Who is Lucile Costa?

Lucile Costa, whom everyone in the industry called « Minouche », was born in Corsica of Corsican parents. When she retired from the movie industry, she bought a house in the mountain region of the Castagniccia and spent 15 happy years there, clearing and planting a large garden, with her beloved dog Brusco and a half-dozen cats who visited her at meal time.

Very much in demand because of her kindness and professionalism, she was one of the greatest script supervisors during a period that was called the "Golden Age" of French cinema. In a filmography that counted more than seventy films between 1943 and 1981, she worked with renowned actors like Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Marais, Jeanne Moreau, Gérard Philippe, Brigitte Bardot, Claudia Cardinale, Lino Ventura, Henri Fonda, Yul Brynner, Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Bourvil et Louis de Funès (with whom she had a great friendship, due in part to their shared passion for nature and gardening).

Well-known film directors like Jean Cocteau, Henri Verneuil and José Giovanni insisted on working with her. Gérard Oury wanted it so much that he offered her the position of assistant director in La grande vadrouille. She also worked as an assistant director in Maurice Labro's Puzzle for the Judoka and in José Giovanni's The Raptor. In addition, she also directed four short films (1953) and L'enfant et le lamentin (1962), a tale she wrote herself and whose musical score was composed by Jacques Istria, a Corsican composer and guitarist.