director, Métier de fous .

Filmography (selection)

• 1948: Métier de fous
• 1949: Millionaires for a Day (Millionnaires d'un jour)
• 1950: Avengers without mercy (Méfiez-vous des blondes)
• 1952: Adventure in Venice (Massacre en dentelles)
• 1953: The Adventures of the Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires)
• 1954: Who takes love seriously? (Cadet Rousselle)
• 1955: L'impossible Monsieur Pipelet
• 1956: Love, Women and Paris (Mannequins de Paris)
• 1957: Young roses in the wind (Les Collégiennes)
• 1957: Casino de Paris
• 1959: Knight of the Night (Le Bossu)
• 1960: My sword for the king (Le Capitan)
• 1961: Under the sign of the lily (Le Miracle des loups)
• 1962: The Count with the Iron Fist (Les Mystères de Paris)
• 1963: OSS 117 intervenes (OSS 117 se déchaîne)
• 1964: Fantômas
• 1965: OSS 117 - Bahia powder keg (Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117)
• 1965: Fantomas versus Interpol (Fantômas se déchaîne)
• 1967: Fantomas threatens the world (Fantômas contre Scotland Yard)
• 1968: No roses for OSS 117 (Pas de roses pour OSS 117)
• 1968: The avenger from the coffin (Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo)
• 1973: Cagliostro ( Joseph Balsamo , television multiparter)
• 1974: Help, my sword is stuck (Les quatre Charlots mousquetaires)
• 1978: Ça fait tilt

literature

• Roger Boussinot : L'encyclopedie du cinema , Volume F – M, p. 825. Bordas. Paris 1989, ISBN 2-04-016384-0 .
• Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 4: H - L. Botho Höfer - Richard Lester. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 106.

Web links

• André Hunebelle in the Internet Movie Database (English)