Colette Audry; French Novelist, Screenwriter, Critic

Colette Audry, 84, a prize-winning French novelist, screenwriter and critic. Ms. Audry won the 1962 Medicis Prize, a top French literary prize, for her autobiographical novel, “Behind the Bathtub,” and wide acclaim for a screenplay, “The Battle for the Railway,” a 1946 account of resistance to Nazi occupation by French rail workers. A grandniece of the 19th-Century President Gaston Boumergue, Ms. Audry was born in Orange in southern France. Her older sister, Jacqueline, directed films. Ms. Audry taught letters at the prestigious Lycee Moliere in Paris and was an accomplished literary critic, especially on the works of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Ms. Audry collaborated with Sartre on the famed Revue des Temps Moderne, wrote several books and plays, and directed the Editions Denoel publishing house. She also wrote the screenplays for several of her sister’s films, including “Sophie’s Unhappiness” in 1946 and “Bitter Fruit,” which won the 1966 Grand Prix of French Cinema. She ran as a Socialist candidate for the National Assembly in 1962 and 1967 and participated in the party’s rebirth under Francois Mitterrand, serving on the party steering committee from 1971 to 1981. On Saturday near Paris.