Claude Autant-Lara

French director, active in cinema from age 16 designing sets and costumes. Autant was uprooted from his homeland by his actress-mother Louise Lara during WW I, when her strong pacifist stance forced her to flee to England. Returning to his native country in 1919, he studied art, then worked as a set and costume designer for the major French filmmakers of the 1920s.

He directed an avant-garde short in 1923 and a documentary in 1926. After directing French versions of American films in Hollywood, 1930-32, he returned to France to work on short subjects. In 1933, he directed his first feature, "Ciboulette;" his next feature, the British "My Partner Mr. Davis," didn't come out until 1936.

Autant worked on commissioned features until he did his own film in 1947, "Diable au Corps" (Devil in the Flesh), a mildly erotic and ultimately fatalistic WW I love story which brought him international fame. He began to truly flourish during the years of the Occupation, 1940-44, during which time he specialized in romantic, nostalgic productions. Gradually, Autant's work became more reactionary, attacking institutions in "Le Rouge et le Noir," 1955. Becoming known for his radical and atheist views, in 1989 he was forced to stand down as representative of France's far-right National Front in the European Parliament after describing the Nazi gas chambers as a "string of lies."

Autant married actress-screenwriter Ghislaine.

He died on 5 February 2000.