Marcel Aymé
Marcel Aymé | |
---|---|
Born | 29 March 1902 Joigny |
Died | 14 October 1967 (aged 65) Paris |
Occupation | Author |
Awards | Prix Renaudot |
Marcel Aymé (29 March 1902 – 14 October 1967) was a French novelist, children's writer, humorist, screenwriter and playwright.
Biography[]
Marcel Aymé was born in Joigny, in the Yonne department of Burgundy. He was educated at the Collège de Dole, then worked as a journalist in Paris, among other things. His first published novel was Brûlebois (1926), and in 1929 his La Table aux crevés won the Prix Renaudot. After the great success of his novel La Jument verte (1933), translated into English as The Green Mare, he concentrated mostly on writing and published children's stories, novels, and collections of stories. In 1935 he also started writing movie scripts. In theater, Marcel Aymé found success with his plays Lucienne et le boucher, Clérambard (1949), a farce, and Tête des autres (1952), which criticized the death penalty.
He died in 1967 and was buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris.
Work[]
One of Aymé's most famous short stories is "Le Passe-Muraille" or "The Walker-Through-Walls". A statue in Paris features the story's main character, Dutilleul. At the age of 42, Dutilleul suddenly discovers that he has "the remarkable gift of being able to pass through walls with perfect ease". What begins as a novelty that gives him pleasure ends up pushing Dutilleul toward ever more sinister pursuits.
Legacy[]
His works have inspired a number of movies, television shows, songs and comic strips.
Visitors to Paris can see a monument in his honor at Place Marcel-Aymé, in the Montmartre Quarter. The statue is based upon his short story "Le passe-muraille" ("The Walker through Walls").
Novels and short stories[]
- 1928
- 1929 La Table aux crevés (novel translated as The Hollow Field)
- 1930
- 1930 La Rue sans nom
- 1931
- 1932
- 1933 La Jument verte (novel translated as The Green Mare)
- 1935 Maison basse (novel translated as The House of Men)
- 1934 Le Nain
- 1936 (novel translated as The Secret Stream)
- 1936
- 1938
- 1938
- 1939
- 1941 (novel variously translated as The Second Face, The Grand Seduction, and Beautiful Image)
- 1941
- 1941 (novel translated as The Miraculous Barber)
- 1943 "Le passe-muraille" (short story translated as "The Man Who Walked through Walls" (Pushkin Press, 2012). Also adapted into the musical Amour by Michel Legrand, the feature films Mr. Peek-a-Boo (1951) and The Man Who Walked Through the Wall (1959), and the TV movies (1977)[1] and Le passe-muraille (2016)[2])
- 1946 Le Chemin des écoliers (novel translated as The Transient Hour)
- 1947 (adapted into a film (1956))
- 1948 Uranus (novel translated as The Barkeep of Blémont)
- 1950
- 1950
- 1934-1946 (translated as The Magic Pictures and The Wonderful Farm)
- 1960 (novel translated as The Conscience of Love)
- 1967
- 1987 (posthumous collection of short stories, compiled by Michel Lecureur)
Theatrical plays[]
- Lucienne and the Butcher (Lucienne et le boucher) (1948)
- Clérambard (1950)
- Vogue la galère (1951), adapted into a film in 1973
- Other People's Heads (La tête des autres) (1952)
- Les quatre vérités (1954)
- The Salem Witches (Les sorcières de Salem) (1954), adapted from The Crucible by Arthur Miller
- The Moon Birds (Les oiseaux de lune) (1955)
- The Blue Fly (La mouche bleue) (1957)
- Vu du pont (1957)
- Louisiane (1961)
- The Maxibules (Les Maxibules) (1961)
- La consommation (1963)
- The Wall Cupboard (Le placard) (1963)
- The Night of the Iguana (La nuit de l'iguane), adapted from The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams (1965)
- The Belzébir Convention (La convention Belzébir) (1966)
- Le minotaure (1967)
Filmography[]
- Street Without a Name, directed by Pierre Chenal (1934, based on the novel La Rue sans nom)
- Mr. Peek-a-Boo, directed by Jean Boyer (1951, based on the short story The passer-through-walls)
- The Beautiful Image, directed by Claude Heymann (1951, based on the novel La Belle image)
- Henri Verneuil (1951, based on the novel The Hollow Field) , directed by
- La Traversée de Paris, directed by Claude Autant-Lara (1956, based on the short story Traversée de Paris)
- Way of Youth, directed by Michel Boisrond (1959, based on the novel Le Chemin des écoliers)
- The Man Who Walked Through the Wall, directed by Ladislao Vajda (West Germany, 1959, based on the short story The passer-through-walls)
- The Green Mare, directed by Claude Autant-Lara (1959, based on the novel The Green Mare)
- , directed by (1961, TV film, based on the short story Le Nain)
- Philippe Agostini (1967, TV film, based on the short story La Bonne Peinture) , directed by
- , directed by Jacques Pierre (1969, TV film, based on the novel Le Boeuf clandestin)
- Clérambard, directed by Yves Robert (1969, based on the play Clérambard)
- Vogue la galère, directed by Raymond Rouleau (1973, based on the play Vogue la galère)
- Pierre Tchernia (1977, TV film, based on the short story The passer-through-walls) , directed by
- Pierre Tchernia (1979, TV film, based on the short story La Grâce) , directed by
- Georges Wilson (1989, based on the novel La Vouivre) , directed by
- Uranus, directed by Claude Berri (1990, based on the novel Uranus)
- , directed by (1990, TV film, based on the short story Les Bottes de sept lieues)
- Pierre Tchernia (1991, TV film, based on the short story L'Huissier) , directed by
- The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish, directed by Ben Lewin (1991, based on the short story Rue Saint-Sulpice)
- , directed by (2002, based on the short story Le Temps mort)
- , directed by (2013, TV film, based on the novel Le Boeuf clandestin)
- The passer-through-walls) , directed by (2016, TV film, based on the short story
Screenwriter[]
- Crime and Punishment (dir. Pierre Chenal, 1935)
- The Green Domino (dir. Herbert Selpin and Henri Decoin, 1935)
- Les mutinés de l'Elseneur (dir. Pierre Chenal, 1936)
- Louis Daquin, 1941) (dir.
- Maurice Gleize, 1941) (dir.
- Strange Inheritance (dir. Louis Daquin, 1943)
- Louis Daquin, 1943) (dir.
- Papa, Mama, the Maid and I (dir. Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1954)
- Papa, maman, ma femme et moi (dir. Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1955)
- Your Money or Your Life (dir. Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1966)
See also[]
- List of French writers
References[]
- ^ "Le passe-muraille". Retrieved Jun 22, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ "The Wall-Crosser". Retrieved Jun 22, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
External links[]
- PushkinPress.com English editions of works by the author
- Le roman selon les romanciers: bibliographie critique de l'Université McGill (French) Inventory and analysis of Marcel Aymé's non-novelistic writings about the novel
- Marcel Aymé at IMDb
- Link to several short stories by Marcel Ayme including The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls or Le Passe-Muraille
- About Marcel Aymé (personal web site)
- 1902 births
- 1967 deaths
- People from Joigny
- French children's writers
- French humorists
- French fantasy writers
- Writers from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
- 20th-century French novelists
- 20th-century French male writers
- French male novelists
- French dramatists and playwrights
- French male screenwriters
- 20th-century French screenwriters
- People of Montmartre
- Légion d'honneur refusals
- Prix Blumenthal
- Prix Renaudot winners