Retrospective: William A. Wellman Moves Heaven and War

To the apprentice filmmakers whose prolific career left them dreaming – more than 75 films working in almost every genre (westerns, social dramas, war films, etc.), a trifle – William A. Wellman never gave but one piece of advice, learned pontificating clearly not being his style: "Learn to live first before studying directing." Life before cinema, the better to infuse it with it. Almost a Renoirian principle, even if for the American, restoring vital energy, with a rarely equaled concern for truth, supposes injecting it with his share of experiences and adventures, like those adventure writers like Jack London (from whom he would also adapt The Call of the Wild). In fact, he would have lived a thousand lives before being seized by the demon of film. Being from the generation of pioneers, cinema itself was one of adventure.

Born at the same time as this fledgling art and shortly before the first motorized aircraft (his two passions), Wellman (1896-1975) is of the same ilk as the instinctive and rebellious Mavericks