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The History of French Cinema: 1944

12/1 -

Pierre Billon's Vautrin (Vautrin the Thief) is released.   The title role is played by Michel Simon, of whom Le Pilort newspaper says, ‘The cinema has condemned us to seeing the base, disgusting, revolting face that Michel Simon gives to Vautrin.’   The actor is denounced as a Jew , and his photograph placed on view at an anti-semitic exhibition at the Berlitz Palace in Paris. [ADD]

31/1 -

Author and playwright Jean Giraudox dies in Paris at the age of 61. [ADD]

14/7 -

Actor Charles Dauphin, a colonel with the Leclerc division, arrives in France with the allied forces.  [ADD]

18/7 -

Following the liberation of France from the Nazis, L’ecran Francais, a clandestine newspaper formerly incorporated in Les Lettres francaise, published by the Film Trade Unions (CGT) and Opera, by the Resistance Committee of the Cinematographic Industry, is published in its own right for the first time.  An article entitled The Cinema with Clean Hands, declares that there will be no place in the future of the French cinema for those who collaborated with the enemy. [ADD]

22/7 -

The French Cinémathèque, operated by Henri Langlois, screens Selznick’s Gone With the Wind before cinemas in Paris have reopened, making it the first American film to be screened in Paris since the Liberation. [ADD]

19/8 -

The militia arm of the Committee for the Liberation of the Cinema occupies a group of buildings held by German troops.   The premises include those of IDHEC (the Institute of Cinematic Studies), the General Administration of the Cinema, laboratories and studios at Buttes-Chaumont.   The buildings also house companies set up and managed by the Germans: Continental Film, a production company; the distribution company Tobis, and the commercial channels of Sogec [ADD]

24/9 -

Fred Astaire performs for the Allied Forces at the Olympia Theatre in Paris. [ADD]

27/9 -

Actor Roger Duchesne is arrested in the 18th arrondissement in Paris, accused of working for the Gestapo. [ADD]

4/10 -

Marlene Dietrich arrives in Paris to perform in a show for the Allied Forces at the Olympia. [ADD]

6/12 -

After four years, Henri Langlois’ Cercle du Cinéma resumes screenings following the liberation.   The first screening takes place at 8:15 p.m. in the Studio de l'Etoile, and features a programme of films by Georges Méliès, Emile Cohl, René Clair, Luis Buñuel and Jean Vigo. [ADD]

8/12 -

The film trade magazine Le Film Français is founded by Jean-Bernard Derosne and Jean-Placide Mauclaire. [ADD]

– The Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques (IDHEC) film school is founded in Paris [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1944