“I have always adored Stendhal,” director Christian-Jaque has remarked; “like Berlioz, I feel his work very deeply in my soul.” Christian-Jaque collaborated with veteran scriptwriter Pierre Véry in adapting this Stendhal classic for the screen, casting Gérard Philipe as Fabrice del Dongo, Maria Casarès as La Sanseverina, and, as Ernest IV, Louis Salou (the Count from Children of Paradise). “Casarès was sublime,” the director recalls. “As La Sanseverina, she had such dignity, such nobility.... Gérard...was a mysterious person, melancholy in a way that was difficult to understand.... He had studied the character very precisely....” The Charterhouse of Parma was shot in Italy, half on real locations, half in the studio. “The sets were extremely elaborate and complicated, but you had the means then to do things on that scale.” --Christian-Jaque, in an interview with Stephen Harvey (excerpt from “Rediscovering French Film,” available at PFA)