Motion-Picture Director. He scored an international hit with his second film, "Black Orpheus" in 1959. A hauntingly beautiful retelling of the Orpheus myth, shot in Brazil during Carnival, it took the top prizes at the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals and won an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film. Critics briefly associated Camus with the French "New Wave" of the period, but he really had little in common with that younger group of filmmakers. Camus was born in Chappes, France, and trained to become an art teacher. After spending most of World War II in a German POW camp, he entered films in 1947. He was an assistant to directors Jacques Becker and Luis Bunuel before making his own directing debut with "Fugitive in Saigon" in 1957. Apart from "Black Orpheus," Camus' work was routine and he ended his career directing for French TV.
Motion-Picture Director. He scored an international hit with his second film, "Black Orpheus" in 1959. A hauntingly beautiful retelling of the Orpheus myth, shot in Brazil during Carnival, it took the top prizes at the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals and won an Academy Award as Best Foreign Film. Critics briefly associated Camus with the French "New Wave" of the period, but he really had little in common with that younger group of filmmakers. Camus was born in Chappes, France, and trained to become an art teacher. After spending most of World War II in a German POW camp, he entered films in 1947. He was an assistant to directors Jacques Becker and Luis Bunuel before making his own directing debut with "Fugitive in Saigon" in 1957. Apart from "Black Orpheus," Camus' work was routine and he ended his career directing for French TV.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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See more Camus memorials in:
Records on Ancestry
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