Boileau-Narcejac
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Boileau-Narcejac is the name under which Pierre Boileau (28 April 1906, Paris – 16 January 1989, Beaulieu-sur-Mer) and Pierre Ayraud, aka Thomas Narcejac (3 July 1908, Rochefort-sur-Mer – 9 June 1998, Nice) collaborated. They were French writers of police stories, two of which became films by Henri-Georges Clouzot (Les Diaboliques) and Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo). The source novel of the later was apparrently written for the American-based director after he missed the opportunity to acquire the rights to the former. They adapted the novel Les yeux sans visage by Jean Redon into the horror film, known in English as, Eyes Without a Face (1960).
Individually they were each winners of the prestigious Prix du Roman d'Aventures awarded each year to the best example of detective fiction, French or foreign: Boileau for Le Repos de Bacchus in 1938 and Narcejac for La Mort est du Voyage in 1948, each a locked-room mystery. They met on the occasion of the award dinner for Narcejac in 1948, to which Boileau - as a prior winner - had been invited. Their collaboration began shortly thereafter, with Boileau providing the plots and Narcejac the atmosphere and characterisations, not unlike Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee (Ellery Queen).
[edit] Bibliography
- 1952 - Celle qui n'était plus; English translation: The Woman Who Was (1954)
- 1952 - Les Visages de l'ombre; English translation: Faces in the Dark (1955)
- 1954 - D'entre les morts; English translation: The Living and the Dead (1956), also published as Vertigo
- 1956 - Les louves; English translation: The Prisoner (1957)
- 1956 - Le mauvais oeil; English translation: The Evil Eye (1959)
- 1956 - Au bois dormant; English translation: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
- 1957 - Les magiciennes
- 1958 - L'ingénieur aimait trop les chiffres; English translation: The Tube (1960)
- 1959 - À cœur perdu; English translation: Heart to Heart (1959)
- 1961 - Maléfices; English translation: Spells of Evil (1961)
- 1962 - Maldonne
- 1964 - Les victimes; English translation: Who Was Clare Jallu? (1965), also published as The Victims
- 1965 - Le train bleu s'arrête treize fois (short stories)
- 1965 - Et mon tout est un homme; English translation: Choice Cuts (1966)
- 1978 - Carte vermeil
- 1980 - Les intouchables
- 1990 - Le soleil dans la main
- 1991 - La main passe
- 1992 - Les nocturnes
There are a couple of books in a series named "Sans Atout" in French. The books however are aimed at younger readers and relate the adventure of a young boy with detective and deduction skills.
- Les pistolets de Sans Atout
- Sans Atout contre l'homme à la dague
- Sans Atout et le cheval fantôme
- Sans Atout, une étrange disparition
- Sans Atout, l'invisible agresseur
- Sans Atout, la vengeance de la mouche
- Sans Atout dans la gueule du loup
- Sans Atout, le cadavre fait le mort
[edit] Adaptations
- 1955 - Les Diaboliques, France, directed by Clouzot (novel Celle qui n'était plus)
- 1958 - Vertigo, USA, directed by Hitchcock (novel D'entre les morts)
