The art of Louis Jouvet

Retrospective of the Lumière film festival 11-19 October 2025 in Lyon

Last year, the film A Lover’s Return opened the festival and captivated the audience. This year, we pay tribute to the great Jouvet, taking an exceptional journey through a certain golden age of French cinema, featuring works by Renoir, Clouzot, Carné or Duvivier, without forgetting Christian-Jaque, Chenal or Decoin.

The Institut Lumière and the Lumière film festival have always championed classic French cinema, celebrating it on the big screen and publishing key works (recently the interviews of Gilles Grangier with François Guérif, for instance)... This period of cinema was brought to life by the iconic faces of the day: Jean Gabin, Arletty, Michel Simon or Michèle Morgan — and a man who holds a special place, with his aura of elegance, charisma and wit — Louis Jouvet. 

To claim that Louis Jouvet’s career crossed paths with some of the greatest French filmmakers of his time would be an understatement. A towering figure of the theatre at the turn of the 1920s, he left his mark on the era through his illustrious collaborations (most notably with Jean Giraudoux) and created the character of ‘Dr. Knock’ for the stage, a resounding success, which he would later transpose to the big screen. 

He was a precursor in joining the realms of theatre and cinema, opening a passageway between the two arts. His rich film career boasted over thirty motion pictures, many of them masterpieces, imbued with the undeniable strength of his roles in works like A Lover’s Return, Jenny Lamour and The End of the Day. His impact was considerable, reaching as far as New York, where Lee Strasberg, founder of the Actors Studio, said of Jouvet, “He was the first to turn the actor into a creative force”. 

Films of the retrospective:

The Lower Depths by Jean Renoir (Les Bas-fonds, 1936)
Life Dances On / Dance Program / Christine by Julien Duvivier (Un carnet de bal, 1937)
Bizarre, Bizarre by Marcel Carné (Drôle de drame, 1937)
The Alibi by Pierre Chenal (L’Alibi, 1937)
Hôtel du Nord by Marcel Carné (1938)
The End of the Day by Julien Duvivier (La Fin du jour, 1939)
The Phantom Carriage / The Phantom Wagon by Julien Duvivier (La Charrette fantôme, 1940)
A Lover’s Return by Christian-Jaque (Un revenant, 1946)
Carbon Copy / Confessions of a Rogue by Jean Dréville (Copie conforme, 1947)
Jenny Lamour by Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfèvres, 1947)
Monelle by Henri Decoin (Les amoureux sont seuls au monde, 1948)
Between Eleven and Midnight by Henri Decoin (Entre onze heures et minuit, 1949)
Dr. Knock by Guy Lefranc (Knock, 1951)
Young Love by Guy Lefranc (Une histoire d’amour, 1951)

With the support of the SACD 

Our thanks to Gaumont, Les Acacias, Les Productions Jacques Roitfeld, MK2 Films, Pathé, René Chateau, SND, Tamasa.