Julien Duvivier

This book is the first ever English-language study of Julien Duvivier (1896–1967), once considered one of the world's great filmmakers. Jean Renoir declared that 'If I were an architect and I had to build a monument to the cinema, I would place a statue of Julien Duvivier at the entrance'. He was beloved by Orson Welles and John Ford, while Ingmar Bergman once admitted that of all the careers that he would have liked to have had, it would be Duvivier's. 

The book offers contextual and analytical readings of Duvivier's films that identify his key themes and techniques, trace patterns of continuity, and explore critical assessments of his work over time. Throughout a five-decade career, Duvivier zigzagged between multiple genres – film noir, comedy, literary adaptation – and made over sixty films. His career intersects with important historical moments in French cinema, like the arrival