16 Facts About Jacques Lanzmann

Jacques Lanzmann was a French journalist, writer and lyricist.

Jacques Lanzmann is best known as a novelist and for his songwriting partnership with Jacques Dutronc.

Jacques Lanzmann was Jewish and, following the Battle of France, he, his mother and his siblings, pretended to be Moroccan Arabs to escape persecution by the Vichy regime.

Jacques Lanzmann was taken captive by the Germans and was due to be executed by firing squad, but escaped.

Jacques Lanzmann was sent by the magazine to the Soviet Union to report on the literary scene there.

Jacques Lanzmann continued to write novels and, in 1959, wrote his first adapted screenplay, Le Travail c'est la liberte.

Jacques Lanzmann, sometimes working with his wife Anne Segalen, wrote the words for most of Dutronc's output between 1966 and 1980.

Jacques Lanzmann suggested to the two that they each work on alternative lyrics to go with one of Dutronc's instrumental demos.

Jacques Lanzmann objected to being placed in competition against another writer, and dropped out of the project.

In 2003, Dutronc and Jacques Lanzmann reunited for Madame l'existence, an album described by rock critic Christophe Conte as "surpassing, without much apparent effort, everything that [Dutronc] has created in the last two decades".

Jacques Lanzmann has worked on songs for a number of other artists, including Johnny Hallyday, Francoise Hardy and Petula Clark.

Jacques Lanzmann won the prestigious Prix RTL Grand Public in 1977 for his novel Le Tetard.

Jacques Lanzmann presented programmes on the television channel Voyage from 1997 until his death.

Jacques Lanzmann crossed nearly all of the world's deserts, and explored the Sahara Desert at the age of 19.

Jacques Lanzmann came close to death while crossing the Taklamakan Desert in 1990.

Jacques Lanzmann died on 21 June 2006, aged 79, in Paris and his funeral was held on 26 June at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery.