Because once you've directed films in Hollywood all other claims to posterity become secondary, Romanian-born Jean Negulesco is best known for his work as a screenwriter, production designer & director, even though he first came to America in 1929 for an exhibition of his paintings. Before giving himself over to the business of show, he was first & foremost a painter & designer. His marker sketches bear a striking resemblance to those of Cocteau and, of course, Picasso from the same period, but like most artists who are trained as designers, he was able to astutely mimic almost any modernist style. While I've never been a huge fan of his directorial work, there are almost always flashes of visual brilliance in the films and -- if you're attentive -- even a touch of surrealist delirium here & there. Negulesco was nominated for an Academy Award for Johnny Belinda (1948) & he also directed the hyperventilating, wildly florid cult masterpiece The Best of Everything (1959).
Jean Negulesco's photograph of Miriam Hopkins & her newly adopted son Michael.
Will Rogers for the Los Angeles Times
Drawing for Darryl Zanuck's girlfriend, Genvieve Gillazeau (Gilles) at Cannes, 1969
Jean Negulesco & Binnie Barnes
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