La nuit du carrefour

Georges Simenon was living on a houseboat when his novel was published in 1931. Very shortly afterward, he was sitting on the deck of his boat, typing a new novel, when a large car drew up on the quay to which it was moored, and a stranger got out. It was Jean Renoir, a filmmaker Simenon admired but did not know; Renoir went straight up to him and made an offer for the film rights on the spot. Simenon accepted immediately and the deal went through with no further complications-- quite possibly the quickest and most straightforward sale of film rights to a novel in movie history. The two men were lifelong friends thereafter and Simenon was devastated by Renoir's death, some 47 years later.

Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une histoire seule (1989)