Émile Cousinet (12 November 1896 – 24 October 1964) was a French film producer and film director.
Biography The son of a carpenter, Couzinet became a traveling projectionist and then director of the Royan Casino.
In the 1920s, he decided to invest in the of movie theatres, including those of . In 1930, due to the unbridled competition of the barriers of Bordeaux, he acquired his own studios, the "Studios de la Côte de Beauté", a cinema complex installed in the seaside resort of Royan. After the destruction of the city at the end of World War II, he recreated his studios in Bordeaux, which then took the name Studios de la Côte d'Argent. The infrastructures were developed near the castle Tauzin which became its main residence
He produced himself vaudevilles, of which he was also the screenwriter (occasionally under the name of Robert Eyquem) sometimes at the first degree or a little grivois, often adapted from boulevard theatre. Thus, Trois jours de bringue à Paris is an adaptation of by Eugène Labiche whereas is drawn from a play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy.
As a representative pillar of popular cinema, he produced jubilant films including , , The Cucuroux Family, Le Congrès des belles-mères, and also . If comedy was his favorite field, Couzinet also touched on other genres such as swashbuckler films (), literary adaptation (Colomba after Prosper Mérimée) or family melodrama (Quai des illusions, a film for which he employed a certain Sergio Leone as an assistant.
Well-known actors such as Pierre Larquey, Jeanne Fusier-Gir and Gaby Morlay acted in his films. He also facilitated the beginnings of careers for actors such as Jean Carmet, who appeared in Mon curé champion du régiment and Robert Lamoureux, who held his own role in Le Don d'Adèle.
The Couzinet empire gradually disappeared from the late 1950s in the context of concentration of the film industry.
Filmography
1939: 1939: Le Club des fadas 1942: 1943: 1947: Hyménée 1948: Colomba 1949: 1950: A Hole in the Wall 1950: Three Sailors in a Convent 1951: Adele's Gift 1951: That Rascal Anatole 1951: Buridan, héros de la Tour de Nesle 1952: Trois Vieilles Filles en folie 1952: When Do You Commit Suicide? 1952: The Priest of Saint-Amour 1953: The Cucuroux Family 1954: The Congress of Mother-in-Laws 1954: Three Days of Fun in Paris 1956: 1957: 1959: Quay of Illusions 1962:
Bibliography
References
External links
on BIFI
Blog dedicated to Émile Couzinet