Gruau, Jean

Born in a suburb of Paris. He studied at the seminary for a short time, spent some time as a member of the Communist Party , after which he became interested in theater and cinema. He acted in small theaters as an actor, at the same time wrote articles for the magazine Cahiers du cinéma and participated in various film clubs in the Latin Quarter , where he met many future stars of the “ new wave ” ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

The first script was written for the film by Jacques Rivett “Paris belongs to us” (1958). Three years later, Francois Truffaut introduced him to Roberto Rossellini , for whom Gruau wrote the script for the film Vanilla Vanini (1961) based on the story of Stendhal , in which he also played one of the roles. In the future, cooperation with the Italian director will be repeated for the film " The rise to power of Louis XIV " (1966) ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

The next screenplay written by Jean Gruault was the screenplay for Francois Truffaut's film “ Jules and Jim ” (1961) - a story about love and friendship based on the novel by Henri-Pière Rocher . When working on the script, the comrades used a special method, which was then repeated on the following joint films: Gruault took the literary work as a basis, processed it into a script, and then sent Truffaut by mail. Having received the manuscript, he noted the moments that he did not like, and sent them back to the scriptwriter, who prepared the second version - and so many times. Truffaut mercilessly deleted everything he called “everyday dialogue” from the scripts. Later, collaboration with Truffaut was repeated four more times in the 1960s and 70s: the collaboration took place in the films “ Wild Child ” (1969), which told the real story of the French “Mowgli”, found in the forest in 1790, “ Two Englishmen and” Continent " " (1971) after another Roche’s novel, “The History of Adele G.” based on the diaries of the daughter of Victor Hugo (1975) and “The Green Room ” (1978), based on two stories by Henry James ^{[1] [2] [3 ] ]} .

In 1963, Gruau wrote the script for the movie “Carabinieri” - an anti-war picture that would be his only experience with Jean-Luc Godard . In 1966, the shooting of yet another film by Jacques Rivett according to the script of Gruau - “The Nun” ends. Due to anti-clericalism and the lesbian scenes contained in the film, the film is not first released on the screens, despite the fact that it quite accurately repeats the classic work of Denis Didro , written back in the XVIII century ^{[1] [2] [3]} .

The 1980s passed for Jean Gruault under the sign of cooperation with Alain René . Rene's style of work was somewhat opposite with respect to Truffaut's style: according to the director, each character, even episodic, should have had his own biography. Accordingly, Jean Gruault, together with the director, composed the past of each hero, which helped to draw his character on the screen. Three scenarios were written for Rene: “ My American Uncle ” (1980) - a satire on French life, where human behavior is compared to animal behavior, the comedy “ Life is a Romance ” (1983) and “Love to Death” (1984) ^{[1 ] [2] [3]} . The film "My American Uncle" was awaiting success. In 1980, the script was nominated for an Oscar , which rarely happens with non-English films ^{[1] [4]} . Next year - a nomination for the main French film award “Cesar” ^[5] and the very prestigious Italian award “David di Donatello” ^[6] .

In 2015, shortly before his death, Jean Gruault was again in the spotlight of the cinema community - in the competitive program of the Cannes Film Festival was presented the film by Valerie Donzelli “ Margarita and Julien ”, shot according to a script written by Jean Gruault in the early 1970s - he was represented by Francois Truffaut, but was never implemented ^{[2] [7]} .

Jean Gruault also wrote several plays and literary works, in particular, published in 2007, an autobiography, "What says the other" ( French Ce que dit l'autre ) ^[2] .

Source: AlloCiné ^[8] . Russian names are given on the site Kinopoisk.ru