Daquin, Louis

(1908-1980)

   Director. A director of instruction at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques (IDHEC) near the end of his career, Louis Daquin began as a filmmaker. He worked with Pierre Chenal on La Rue sans nom (1933), Les Mutinés de l'Elseneur (1936), and L'Homme de nulle part (1937) and with Jean Grémillon on Guele d'amour (1936) and Remorques (1940) before venturing out on his own as a director on the eve of the Occupation. His first films, Le Joueur (1938), in collaboration with Gerhard Lamprecht, and Nous les gosses (1941), were made before the Occupation. His subsequent films, such as Le Voyageur de la Toussaint (1943), Madame et le mort (1943), and Premier de cordée (1944), would be made under the Occupation and are interesting as a result of their own internal tensions. Daquin was a member of the Communist Party and was influenced by leftist filmmaking tendencies. He was, however, forced to make films under the strict control of a fascist regime, and these conflicting ideologies find interesting mixes in his films.

   Daquin's gradual transition to public service and away from film-making began after the war as he was elected as head of the Liberation committee on film. Nonetheless, he continued to make films into the 1960s, predominantly literary adaptations, including Patrie (1946), based on a play by Victorien Sardou, Bel Ami (1955), based on the novel by Maupassant, and Les Arrivistes (1959), based on Honoré de Balzac's La Rabouilleuse. Daquin ceased making films in the 1960s, focusing on his duties at IDHEC. He also authored several books on the cinema.