Joseph Kessel

Scénariste, Compositeur

31 janvier 1898 — 23 juillet 1979 (81 ans)
Joseph Kessel (10 February 1898 – 23 July 1979), also known as "Jef" was a French journalist and novelist. He was a member of the Académie française and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour.

Kessel was born to a Jewish family in Villa Clara, Entre Ríos, Argentina, because of the constant journeys of his father, a Litvak physician. From 1905 to 1908, Joseph Kessel lived the first years of his childhood in Orenburg, Russia, before the family moved to France in 1908. He studied in lycée Masséna, Nice and lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris and took part in the First World War as an aviator. He was also an aviator during the Second World War, in the Free French Groupe de Bombardement n° 1/20 "Lorraine" (342 Squadron RAF) with RAF Bomber Command, with Romain Gary, who was also a talented French novelist.

Kessel wrote several novels and books that were later represented in the cinema, notably Belle de Jour (by Luis Buñuel in 1967). In 1943 he and his nephew Maurice Druon translated Anna Marly's song Chant des Partisans into French from its original Russian. The song became one of the anthems of Free French Forces during the Second World War.

Kessel was elected to the Académie française in 1962 and died on 23 July 1979 in Avernes, Val-d'Oise of a ruptured aneurysm. He is buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. On his deathbed he was quoted as saying that his greatest accomplishment was the birth of his son, Joseph Kessel, who was born just a few months prior on 24 February of the same year. The Joseph-Kessel Prize (Prix Joseph Kessel) is a prestigious prize in French language literature, given to "a book of a high literary value written in French". The jury counts or has counted among its members Tahar Ben Jelloun, Jean-Marie Drot, Michèle Kahn, Pierre Haski, Gilles Lapouge, Michel Le Bris [fr], Érik Orsenna, Patrick Rambaud, Jean-Christophe Rufin, André Velter and Olivier Weber.

Source: Article "Joseph Kessel" from Wikipedia in english, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Connue pour

  • Belle de jour
    Belle de jour1967
  • L'Armée des ombres
    L'Armée des ombres1969
  • Sirocco
    Sirocco1951
  • La Nuit des généraux
    La Nuit des généraux1967
  • La Passante du Sans-Souci
    La Passante du Sans-Souci1982
  • Les Cavaliers
    Les Cavaliers1971
  • Mayerling
    Mayerling1936
  • La passe du Diable
    La passe du Diable1959
  • Mayerling
    Mayerling1968
  • Le Lion
    Le Lion1962
  • Les Amants du Tage
    Les Amants du Tage1955
  • Au Grand Balcon
    Au Grand Balcon1949
  • L'Équipage
    L'Équipage1935
  • Le Lion
    Le Lion2003
  • Bataillon du ciel
    Bataillon du ciel1947
  • Un mur à Jérusalem
    Un mur à Jérusalem1968
  • Fortune carrée
    Fortune carrée1955
  • L'Homme du Niger
    L'Homme du Niger1940
  • La Peur
    La Peur1936
  • Le Grand Cirque
    Le Grand Cirque1949

Filmographie

2003
1986
The Heart Queen · as Novel
1982
The Passerby · as Novel
1971
The Horsemen · as Novel
1969
Army of Shadows · as Novel
1968
1967
The Night of the Generals · as Screenplay
1962
The Lion · as Novel
1958
1955
Square Fortune · as Novel
1955
Lovers' Net · as Novel
1953
Act of Love · as Screenplay
1951
Sirocco · as Novel
1949
1947
They Are Not Angels · as Screenplay
1940
1937
The Woman I Love · as Novel
1936
Les bateliers de la Volga · as Screenplay
1935