Grémillon, Jean

Born Oct. 3, 1901. in Bayeaux. Calvados; died Nov. 25. 1959, in Paris. French film director; educated as a musician.

Grémillon made his debut in motion pictures in 1925. One of his best films. Tugboats (1941, from R. Vercel’s novel), devoted to the heroic labor of sailors who rescue vessels in distress, was notable for its regard for the visual and poetic musical rhythm of film. During the fascist occupation, Grémillon (in spite of the censor’s restrictions) produced the progressive films Summer Light (1942) and Heaven Is Yours (1943). full of faith in the bright future of the French nation. In 1945 he shot the documentary June Sixth at Dawn about the opening of the second front in Normandy. Sequences of this picture were subsequently used in films about World War II. Grémillion’s other films include The Love of a Woman (1953). He was chairman of the screenwriters’ union and president of the Cinémathèque Française.