Claude Autant-Lara

Directing

Claude Autant-Lara

Born — Died

1901-08-05 — 2000-02-05

Place of birth

Luzarches, Val-d'Oise, France

Known for

Directing

Credits

49 titles

Claude Autant-Lara (August 5, 1901–February 5, 2000) was a French film director and later Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Born at Luzarches in Val-d'Oise, Autant-Lara was educated in France and at London's Mill Hill School during his mother's exile as a pacifist. Early in his career, he worked as an art director and costume designer, his best-known work in this vein was possibly for Nana (1926), a silent film directed by Jean Renoir. Autant-Lara also acted in the film. As a director, he frequently created provocative movies, saying "if a film does not have venom, it is worthless". In the 1960s, he turned his back on the New Wave movement, and from then on he had no popular success…

Known for

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

La Traversée de Paris poster
7.3

Two unlikely companions must smuggle four suitcases filled with contraband pork across Nazi-occupied Paris.

La Traversée de Paris

1956

Devil in the Flesh poster
6.2

In France during World War I, Marthe waits for her husband, Jacques, while he fights on the front lines. Marthe then begins a tempestuous affair with 17-year-old François, with whom she had a dalliance before marrying Jacques. Jealous François struggles with the fact that Marthe is married, while she tries to prove her devotion to her young, hotheaded lover. Things become even more complex when Marthe becomes pregnant with Jacques' baby.

Devil in the Flesh

1947

Devil in the Flesh poster
6.2

In France during World War I, Marthe waits for her husband, Jacques, while he fights on the front lines. Marthe then begins a tempestuous affair with 17-year-old François, with whom she had a dalliance before marrying Jacques. Jealous François struggles with the fact that Marthe is married, while she tries to prove her devotion to her young, hotheaded lover. Things become even more complex when Marthe becomes pregnant with Jacques' baby.

Devil in the Flesh

1947

The Seven Deadly Sins poster
6.0

A compilation of segments covers the seven deadly sins of greed, wrath, envy, pride, lust, sloth, and gluttony.

The Seven Deadly Sins

1952

The Oldest Profession poster
5.0

A collection of sketches that tells the story of prostitution through the ages.

The Oldest Profession

1967

The Count of Monte Cristo poster
7.1

Young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes, finds treasure, and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who betrayed him.

The Count of Monte Cristo

1961

Le Rouge et le Noir poster
6.2

It's no holds barred for Julian in pursuit of upward mobility. Although expected to channel career aspirations into the Church of the post-Napoleonic era, his intensely romantic liaisons propel him forward at a pace he cannot control.

Le Rouge et le Noir

1954

Le Rouge et le Noir poster
6.2

It's no holds barred for Julian in pursuit of upward mobility. Although expected to channel career aspirations into the Church of the post-Napoleonic era, his intensely romantic liaisons propel him forward at a pace he cannot control.

Le Rouge et le Noir

1954

Enough Rope poster
5.8

Two total strangers suspect each other of murdering their own wives. Based on Patricia Highsmith's 1954 novel The Blunderer.

Enough Rope

1963

Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love! poster
5.6

Henri IV falls in love with the young Charlotte de Montmorency, 40 years his junior. The king decided to marry her off to his nephew, Henri de Condé, so that he could later make her his mistress.

Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!

1961

Potatoes poster
6.2

In a village in the Ardennes, during the German occupation, finding rations is becoming almost impossible. Clovis, an ordinary labourer, decides to cross the occupied zone to bring back enough potatoes to feed his family. His plan is a success but Clovis rapidly becomes obsessed with storing the precious tubers.

Potatoes

1969

Potatoes poster
6.2

In a village in the Ardennes, during the German occupation, finding rations is becoming almost impossible. Clovis, an ordinary labourer, decides to cross the occupied zone to bring back enough potatoes to feed his family. His plan is a success but Clovis rapidly becomes obsessed with storing the precious tubers.

Potatoes

1969

Marguerite of the Night poster
4.8

It tells the story of an older pedant who buys adolescence from Satan.

Marguerite of the Night

1955

Love Is My Profession poster
6.3

Leading lawyer Andre Gobillot takes the case of Yvette, a young criminal. As he works on her defence, an unexpected romance blooms between them, only to be cut short by a tragedy.

Love Is My Profession

1958

Douce poster
7.2

In Paris in 1887, Irène works as a governess to Douce, the grand-daughter of the dowager Countess de Bonafé. Douce believes she is in love with Fabien, the handsome manager of the estate. However she cannot hope to marry him because of their class difference. Douce's widowed father, the Count de Bonafé, has a wooden leg, and is infatuated with Irène. Douce discovers that Fabien is planning to flee to Quebec with Irène, and also finds out that the Count has asked Irène to marry him. So Douce tells Fabien this and convinces him to run away with her, causing consternation in the family.

Douce

1943

The Game of Love poster
5.8

Friends since infancy, two youngsters struggle as their platonic bond blossoms into romantic love with adolescence.

The Game of Love

1954

Fric-Frac poster
6.1

An employee at a jewelry store falls in love with a woman who secretly plans to rob the store.

Fric-Frac

1939

Sylvia and the Ghost poster
6.9

A teenager becomes fixated on a painting of the handsome suitor who died in a duel for her grandmother's love. On her sixteenth birthday, her father hires three men who pretend to be the ghost of the suitor to entertain her. Little do they know, the ghost of the suitor himself is roaming the castle halls.

Sylvia and the Ghost

1946

The Green Mare poster
5.6

A green mare makes the fortune of her owner, the horse dealer Haudouin. Shortly after his death, war broke out in 1870. One day, his neighbor Zèphe Maloret denounces Honoré, Haudouin's son, a maverick, to the Prussians. Following this denunciation, their non-commissioned officer enters the Haudouin home and rapes the mother while Honoré is hidden under the bed. The resentment already existing between the Haudouin and Maloret families turns to hatred... A letter recalling the events is lost, which doesn't help matters.

The Green Mare

1959

Good Lord Without Confession poster
6.0

Stuck in a loveless marriage, bourgeois industrialist Francois falls in love with Janine, another man's wife. Francois sets up Janine as his mistress, and she, mercenary soul that she is, likes the set-up so much that she continues the relationship even when her own husband returns from WW II. In the long run, however, Janine is the loser in the situation.

Good Lord Without Confession

1953

Good Lord Without Confession poster
6.0

Stuck in a loveless marriage, bourgeois industrialist Francois falls in love with Janine, another man's wife. Francois sets up Janine as his mistress, and she, mercenary soul that she is, likes the set-up so much that she continues the relationship even when her own husband returns from WW II. In the long run, however, Janine is the loser in the situation.

Good Lord Without Confession

1953

To Build a Fire poster
8.0

"To Build a Fire" is a short story by American author Jack London, published in two different versions of in 1902 and 1908. It was made into a film in 1928 by Claude Autant-Lara. Despite being warned about the subzero temperature, a single man ventures out into the Yukon forest to find his destiny.

To Build a Fire

1928

A Woman in White poster
5.3

Claude Sauvage, a tenacious young gynecologist takes a months long internship in a Paris hospital. Between her private life and medical career, she set her doubts and desires in a society where the square and the plight of women remain at that time a secondary issue. The film follows Claude and the staff through the case of some patients while the crucial debate on women's professional ambition, contraception and abortion rights.

A Woman in White

1965

The Gambler poster
6.7

In 1866, a young Muscovite named Alexei Ivanovitch arrives in Baden Baden, then the gambling capital of Austria, and is soon engaged by General Zagorianski to look after his children. Alexei discovers that his employer is a compulsive gambler who has been almost ruined by his addiction. The only money the General has is provided by the Marquis de Grieux, an adventurer who intends to marry Zagorianski’s sister, Pauline. In doing so, de Grieux hopes to profit from the vast inheritance that will come the General’s way from his Aunt Antonina, who is presently very ill. Alexei is appalled by this society which lives only for money. He loves Pauline and wants to take her to a healthier place, but when she refuses to marry him, he begins to gamble at the casino…

The Gambler

1958

Lovers Woods poster
5.0

1943, Christmas Eve in occupied Brittany. Charles, a member of the Resistance, is parachuted into the house of his mother, Madame Parisot, where he meets Herta, a young German woman who has come to accompany her officer husband. Despite the situation, the two young people fall in love and protect each other, but their love is short-lived, interrupted at dawn by a deadly English bomb.

Lovers Woods

1960

The Red Inn poster
6.8

A group of travelers, including a monk, stay in a lonely inn in the mountains. The host confesses the monk his habit of serving poisoned soup to the guests, to rob their possessions and to bury them in the backyard.

The Red Inn

1951

The Red Inn poster
6.8

A group of travelers, including a monk, stay in a lonely inn in the mountains. The host confesses the monk his habit of serving poisoned soup to the guests, to rob their possessions and to bury them in the backyard.

The Red Inn

1951

Franciscan of Bourges poster
6.4

Albert is a Franciscan monk and a medical orderly at a monastery in France. Although he is German, the kindly monk helps hide French resistance members. Albert tries to maintain the delicate balance between the warring factions by helping out the afflicted and not getting involved in political ideology.

Franciscan of Bourges

1968

Thou Shalt Not Kill poster
7.9

At the end of World War II, a French pacifist is arrested for refusing to fight. In prison, he befriends a German priest arrested for murder of a French Resistance fighter. They discuss morality, obedience, and religion.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

1961

Josefa's Loot poster
5.4

Justin, a lyricist by trade, and his friend Pierre, a composer, lead a bohemian life in Paris. Justin thinks his mother Josefa is richer than she appears, and decides to swindle her out of three million centimes by using Pierre as an intermediary in a case involving an insolvent check. Josefa uncovers the ruse and refuses to help her son. However, Pierre has discovered the identity of his friend's father, who had been unknown to him for twenty years. With the help of Justin's mother, the two friends do everything they can to extort the son's missing three million centimes from his ashamed and repentant father.

Josefa's Loot

1963

Ciboulette poster
8.0

Duparquet is the controller of Les Halles, and plays matchmaker between the young farm-girl Ciboulette and Antonin, a young spoiled aristocrat.

Ciboulette

1933

A Woman in White Revolts poster
8.0

Preparing her gynecology thesis, Claude Sauvage, at the urging of a village doctor, Vincent Ferrière, agrees to replace him for a few days. During this time, she took it upon herself to abort the schoolteacher, who was afraid of giving birth to a handicapped child. But an anonymous letter denounces her, and she goes on trial.

A Woman in White Revolts

1966

A Woman in White Revolts poster
8.0

Preparing her gynecology thesis, Claude Sauvage, at the urging of a village doctor, Vincent Ferrière, agrees to replace him for a few days. During this time, she took it upon herself to abort the schoolteacher, who was afraid of giving birth to a handicapped child. But an anonymous letter denounces her, and she goes on trial.

A Woman in White Revolts

1966

Love Letters poster
6.4

A plucky businesswoman agrees to receive love letters to a prefect’s wife from a young official, and soon finds herself embroiled in a scandal that inflames a town’s class tensions.

Love Letters

1942

The Stream poster
6.8

When Paul, an officer, discovers Denise, a young orphan escaped from her orphanage, he takes advantage of his naivete to seduce her before changing her mind and sending her to live with her mother while sailing.

The Stream

1938

The Mysterious Mr. Davis poster
5.8

A man beset by creditors invents a fictitious partner

The Mysterious Mr. Davis

1939

The Mysterious Mr. Davis poster
5.8

A man beset by creditors invents a fictitious partner

The Mysterious Mr. Davis

1939

Black Humor poster
6.0

A unique black comedy consisting of three episodes on the same theme: death. In a circus, trapeze artist Wilma is going to get rid of a rival during a "magic act" performed by an amateur. A strange widow comes to inquire about the services of a new marriage agency. A peasant woman tormented by a bug in her ear barges into a healer's house.

Black Humor

1965

News Item poster
7.4

An experimental short from 1923 France which offers silent narrative in diverse, optical multi-exposures and severe close-ups offering dense montages which create psychological constructs that unfold a Parisian love affair which turns into a threesome of great emotion and consequences. Also notable for using Antonin Artaud as the male lead.

News Item

1923

News Item poster
7.4

An experimental short from 1923 France which offers silent narrative in diverse, optical multi-exposures and severe close-ups offering dense montages which create psychological constructs that unfold a Parisian love affair which turns into a threesome of great emotion and consequences. Also notable for using Antonin Artaud as the male lead.

News Item

1923