Jean-Louis Barrault
- Born on September 8th, 1910 in Le Vésinet, Yvelines
- French Actor
- Acted in nearly 50 movies
- Notable ones:
- Sous les Yeux d’occident
- L’Or dans la Montagne
- French Director
- Directed several films:
- As I Lay Dying
- Les Enfants du Paradis
- Mime Artist
- Portrayed Jean-Gaspard Deburau; Baptiste Debureau; 19th century mime
- Commedia del Arte
- Influenced by:
- Charles Dullin
- Artaud
- Theatre of Cruelty
- ‘Actors are athletes’; particularly relevant to mime
- Advisor
- Married actress Madeleine Renaud in 1940
- Established the Theatre Marigny
- Allowed student protesters use of his theatre in 1968
- Poor response from the government led him to lose his theatre
- Financial backing waned
- Died January 1st, 1994 of heart failure in Paris
- Buried in Cimetiere de Passy
“There is a geographical map of the being in the face. With a mask, you erase it, but at the same time you extend it to the whole body. The mask is a temporary subtraction of the geographical map of the being, but which allows it to be spread over the entire body. It’s enlargement, you see? You have a six-foot face.”
– Jean-Louis Barrault (pg. 57, Theatre of Movement and Gesture)
“In fact, it is the simplest things that are the most tricky to do well. To read, for example. To be able to read exactly what is written without omitting anything that is written and at the same time without adding anything of one’s own. To be able to capture the exact context of the words one is reading. To be able to read!” – Jean-Louis Barrault (Reflections on the Theatre)
“When I wake up in the morning, I want to feel hungry for life. Desire is what drives me. When I go to sleep, I feel I have experienced a small death, so that I can wake up in the morning renewed and reborn.” – Jean-Louis Barrault (Through Parisian eyes: Reflections on the Contemporary French Arts and Culture)
Works Cited:
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