12 Facts About Claude Autant-Lara

Claude Autant-Lara was born on 5 August 1901 at Luzarches in Val-d'Oise.

In 1919, Claude Autant-Lara was employed by the filmmaker Marcel L'Herbier as a set designer for Le Carnaval des verites.

Claude Autant-Lara worked for other leading filmmakers, as assistant director for Rene Clair, and as costume designer for Jean Renoir on his lavish production of Nana, in which he acted.

Disheartened by the failure of this venture and in need of money, Claude Autant-Lara went to Hollywood in 1930 where he found work making French versions of American comedies, including two featuring Buster Keaton.

Claude Autant-Lara did not adapt well to the American way of life and after two years he returned to France.

In other films Claude Autant-Lara continued to address sensitive or unpopular subjects, such as conscientious objection in Tu ne tueras point, and abortion in Journal d'une femme en blanc and Nouveau journal d'une femme en blanc.

Claude Autant-Lara became increasingly bitter towards his critics and the producers who were reluctant to finance his films, and his final film Gloria was largely ignored.

Claude Autant-Lara repeatedly challenged the rules on censorship, and he was admired for the positive roles for women which his films often gave.

Claude Autant-Lara accused her of exploiting her experiences of the Nazi camps to gather sympathy for herself, and he went on to cast doubt on the accepted facts about the Holocaust.

Claude Autant-Lara was excluded from the Academie des Beaux-Arts, of which he was a vice-president, when its members voted to prohibit him from taking his seat.

Claude Autant-Lara was buried in the cemetery of Montmartre in Paris.

Claude Autant-Lara later married Ghislaine Auboin, who worked as an assistant director on many of his films from 1942 onwards.