Allégret, Marc

(1900-1973)

   Director. Born in Switzerland, the son of Protestant minister Elie Allégret, Marc Allégret would become one of the first great directors of sound cinema in France. From a very young age, Allégret became a protégé of André Gide, who was a friend of his father's. Gide served as mentor and guide to Allégret, and in fact, it has often been said (although this is not true) that Allégret was Gide's nephew. Marc often traveled with Gide, including on his famous trip to Africa in the late 1920s (the trip is inscribed into Gide's writing, most notably in Les Faux monnayeurs). It was these travels that would inspire Allégret's first films, a series of travel documentaries, the most famous of which is titled Voyage au Congo (1927). Presumably, these documentaries gave Allégret a taste of what was to come, and he began his career in cinema.

   Allégret initially spent time codirecting and working with other directors, most notably silent-film director Robert Florey. The two made several films together, most notably Le Blanc et le noir, a film adaptation of a play by Sacha Guitry about a black baby born of adultery who is switched with a white baby. The film was a success, and it set the tone for Allégret's career. Moreover, many of the themes in Le Blanc et le noir—race relations, love, and betrayal—would recur in Allégret's later films, such as Zouzou (1934), starring Josephine Baker.

   La Meilleure bobonne (1930), codirected with Claude Heymann, inaugurated another career of sorts for Allégret, for it featured a young actor named Fernandel, whose long career in film Allégret would launch. Besides Fernandel, Allégret would go on to discover Raïmu, Brigitte Bardot, Roger Vadim, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jean-Louis Barrault, Odette Joyeux, Danièle Delorme, Alain Delon, and Jean-Paul Belmondo, among others. In fact, he is considered one of the foremost talent scouts of his time.

   In 1931, with the help of film producer Pierre Braunberger, Allégret made his first solo feature films,Mam'zelle Nitouche and La Petite Chocolatière. Both were commercially and critically successful melodramas that cemented Allegret's reputation as a filmmaker. Mam'zelle Nitouche also marked the beginning of a series of directorial collaborations between Allégret and his brother, Yves.

   Following Mam'zelle Nitouche, Allégret made Fanny (1932), an adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's play of the same title, which introduced another star to the screen, the Marseillais actor Raïmu. Raïmu was cast because he had played in Pagnol's original theatrical production, but it was Allégret's film that made him a star. Allégret made numerous films in the 1930s, and these are considered some of his best. Among Allégret's other noteworthy films from the 1930s are Lac aux dames (1934), L'Hôtel du libre échange (1934), Les Beaux jours (1935), Les Amants terribles (1936), La Dame de Malacca (1938), and Entrée des artistes (1939), which is often considered his best film. Allégret's work during the 1930s ranged from literary adaptation to exotic travel film, and it is his breadth as much as anything else that made him a landmark director.

   The year 1942 was another great one for Allégret. The two films made in that year, L'Arlésienne and La Belle aventure, are both French film classics. That decade saw the occupation of France by Germany. Allégret remained in France and continued to make films. Most of his films from the period, like Les Petites du quai aux fleurs (1946), were lighthearted and lacked much substance, no doubt in part due to Nazi censorship.

   Allégret's films of the 1950s are largely unremarkable. In fact, they are probably responsible for a sort of fall from grace in the eyes of the film public and of film historians. There are one or two exceptions to this, including En effeuillant la marguerite (1956), the film that really launched Bardot's career, and Un Drôle de dimanche (1958), starring Belmondo and Arletty. Allégret continued to make films until just before his death. His last film was Le Bal du comte d'Orgel (1970). Allégret's brother, Yves, is also a director of some note.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins