Armand Gatti (; 26 January 1924 – 6 April 2017) was a French playwright, poet, journalist, screenwriter, filmmaker and World War II resistance fighter.Banham (1998, 413). His debut film ''

Enclosure Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

'' was entered into the

2nd Moscow International Film Festival The 2nd Moscow International Film Festival was held from 9 to 23 July 1961. The Grand Prix was shared between the Japanese film ''The Naked Island'' directed by Kaneto Shindo and the Soviet film '' Clear Skies'' directed by Grigori Chukhrai. Ju ...

where he won the Silver Prize for Best Director. Two years later, his film '' El Otro Cristóbal'' was entered into the

1963 Cannes Film Festival The 16th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 23 May 1963. The Palme d'Or went to the '' Il Gattopardo'' by Luchino Visconti. The festival opened with '' The Birds'', directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Jury The following people were appointed as th ...

. In 2013 he was awarded the Grand prix du théâtre de l'Académie française.

Biography

One of the most acclaimed theater writer/directors of the 20th century, Gatti was originally a member of the informal Left Bank group of filmmakers that included

Alain Resnais Alain Resnais (; 3 June 19221 March 2014) was a French film director and screenwriter whose career extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included ...

Chris Marker Chris Marker (; 29 July 1921 – 29 July 2012) was a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are ''La Jetée'' (1962), '' A Grin Without a Cat'' (1977) and ''Sans Soleil ...

Agnès Varda Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...

, Henri Colpi and

Jean Cayrol Jean Cayrol (; 6 June 1911 – 10 February 2005) was a French poet, publisher, and member of the Académie Goncourt born in Bordeaux. He is perhaps best known for writing the narration in Alain Resnais's 1955 documentary film, '' Night and Fog''. ...

, but because none of his films have been released on video in the US, he remains an elusive figure for many cinephiles. He appears in Resnais' '' Toute la mémoire du monde'' (1956) and in Marker's ''Immemory'' CD-Rom; he wrote ''China'' (1956) for Marker's ''Petite Planète'' collection and traveled with Marker in the making of '' Letter from Siberia'' (1957), which inspired his book ''Siberia — Zero + Infinity'' the following year. According to his 1989 biographer,

Dorothy Knowles Dorothy Elsie Knowles, (born April 6, 1927) is a Canadian artist, most notable for her landscape paintings. She is the widow of William Perehudoff, a fellow artist who is closely associated with the Color Field movement. Career Knowles studie ...

, Gatti was born in 1924 in a shantytown in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

to Auguste Rainier an Italian anarchist from

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, who escaped murder in a

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

slaughterhouse because of his political activities and fled

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in ...

's regime and to Letizia Lusona a maid. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Gatti joined a small

French resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

maquis Maquis may refer to: Resistance groups * Maquis (World War II), predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance * Spanish Maquis, guerrillas who fought against Francoist Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War * The netwo ...

. Captured, tortured, and sentenced to a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

where he was forced to work in a diving bell at the bottom of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

, Gatti eventually escaped and joined a British

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-te ...

special forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equi ...

team. After the war, he worked as an award-winning journalist for many years until he traveled with Marker, published his first plays, and directed his first film, ''

'' (''L'Enclos'', 1961). L'Enclos was screened out of competition at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

but it was hailed by Truffaut, Resnais, Cocteau and others. He was awarded the French

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleo ...

in 1999, the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

in 2004 and the Grand prix du théâtre from the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

in 2013. He died on 6 April 2017.Mort d’Armand Gatti, figure du théâtre du XXe siècle

Theatrical works

*1957 ''Le Poisson noir'' (awarded Fénéon Prize) *1966 '' Chant public devant deux chaises électriques''

Filmography

*1960 ''Moranbong, une aventure coréenne'' (writer only) *1961 ''

'' *1963 '' El Otro Cristóbal'' *1968 ''Das imaginäre Leben des Straßenkehrers Auguste G.'' (writer only) *1970 ''Der Übergang über den Ebro'' *1983 ''Nous étions tous des noms d'arbres''

References

Sources

* Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP. .

External links

Official site
* * iography (in French) http://www.armand-gatti.org/index.php?cat=biographie* VD http://www.editionsmontparnasse.fr/p1364/Le-Lion-sa-cage-et-ses-ailes-DVDbr>Gatti passed away at the Begin Hospital in Vincennes on Thursday, April 6th.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gatti, Armand 1924 births 2017 deaths 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights 20th-century French poets French journalists French film directors Albert Londres Prize recipients French Resistance members Nazi concentration camp survivors Special Air Service soldiers French people of Italian descent People of Piedmontese descent Prix Fénéon winners Monegasque people French expatriates in Germany