Candide Candide. Born François-Marie Arouet, Voltaire (1694–1778), by the time of the Lisbon earthquake, was already a well-established author, known for his satirical wit. He had been made a member of the Académie Française in 1746. He was a deist, a strong proponent of religious freedom, and a critic of tyrannical governments. "Candide" became part of his large, diverse body of philosophical, political and artistic works expressing these views. More specifically, it was a model for the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century novels called the "contes philosophiques". This genre, of which Voltaire was one of the founders, included previous works of his
The Annunciation of Marie The Annunciation of Marie The Annunciation of Marie is the English-language title of the 1991 French-Canadian film "L'Annonce faite à Marie", an adaptation of the play of the same name by Paul Claudel. The director of this film, the French stage and film actor Alain Cuny, was for years a friend and associate of the diplomat, playwright and symbolist poet Paul Claudel (1868-1955), whose sister Camille was possibly better known outside the French-speaking world. In fact, one of Cuny's late acting roles was in the film "Camille Claudel" (1988), based on the sculptress' life. Before he died in 1955, the