Known for movies
Gigi (1958)
as Writer
Chéri (2009)
as Writer
Journey to Italy (1954)
as Writer
La vagabonde (1932)
as Writer
Short Info
| Fact | French novelist and memoirist, usually preoccupied with erotic themes. Married the pornographer Willy who helped published her four "Claudine" novels (1900-1902). For a while earned money as a music hall artist. Through her second marriage, she became a leading Parisian socialite and began writing novels of great sensitivity, including "Sido" (1929) and "Gigi" (1944). |
Colette was born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, France, on January 28, 1873. Her parents were Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and Jules-Joseph Colette. She had two sisters, Simone and Sido. Colette was educated at the Pensionnat de Saint-Sauveur, a Catholic boarding school for girls.
Colette began her career as a journalist and music critic. She wrote for several magazines, including Le Figaro and La Vie Parisienne. In 1893, she married Henry Gauthier-Villars, a French writer and editor who was better known by his pen name, Willy. Colette and Willy collaborated on a number of novels, including the Claudine series.
In 1905, Colette divorced Willy and married Henri de Jouvenel, a French journalist and politician. The couple had one daughter, Colette de Jouvenel.
Colette’s best-known novel is Gigi (1944), which was made into a successful film in 1958. Gigi won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Colette died in Paris on August 3, 1954.
General Info
| Profession | Actor, Novelist, Mime artist, Journalist, Screenwriter |
| Nationality | French |
Accomplishments
| Nominations | Nobel Prize in Literature, Prix Goncourt |
| Movies | Chéri, Paris Was a Woman, Gigi, Le Blé en herbe, Journey to Italy, The Seven Deadly Sins, The Bewitched Child, Lake of Ladies |
Social profile links
Quotes
| # | Quote |
|---|---|
| 1 | You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. |
| 2 | What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner. |
| 3 | On spirit: How beautiful what one does not understand can be! |
| 4 | On experience: One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave. |
| 5 | On growth: It is the fight itself that keeps you young. |
| 6 | On mothering: To talk to a child, to fascinate him, is much more difficult than to win an electoral victory. But it is also more rewarding. |
| 7 | On solitude: There are days when solitude is a heady wine which intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison which makes you beat your head against the wall. |
| 8 | On love: Nothing leads to love. It is love who throws himself across your path. And then he either blocks it forever or, if he abandons it, leaves it in rack and ruin. |
Facts
| # | Fact |
|---|---|
| 1 | French novelist and memoirist, usually preoccupied with erotic themes. Married the pornographer Willy who helped published her four "Claudine" novels (1900-1902). For a while earned money as a music hall artist. Through her second marriage, she became a leading Parisian socialite and began writing novels of great sensitivity, including "Sido" (1929) and "Gigi" (1944). |
| 2 | Loved cats, and played them in the theatre. She once played the part of a sphinx, and later a cat in the play La Chatte Amoureuse ("The Amourous Cat"). |
| 3 | One daughter: Colette Renée de Jouvenel des Ursins, born July 3 1913, died 1981. |
| 4 | Had a trapeze installed in her home gymnasium as her preferred way to stay in shape. |
Movies
Writer
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chéri | 2009 | novels "Chéri" and "The Last of Chéri" | |
| Mademoiselle Gigi | 2006 | TV Movie novel | |
| L'enfant et les sortilèges | 2004 | libretto | |
| Camaradagem | 1999 | TV Movie play | |
| L'enfant et les sortilèges | 1994 | TV Movie libretto | |
| Le blé en herbe | 1990 | TV Movie novel | |
| Duo | 1990 | TV Movie novel | |
| La seconde | 1990 | TV Movie novel | |
| Julie de Carneilhan | 1990 | TV Movie novel | |
| Chéri | 1988 | TV Movie play | |
| Gigi | 1987 | TV Movie play | |
| Emmenez-moi au théâtre: Chéri | 1984 | TV Movie novel / play | |
| La naissance du jour | 1980 | TV Movie novel | |
| Claudine | TV Series novel - 2 episodes, 1978 story - 1 episode, 1978 novel "Claudine | ||
| Le ciel de lit | 1974 | TV Movie adaptation | |
| La seconde | 1973 | TV Movie novel | |
| Cheri | 1973 | TV Series 5 episodes | |
| Away from It All | 1973 | TV Series novel "Le blé en herbe" - 1 episode | |
| Plain-chant | 1972 | TV Series 1 episode | |
| Hora once | 1969 | TV Series 1 episode | |
| Kirmizi karanfiller | 1962 | novel "Gigi" - uncredited | |
| Chéri | 1962 | TV Movie play | |
| Gigi | 1958 | based on the novella by | |
| Matinee Theatre | 1958 | TV Series story - 1 episode | |
| Mitsou | 1956 | novel | |
| Le ciel de lit | 1955 | TV Movie adaptation | |
| Journey to Italy | 1954 | novel "Duo" | |
| The Game of Love | 1954 | novel 'Le blé en herbe', 1923 | |
| The Seven Deadly Sins | 1952 | short story "La chatte" - segment "Envy" | |
| Colette | 1951 | Documentary short commentary | |
| Chéri | 1950 | novel and dialogue | |
| Minne | 1950 | novel | |
| Julie de Carneilhan | 1950 | novel | |
| Gigi | 1949 | novel - as Colette de l'Académie Goncourt | |
| Claudine | 1937 | novel | |
| Divine | 1935 | scenario and dialogue | |
| Ladies Lake | 1934 | dialogue | |
| La vagabonde | 1932 | dialogue / novel: La vagabonde | |
| Mädchen in Uniform | 1931 | dialogue - uncredited | |
| La vagabonda | 1918 | novel | |
| Claudine | 1917 | novel "Claudine | |
| Claudine | 1917 | novel "Claudine s'en va" | |
| Claudine en ménage | 1917 | novel "Claudine en ménage" | |
| Claudine s'en va | 1917 | novel "Claudine s'en va" | |
| Claudine | 1913 | writer |
Soundtrack
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| L'enfant et les sortilèges | 2004 | "L'Enfant et les sortilèges 1925" |
Self
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colette | 1951 | Documentary short | Herself / Narrator |
Archive Footage
| Title | Year | Status | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cocteau Marais - Un couple mythique | 2013 | TV Movie documentary | Herself |
| Paris Was a Woman | 1996 | Documentary | Herself (with pets) (uncredited) |
Source: IMDb, Wikipedia
