Henri Charrière

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Henri Charriere (* 16th November 1906 in Saint-Etienne-de-Lugdarès , Département Ardèche , France ; † 29. July 1973 in Madrid , Spain ) was a French writer . He became known through his two books Papillon and Banco, which were marketed as autobiographical novels .

Life

Henri Charrière's life cannot be described with absolute certainty in individual points, as he has conclusively combined autobiographical elements, historical facts and fiction into a poetic-literary whole in his novels . There are no doubt many stories that he only knew from hearsay are built into his book. However, there are many indications that his representations, if not his own experience, always correspond to historical reality.

Charrière was born in 1906 in the provincial village of St.-Étienne-de-Lugdarès in the Ardèche department as the son of a teacher couple. In Paris he worked as a vault cracker for a long time until he was involved in the murder of a thief and pimp within the underworld . As a punishment, he was sentenced to life in exile in French Guiana in 1932 . According to his own account, he was in the penal colony from the autumn of 1933 and fled several times on difficult paths, some of which led him to Colombia and Venezuela . He allegedly lived among Indians for seven months, among other things; According to other sources, however, he was arrested again weeks after his escape. In autumn 1944 he finally managed to escape from Devil's Island to British Guiana , a British colony; However, documents of this could not be found later. After a brief internment in Venezuela, Charrière is said to have been released for good there on October 18, 1945. After a small odyssey through and around British Guiana, he finally managed to establish himself in Venezuela and acquire Venezuelan citizenship. According to his novel Banco , he probably never lived in a completely legal way and was sometimes a. involved in a failed bank robbery.

In 1970 Charrière published his bestseller Papillon and gained international fame. The title (to English butterfly ) refers to the nickname of the main character; According to a dialogue in the novel, it could come from their tattoo in the form of a butterfly, but the truth of this possibly ironic claim remains open in the novel.

Under the impression of the success of his first book, he published the sequel Banco in 1972 .

In 1971 Charrière also tried his hand at acting: In the film Popsy Pop , an adventure film set in the diamond trading environment of South America, he played a leading role alongside Claudia Cardinale and Stanley Baker .

Charriere died on July 29, 1973 Madrid to throat cancer .

Truthfulness of Books and Crimes

In 2005, Charrière was accused by Charles Brunier, an ex-inmate in French Guiana, that parts of the story told were not actually experienced by himself, but shared by other inmates, including Brunier. Brunier's biography actually matches the biography of the fictional character Papillon in some respects , and Brunier even has a butterfly tattoo on his left arm.

Charrière's role in the murder in Paris that ultimately brought him to the prison camp is also unclear. Although he denied all his life to have had anything to do with it. Georges Ménager investigated the case shortly after the novel was published, interviewed police officers and lawyers and published his book Les quatre vérités de Papillon in 1970 , according to which several witnesses (not as in the novel: one single) had incriminated Charrière and there was little doubt about Charrière's perpetration let. On the other hand, various pieces of evidence should suggest that Charrière knew the real killer, but never betrayed him.

In the books, the narrator at least frankly admits that he belonged to the illegal milieu before the conviction and that he had committed at least minor offenses and that he felt more comfortable with prisoners with more serious crimes and that he met several acquaintances there. A murder of a fellow prisoner who betrayed his escape plan and other illegal behavior during or after the attempt to escape (serious damage to property and acceptance of injured people when attempting to escape; fraud when selling a butterfly to a collector; questionable incitement or at least tolerance of the with he employed dancers of a " cabaret " who secretly poured out some of the guests' bottles in order to increase consumption; an attempted and unsuccessful bank robbery and a jewel robbery, as well as cheating with manipulated dice).

Works

Henri Charrière wrote the two autobiographical novels Papillon and Banco .

Papillon

The content is his adventurous life from the beginning of his imprisonment in 1933 up to his release in Venezuela in 1945. His gripping attempts to escape are certainly the climax of the plot. Above all, the cruelty with which the prisoners in the French penal camps are ruthless in this novel -Guayanas treated are described.

The book was at number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list from July 20 to August 2 and from September 21 to September 27, 1970 .

The novel was made into a film in 1973 under the original title Papillon .

Steve McQueen plays the title role . Dustin Hoffman and Anthony Zerbe appear in other roles . Charrière did not live to see the success of the film, as the film had its American premiere on December 16, 1973, while he died about six months earlier.

In the short film " The Magnificent Rebel " you can see an interview with him while shooting the film.

In 2017 a remake was made under the direction of Michael Noer . The main roles were played by Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek .

Banco

The sequel tells Charrière's life from the time of his release to the early 1970s. The title of this book is based on the following incident: Charrière, together with another former convict from French Guiana, organized dice competitions among the diamond seekers in the Venezuelan bush. “Banco” meant I bet on the bank. “Banco solo” meant: I bet everything on the bank, so I take full risk. This book reads accordingly: A life full of risks .

The book was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list from July 2 to August 19, 1973 .

According to contemporaries, Charrière invented many things in his two books or changed the facts in his favor.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Popsy Pop (1971)" on IMDB
  2. ^ "Papillon alive and well in a Paris retirement home" . Mail & Guardian . - June 26, 2005.
  3. Georges Ménager (1970). Les quatre vérités de Papillon
  4. ^ "Papillon (1973)" on IMDB
  5. "The Magnificent Rebel (1973)" on IMDB
  6. "Papillon (2017)" on IMDB