Ertaud, Jacques

(November 18, 1924, Paris, France - November 18, 1995, Paris, France)

   The son of a seagoing captain, he just had time to complete his studies in high school before joining the FFI (Forces Françaises de l'intérieur, one of the branches of the French Resistance during the occu­pation of France) as a skier scout. After the war, he made his film debut as assistant director on mountain movies shot by Marcel Ichac (1945-1948). A true ad­venturer, he spent ten days at 800 meters under the surface of the earth in a chasm filming Le Gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Martin, a speleological documentary that won the 1952 Grand Prix du Documentaire Français. From 1948 to 1956, he took part as a filmmaker in seven expeditions led by Commandant Jacques-Yves Cousteau. In 1956, he was a war correspondent dur­ing the Suez Expedition. The same year, Robert Bres­son hired him to play a part in Un Condamné à Mort s'est échappé / USA: A Man Escaped. In 1960, he be­came a reporter for Cinq Colonnes à la Une, the most famous French TV world current affairs program, which led him to co-produce Sept Jours du Monde, a weekly TV program covering the major international events of the past seven days. In 1967, he directed his first fictional work, L'Homme du Picardie, one of the most successful French TV series. He co-wrote an episode from the L'Heure Simenon TV series ("Le Temps d'Anaïs") and a TV movie (1999 Premier de Cordée, Pierre-Antoine Hiroz, Edouard Niermans).

 Filmography

1948 ◘ Padirac, Rivière de la Nuit (documentary; short; co-director with Marcel Ichac and the Malle Brothers)

1952 ◘ Le Gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Martin (documentary)

        ◘ La Haute Route (documentary)

        ◘ La Fontaine de Vaucluse (documentary; short; co-director with Louis Malle)

1957 ◘ La Galère engloutie (documentary; short; co-director with Jacques-Yves Cousteau)

1959 ◘ Les Etoiles de Midi (documentary; co-director with Marcel Ichac)

1962 ◘ Ski total (documentary; short)

        ◘ Vive le Tour (documentary; short; co-director with Louis Malle)

1963 ◘ Le Maillon et la Chaîne (documentary; co-director with Bernard Gorki; shot in 1961)

1966 ◘ Les Rendez-vous de l'Eté (documentary short; co-director with Raymond Zumstein)

        ◘ La Chair du Diable (short)

1968 ◘ Les Neiges de Grenoble (documentary; co-director with Jean-Jacques Languepin)

1970 ◘ Kaléidoscope (documentary; short)

1975 ◘ Mort d'un Guide (shot in 1974)

1978 ◘ Ne pleure pas / USA: Don't Cry (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter, co-director)

 Television Filmography

1968 ◘ L'Homme du Picardie (40 X 13')

        ◘ François Gaillard ou La Vie des Autres (8 X 55'; episodes: "René", "Michel", "Louis", "Pierre", "Julien", "Cécile et Nicolas", "Joseph", "Mad­eleine")

        ◘ La Tuile à Loups

        ◘ La Ligne de Démarcation (13 X 26'; thirteen episodes)

1977 ◘ La Mort amoureuse La Mer promise

        ◘ Les Fleurs fanées

        ◘ L'Âge bête

        ◘ Clipperton: The Island Time Forgot (documentary; France / USA / West Germany)

        ◘ Sans Famille / USA: An Orphan's Tale (5 X 53')

        ◘ Commissaire Moulin (episode "Une Prom­enade en Forêt")

        ◘ Disparu le 7 Octobre

        ◘ La Terre et le Moulin (3 X 52')

        ◘ Série Noire (episodes "Pitié pour les Rats", also co-screenwriter, co-adapter",Le Grand Môme")

1989 ◘ Haute Tension (episode "Retour à Malaveil")

        ◘ Le Prix du Silence

        ◘ Maria Vandamme (4 X 90'; also co-composer)

        ◘ Soleil d'Automne (also co-dialogist, co-composer; France / Canada / Switzerland)

        ◘ Catherine Courage

        ◘ L'Instit' (episode "Concerto pour Guillaume")

1994 ◘ Le Milliardaire

        ◘ Un Jour avant l'Aube

        ◘ Navarro (episodes "Meurtre d'un Salaud", "Sanglante Nostalgie")

        ◘ Les Allumettes suédoises (3 X 103')