Boileau-Narcejac
Boileau-Narcejac is the nom de plume by which French crime fiction writers Pierre Boileau (28 April 1906 – 16 January 1989) and Pierre Ayraud, aka Thomas Narcejac (3 July 1908 – 9 June 1998) collaborated. A number of their publications were adapted for cinema, including Celle qui n'était plus, as Les Diaboliques (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and D'entre les morts, as Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. They also notably adapted the novel Les yeux sans visage by Jean Redon into the horror movie known in English as Eyes Without a Face (1960).
Individually, Boileau and Narcejac were each winners of the prestigious Prix du Roman d'Aventures, awarded each year to the best work of detective fiction, French or foreign: Boileau for Le Repos de Bacchus during 1938 and Narcejac for La Mort est du Voyage during 1948, each a so-called locked-room mystery. They met during 1948 at the award dinner for Narcejac, to which Boileau—as a prior winner—had also been invited. Their collaboration began soon afterward, with Boileau providing the plots and Narcejac the atmosphere and characterisation, not unlike Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee ("Ellery Queen").
Bibliography
- 1952 – Celle qui n'était plus ("She Who Was Not"); English translation: The Woman Who Was No More (1954).
- 1952 – Les Visages de l'ombre ("The Faces of the shadow"); English translation: Faces in the Dark (1955).
- 1954 – D'entre les morts ("Among the dead"); English translation: The Living and the Dead (1956), published also as Vertigo.
- 1956 – Les louves; English translation: The Prisoner (1957).
- 1956 – Le mauvais oeil; English translation: The Evil Eye (1959).
- 1956 – Au bois dormant; English translation: Sleeping Beauty (1959).
- 1957 – Les magiciennes.
- 1958 – L'ingénieur aimait trop les chiffres ("The engineer loved too much the figures"); English translation: The Tube (1960).
- 1959 – À cœur perdu ("Lost heart"); English translation: Heart to Heart (1959).
- 1961 – Maléfices; English translation: Spells of Evil (1961).
- 1962 – Maldonne.
- 1964 – Les victimes; English translation: Who Was Clare Jallu? (1965), also published as The Victims.
- 1965 – Le train bleu s'arrête treize fois ("The blue train stops 13 times"; short stories).
- 1965 – Et mon tout est un homme ("And my all is a man"); English translation: Choice Cuts (1966)
- 1978 – Carte vermeil.
- 1980 – Les intouchables.
- 1990 – Le soleil dans la main ("The Sun in the hand").
- 1991 – La main passe ("The hand passes").
- 1992 – Les nocturnes.
Boileau-Narcejac also wrote the "Sans Atout" juvenile fiction series. They relate the adventures of a young boy detective.
- Les pistolets de Sans Atout (The guns of Sans Atout).
- Sans Atout contre l'homme à la dague (Sans Atout versus the man with the dagger).
- Sans Atout et le cheval fantôme (Sans Atout and the ghost horse).
- Sans Atout, une étrange disparition (Sans Atout, a strange disappearance).
- Sans Atout, l'invisible agresseur (Sans Atout, the invisible stalker).
- Sans Atout, la vengeance de la mouche (Sans Atout, the vengeance of the fly).
- Sans Atout dans la gueule du loup (Sans Atout in the gullet of the wolf).
- Sans Atout, le cadavre fait le mort (Sans Atout, the cadaver made dead)
The pair also added five authorized sequels to Maurice Leblanc's series about gentleman thief Arsène Lupin.
- Le Secret d'Eunerville (1973).
- La Poudrière (1974).
- Le Second visage d'Arsène Lupin (1975).
- La Justice d'Arsène Lupin (1977).
- Le Serment d'Arsène Lupin (1979).
Notable cinematic adaptations
- 1955 – Les Diaboliques, France, directed by Clouzot (novel Celle qui n'était plus).
- 1957 – S.O.S. Noronha, France, directed by Georges Rouquier.
- 1958 – Vertigo, USA, directed by Hitchcock (novel D'entre les morts).
- 1960 – Faces in the Dark, UK, directed by David Eady (novel Les Visages de l'ombre).
- 1967 – Choice Cuts, USA, abandoned Arthur P. Jacobs production with James Bridges screenplay (novel Et mon tout est un homme).
- 1991 – Body Parts, USA, (novel Et mon tout est un homme).
