Jean Cayrol

Writing

Jean Cayrol

Born — Died

1911-06-06 — 2005-02-10

Place of birth

Bordeaux, Gironde, France

Known for

Writing

Credits

7 titles

Jean Cayrol (6 June 1911 – 10 February 2005) was a French poet, publisher, and member of the Académie Goncourt born in Bordeaux. He is perhaps best known for writing the narration in Alain Resnais's 1955 documentary film, Night and Fog. He was a major contributor to the subversive, philosophical French publication Tel Quel. In 1941, during the Nazi occupation of France, Cayrol joined the French Resistance, but he was subsequently betrayed, arrested, and sent to the Gusen concentration camp in 1943. He was one of the youngest French inmates at that camp, and consequently was made to do some of the hardest work along with the construction of roads and railways. When Cayrol wanted to die by re…

Known for

Apostrophes poster
8.5

Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.

Apostrophes

1975

Night and Fog poster
8.3

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Night and Fog

1956

Muriel, or the Time of Return poster
6.9

In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.

Muriel, or the Time of Return

1963

Le Coup de grâce poster
5.8

During WWII, Bruno gave away many people to the Gestapo. Now, 25 years after, with a new face given by plastic surgery, he is back and becomes friend with his victims' relatives and friends...

Le Coup de grâce

1966

No artwork available
NR

Dedicated “to the exiled, proscribed, expelled, banned,” this montage of documentary images codirected and written by Jean Cayrol—a former deportee who wrote the commentary for Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog —makes the Spanish Civil War a synecdoche for all forms of brutal exclusion.

La Frontière

1961

No artwork available
NR

A survivor from a concentration camp, seen from behind, walks along the remains of the Atlantic Wall. From a bunker to another he wanders in despair, still traumatized, still a stranger in a world that has become meaningless.

On vous parle

1960

Series credits

Behind the camera

Night and Fog poster
8.3

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Night and Fog

1956

Muriel, or the Time of Return poster
6.9

In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.

Muriel, or the Time of Return

1963

Le Coup de grâce poster
5.8

During WWII, Bruno gave away many people to the Gestapo. Now, 25 years after, with a new face given by plastic surgery, he is back and becomes friend with his victims' relatives and friends...

Le Coup de grâce

1966

No artwork available
NR

Dedicated “to the exiled, proscribed, expelled, banned,” this montage of documentary images codirected and written by Jean Cayrol—a former deportee who wrote the commentary for Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog —makes the Spanish Civil War a synecdoche for all forms of brutal exclusion.

La Frontière

1961

No artwork available
NR

Dedicated “to the exiled, proscribed, expelled, banned,” this montage of documentary images codirected and written by Jean Cayrol—a former deportee who wrote the commentary for Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog —makes the Spanish Civil War a synecdoche for all forms of brutal exclusion.

La Frontière

1961

No artwork available
NR

A survivor from a concentration camp, seen from behind, walks along the remains of the Atlantic Wall. From a bunker to another he wanders in despair, still traumatized, still a stranger in a world that has become meaningless.

On vous parle

1960