- Achard, Marcel
- (July 5, 1899, Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon, France - September 4, 1974, Paris, France)A former teacher and journalist, he wrote his first play in 1922 and soon became one of the most renowned French Boulevard playwrights.Jean de la Lune, Domino, Noix de Coco, and Patate are probably his most known and successful works. From 1931 (Jean de la Lune; Jean Choux and Michel Simon) to 1964 (Patate; Robert Thomas), he wrote or co-wrote screenplays and dialogues of about forty films (including La Veuve Joyeuse, the French version of Ernst Lubitsch's The Merry Widow, 1934, and Max Ophuls's Madame de ... / Gioielli di Madame de . . . / UK: Diamond Earrings / USA: The Earrings of Madame de . . . , France / Italy, 1953). A long time before being elected at the French Academy (1959) and appearing as himself in Goodbye Again / Aimez-vous Brahms? (Anatole Litvak, USA / France, 1961), he played in two "avant-garde" films (Entr'acte, René Clair, 1924, and Traité de Bave et d'Eternité / USA: Venom and Eternity, Isidore Isou, 1951).Filmography1935 ◘ Folies-Bergère (also screenwriter, adapter, di-alogist; French-language version of Roy Del Ruth's Folies-Bergeres)1943 ◘ Les Deux Timides (uncredited; co-director with Yves Allégret; shot in 1941)◘ Jean de la Lune (also screenwriter, dialogist)◘ La Valse de Paris (also screenwriter, dialogist)
Encyclopedia of French film directors . Philippe Rège. 2011.