Biography

Marcel Carné, the son of a cabinet maker, entered the movies as the assistant of Jacques Feyder. At the age of 25 he directed his first movie Jenny (1936). Colaborating with the writer Jacques Prévert, the decorator Alexandre Trauner, the musician and composer Maurice Jaubert and the actor Jean Gabin he became the great director of the pre-war era of the French cinema with the poetic realism style (e.g. Hotel du Nord (1938)). During the occupation of France by Nazi-Germany he worked in the zone of the government of Vichy making Children of Paradise (1945), a clear anti-Nazi parable and all time classic of French cinema. After having been confronted with a purge trial he went on filming but none of his later movies could catch up with his former works.
- IMDb mini biography by: Volker Boehm

He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture.

Some directors prefer to rely on a certain focal length of lens, say Ozu with his 50mm. According to film scholar Bertrand Tavernier, Carne relied heavily on the 32 mm lens.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 103-107. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.