Françoise Giroud

{{Short description|French journalist, writer, and politician (1916–2003)}} {{infobox officeholder | name = Françoise Giroud | image = Françoise Giroud 1998.jpg | caption = Giroud in 1998 | office = [[Minister of Culture (France)|Minister of Culture]] | term_start = 24 August 1976 | term_end = 30 March 1977 | president = [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] | prime_minister = [[Raymond Barre]] | predecessor = [[Michel Guy]] | successor = [[Michel d'Ornano]] | office2 = [[Ministry of Women's Affairs (France)|Secretary of State for women's rights]] | term_start2 = 1974 | term_end2 = 1976 | president2 = [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] | prime_minister2 = [[Jacques Chirac]] | successor2 = [[Monique Pelletier (politician)|Monique Pelletier]] | birth_name = Lea France Gourdji | birth_date = {{birth date|1916|09|21|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Lausanne]], [[Switzerland]] | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|01|19|1916|09|21|df=yes}} | death_place = [[Neuilly-sur-Seine]], [[Ile-de-France]], [[France]] | children = 1 son and daughter | party = [[Union for French Democracy]] | profession = Journalist }}

'''Françoise Giroud''' (born '''Lea France Gourdji'''; 21 September 1916 – 19 January 2003) was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer, and politician.

==Biography== Giroud was born in [[Lausanne]], Switzerland, to immigrant [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi]] [[Turkish Jewish]] parents; her father was Salih Gourdji Al Baghdadi, Director of the Agence Télégraphique Ottomane in [[Geneva]].<ref name="Independent">[https://web.archive.org/web/20121105144449/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/franccediloise-giroud-746225.html Obituary] in the London ''Independent'' (published 21 January 2003)</ref> She was educated at the Collège de Groslay and the [[Lycée Molière (Paris)|Lycée Molière]] in Paris.<ref name="CBD">{{CBD|625}}</ref> She did not graduate from university.<ref name="Milwaukee">[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-6166816.html Obituary], ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', published 20 January 2003</ref> She married and had two children, a son (who died before her) and a daughter.<ref name="Independent"/>

==Career== Giroud's work in cinema began with director [[Marc Allégret]] as a script-girl on his 1932 adaptation of [[Marcel Pagnol]]'s play ''[[Fanny (play)|Fanny]]''. In 1936, she worked with [[Jean Renoir]] on the set of ''[[Grand Illusion (film)|Grand Illusion]]''. She later wrote screenplays, 30 books (both fiction and non-fiction), and wrote newspaper columns.<ref>[http://britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/914334/Francoise-Giroud "Françoise Giroud"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113034720/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/914334/Francoise-Giroud |date=2012-11-13 }} ''Britannica'' online], accessed 24 December 2009</ref> She was the editor of [[Elle (magazine)|''Elle'']] magazine from 1946 (shortly after it was founded) until 1953, when she and her then-partner [[Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber]] founded the newsmagazine {{Lang|fr|[[L'Express (France)|L'Express]]}}. She edited {{Lang|fr|L'Express}} until 1971, then was its director until 1974, when she began her political career.

==Political career== In 1974, [[President of France|President]] [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] nominated Giroud to the position of [[Ministry of Women's Affairs (France)|Secretary of State for women's rights]], which she held from 16 July 1974 until 27 August 1976, when she was appointed to the position of [[Minister of Culture (France)|Minister of Culture]]. She remained in that position until March 1977, for a total service of 32 months, serving in the cabinets of prime ministers [[Jacques Chirac]] and [[Raymond Barre]]. She was a member of the centrist [[Radical Party (France)|Radical Party]].<ref>Christine Bard, [http://www.histoire-politique.fr/index.php?numero=01&rub=dossier&item=7 Les premières femmes au Gouvernement (France, 1936-1981)], ''[[Histoire@Politique]]'', n°1, May–June 2007 {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

Giroud often said that her goal was to get France "out of its rut", contrasting France with the dynamism and optimism she saw in the United States. On her first visit to [[New York City]] soon after [[World War 2]] ended, she had been struck by "the degree of optimism, the exhilaration" she had found there. That view stayed with her: "There is a strength in the United States that we in Europe constantly tend to underestimate."<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-96900279.html Obituary] ''The Economist'' (25 January 2003)</ref> Giroud gave the commencement address at the [[University of Michigan]] on 1 May 1976.<ref>{{cite web |title=University of Michigan Commencement Addresses |url=https://bentley.umich.edu/legacy-support/commence/ |website=University of Michigan}}</ref>

==Later activities== Giroud received the [[Légion d'honneur]]. She led [[Action Against Hunger]], a humanitarian aid organization, from 1984 to 1988.<ref name="Independent"/><ref>[http://www.franceinlondon.co.uk/en-Article-74-The-Biography-of-Francoise-Giroud-by-COckrent-Culture-.html "France In London" website], review of FG Biography by Christine Ockrent</ref>

From 1989 to 1991, she was president of a commission to improve cinema-ticket sales. She was a literary critic for the weekly ''[[Le Journal du Dimanche]]'', and she contributed a weekly column to ''[[Le Nouvel Observateur]]'' from 1983 until her death.

Giroud died at the [[American Hospital of Paris]] on 21 September 2003 while being treated for a head wound incurred in a fall.<ref name="Milwaukee"/> A special issue of {{Lang|fr|L'Express}} covered Giroud's death. It stated: :Women everywhere have lost something. Ms. Giroud defended them so intelligently and so strongly.<ref>[http://sen.parl.gc.ca/lpepin/index.asp?PgId=903&1=E The Honorable Lucie Pépin, Senator] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727041718/http://sen.parl.gc.ca/lpepin/index.asp?PgId=903&1=E |date=2011-07-27 }}</ref>

==Published works== *{{lang|fr|Françoise Giroud vous présente le Tout-Paris}} (1953) *{{lang|fr|Nouveaux portraits}} (1954) *{{lang|fr|La Nouvelle vague: portraits de la jeunesse}} (1958) *''I Give You my Word'' (1973) *{{lang|fr|La comédie du pouvoir}} (1977) *{{lang|fr|Ce que je crois}} (1978) *{{lang|fr|Le Bon Plaisir}} (1983) *{{lang|fr|Une Femme honorable}} (1981) (published in English as ''Marie Curie: A Life'' (1986)) *{{lang|fr|Le Bon Plaisir}} (screenplay) (1984) *''Dior'' (1987) *{{lang|fr|Alma Mahler, ou l'art d'être aimée}} (1988) *{{lang|fr|Leçons particulières}} ({{ISBN|978-2-213-02598-8}}, 1990) *{{lang|fr|Marie Curie, une Femme honorable}} (television series) (1991) *{{lang|fr|Jenny Marx ou le femme du diable}} (1992) *{{lang|fr|Les Hommes et les femmes}} (with [[Bernard-Henri Lévy]], 1993). *{{lang|fr|Journal d'une Parisienne}} (1994) *{{lang|fr|La rumeur du monde: journal, 1997 et 1998}} (1999) *{{lang|fr|On ne peut pas être heureux tout le temps: récit}} (2000) *{{lang|fr|C'est arrivé hier: journal 1999}} (2000) *{{lang|fr|Profession journaliste: conversations avec Martine de Rabaudy}} (2001) *{{lang|fr|Demain, déjà: journal, 2000-2003}} (2003)

==Filmography== * ''[[Promise to a Stranger]]'' (1942) * ''[[Fantômas (1946 film)|Fantômas]]'' (1946) * ''[[The Angel They Gave Me]]'' (1946) * ''[[Last Love (1949 film)|Last Love]]'' (1949) * ''[[Love, Madame]]'' (1952) * ''[[A Girl on the Road]]'' (1952) * ''[[A Woman's Treasure]]'' (1953) * ''[[Le Bon Plaisir]]'' (1984)

== See also == * ''[[L'Amour, Madame]]'' (1952, film) * ''[[Julietta (1953 film)|Julietta]]'' (1953, film)

== References == ;Citations {{reflist}} ;Bibliography *''Françoise Giroud, une ambition française'', an authorized biography by [[Christine Ockrent]] (2003)

==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{IMDb name}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giroud, Francoise}} [[Category:1916 births]] [[Category:2003 deaths]] [[Category:Accidental deaths from falls in France]] [[Category:Writers from Lausanne]] [[Category:Politicians from Lausanne]] [[Category:20th-century French Sephardi Jews]] [[Category:Radical Party (France) politicians]] [[Category:Union for French Democracy politicians]] [[Category:French women journalists]] [[Category:French magazine founders]] [[Category:Ministers of culture of France]] [[Category:Analysands of Jacques Lacan]] [[Category:French women company founders]] [[Category:French women screenwriters]] [[Category:20th-century French women writers]] [[Category:Elle (magazine) writers]] [[Category:Women government ministers of France]] [[Category:Jewish women writers]] [[Category:20th-century French screenwriters]] [[Category:French people of Turkish-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Jewish women politicians]]