Marguerite Duras

Overview

Ms. Duras was born in southern Vietnam and lost her father at age 4. The family savings of 20 years bought the family a small plot in Cambodia, but everything was lost in a single season's flooding. The disaster killed her mother as a result. After high school in Saigon, Ms. Duras left Indochina to study law in Paris. As a young woman, she worked as a secretary in France's Ministry of Colonies from 1935 to 1941, before becoming a writer. She wrote 34 novels from 1943 to 1993, and became an enduring part of Paris's intellectual elite. In addition to her writing, she also directed about 16 films. For the film India Song (1975), she won France's Cinema Academy Grand Prix. She claimed to have rescued French president François Mitterand during World War II, when he was a resistance fighter and remained a friend and unconditional campaigner. Her most noted novel is "L'Amant", the story of a girl, from a poor French family in Indochina, who becomes the mistress of a wealthy Indochinese notable's son.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ted Hull <theodore.hull@arch2.nara.gov>

Her movies often involve long voice-overs by their female leads
Unnamed heroines nicknamed 'Elle' and unnamed heroes nicknamed 'Lui'
Often collaborated with Delphine Seyrig, Jeanne Moreau, Bulle Ogier, Michael Lonsdale, Gérard Depardieu, Yann Andréa, Nicole Hiss and Benoît Jacquot

Her favorite collaborator was Delphine Seyrig, whom she called "the greatest actress in France and possibly in the entire world".
Won the Prix Goncourt (France's most distinguished literary prize) for "L'Amant" in 1984.
She was greatly admired by Joseph Losey, who three times attempted without success to set up a film based on her work. All three projects were eventually filmed, however - "The Sailor From Gibraltar" by Tony Richardson; "10.30 p.m. Summer" by Jules Dassin; and "Detruire, Dit-Elle" by Duras herself.
Her favorite filmmaker is Robert Bresson.
She was an avid reader of Tintin books.