Henri Jeanson

Writer, Director, Actor

6 March 1900 — 6 November 1970 (70 years)
Henri Jules Louis Jeanson (6 March 1900 in Paris – 6 November 1970 in Équemauville) was a French writer and journalist. He was a "satrap" in the "College of 'Pataphysics".

Jeanson was born on 6 March 1900 in Paris. His father was a teacher. Before becoming a journalist, he had several casual jobs, including being depicted as a soldier on a good-luck card for a postcard seller, belying his future pacifism. In 1917, he started work for La Bataille, newspaper of the Confédération générale du travail. Noted for his strong writing, he was a journalist throughout the 1920s, with intervening stints as reporter, interviewer and film critic. He was distinguished by the potency of his style and a taste for polemic. Jeanson worked for several papers including the Journal du peuple, Hommes du Jour and the Canard enchaîné, where he defended complete pacifism.

He resigned from the Canard enchaîné in 1937, in solidarity with Jean Galtier-Boissière.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in July 1939, for publishing an article in Solidarité internationale antifasciste, a periodical founded in November 1938 by Louis Lecoin, in which he congratulated Herschel Grynszpan for his assassination of Ernst vom Rath, an official of the German embassy in Paris. He was arrested in November 1939, at which time he had already joined his regiment in Meaux, for articles which had appeared in March and August 1939, and for having signed Louis Lecoin's tract "Paix immédiate". On 20 December 1939, he was sentenced by a military tribunal to five years in prison for "calling for disobedience within the ranks".

Jeanson was in prison for his pacifist writings, and this only a few days before the German army marched into Paris. His freedom was obtained by the lawyer and minister César Campinchi. He remained in Paris and in August 1940 was given the chief editorship of Aujourd'hui, an "independent" newspaper. The first issue went out on 10 September 1940. In November 1940, the German authorities pressured him to take a public position against the Jews and in favour of the politics of collaboration with the Vichy regime. Jeanson resigned and went back to prison. He was freed a few months later after the intervention of his friend Gaston Bergery, a neo-radical who had turned to the collaborationists through ultra-pacifism. From that point on he was banned from the press and the cinema, and worked secretly, writing film dialogues without putting his name to them. With Pierre Bénard, Jeanson participated in the development of secret pamphlets, and just missed being re-arrested in 1942. He continued to lie low until the liberation of France.

His story is said to illustrate the contradictions and compromises of absolute pacifism: the willingness to seek an understanding with Germany to avoid war, transforming, after France's defeat, into a desire for proper coexistence, even offering to serve the Germans. The newspaper Aujourd'hui was far from being innocent in its hunting down those allegedly responsible for France's defeat, resorting to the "clean sweep of the broom" myth in its Anglophobia. The paper entered into resonance with Marshal Philippe Pétain's narrative, and took the direction of German propaganda. ...

Source: Article "Henri Jeanson" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known For

  • Pépé le Moko
    Pépé le Moko1937
  • Hotel du Nord
    Hotel du Nord1938
  • Fanfan
    Fanfan2003
  • Fearless Little Soldier
    Fearless Little Soldier1952
  • The Cow and I
    The Cow and I1959
  • The Black Tulip
    The Black Tulip1964
  • Christine
    Christine1937
  • The Devil and the Ten Commandments
    The Devil and the Ten Commandments1962
  • Marie-Octobre
    Marie-Octobre1959
  • Don't Tempt the Devil
    Don't Tempt the Devil1963
  • Between Eleven and Midnight
    Between Eleven and Midnight1949
  • The Damned
    The Damned1947
  • Un revenant
    Un revenant1946
  • The Man in the Buick
    The Man in the Buick1967
  • Two Are Guilty
    Two Are Guilty1963
  • Monelle
    Monelle1948
  • Le repas des fauves
    Le repas des fauves1964
  • Henriette
    Henriette1952
  • The Moment of Truth
    The Moment of Truth1952
  • The House of Lovers
    The House of Lovers1957

Filmography

1917
Le coupable · as Un Enfant

2008
Marie Octobre · as Earlier Screenplay
2003
Fanfan · as Based On 1952 Screenplay
1967
The Man in the Buick · as Dialogue
1966
The Saint Lies in Wait · as Dialogue
1966
Paris in August · as Dialogue
1966
1963
Don't Tempt the Devil · as Dialogue
1962
1962
Crime Does Not Pay · as Scenario Writer
1961
1960
Wasteland · as Story
1959
Marie-Octobre · as Dialogue
1957
1955
1954
Madame du Barry · as Adaptation
1952
Fanfan la Tulipe · as Adaptation
1951
Barbe-Bleue · as Dialogue
1951
Savage Triangle · as Adaptation
1951
Paris Vice Squad · as Dialogue
1951
Under the Paris Sky · as Commentary
1950
Lost Souvenirs · as Dialogue
1950
Three Sinners · as Dialogue
1949
The Sinners · as Dialogue
1949
1948
The Loves of Colette · as Dialogue
1947
1947
Carré de valets · as Dialogue
1947
Copie conforme · as Dialogue
1945
Angel and Sinner · as Scenario Writer
1944
Carmen · as Dialogue
1944
1943
L'honorable Catherine · as Scenario
1942
Fantastic Night · as Dialogue
1938
The Shanghai Drama · as Adaptation
1938
The Curtain Rises · as Dialogue
1938
Le patriote · as Dialogue
1938
Prison sans barreaux · as Dialogue
1937
1937
Les rois du sport · as Dialogue
1937
Un Carnet de bal · as Dialogue
1937
Pépé le Moko · as Dialogue