Jean-Louis Barrault , 1910-94, French actor and director. A pupil of Charles Dullin, he joined the Comédie Française in 1940. After World War II he organized his own company at the Théâtre Marigny with his wife, actress Madeleine Renaud. Barrault's precise, imaginative physical style was influenced by his study of mime. He is best remembered for his Hamlet and as the mime in Marcel Carné's film Children of Paradise (1944).

Bibliography: See his autobiography Memories for Tomorrow (tr. 1974). His other writings include Reflections on the Theatre (tr. 1951) and The Theatre of Jean-Louis Barrault (tr. 1961).

Barrault, Jean-Louis (1910–94), French actor, director, and producer, who made his first appearance on the stage on his 21st birthday, as one of the servants in Jules Romains's adaptation of Jonson's Volpone. He then began the study of mime, which was to be so important in his career, and his first independent production was a mime-play adapted with Camus from Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying. In 1940 he was engaged by Copeau for the Comédie-Française, making his début in Corneille's Le Cid, though his most important work was done in his productions of Racine's Phèdre, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, and Claudel's Le Soulier de satin. In 1946 he and his wife Madeleine Renaud, who was already an established star at the Comédie-Française when he joined it, left to found their own company. Its opening production, at the Théâtre Marigny, was Hamlet (1946). The company remained at the Marigny until 1956, appearing in a mixed repertory of classic and modern works, among them the plays of Claudel—Partage de midi (1948), L'Échange, Christophe Colomb (both 1951), and Tête-d'or (1959). The inclusion of Marivaux plays in the company's repertory can be attributed partly to the outstanding acting of Madeleine Renaud in this author's works. The company also revived several farces by Feydeau, and gave the first performance of such modern plays as Ionesco's Rhinocéros (1960). In 1956 Barrault left the Marigny for the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, and later occupied the Palais-Royal. In 1959 he was appointed director of the Odéon, where his work with Madeleine Renaud included Beckett's Oh! les beaux jours (1960), and where he later transferred the Théâtre des Nations; but he was summarily dismissed in 1968, after the theatre had been occupied by student demonstrators. A year later he was at the Élysées-Montmartre near Clichy, formerly an indoor wrestling stadium, where he directed his own adaptations of Rabelais and of Ubu sur la butte, based on Jarry's plays. Rabelais was seen in London, in both French and English, and toured Europe and America. On returning to Paris in 1972 Barrault set up a circus tent inside the disused hall of the Gare d'Orsay, which was taken from him in 1980 to become a museum. He was then given the Palais des Glaces, an old skating rink to which he transported the staging from the Gare d'Orsay, making a large auditorium seating 920 spectators and a smaller one for 200. In 1985 he again appeared in Le Cid.

As an actor Barrault, elegant and outwardly nonchalant, gave the impression of strong passions firmly controlled by disciplined intelligence and physically sustained by the strenuous exercise of mime. As a mime-actor he was best known through his appearance as Deburau in the film Les Enfants du paradis (1945); but the rigour of his training could most effectively be judged on stage, where his slightest gesture spoke volumes.

BARRAULT, Jean-Louis

Nationality: French. Born: Le Vésinet, 8 September 1910. Education: Attended Collège Chaptal and École du Louvre, Paris, received bachelor's degree; studied theater with Charles Dullin and pantomime with Ètienne Decroux. Family: Married the actress Madeleine Renaud, 1940. Career: Late 1920s—worked as apprentice bookkeeper, flower salesman, and assistant master at Collège Chaptal; 1931—stage debut in Paris in Volpone at Charles Dullin's workshop; 1935—stage directorial debut of Autour d'une mère ; film debut in Les Beaux Jours ; 1936—founded own theater-workshop, Le Granier des Augustins; 1940–46—acted and directed with Comédie Française; from late 1940s—with various stage companies, including the Théâtre Marigny and the Théâtre de l'Odéon; formed own stage company, Compagnie Renaud-Barrault, in partnership with wife; 1959—named director of Théâtre de France at the Théâtre de l'Odéon; produced Woyzeck for Paris Opera, 1963, and Faust for Metropolitan Opera, New York, 1965; 1965–67—director of Théâtre des Nations; 1968—removed as director of Théâtre de France for siding with students and workers during May 1968 riots; 1972–74—again served as director of Théâtre des Nations; 1974–81—director of Théâtre d'Orsay. Died: In Paris, 22 January 1994.

Films as Actor:

1935

Les Beaux Jours (Marc Allégret)

1936

Sous les yeux d'Occident (Marc Allégret); A nous deux, Madame la vie (Mirande); Un Grand Amour de Beethoven (Beethoven, le voleur de femmes ; The Life and Loves of Beethoven ) (Gance) (as Karl); Hélène (Benoît-Levy and Epstein); Jenny (Carné)

1937

Mademoiselle Docteur (Pabst); Police mondaine (Chamborant and Bernheim); Le Puritain (Musso); Les Perles de la couronne (Pearls of the Crown ) (Guitry and Christian-Jaque) (as Gen. Bonaparte); Mirages (Ryder); Drôle de drame (Bizarre Bizarre ) (Carné); Altitude 3200 (Benoît-Levy and Epstein)

1938

Nous les jeunes (Benoît-Levy and Epstein); Orage (Marc Allégret); La Piste du Sud (Billon)

1939

Farinet oder das falsche Geld (Farinet ou l'or dans la montagne ) (Haufler)

1941

Parade en sept nuits (Marc Allégret); Le Destin fabuleux de Desirée Clary (Guitry); Montmartre-sur-Seine (Lacombe)

1942

La Symphonie fantastique (Christian-Jaque) (as Hector Berlioz)

1943

Lumière d'été (Grémillon); L'Ange de la nuit (Berthomieu)

1945

Les Enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise ) (Carné) (as Baptiste Debureau); La Part de l'ombre (Delannoy)

1946

Le Cocu magnifique (de Meyst)

1947

La Rose et le réséda (Michel) (as narrator)

1948

D'homme à hommes (Christian-Jaque)

1949

Le Bateau ivre (Chaumel) (as narrator)

1950

La Ronde (Circle of Love ) (Max Ophüls) (as Robert Kuhlenkampf)

1951

Paul Claudel (Gillet) (as narrator)

1953

Si Versailles m'était conté (Affairs in Versailles ; Royal Affairs in Versailles ) (Guitry) (as François Fenelon)

1959

Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier (Renoir)

1960

Le Dialogue des Carmélites (Bruckberger and Agostini)

1961

Le Miracle des loups (Hunebelle); Architecture, art de l'espace (Haesaerts) (as narrator)

1962

The Longest Day (Annakin, Marton, Wicki, and Oswald) (as Fr. Roulland)

1964

Répétition chez Jean-Louis Barrault (Hessens); La Grande frousse (La Cité de l'indiciblepeur ) (Mocky)

1966

Chappaqua (Rooks) (as doctor)

1967

La Route d'un homme (Hacquard) (as narrator)

1968

Je tire chemin (Lesage) (as narrator)

1981

La Nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes ; The New World ) (Scola) (as Nicolas Edme Restif de la Bretonne)

1988

La Lumière du lac (Comencini)

Publications

By BARRAULT: books—

Le Procès (play), with André Gide, Paris, 1947; as The Trial, London, 1950.

A propos de Shakespeare et du théâtre, Paris, 1949.

Refléxions sur le théâtre, Paris, 1949; as Reflections on the Theatre, London, 1951.

Un Troupe et ses auteurs, Paris, 1950.

Je suis homme de théâtre, Paris, 1955.

Nouvelles refléxions sur le théâtre, Paris, 1959; as The Theatre of Jean-Louis Barrault, London, 1961.

Journal de bord, Paris, 1961.

Portrait de La Fontaine (play), Paris, 1964.

Portrait de Molière (play), Paris, 1964.

Odéon Théâtre de France, with Simone Benmussa, Paris, 1965.

Saint-Exupéry (play), Paris, 1967.

Rabelais (play), Paris, 1969; as Rabelais, London, 1971.

Jarry sur la butte (play), Paris, 1970.

Textes, edited by André Frank, Paris, 1971.

Mise en scène de Phèdre, Paris, 1972.

Souvenirs pour demain, Paris, 1972; as Memories for Tomorrow, New York, 1974.

Correspondence with Paul Claudel, edited by Michel Lioure, Paris, 1974.

Ainsi parlait Zarathustra (play), Paris, 1975.

Comme je le pense, Paris, 1975.

Joël Le Bon, with Madeleine Renaud, Paris, 1982.

Saiser le présent, Paris, 1984.

On BARRAULT: books—

Germain, Anne, Renaud-Barrault: les faux de la rampe et de l'amour, Paris, 1992.

Lorda Mur, Clara Ubaldina, Jean-Louis Barrault: teatre i humanisme, Barcelona, 1992.

Mignon, Paul-Louis, Jean-Louis Barrault: le théâtre total, Monaco, 1999.

On BARRAULT: articles—

Current Biography 1953, New York, 1953.

Obituary in New York Times, 23 January 1994.

Obituary in Time (New York), 31 January 1994.

Though Jean-Louis Barrault made his greatest contribution to French theater, his performance in Les Enfants du paradis is frequently cited as a singular illustration of pantomimic art on film.

After studying with Charles Dullin and the famous mime Ètienne Decroux, Barrault made his Paris debut in a 1931 production of Volpone. His first screen appearance four years later in Les Beaux Jours marked the first of a series of films for Marc Allégret, but it was for Marcel Carné, in films written by Jacques Prévert, that Barrault created his two most memorable roles, in Drôle de drame, and as Baptiste Debureau in Les Enfants du paradis. It was Barrault who had suggested to Carné and Prévert a story about Debureau, France's greatest pantomimist of the 19th century, whose fate is intertwined with those of the great romantic actor Frederick Lemaître (Pierre Brasseur), and the famous actress Garance (played by Arletty).

But the film was, in the words of its director, "a tribute to the theatre," which Barrault had firmly embraced when he joined the Comédie Française in 1940 where, in addition to acting, he directed a series of notable productions including Phaedra and Antony and Cleopatra. After leaving the Comédie Française in 1946, Barrault and his wife, the actress Madeleine Renaud, founded a now-famous acting company. They profoundly influenced the postwar development of theater in France through such productions as Barrault's adaptation of Kafka's The Trial.

Barrault appeared in several films after the war, including Delannoy's La Part de l'ombre, and D'homme à hommes directed by Christian-Jaque for whom Barrault had already created the role of the composer Berlioz in La Symphonie fantastique during the war. He was part of the brilliant cast assembled by Max Ophüls for La Ronde in 1950, but subsequently devoted his energies entirely to theater. In 1959 Barrault played the double title role in Jean Renoir's Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier, but Barrault was not again offered a major film role until 1981 when Ettore Scola engaged him for La Nuit de Varennes, in which Barrault plays the writer Restif de la Bretonne, witness to the French Revolution.

—Karel Tabery