Barrault, Jean-Louis

(1910-1994)

   actor, director, and producer

   Born in Le vinsinet, Jean-Louis Barrault was a student of charles dullen and was initially influenced by the ideas of Antonine Autaud, who saw the art of theater as a ritual. Barrault also studied mime with Etienne decroux. His meeting with paul claudel, for whom he would later direct (Numance, 1937; Le Soulier de satin, 1943; Le Partage de midi, 1948), and his joining the Comédie-Française mark the beginning of his career. with his wife, the actress madeleine renaud, he founded the troop that would be attached to the Marigny Theater. He served, too, as the director of the Odéon Theater from 1958 to 1968. A director of the avant-garde, he also produced many of the great classical works (Hamlet, 1946; L'Orestie, 1955), contemporary pieces (Claudel's Tête d'or, 1959; Ionesco's Rhinoceros, 1960; Beckett's Happy Days, 1963). After completing several tours, Barrault directed Rabelais (1970) and served as director of the Renaud-Barrault Theater (1974-80), where he staged Zarathustra (1975). He then served as director of the theater of Rond-Point (1981-91). In cinema, Barrault appeared in well-known films, notably Drôle de drame (1937), Les Enfants du paradis (1945), Le Rond (1950), and jean renoir's Le Testament du docteur Cordelier (1961).