Unrealized Jean Renoir projects

This is a list of unrealized film projects of Jean Renoir digested from Jean Renoir La Vie, La Spectacle by Claude Beylie published as part of the Cinema d'Aujourd'hui series in 1975 (pages 131-134)

1925 -- La Pelotte

1925 -- Le Plus mauvais film ("The Worst Film") -- Claude Beylie comments, "A hoax? Renoir retains no memory of this project"

1925 -- Manon Lescaut -- a modernization

1928 -- Puss in Boots

1931 -- Hamlet -- to star Michel Simon

1931 -- a Georges Feydeau play -- possibly Occupe-toi, Amélie

1931 -- a Jacques Deval screenplay -- to star Michel Simon

1932 -- an André Derain screenplay

1932 -- Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves

1932 -- Prosper -- from a Lucienne Favre play and to star Michel Simon

1936 -- Le Sequestree de Poitiers -- from an André Gide novel, script co-written with Jean Aurenche

1938 -- La Dame blanche -- co-written with Jacques Becker and to be directed by Erich von Stroheim

1940 -- a film set in Brazil

1941 -- Joan of Arc -- to be produced by David O Selznick

1941 -- Sarn -- from a Mary Webb novel and to star Ingrid Bergman ("Unfortunately, no producer wanted Ingrid Bergman concealed behind the hare-lip which disfigured the heroine", Jean Renoir wrote to Claude Beylie)

1942 -- Call Me Yours -- for Universal Pictures and to star Deanna Durbin

1943 -- Wind, Stars and Sand -- based on the novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

1946 -- a film on the history of Los Angeles -- to be produced by David Loew

1951 -- Flesh and the Devil -- an American production to be shot in France and star Gérard Philipe

1951 -- The Madwoman of Chaillot -- to be made in France

1953 -- a life of Vincent van Gogh -- produced by MGM and starring Van Heflin

1953 -- Les Braconniers -- to star Daniel Delorme ("the departure point" for his play Orvet)

1954 -- Rue de l'extra -- published in Cahiers du Cinema May 1954 as Paris-Province (inspiration for a film)

1957 -- First Love -- from Ivan Turgenev's novella

1957 -- Three Bedrooms in Manhattan -- from the Georges Simenon novel and to star Leslie Caron

1960 -- Un Matin d'été -- for 20th Century-Fox'

1965 -- C'est la revolution -- led to the sketches La Cireuse électrique and Le Roi d'Yvetot in the film Le Petit theater

1968 -- Julien de mon amour; La Duchesse; a adaptation of his novel Le Cahiers du Captaine Georges -- three projects for Jeanne Moreau

undated projects

a silent Diary of a Chambermaid

Ce Cochin de Morin -- from Guy de Maupassant

La Fuite de Monsieur Monde -- from Georges Simenon

Romeo and Jeannette -- from Jean Anouilh

Hunger -- from Knut Hamsun

The Lower Depths -- a remake with Montgomery Clift

Trilby -- with Ingrid Bergman

various projects with Tony Curtis and Leslie Caron

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Some unrealized film projects of Max Ophuls

From the April 15 1963 issue of Avant-Scene Cinema (page 46)
A list of unrealized projects of the film director Max Ophuls.

"The scripts of some of these projects exist in advanced state and count among Ophuls' best."

Before World War II

Le Scandale -- from a play by Henry Bataille
Derrière la façade -- screenplay by Yves Mirande, (finally directed by Mirande and Georges Lacombe)
Maria Tarnowski -- screenplay by Jacques Companeez to star Kate de Nagy
untitled propaganda film for the French Foreign Legion in which Ophuls would have film a sequence at the Franco-Spanish border.
La Grande traversée -- dialogue by Marcel Archard to star Victor Francen

World War II -- Hollywood

Sentimental Journey -- to star Martha Eggerth and Jan Kiepura (directed eventually by Walter Lang starring John Payne and Maureen O'Hara)


Post World War II
The Knights of the Round Table -- in England to star Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Giigi -- from Colette
La Duchess de langeais -- to star Greta Garbo and James Mason
Autumne -- original screenplay by Max Ophuls and Peter Ustinov to be filmed during a Mozart festival at Salzbourg
L'Amour des quatre colonels -- from a Peter Ustinov play
The Blessing (Ce Cher ange) -- from a Nancy Mitford novel
Mam'zelle Nitouche -- finally filmed by Yves Allégret starring Fernandel
Carmen -- starring Sophia Loren
Modigliani -- from Henri Georges-Michel's novel "Les Montparnos" adapted by Henri Jeanson, Jacques Natanson, Albert Valentin and Max Ophuls. To star Yves Montand and then Mel Ferrer and finally Gérard Philippe. (direction entrusted at Ophuls' suggestion to Jacques Becker and released as "Montparnasse 19")

Vaguer projects
Adolphe -- from Benjamin Constant
L'Ami Fritz -- from Eckmann-Chatrian to star Jean Gabin
Bertha Garlan -- from Arthur Schnitzler to star Daniele Darrieux
Egmont -- from Goethe and with music by Beethoven
Histoire d'amour -- from Louise de Vilmorin
Le Lys dans la vallée -- from Balzac
Les Mille et un nuits -- project in advanced state around June 1954
Six Characters in Search of an Author -- from Luigi Pirandello
Une vie de Catherine de Russie -- to star Ingrid Bergman
Une vie D'Isadora Duncan -- advanced project, adaptation written and lost
Yvette -- from Guy de Maupassant

Some unrealized Marcel Carné projects

from "Ma Vie à Belles Dents" ("My Life with Gusto) by Marcel Carné
Some unrealized Marcel Carné projects:

1939 “The Postman Always Rings Twice” with Jean Gabin, Michel Simon and Vivian Romance

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1945 “Mary Poppins” with a screenplay by Jacques Prevert

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1945 “The Mask of Red Death” with a screenplay by Jacques Prevert

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1946/47 “Candide” with Gérard Philipe and Louis Jouvet as Pangloss

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1951 “La Reine Margot” with Anna Magnani

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1960 “Les Dimanches de Ville-D’Avray” (filmed, two years later by Serge Bourguignon. (English title “Sundays and Cybele”)