Jean-Jacques Bernard (30 July 1888 – 14 September 1972) was a French playwright and the chief representative of what became known as l’école du silence or, as some critics called it, the art of the unexpressed, in which the dialogue does not express the characters’ real attitudes. In Martine (1922), perhaps the best example of his work, emotions are implied in gestures, facial expressions, fragments of speech and silence. He was active from 1912 to 1939.

Bernard was born in Enghien-les-Bains, Val-d'Oise, the son of the dramatist Tristan Bernard. As a Jew, he was interned for a period of months starting in December 1941 in Compiègne, at a camp where 50,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps.[1][2] He died in Paris, aged 84.

Plays

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  • 1939: Le Jardinier d'Ispahan (Ispahan's gardener)
  • 1922: Martine, his biggest success
  • c. 1920: Le Feu qui Reprend Mal (the fire that does not start)
  • 1919: La Maison Epargnée (the spared house), performed at the Théâtre Antoine
  • 1912: La Joie du Sacrifice (the joy of sacrifice) and Les Enfants Jouent (the children are playing.
  • n.d. Le Printemps des Autres (the others' spring)
  • n.d. L'Invitation au Voyage (the invitation to travel)
  • n.d. Denise Marette
  • n.d. L'âme en Peine (the sad soul)
  • n.d. Le Secret d'Arvers (the secret of Arvers)
  • n.d. Le Roi de Malousie (the king of Malousie)
  • n.d. Les Soeurs Guédonec (the sisters Guédonec)
  • n.d. Jeanne de Pantin
  • n.d. A la Recherche des Coeurs (looking for hearts)
  • n.d. National 6

References

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  1. ^ Compiègne Camp Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Learning about the Holocaust through Art. Accessed August 25, 2011. "From June 1941 to August 1944 some 54,000 people were interned there, 50,000 of whom were deported to the death camps. Unlike the camps in the South of France, French-born and foreign-born Jews found themselves thrust together in Compiègne. The French Jewish author Jean-Jacques Bernard describes this encounter..."
  2. ^ Bartov, Omer; and Mack, Phyllis. In God's name: genocide and religion in the twentieth century, p. 310. Berghahn Books, 2001. ISBN 1-57181-214-8. Accessed August 25, 2011. "Jean-Jacques Bernard, for example, a well-known native French Jewish writer (and son of the even better known French dramatist Tristan Bernard) who had been interned in Compiegne from December 1941 to February 1942, became a public proponent of radical assimilation."

Sources

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