As Director
The Sleeping Sentinel
1966
4.7
Jean Dréville
Directing
Birth Date
September 20, 1906
Place of Birth
Vitry-sur-Seine, Val-de-Marne, France
Date of Death
March 5, 1997
Biography
Jean Dréville was a prolific French film director whose career spanned from the late 1920s to the late 1960s. Initially trained in advertising design and photography, he began his cinematic journey by publishing articles in film sections of newspapers like L'Intransigeant and Comœdia. Dréville directed his first film, Autour de L'Argent (1928), a documentary on the making of Marcel L'Herbier's L'Argent. His notable works include A Cage of Nightingales (1945), which inspired the 2004 film The Chorus, and The Battle of the Rails (1946), a realistic portrayal of French railway workers' resistance during World War II. Dréville's films are recognized for their narrative clarity and humanistic approach.
