Jean de Baroncelli (25 March 1914 - 31 July 1998) was a French writer. Having achieved some success as a novelist, in 1953 he became a film critic, contributing regularly for

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

till 1983.

Life

Marie Joseph Henri Jean de Baroncelli was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

a few months before the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. On his father's death, he would become the tenth Marquis of Baroncelli, although the title was little mentioned. His father was the pioneering film director,

Jacques de Baroncelli Jacques de Baroncelli (25 June 1881 – 12 January 1951) was a French film director best known for his silent films from 1915 to the late 1930s. He came from a Florentine family who had settled in Provence in the 15th century, occupying a buildi ...

and the family was based in southern France. More remotely the family, which had grown prosperous through commerce during the nineteenth century, traced their origins back to

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

. De Baroncelli studied Law and Humanities, emerging with a degree from the prestigious Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). During the 1940s he had several novels published including the wartime novel "Vingt-six hommes" (''1942 - "Twenty-six men"''), and "Le disgracié" (1946) He married the theatre star Sophie Desmarets in October 1950 and the couple moved into an old farm that he had inherited on the northwestern side of

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

where for several years during the summers they followed a celebrity life-style, with frequent parties. However, unseasonal frost in 1956 ruined the wine harvest that year and much of the farmland had to be sold. Further land sales followed, and most of the 300 hectares had been sold and developed for housing by the later 1960s. Meanwhile, the couple's daughter was born in 1952. From 1953 till 1983 he contributed regularly to

, supplying numerous film reviews along with interviews and investigative pieces. He served on several film festival juries ( Berlin 1957, Cannes 1958 and

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

, and Venice 1961). At one stage he was a member of the organising committee for the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. He has also featured several times on French radio the arts and review programme " Le Masque et la Plume". He was an early contributor to

Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...

, originally a resistance newspaper, and was a founding member of Association française des cinémas d'art et d'essai (''Confederation of Arts Cinemas'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baroncelli, Jean de 1914 births 1998 deaths French film critics Sciences Po alumni Le Monde writers Writers from Montpellier 20th-century French journalists