Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government. His plays are less experimental than those of his contemporaries, having clearly organized plot and eloquent dialogue. One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise. Anouilh was born in Cérisole, a small village on the outskirts of Bordeaux, and had Basque ancestry. His father, François Anouilh, was a tailor, and Anouilh maintained that he inherited from him a pride in conscientious craftmanship. He may owe his artistic bent to his mother, Marie-Magdeleine, a violinist who supplemented the family's meager income by playing summer seasons in the casino orchestra in the nearby seaside resort of Arcachon. Marie-Magdeleine worked the night shifts in the music-hall orchestras and sometimes accompanied stage presentations, affording Anouilh ample opportunity to absorb the dramatic performances from backstage. He often attended rehearsals and solicited the resident authors to let him read scripts until bedtime. He first tried his hand at playwriting here, at the age of 12, though his earliest works do not survive. In 1918 the family moved to Paris where the young Anouilh received his secondary education at the Lycée Chaptal. Jean-Louis Barrault, later a major French director, was a pupil there at the same time and recalls Anouilh as an intense, rather dandified figure who hardly noticed a boy some two years younger than himself. He earned acceptance into the law school at the Sorbonne but, unable to support himself financially, he left after just 18 months to seek work as a copywriter at the advertising agency Publicité Damour. He liked the work, and spoke more than once with wry approval of the lessons in the classical virtues of brevity and precision of language he learned while drafting advertising copy. ... Source: Article "Jean Anouilh" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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Biography from TMDB.
- June 23, 1910
- October 3, 1987 (aged 77)
- Bordeaux, Gironde, France
- Writer, also director
- 9 on MovieCove · 51 credits in all
What are Jean Anouilh's films like?
Across their 9 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Bonds and Self.
Genres
Their MovieCove films by primary genre. The badge is the typical Midcredits score of the genre's films, the median percentile; an up arrow marks a genre at or above their average across these genres.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 1 · Wry 1 · Earnest 7
A split, not a type: Light 3 · Serious 1 · Dark 5
Grounded 2 · Stylized 4 · Heightened 3
Gentle 2 · Charged 4 · Intense 3
Steady 6 · Shifting 2 · Whiplash 1
A split, not a type: Straight-faced 5 · Some laughs 3 · Funny 1
Slow burn 8 · Even-paced 1 · Relentless 0
Casual 3 · Engaged 5 · Full focus 1
A split, not a type: Easy watch 3 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 5
Resolved 4 · Open-ended 4 · Ambiguous 1
Moods and endings
- Bittersweet3
- Tragic2
- Ambiguous4
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Jean Anouilh's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 3 of their 9 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.
Subscription and free streaming for Jean Anouilh's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
51 credits, 9 with a MovieCove page; 1 appearance as themselves is hidden until asked for.
Midcredits score: 63rd percentile of all films
On m'a volé mon adolescence (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2008)
Le Voyageur sans bagage (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2004)
Antigone (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2003)
Don't Wake Up Madam (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2003)
Antigona (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1991)
La répétition ou L'amour puni (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1986)
Histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1981)
Il est important d'être aimé (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1981)
The Savage (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1979)
Narges (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1975)
Antigone (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1974)
Centre Play (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1973)
La Nuit des rois (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1973)
Appuntamento a Senlis (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1972)
A Time for Loving (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1972)
Orchester (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1972)
Romeo a Jana (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1968)
Repetitionen (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1968)
ITV Playhouse (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
Kruté štěstí (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1966)
A Trap for Cinderella (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1965)
Circle of Love(1964)
Midcredits score: 33rd percentile of all films
The Wednesday Play (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1964)
Theatre 625 (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1964)
Becket(1964)
Midcredits score: 94th percentile of all filmsValčík toreadorů (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1964)
Waltz of the Toreadors(1962)
Midcredits score: 27th percentile of all filmsMadame de… (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1961)
The Passion of Slow Fire(1961)
Midcredits score: 71st percentile of all films
Twentieth Century Theatre: Colombe (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1960)
La Répétition ou l'Amour puni (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1958)
Eurydice (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1957)
The Lark (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1957)
The Knight of the Night (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1953)
Crimson Curtain (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1952)
Monsoon (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1952)
Two Pennies Worth of Violets (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1951)
Dear Caroline(1951)
Midcredits score: 28th percentile of all films
White Paws (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1949)
Anna Karenina(1948)
Midcredits score: 67th percentile of all films
Monsieur Vincent(1947)
Midcredits score: 77th percentile of all films
The Bride of Darkness (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1945)
Le Voyageur sans bagage(1944)
Midcredits score: 55th percentile of all films (provisional, few ratings)
Marie-Martine (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1943)
Cavalcade of Love (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1939)
The Mayor's Dilemma (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1939)
The Citadel of Silence (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1937)
Confessions of a Newlywed (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1937)
Le Colisée (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1933)
Vestiges (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)
Career shape
A full career of 51 titles, 50 of them dated from 1933 to 2012.
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.
How do Jean Anouilh's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 63rd percentile, the median of all 9; across their 9 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 66th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up2
- 50th to 74th4
- 25th to 49th3
Shape of the crowd
4 of their 9 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved1
- Crowd Pleaser4
- Mixed4
Reviewers score the dialogue 65/100 and the plot and story 55/100 in their films, across 7 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a writer.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Jean Anouilh work with?
People who share at least 2 of Jean Anouilh's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Jean Feyte shares the most, 3.
Writers
- Lucienne HillShared titles: Becket (1964), Waltz of the Toreadors (1962)See all 2 shared titles with Lucienne Hill
Actors
- Pierre FresnayShared titles: Monsieur Vincent (1947), Le Voyageur sans bagage (1944)See all 2 shared titles with Pierre Fresnay
Editors
- Jean FeyteShared titles: Dear Caroline (1951), Monsieur Vincent (1947), Le Voyageur sans bagage (1944)See all 3 shared titles with Jean Feyte
Producers
- François ChavaneShared titles: The Passion of Slow Fire (1961), Dear Caroline (1951)See all 2 shared titles with François Chavane