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5 unusual facts about Germaine Dulac


Germaine Dulac

Germaine Dulac was born in Amiens, France into an upper-middle-class family of a career military officer.

A short time later Dulac and Delluc collaborated on La fête espagnole ("Spanish Fiesta", 1920), another film featuring Francis, which was proclaimed one of the decade's most influential films and, allegedly, a major French Impressionist Cinema work.

She continued her career in filmmaking, producing both simple commercial films and complex pre-Surrealist narratives such as two of her most famous works: La Souriante Madame Beudet ("The Smiling Madame Beudet", 1922/23) and La Coquille et le Clergyman ("The Seashell and the Clergyman", 1928).

With the help of her husband and friend she founded a film company and directed a few commercial works before slowly moving into Impressionist and Surrealist territory.

She is best known today for her Impressionist film, La Souriante Madame Beudet ("The Smiling Madam Beaudet", 1922/23), and her Surrealist experiment, La Coquille et le Clergyman ("The Seashell and the Clergyman", 1928).


Katie Kim

The Seashell and the Clergyman (La coquille et le clergyman) - Germaine Dulac (1928) - Original score composed by Katie Kim in association with The Cork French Film Festival (2011)


see also

Surrealist cinema

The Seashell and the Clergyman: (Released in 1928) a 31-minute, silent, black and white film, written by Antonin Artaud, and directed by Germaine Dulac.