Alain Cuny

René Xavier Marie Alain Cuny (12 July 1908 – 16 May 1994) was a French actor of stage and screen. He was closely linked with the works of Paul Claudel and Antonin Artaud, He was brought up by an aunt and spent a large part of his childhood with her, in Boucé, and spent several years in an orphanage. He developed an early interest in painting and from the age of 15 he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He met Picasso, Braque and members of the surrealist group. He then began working in the film industry as a costume, poster and set designer and was employed on films of Cavalcanti, Feyder and Renoir. After a meeting with the actor-manager Charles Dullin, Cuny was persuaded to study drama and he began acting on stage in the late 1930s.

Career

In the theatre, Cuny became particularly linked with the works of Paul Claudel (who said of him after a performance of L'Annonce faite à Marie in 1944, "I have been waiting for you 20 years"). Another literary friend and hero was Antonin Artaud, "whose texts he read with supreme conviction at a time when Artaud was more or less an outcast, a situation reflected in Artaud's Van Gogh: The Man Suicided by Society, which Cuny interpreted in his voice's fabulous organ tones". His dramatic presence and measured diction made him well-suited to many classical roles.

His first major role in the cinema was as one of the devil's envoys in Marcel Carné's film Les Visiteurs du soir (1942). A few other romantic leading parts followed, but increasingly he appeared in supporting roles, especially in characterizations of intellectuals such as the tormented philosopher Steiner in La Dolce Vita (1960), directed by Federico Fellini. He worked frequently in Italian cinema and had close associations with Michelangelo Antonioni and Francesco Rosi as well as Fellini. One of his most admired film performances was in Rosi's Uomini contro (Many Wars Ago, 1970), as the rigidly authoritarian General Leone. In the same year, he played Sitting Bull in the absurdist western Touche pas à la femme blanche! (Don't Touch the White Woman!, 1974).

Towards the end of his career he returned to aspects of Claudel. He appeared in Camille Claudel (1988), a biographical film about the author's sister in which he played their father, Louis-Prosper Claudel. In 1991, he completed a long-planned film adaptation of a Claudel play The Annunciation of Marie (L'Annonce faite à Marie, 1991), a French-Canadian production in which he both directed and acted; it won him the Prix Georges-Sadoul. He also gave regular readings of Claudel's work at the Festival d'Avignon.

Personal life In 1962, he married Marie-Blanche Guidicelli. The couple divorced in 1969.

Death Cuny died in 1994 in Paris. He is buried in Civry-la-Forêt, west of Paris, where he had lived.

Partial filmography

1940: Après Mein Kampf mes crimes (directed by Alexandre Ryder) - Marinus van der Lubbe 1941: Madame Sans-Gêne (directed by Roger Richebé) - Roustan 1941: Remorques (Stormy Waters) (directed by Jean Grémillon) - Un matelot du 'Mirva' (uncredited) 1942: Les Visiteurs du soir (directed by Marcel Carné) - Gilles - un ménestrel 1943: Le Baron fantôme (The Phantom Baron) (directed by Serge de Poligny) - Hervé 1946: Solita de Cordoue (directed by Willy Rozier) - Pierre Desluc 1951: Il Cristo proibito (The Forbidden Christ) (directed by Curzio Malaparte) - Antonio 1952: Camicie rosse (Red Shirts) (directed by Goffredo Alessandrini and Francesco Rosi) - Bueno 1952: Les Conquérants solitaires (directed by Claude Vermorel) - Pascal Giroud 1953: La signora senza camelie (The Lady Without Camelias) (directed by Michelangelo Antonioni) - Lodi 1953: Mina de Vanghel (directed by Maurice Barry and Maurice Clavel) - M. de Larçay 1953: Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) (directed by Jean Delannoy) - Claude Frollo 1958: Les Amants (The Lovers) (directed by Louis Malle) - Henri Tournier 1960: La dolce vita (directed by Federico Fellini) - Steiner 1961: Scano Boa (directed by Renato Dall'Ara) - Cavarzvan 1962: La Croix des vivants (Cross of the Living) (directed by Ivan Govar) - Baron VonEggerth 1963: Peau de banane (Banana Peel)) (directed by Marcel Ophüls) - Hervé Bontemps 1963: La corruzione (Corruption) (directed by Mauro Bolognini) - Leonardo Mattioli 1965: Astataïon, ou Le Festin des morts (Mission of Fear) (directed by Fernand Dansereau) - Jean de Bréboeuf 1969: La Voie lactée (The Milky Way) (directed by Luis Buñuel) - L'homme à la cape / Man with cape 1969: Satyricon (directed by Federico Fellini) - Lica 1970: Uomini contro (Many Wars Ago) (directed by Francesco Rosi) - generale Leone 1971: La grande scrofa nera (directed by Filippo Ottoni) - Il Padre di Enrico 1971: Valparaiso, Valparaiso (directed by Filippo Ottoni)- Balthazar Lamarck-Caulaincourt 1972: L'udienza (directed by Marco Ferreri) - Padre gesuita 1972: Il maestro e Margherita (The Master and Margaret) (directed by Aleksandar Petrović) - Profesor Woland & Satana 1973: La rosa rossa (directed by Franco Giraldi) 1974: Touche pas à la femme blanche! (Don't Touch the White Woman!) (directed by Marco Ferreri) - Sitting Bull 1974: Emmanuelle (directed by Just Jaeckin) - Mario 1975: Two in the Amsterdam Rain (directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara) 1975: Irene, Irene (directed by Peter Del Monte) - Guido Boeri 1976: Cadaveri eccellenti (Illustrious Corpses) (directed by Francesco Rosi) - Judge Rasto 1976: I prosseneti (directed by Brunello Rondi) - Il conte Davide 1977: Jacques Prévert (directed by Jean Desvilles) - Himself 1978: El recurso del método (The Recourse to the Method) (directed by Miguel Littín) - El Académico 1978: La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland) (directed by Frank Cassenti) - Turpin / Le moine 1979: Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli) (directed by Francesco Rosi) - Barone Nicola Rotunno 1979: Roberte (directed by Pierre Zucca) - pur esprit (voice) 1981: Les Jeux de la Comtesse Dolingen de Gratz (directed by Catherine Binet) 1982: Les Maîtres du temps (directed by René Laloux) - Xul (voice) 1983: Quartetto Basileus (Basileus Quartet) (directed by Fabio Carpi) - 1985: Détective (directed by Jean-Luc Godard) - Old Mafioso 1987: Cronaca di una morte annunciata (Chronicle of a Death Foretold) (directed by Francesco Rosi) - Widower 1987: Lucky Ravi (directed by Vincent Lombard) - Plantation Owner 1987: Das weite Land (The Distant Land) (directed by Luc Bondy) - Aigner - le père d'Otto 1988: Umi e, See You (directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara) - Don Macine 1988: Camille Claudel (directed by Bruno Nuytten) - Louis-Prosper Claudel 1989: La Nuit de l'éclusier (directed by Franz Rickenbach) - Gutberg 1990: Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (directed by Denis Llorca) - Merlin 1991: Sweet War, Farewell (directed by Silvano Agosti) - Crimen 1991: L'Annonce faite à Marie (The Annunciation of Marie) (directed by Alain Cuny) - Anne Vercors 1992: Le Retour de Casanova (The Return of Casanova) (directed by Édouard Niermans) - Marquis