Sartre panned 'Citizen Kane'

Sartre admired American novelist William Faulkner

In addition to writing philosophy and fiction, Jean-Paul Sartre was also a literary critic. His 1939 essay on Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" focused on the way the American novelist commented on time, favorably comparing him to Marcel Proust. Ultimately, Sartre argues Faulkner's "despair" about a "closed future" is a result of the "social conditions of our present life." Ever the existentialist, though, Sartre suggests this reality is something that should inspire rather than depress.

Camus and Sartre admired each other's work before becoming friends

The two writers, who would later be considered two of the biggest names associated with existentialism, wrote positive reviews of each others' early work, with Camus praising Sartre's novel "Nausea" and story collection "The Wall" and, later, Sartre favorably compared Camus' "The Stranger" to Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway. Still, their reviews included some critiques, hinting at the larger disagreements that would come much later.

Jean-Paul Sartre rejected his Nobel Prize in literature in 1964, believing it was antithetical to his role as an artist.

Sartre spent his time in the French Army working on a novel

The writer's physical limitations (including partial blindness and balance issues) prohibited him from serving on the front lines. Instead, he worked as a military meteorologist. The job was not very demanding, so he spent most of his time writing. He told Simone de Beauvoir it was "extremely peaceful work; indeed I cannot think of any branch of the services that has a quieter, more poetic job."

Sartre eventually denounced communism

The French philosopher was a long-time ardent supporter of communism and the USSR. He finally spoke out against the movement with the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, saying that the move was "made possible by 12 years of terror and imbecility."

Philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre staged his first play while he was imprisoned in a POW camp.

Jean-Paul Sartre was amazed by American jazz

The French philosopher wrote about a 1947 trip to a New York jazz club as a transcendent experience, describing the magic of the relationship between performer and audience: "You shout, they shriek, they whistle, they are possessed, you are possessed."

Camus and Sartre had a public falling out over communism

The two were close friends, sometimes collaborating throughout the 1940s, but the release of Camus' 1951 book, "The Rebel," led to a schism over differing views on communism.

Jean-Paul Sartre worked on 'Being and Nothingness' while a prisoner of war

The Nazis invaded France in May 1940. Sartre, as a member of the French Army, was taken prisoner that June. While he was in captivity, he studied Martin Heidegger and worked on "Being and Nothingness," one of his most famous philosophical works.

Sartre wrote an 8-hour screenplay for a Freud biopic

Sartre was hired to write the screenplay for what would eventually become John Huston's 1962 film "Freud: The Secret Passion," about the life of the psychoanalyst. Sartre, however, had trouble sticking to the parameters of Hollywood. An early draft was estimated to be five hours long. Rather than shortening it, as Huston suggested, Sartre extended it to eight hours and was eventually removed from the production.

The FBI kept tabs on Camus and Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre worked as an American correspondent for Combat, the newspaper edited by Albert Camus. While he was in the States, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI kept tabs on him, concerned that Combat was publishing unfavorable portrayals of the US.

Sartre was an elaborate prankster as a student

After Charles Lindbergh completed his first solo transatlantic voyage in 1927, the French philosopher—then a student at Paris' École normale supérieure—called various newspapers to tell them the American pilot would be granted an honorary degree. Over 500 people showed up to find a Lindbergh lookalike Sartre had hired. "The public fell for it, and an old man even kissed his hand," Sartre later wrote.

Sartre believed those who deny their own freedom are operating in 'bad faith'

In "Existentialism is a Humanism," Sartre argues that humans are "condemned to be free"—they are not confined to a divine fate, which means they must take the responsibility of creating their own destinies. Those who reject this freedom, by his estimation, are living in "bad faith."

Sartre and de Beauvoir's literary journal was named after a Charlie Chaplin movie

The couple founded the magazine Les Temps Modernes in 1945 and it quickly became essential reading for French intellectuals. Its name came from "Modern Times," Charlie Chaplin's 1936 movie that satirized the industrial revolution's dehumanizing effects.

Sartre's 1980 funeral attracted a massive crowd

The legendary existentialist died April 15, 1980. A week later, mourners packed the streets of Paris to pay tribute. Estimates suggest that between 20,000 and 50,000 people were in attendance. In the Associated Press footage below, you can watch them following the hearse from the hospital where the thinker died to his resting place in Montparnasse Cemetery.

Camus directed a Picasso-penned play

The show, called "Desire Caught by the Tail," was written by Picasso in 1941 while living in Nazi-occupied Paris. It was first staged in 1944, featuring several French intellectuals, including Albert Camus, who directed, as well as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who had starring roles.

A mescaline-induced hallucination stayed with Jean-Paul Sartre throughout his life

In 1935, Sartre was injected with mescaline, a psychedelic drug that was then used to treat alcoholism and depression, by his friend at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne in Paris. It was not a good trip: Sartre saw nightmarish crabs for days and suffered a mental breakdown. For the rest of his life, crustaceans like the ones he saw during the hallucination appeared in his works.

Camus won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957 for his philosophical essays and fiction

The philosopher and novelist was one of the youngest writers to win the award, at just 44. In his acceptance speech, he spoke on the role of an artist in a world that seemed increasingly bleak. "Each generation doubtless feels called upon to reform the world," he said. "Mine knows that it will not reform it, but its task is perhaps even greater. It consists in preventing the world from destroying itself."

Sartre and de Beauvoir had an open romantic relationship

The two figureheads of existentialist thought were romantic partners, though they had a publicly open relationship and never lived together. As de Beauvoir says in the interview below, "third persons knew our relationship dwarfed any we could have with them."

Jean-Paul Sartre believed 'existence precedes essence'

The existentialist figurehead argued that humans are not born with an identity or purpose; instead, they develop them throughout their lives. For Sartre, this meant making meaning for oneself rather than relying on authorities (like religion or government) to provide it.

Existentialist literature explores the philosophy's ideas

Existentialism isn't confined to philosophical texts. Some of the movement's figureheads, like Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, were also novelists. Christina Howells, Professor of French at the University of Oxford, suggests this is because existentialism, as a philosophy, requires human stories to be fully understood, and literature makes the experience of the human condition more present and immediate.

Read Albert Camus' 'Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays'

Camus' most famous work of nonfiction is this collection of philosophical essays. Perhaps the most resonant entry is the title essay, which reimagines the Greek myth of a man condemned to roll a boulder for all eternity. Rather than presenting the story as a cautionary tale about defying the gods, as the original myth intended, Camus considered Sisyphus an "absurd hero" for his actions and imagined him smiling as he endlessly toiled at his repetitive punishment.

Read the scathing review of '1984' by science fiction legend Isaac Asimov

Asimov, the author of the "Foundation" series and a major figure in science fiction, tore Orwell's novel apart in a 1980 review, writing, "This is not science fiction, but a distorted nostalgia for a past that never was."

Many writers considered 'existentialist' didn't identify with the term

“Existentialism” was first introduced in 1943 by philosopher Gabriel Marcel. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir readily adopted the term, but others, such as Albert Camus and Martin Heidegger, rejected it. Earlier philosophers, like Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, were long dead by the time the word was in vogue.

Why one theater critic believed Chalamet was wrong about opera

Actor Timothée Chalamet's comments that "no one cares" about ballet and opera led to a number of responses from people in the theater world, including critic Marianka Swain, who argued that Chalamet's statement was a predictable yet tone-deaf Hollywood evaluation of art forms that exist outside of the celebrity-centered industry.

Although it's now considered a pivotal film in the history of American cinema, 'The Wizard of Oz' was initially panned by some of its contemporary critics.

One of Sartre and de Beauvoir's lovers accused them of exploitation

The philosophical duo's open relationship sometimes included shared partners, including de Beauvoir's students. One of those students, Bianca Lamblin, wrote a book, "A Disgraceful Affair," about the experience and characterized it as sexual exploitation.

Disillusioned mid-century playwrights, such as Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco, brought existentialist ideas to the stage through the Theater of the Absurd.

Camus edited an underground newspaper during World War II

The paper, called "Combat," was aligned with the French Resistance fighting against the Nazi occupation. Like his fiction, his journalism was clear-eyed: When Hiroshima and Nagaski were bombed, he criticized the many writers impressed with the destruction, writing, "our technical civilization has just reached its greatest level of savagery."

Kurt Vonnegut's satire embraced dark humor

Books like "Cat’s Cradle" and "Slaughterhouse Five" satirized the international appetite for war, which the 20th-century writer found both horrifying and hilarious. It’s a combination that some called “gallows humor,” a classification Vonnegut himself remembered Sigmund Freud describing. “One of the examples Freud gives is a man about to be hanged,” Vonnegut once recalled, “and the hangman says, ‘Do you have anything to say?’ The condemned man replies, ‘Not at this time.’”

Playwright George Bernard Shaw believed Shakespeare was overrated

Shaw was one of the titans of 20th-century British drama—responsible for "Pygmalion," "Arms and the Man," and more—and a persistent critic of the Bard, whom he believed had been unnecessarily praised to the point of "Bardolatry." Over time, his opinion softened; at one point, Shaw even reworked Shakespeare's "Cymbeline."

Simone de Beauvoir's lone play has mostly been overlooked

Although primarily known as a philosopher, Beauvoir wrote the play "The Useless Mouths," which debuted in Paris in November 1945. The work is about a government allowing "useless" citizens—women, children, the elderly—to starve during a food shortage. While it's not widely staged, some Beauvoir scholars believe it's a significant text that explores many of the existential themes she explores in her other work.

Camus was once a communist, but eventually disavowed the ideology

The writer belonged to the French Communist Party and the Algerian Communist Party in the mid-1930s, but he was eventually expelled for refusing to downplay objections to French colonialism. By the time he published "The Rebel," he was vocally anti-communist, believing it was a utopian ideology that often relied on violence.

Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote that 'Hell is—other people'

The line appears toward the end of the play "No Exit." One character, realizing that he's confined to live out the rest of his days with the play's other two characters, exclaims, "There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!"

‘Shoah’ director criticized ‘Schindler’s List’ for its portrayal of the Holocaust

“I was watching the Spielberg film, and I thought he’ll never go so far,” Claude Lanzmann said. “And he did. But he even created suspense … And these people, all of them are actors. All of them. They’re actors. They do not look like people who have had these experiences. It is an adventure film.”

The Nobel Prize committee was not enthusiastic about selecting John Steinbeck, whom they considered past his prime.

Novelist Richard Wright joined the existentialists in Paris

The author of “Black Boy” and “Native Son” left the United States in 1946 to escape his home country’s racial inequality. In Paris, he explored existentialist ideas and spent time with Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. “The Outsider,” a novel he wrote while living in France, embraced many of the philosophy’s central themes.

Candide's 'Voltaire' satirized blind optimism

The French philosopher's most famous work, published in 1759, cataloged the journey of its titular hero, who was guided by a crackpot philosopher and the belief that optimism was the solution to life's problems, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Existential dread still informs popular comedies

Although the Theater of the Absurd was primarily a 20th-century trend, a similar kind of existentialist-minded comedy still exists in popular culture. Films like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and television shows like “BoJack Horseman” tackle the same issues that existentialist thinkers like Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus explored, transforming those profound questions into thought-provoking and crowd-pleasing works of comedy.

In 1938, 1.7 million people were fooled into believing a Martian invasion was underway because of a radio play

Orson Welles' realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth, called "The War of the Worlds," caused quite a stir with audiences. The broadcast resulted in panic, with some people in the area where the story took place attempting to flee. It also helped Welles secure a contract with a Hollywood studio, leading to the creation of "Citizen Kane."

Ray Bradbury said Steven Spielberg was 'one of the most incredible young talents that's ever come into the world.'

How one silent movie came to define science fiction

Fritz Lang's 1927 epic "Metropolis" set the template for much of the science fiction that followed, establishing themes that would come to define the genre through films like "Star Wars" and novels like "Brave New World." This short documentary from DW digs into the history of the film and its long-lasting impact.

Shakespeare was criticized in his own time

Robert Greene was a respected writer during Shakespeare’s time as an actor-playwright who famously dismissed the young upstart, accusing him of plagiarism and criticizing his ability to write blank verse.

Silent film star Buster Keaton tried to turn the Civil War into a comedy with the 1926 film 'The General,' which was panned by critics for its pro-Confederate themes and tone-deaf treatment of war.

'Plan 9 from Outer Space' gained an audience after it was trashed by critics

The science-fiction film went mostly unnoticed in its original theatrical run, often playing in double-features aimed at teenagers. It wasn't until 1980, when film critics Harry and Michael Medved dubbed it the "worst film ever made," that it began to attract a cult following. In 1994, Johnny Depp starred in a biopic about its director, Ed Wood.

Many critics dismissed Norman Rockwell as overly sentimental

The painter’s portraits of American life were often dismissed as commercially minded, banal, or kitschy, especially when compared with the more abstract art of the time. Rockwell, however, was undeterred, commenting that he wanted to produce work that would make viewers “want to sigh and smile at the same time.”

Terrible performance art: an insider's perspective

David Sedaris may be known for his writing now, but when he was in college, he thought his future was in the art world. Specifically, the performance art world. In this episode of NPR’s This American Life, Sedaris shares a selection of moments from his career as an artist, each more embarrassing than the last. The kicker? Being heckled from the audience—by his own father.

Albert Camus' 'The Fall' encourages readers to live without illusions

The writer's final complete novel is a series of dramatic monologues from Jean-Baptiste Clamence, who tries to explain to a stranger the sound of laughter that began following him. As the "Philosophize This!" podcast argues, the book is Camus' attempt at wrestling with some of the thornier aspects of existentialism in a form that's more digestible than a dense philosophical tome.

Watch 'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse,' the documentary about Francis Ford Coppola's notorious production behind 'Apocalypse Now,' shot by Coppola's wife, Eleanor.

A critic evaluates Orwell's lesser-known books

Orwell is primarily known for "Animal Farm" and "1984," but The Critic's Alexander Larman argues that Orwell's other titles—especially the 1936 novel "Keep the Aspidistra Flying"—are also worthy reads. (Some users may experience a paywall.)