Honoré de Balzac
Videos
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.
Revised detail of daguerreotype taken in 1842
Vendôme Oratory School – engraving by Armand Queyroy
Drawing of Balzac in the mid-1820s, attributed to Achille Devéria
Laure Junot, Duchess of Abrantès
Jacques Rivette
Videos
Jacques Rivette was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He made twenty-nine films, including L'Amour fou (1969), Out 1 (1971), Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), and La Belle Noiseuse (1991). His work is noted for its improvisation, loose narratives, and lengthy running times.
Rivette in 2006
François Truffaut outside a theatre showing Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge (1958), considered the first film of the French New Wave. Truffaut was one of Rivette's best friends, and he and Chabrol helped finance Paris Belongs to Us.
Rivette cast Jean-Luc Godard's wife, Anna Karina, in The Nun (1966) and directed a theatrical version with Karina.
Juliet Berto (left) and Bulle Ogier (center) co-starred in Céline et Julie vont en bateau (1974); Marie Dubois is on the right. Ogier appeared in seven of Rivette's films.