Claude Autant-Lara (August 5, 1901 in Luzarches, Val-d’Oise - February 5, 2000 in Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes), was a French film director and later MEP.
He was educated in France and at London's Mill Hill School during his mother's exile as a pacifist. As a director, he frequently created provocative movies, saying "if a film does not have venom, it is worthless". In the 1960s, he turned his back on the New Wave movement, and from then on he had no popular successes.
His memoir is titled "The rage in the heart" (1984).
On June 18, 1989, he came to public notice again, controversially, when he was elected to the European Parliament as a member of the National Front and the oldest member of the assembly. In his maiden speech, in July, he caused a scandal by expressing his "concerns about the American cultural threat", provoking a walkout by the majority of the deputies.
In an interview granted to the monthly magazine Globe in September 1989, he engaged in what Minister of Justice Pierre Arpaillange referred to as "racial insults, racial slandering and incitements to racial hatred". He also described Nazi gas chambers as a "string of lies". The resulting scandal led to his resignation as European deputy. Moreover, the members of the Academy of the Fine Arts, of which he was a vice-president for life, voted to prohibit him from taking his seat thenceforth.
(1989) Was forced to stand down as representative of France's far-right National Front in the European Parliament after describing the Nazi gas chambers as a "string of lies".
Mother Louise Lara played leading róles at the Comédie- Française. When the First World War broke out, she declared herself a pacifist and refused to entertain the troops. She sought exile in Britain. Son Claude consequently completed secondary education at Mill Hill School in London.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 12-15. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
