William Faulkner's movie about Charles de Gaulle and Anne de Gaulle Airport
sometimes the heritage doesn't make it; sometimes it is little known.
I write about lost libraries and lost heritage in this newsletter and sometimes about things lost before they exist. And sometimes about new heritage.
Charles de Gaulle
Recently I read Julian Jackson’s big1 prize winning biography, De Gaulle.2 I recommend it —especially if you (like me, a child of a WWII veteran) mostly know the Roosevelt /Churchill point of view.
Churchill and Roosevelt did not like De Gaulle much but for a while in 1942 they did warm up a little so Hollywood decided a movie about De Gaulle was needed. And who better to write it than William Faulker?3
William Faulkner and Charles De Gaulle
“In 1942, a brief thawing of the stormy relationship between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French forces in World War II, inspired Hollywood to make a movie about the life of the Frenchman. William Faulkner was hired to write it”.4
It didn’t get made as Robert Hamblin wrote in 2001 in the Faulkner Journal, but Faulkner did write a 1200-page screenplay. It was published in 1984.5 In 1990, a French television version based on the screenplay entitled Moi, General de Gaulle was broadcast. It failed to wow the small screen.6
Anne de Gaulle Airport and Foundation
DeGaulle and his wife, Yvonne, had a little girl, Anne, in 1928. She was born with Down Syndrome. Instead of institutionalizing Anne, they kept her with them her brief life including through World War II. Anne died in 1948.
Her parents established the Anne de Gaulle Foundation which on a daily basis works with those living with a disability to sustainably transform society by making it truly accessible to all. Created on the initiative of Yvonne and Charles de Gaulle, it has been recognized as a public utility for more than 75 years.7
The Cannes Lions “Grand Prix for Good” recognizes and celebrates the use of creativity to positively impact not only businesses and brands, but also the world at large. The Jury chose to award this year's Grand Prix for Good to 'Anne De Gaulle', For Fondation Anne De Gaulle Association, by Havas Paris, France.8
Below is the brief ad for the campaign.
887 pages, 36 pages of plates : illustrations, maps.
Jackson Julian. 2018. De Gaulle. Harvard University Press ed. Cambridge Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Robert W. Hamblin (2001). The Curious Case of Faulkner's "The De Gaulle Story."The Faulkner Journal Vol. 16, No. 1/2, Special Issue: Faulkner and Film (Fall 2000/Spring 2001), pp. 79-86.
Faulkner William, Louis Daniel Brodsky, and Robert W Hamblin. 1984. The De Gaulle Story. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Ibid, Hamblin (2001).
Home - Anne de Gaulle Foundation (fondation-anne-de-gaulle.org)
Wow. Thank you. I have a much fuller understanding of the man, now. Very touching.