Paul Andréota

Paul Andréota (11 December 1917 – 14 November 2007) was a French novelist and screenwriter. He was also known under the pen name Paul Vance.

Paul Andréota was born in La Rochelle in the present-ay Charente-Maritime department (it was then known as Charente-Inférieure). When he was 12 years old, his father died. His mother moved the family to Paris.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree and entering the École Normale Supérieure, Andreota started studying music at the conservatory. He was a big fan of jazz and concentrated on piano and composition, .

The onset of World War II changed Andréota's life dramatically. He spent part of the period of the German occupation of France in Marseille.

For a time it was free of German occupiers and was operated under the Vichy government. His postwar writing reflected that period, and the city of Marseille was the setting for his first novel after the war: Hors Jeu (lit. "Offside"), published by Grasset in 1947. His next novel, Evangeline (1948), was dedicated to his friend, writer Michel Perrin'. He published Attentat à la pudeur (lit. "Indecent Assault") in 1949. After completing these latter two autobiographical novels, he was inspired to change his direction in writing.

He became a screenwriter, beginning with adaptations and dialogues. He wrote approximately 40 films, collaborating with famous directors.

In 1968, he also wrote for the stage, but returned to literature. Meanwhile, he also wrote screenplays and dialogues for the TV series Commissaire Moulin and Marie Pervenche. Later, under the pseudonym Paul Vance, he published two crime novels for Le Masque [fr] (lit. "The Mask").