Alain Cuny

Alain Cuny (12 July 1908 – 16 May 1994) was a French actor in theatre and cinema.

Alain Cuny was born in Saint-Malo, Brittany. 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 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. 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." Later Cuny worked with Jean Vilar at the Théâtre national populaire, and with Jean-Louis Barrault at the Odéon-Théâtre de France. 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 1942 film Les Visiteurs du soir. A few other romantic leading parts followed, but increasingly he made notable appearances 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.

Among his French films were Les Amants (1958), directed by Louis Malle, and Jean-Luc Godard's Détective (1985). He also appeared in the softcore porn film Emmanuelle (1974), a role which he said he took to show his contempt for the film business. In the same year, he played Sitting Bull in the absurdist western Ne touchez pas à la femme blanche! (Don't Touch the White Woman!, 1974).

Towards the end of his career he returned to aspects of Claudel. In 1988 he appeared in Camille Claudel, 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 Claudel's play 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.

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

• 1942 : Les Visiteurs du soir, directed by Marcel Carné
• 1943 : Le Baron fantôme (The Phantom Baron), directed by Serge de Poligny
• 1952 : Camicie rosse (Red Shirts), directed by Goffredo Alessandrini and Francesco Rosi
• 1953 : La signora senza camelie (The Lady Without Camelias), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
• 1956 : Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), directed by Jean Delannoy
• 1958 : Les Amants (The Lovers), directed by Louis Malle
• 1960 : La dolce vita, directed by Federico Fellini
• 1965 : Astataïon, ou Le Festin des morts (Mission of Fear), directed by Fernand Dansereau
• 1969 : La Voie lactée (The Milky Way), directed by Luis Buñuel
• 1969 : Satyricon, directed by Federico Fellini
• 1970 : Uomini contro (Many Wars Ago), directed by Francesco Rosi
• 1972 : Il maestro e Margherita (The Master and Margaret), directed by Aleksandar Petrović
• 1974 : Touche pas à la femme blanche! (Don't Touch the White Woman!), directed by Marco Ferreri
• 1974 : Emmanuelle, directed by Just Jaeckin
• 1976 : Cadaveri eccellenti (Illustrious Corpses), directed by Francesco Rosi
• 1978 : El recurso del método (The Recourse to the Method), directed by Miguel Littín
• 1979 : Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli), directed by Francesco Rosi
• 1985 : Détective, directed by Jean-Luc Godard
• 1987 : Cronaca di una morte annunciata (Chronicle of a Death Foretold), directed by Francesco Rosi
• 1988 : Camille Claudel, directed by Bruno Nuytten
• 1991 : L'Annonce faite à Marie (The Annunciation of Marie), directed by Alain Cuny
• 1992 : Le Retour de Casanova (The Return of Casanova), directed by Édouard Niermans