Didier Decoin

Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.

Why did Simenon, a novelist who contributed so much to the seventh art, like to say that he hated the cinema? Because he could never become a director? Because, claustrophobic, he was unable to lock himself in a projection room? Clearly, there is an affair between the writer and the cinema and Georges Simenon is the main protagonist. An investigation that is more than ever topical as Patrice Leconte has announced his plan to adapt an investigation by the famous Inspector Maigret.

A look back at ten years in the life of the French writer Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870). From financial straits to wealth, from glory to bankruptcy, the decade from 1842 to 1852 summarises his extravagant life filled with twists and turns, characterised by a compulsive creativity and extraordinary appetite for life. We follow Alexandre Dumas as he travels throughout Europe, from Florence to Montecristo, from Marseille to Saint-Germain-en-Laye and from Paris to Brussels. We meet the father of "The Three Musketeers" who, with his remarkable sense for action, took his inspiration from his own story to breathe life into his characters.

An interview of French film director Marcel Carné by Didier Decoin