Thomas Narcejac

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Biography

Boileau-Narcejac is the nom de plume under which French crime fiction writers Pierre Boileau (28 April 1906, Paris – 16 January 1989, Beaulieu-sur-Mer) and Pierre Ayraud, aka Thomas Narcejac (3 July 1908, Rochefort-sur-Mer – 9 June 1998, Nice) collaborated. A number of their works were adapted for film, including the renowned Les Diaboliques, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Vertigo, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. They also notably adapted the novel Les yeux sans visage by Jean Redon into the horror film 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 in 1938 and Narcejac for La Mort est du Voyage in 1948, each a locked-room mystery. They met in 1948 at the award dinner for Narcejac, to which Boileau — as a prior winner — had also been invited. Their collaboration began soon after, with Boileau providing the plots and Narcejac the atmosphere and characterisation, not unlike Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee ("Ellery Queen").

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