Claude Laydu Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Claude Laydu
Acting
Biography
Claude Laydu ([klod lɛjdy]; 10 March 1927 – 29 July 2011) was a Belgian-born Swiss actor on stage and in films. He was renowned for his performance in his film debut in the role of the young priest in Robert Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest (1951), which has been described as one of the greatest in the history of film. Laydu was born and grew up in Brussels. He moved to Paris to study at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts. He became a member of Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault's company at the Théâtre Marigny, when he was selected by director Robert Bresson for his first role in a film, as the titular young priest in Diary of a Country Priest, based on the 1936 novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. They met to discuss the role, and Laydu prepared by spending time in a monastery and losing weight. While Bresson sometimes suggested acting got in the way of his moviemaking, Laydu, a practicing Catholic, "brought his own spirituality, instinctive presence and intense ascetic looks to the role." Claude Laydu's performance in the title role has been described as one of the greatest in the history of film. Jean Tulard, in his Dictionary of Film, wrote of him in this work, "No other actor deserves to go to heaven as much as Laydu." Laydu's next film, Le Voyage en Amérique (Trip to America, 1951), was a light comedy, but he was seen to have an austere style. His next film was Au Coeur de la Casbah (Heart of the Casbah, 1952), where he struggled in an affair; he played a lawyer of a man condemned to death in Nous Sommes Tous des Assassins (We Are All Murderers), the director André Cayatte's protest against the death penalty; and in Le Chemin de Damas (The Road to Damascus), Laydu played Saint Etienne (Saint Stephen). He played roles as a priest in La Guerra de Dios (I Was a Parish Priest, 1953) and as the title character, the Russian Orthodox Rasputin (1954). Over the next decade, Laydu worked in film steadily until Mafia alla sbarra (1963). His only two film projects after that were Le Destin de Priscilla Davies (1979) and Nounours (1995), which he co-wrote with his wife, Christine. In 1962 he and his wife developed a puppet show for television, called Bonne nuit les petits (Good Night, Little Ones). Five minutes long, it was shown nightly and its characters Nounours, Pimprenelle and Nicolas became known by generations of French children, as it was produced for more than a decade. Laydu performed the voice of the Sandman, who spoke the title each night. Laydu and his wife revived it in 1995 as Nounours and it ran for several years. There was associated development and marketing of numerous related books, records, videos and dolls. He and co-star Linette Lemercier (who voiced Oscar) were the only ones who reprised their roles in the reboot series. The show became very popular in Canada as it airs on Ici Radio-Canada Télé right before Le Téléjournal Ce Soir.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Good Lord Without Confession
Stuck in a loveless marriage, bourgeois industrialist Francois falls in love with Janine, another man's wife. Francois sets up Janine as his mistress, and she, mercenary soul that she is, likes the set-up so much that she continues the relationship even when her own husband returns from WW II. In the long run, however, Janine is the loser in the situation.
Diary of a Country Priest
An inexperienced, sickly priest shows up in the rural French community of Ambricourt, where he joins the community's clergy. But the locals don't take kindly to the priest, and his ascetic ways and unsociable demeanor make him an outcast. During Bible studies at the nearby girls school, he is continually mocked by his students. Then his attempt to intervene in a family feud backfires into a scandal. His failures, compounded with his declining health, begin to erode his faith.
Heart of the Casbah
Maria-Pilar is the new wife of an Algerian gangster whom the police have just arrested. The son of a first marriage arrives in Algiers from which he has remained far away for a long time. His stepmother, charmed by the teenager, gradually experiences a devouring passion, against which Michel tries in vain to fight: he loves a young girl, Sylvie. Mad with jealousy, his stepmother singles him out for his father's vengeance by distorting the truth. Michel does not escape his father's fury, but when the woman's deception becomes known, Maria-Pilar is strangled to death.
The Road to Damascus
Saul De Tarse is a Roman soldier who is making rough all over. He arrives at the Golgotha when the apostles remove the cross. He ruthlessly persecutes the Christians, even though they are his own friends.
I Was a Parish Priest
A young priest encounters major problems in the diocese where he must preach the word of the Lord, mainly as a result of hatred caused by differences in classes
Mafia alla sbarra
The story of a poor family and their relationship with the local mafia.
Attila
Attila, the leader of the barbarian Huns and called by the Romans "The Scourge of God", sweeps onto the Italian peninsula, defeating all of the armies of Rome, until he and his men reach the gates of the city itself.
Italienisches Capriccio
Biography of the comic poet Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793).
We Are All Murderers
Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
Price of Love
Because he loved a trainer named Suzy too much, honest Pierre Menard wasted his life and died. Innocent, but implicated in the ransacking of a jewelry store, he receives a five-year residence ban, which he ignores, only to find himself reduced to joining Paulo's sinister gang. The police finally arrest him and force him to become an informer if he doesn't want to leave Paris. He accepts and signs his death warrant.
Gallery
