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- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Louis Lumière was a French engineer and industrialist who played a key role in the development of photography and cinema. His parents were Antoine Lumière, a photographer and painter, and Jeanne Joséphine Costille Lumière, who were married in 1861 and moved to Besançon, setting up a small photographic portrait studio. Here were born Auguste Lumière, Louis and their daughter Jeanne. They moved to Lyon in 1870, where their two other daughters were born: Mélina and Francine. Auguste and Louis both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon. At age 17, Louis invented a new process for film development using a dry plate. This process was significantly successful for the family business, permitting the opening of a new factory with an eventual production of 15 million plates per year. In 1894, his father, Antoine Lumière, attended an exhibition of Edison's Kinetoscope in Paris. Upon his return to Lyon, he showed his sons a length of film he had received from one of Edison's concessionaires; he also told them they should try to develop a cheaper alternative to the peephole film-viewing device and its bulky camera counterpart, the Kinetograph. This inspired brothers Auguste and Louis to work on a way to project film onto a screen, where many people could view it at the same time. By early 1895 they invented a device which they called the Cinématographe, a three-in-one device that could record, develop, and project motion pictures, and patented it on 13 February 1895. Their screening of a single film, Leaving the Factory (1895), on 22 March 1895 for around 200 members of the Society for the Development of the National Industry in Paris was probably the first presentation of projected film. Their first commercial public screening at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris on 28 December 1895 for around 40 paying visitors and invited relations has traditionally been regarded as the birth of cinema. The cinematographe was an immediate hit, and its influence was colossal. Within just two years, the Lumière catalogue included well over a thousand films, all of them single-shot efforts running under a minute, and many photographed by cameramen sent to various exotic locations. The Lumière brothers saw film as a novelty and had withdrawn from the film business by 1905. The Lumière freres' cinematographer was not their only invention. Mainly Louis is also credited with the birth of color photograph, the Autochromes, using a single exposure trichromic basis (instead of a long three-step exposure): a glass plaque is varnished and embedded with potato starch tinted in the three basic colors (rouge-orange, green and violet-blue), vegetal coal dust to fill the interstices and a black-and-white photographic emulsion layer to capture light. They were the main and more successful procedure for obtaining color photographs from 1903 to 1935, when Kodachrome, then Agfacolor and other less fragile film based procedures took over. An Autochrome is positivated from the same plaque, so they are unique images with a soft toned palette. As the Institut Lumière describes them, they are a middle point between photography and painting (akin specially to pointillism technique), because of their pastel shades and easy but still static pose looks.Producer (Director) (1895) Le maréchal-ferrant
(1895) Exiting the Factory
(1895) Bocal aux poissons-rouges
(1895) Baby's Dinner
(1895) The Sprinkler Sprinkled
(1895) Barque sortant du port
(1895-06-12) Départ en voiture
(1896) The Arrival of a Train
(1896) Arroseur et arrosé
(1896) Panorama de l'arrivée à Aix-les-Bains pris du train
(1896) Pont de Westminster
(1896) Negro Street Dancers
(1896) Bassin des Tuileries
(1896) Partie de boules
(1896) Bataille de femmes
(1896) Débarquement
(1896) Bains en mer
(1896) Déchargement d'un navire
(1896) Retour d'une promenade en mer
(1896) Dresden, August-Brücke
(1896) Saint-Pétersbourg, Rue Tverskaïa
(1896) London Street Dancers
(1896) Champs-Élysées
(1896) Concours de boules
(1896) Panorama du grand Canal pris d'un bateau
(1896) Labourage
(1896) Course en sacs
(1896) Milan, place du Dôme
(1896) Bal Espagnol dans la rue (Mexique)
(1896) Pigeons sur la place Saint-Marc
(1896) Broadway et Wall Street
(1897) Rome, cortège au mariage du prince de Naples
(1897) Bonne d'enfants et soldat
(1897) Panorama pris du chemin de fer électrique, I
(1897) Douche après le bain
(1897) Les joueurs de cartes arrosés
(1897) Paris, le Pont-Neuf
(1897) Transport d'une tourelle par un attelage de 60 chevaux
(1897) Entrée d'une noce à l'église
(1897) Attelage d'un camion
(1897) Menuisiers
(1897) Liverpool, Church Street
(1897) Leaving Jerusalem by Railway
(1898) Passage d'un tunnel en chemin de fer
(1899) La petite fille et son chat
(1899) La Pelouse - Voitures et foules
(1899) Turin: La duchesse d'Aoste à l'exposition
(1900) La tour Eiffel
(1903) The False Cripple- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Auguste Lumière was a French engineer, industrialist, biologist, and illusionist, born in Besançon, France. He attended the Martinière Technical School and worked as a manager at the photographic company of his father, Antoine Lumière. Although it is his brother Louis Lumière who is generally acclaimed as the "father of the cinema", Auguste also made a major contribution towards the development of the medium, first by helping with the invention and construction of the cinematographe (the world's first camera and projection mechanism), and second by appearing as a subject in many of the films shot by Louis. Along with his brother, he is also credited with giving the world's first public film screening on December 28, 1895. However, according to Louis, Auguste lost interest in the cinematographe as soon as construction had been completed, and thereafter showed no further interest in the film medium. After his work on the cinematograph he began focusing on the biomedical field, becoming a pioneer in the use of X-rays to examine fractures. He also contributed to innovations in military aircraft, producing a catalytic heater to allow cold-weather engine starts.Producer (Director) (1895) Le maréchal-ferrant
(1895) Exiting the Factory
(1895) Bocal aux poissons-rouges
(1895) Baby's Dinner
(1895) The Sprinkler Sprinkled
(1895) Départ en voiture
(1896) The Arrival of a Train
(1896) Arroseur et arrosé
(1896) Panorama de l'arrivée à Aix-les-Bains pris du train
(1896) Pont de Westminster
(1896) Negro Street Dancers
(1896) Bassin des Tuileries
(1896) Partie de boules
(1896) Bataille de femmes
(1896) Débarquement
(1896) Bains en mer
(1896) Déchargement d'un navire
(1896) Retour d'une promenade en mer
(1896) Dresden, August-Brücke
(1896) Saint-Pétersbourg, Rue Tverskaïa
(1896) London Street Dancers
(1896) Champs-Élysées
(1896) Concours de boules
(1896) Panorama du grand Canal pris d'un bateau
(1896) Labourage
(1896) Course en sacs
(1896) Milan, place du Dôme
(1896) Bal Espagnol dans la rue (Mexique)
(1896) Pigeons sur la place Saint-Marc
(1896) Broadway et Wall Street
(1897) Rome, cortège au mariage du prince de Naples
(1897) Bonne d'enfants et soldat
(1897) Panorama pris du chemin de fer électrique, I
(1897) Douche après le bain
(1897) Les joueurs de cartes arrosés
(1897) Paris, le Pont-Neuf
(1897) Transport d'une tourelle par un attelage de 60 chevaux
(1897) Entrée d'une noce à l'église
(1897) Attelage d'un camion
(1897) Menuisiers
(1897) Liverpool, Church Street
(1897) Leaving Jerusalem by Railway
(1898) Passage d'un tunnel en chemin de fer
(1899) La petite fille et son chat
(1899) La Pelouse - Voitures et foules
(1899) Turin: La duchesse d'Aoste à l'exposition
(1900) La tour Eiffel
(1903) The False Cripple- Producer
- Editor
Léon Gaumont was born on 10 May 1864 in Paris, France. He was a producer and editor, known for The First Men in the Moon (1919), Images de Chine (1905) and La nuit de noces de Calino (1911). He was married to Camille Maillard. He died on 10 August 1946 in Sainte-Maxime, Var, France.Presenter 1895 - Gaumont Film Company (1906) Félix Mayol
(1911) The Great East End Anarchist Battle- Director
- Producer
- Writer
The world's first female filmmaker, French-born Alice Guy entered the film business in 1896 as a secretary at Gaumont, a manufacturer of movie cameras and projectors who had purchased a "cinématographer" from its inventors, the Lumiere brothers. The next year Gaumont became the world's first motion picture production company when they switched to creating movies, and Guy became its first film director. She impressed the company so much with the output (she averaged two two-reelers a week) and quality of her productions that by 1905 she was made the company's production director, supervising its other directors. In 1907 she married Herbert Blaché, an Englishman who ran Gaumont's British and German offices. The pair went to the U.S. to set up the company's operations there. In 1910 Mme. Guy set up her own production company, Solax, in New York and with her husband built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After a period of critical and financial success, the couple's fortunes declined when Thomas Alva Edison's trust hindered film production in the East coast, and they eventually shut down the studio in 1919. Although her husband secured work directing films for several major Hollywood studios, Guy was never able to secure any directorial jobs there, never made a film again, most of her films were lost, some were credited to other film directors, and she did no receive recognition for her pioneering work in France and the United States. She returned to France in 1922 after her divorce from Blaché, and in 1964 returned to the U.S. and lived in Mahwah, New Jersey - not far from where her original studios were - with her daughter, where she died in 1968.Director (1896) La fée aux choux
(1905) Valsons
(1906) Questions indiscrètes
(2017) Early Women Filmmakers
(2018) Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Charles Pathé was born on 25 December 1863 in Chevry-Cossigny, Seine-et-Marne, France. He was a producer and director, known for À la conquête du pôle (1912), Arrivée d'un train (1896) and Débarquement d'un bateau (1896). He was married to Marie Foy. He died on 25 December 1957 in Monte Carlo, Monaco.Presenter 1896 - Pathé (1906) Revolution in Russia
(1908) The Runaway Horse
(1908) A Narrow Escape
(1919) J'accuse!
(1923) The Wheel- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Was a cafe concert entertainer before Charles Pathe noticed him during the Universal Exhibition, where Zecca had been assigned to Pathe's stand. After a few daysPathe asked Zecca if he would like to work in cinematography. Zecca immediately accepted the offer and rapidly became Pathe's right hand man and head of production.Presenter 1896 - Pathé (Director) (1906) Revolution in Russia
(1907) The Red Spectre- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Georges Méliès was a French illusionist and film director famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was an especially prolific innovator in the use of special effects, popularizing such techniques as substitution splices, multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color.
His films include A Trip to the Moon (1902) and An Impossible Voyage (1904), both involving strange, surreal journeys somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films.
Méliès died of cancer on 21 January 1938 at the age of 76.
In 2016, a Méliès film long thought lost, A Wager Between Two Magicians, or, Jealous of Myself (1904), was discovered in a Czechoslovak film archive.Director (1898) A Trip to the Moon
(1899) Cinderella
(1900) The One-Man Band
(1901) The Man with the Rubber Head
(1902) The Terrible Eruption of Mount Pelee and Destruction of St. Pierre, Martinique
(1902) The Coronation of King Edward VII
(1903) The Music Lover
(1904) The Voyage Across the Impossible
(1905) Unexpected Fireworks
(1906) Soap Bubbles
(1952) Le grand Méliès- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Along with his better-known French counterpart Georges Méliès George Albert Smith was one of the first filmmakers to explore fictional and fantastic themes, often using surprisingly sophisticated special effects. His background was ideal--an established portrait photographer, he also had a long-standing interest in show business, running a tourist attraction in his native Brighton featuring a fortune teller. His films were among the first to feature such innovations as superimposition (Smith patented a double-exposure system in 1897), close-ups and scene transitions involving wipes and focus pulls. He also patented Kinemacolor--the world's first commercial cinema color system--in 1906, which was extremely successful for a time, despite the special equipment required to project itCameraman (1902) The Coronation of King Edward VII- Director
Eugène Lauste was born on 17 January 1857 in Montmartre, Paris, France. He was a director, known for Bullfight (1896) and Drill of the Engineer Corps (1896). He died on 27 June 1935 in Montclair, New Jersey, USA.Inventor of Sound-on-Film 1904 (In England, UK)- Actor
- Soundtrack
Félix Mayol (1872-1941) was a popular French singer of the Belle Epoque. Born in Toulon, he had modest debuts on the stages of Toulon and Marseille but became a success in Paris in 1895 as a singer performing in a campy, effeminate way. An anecdote published in his memoirs reports that for lack of finding a camellia, that the elegant men wore at the time on the revers of their frock coat, he took a bit of lily of the valley which became his emblem. The improbable hair tassel he wore (and which gave him the nickname of "the red-toupeed artist" or "flame of punch") became so famous that it inspired many imitators. He knew his first great success in 1896 with La Paimpolaise by Théodore Botrel. In 1900, after a brief stint at the Eldorado where he sang À la cabane bambou, he was engaged by La Scala. It was there that he created the title that would make him both rich and famous: Viens, poupoule! (1902), an adaptation of a German song arranged by Henri Christiné and Alexandre Trébitsch. He returned in 1905 with La Matchiche, the adaptation of a fashionable Spanish dance song. The same year, he performed at Gaumont in 14 phonoscènes under the direction of Alice Guy, such as La Paimpolaise. These were short sound films using a sound on disc system. Several still exist. Already, Mayol had to his credit many recordings on cylinders and on discs.
In 1907, Mayol's operetta Cinderella at La Scala did not convince, unlike one of the show's songs, Les Mains de femmes which became a success, followed in 1908 by Cousine. His cachet then reached the sum of a thousand gold francs, which allowed him to buy in 1910 the Paris cabaret Concert which hence took his name, the Concert Mayol. He was the main star of the shows, and in turn launched young artists, including Valentin Sardou (father of Fernand and grandfather of Michel Sardou), Maurice Chevalier, Émile Audiffred and Raimu. In 1914 he passed the scepter to Oscar Dufrenne. He then began a tour of the whole of France and the French-speaking countries with his Baret tours. His fame was such that even Charlie Chaplin came to listen. The period 1914-1918 was marked, as for many artists, by many anti-German songs, intended to maintain the morale of the troops, but Mayol's career stalled after the First World War. He published his Souvenirs in 1929, made "seven farewell shows to the Paris public" in 1938 and retired to Toulon.
Attached to his hometown Toulon and particularly his rugby club, he offered 60,000 gold francs to finance the construction of a stadium that still bears his name at the moment, the stadium Mayol. The lily of the valley he loved became the emblem of the club and the sumptuous dinner he gave players to celebrate the title of 1931 has remained in the annals. The traditional lily of the buttonhole was artificial because he could not bear the scent. Mayol's supposed or real homosexuality, linked to his celibacy and his "effeminate stage play", made Mayol a target of journalists. At the time, songwriters and other writers often referred to it, such as the marriage between Mayol and Mistinguett invented from scratch, resulting in a lot of laughter. Until now, no published direct testimony, with the exception of one, has been known in which the artist has openly evoked his sexual preferences. In his songs, often very gritty, Mayol employs most of the time the "we" of the male collective. These songs portray prostitutes or women always welcoming to the sexual encounter. According to his Memories, Mayol created almost 500 songs. The French Wikipedia lists some 120 songs, based on the website Gallica and other sources. After the 1905 phonoscènes series at Gaumont, Mayol acted in five more films, three silent films, including Le filon du Bouif (Louis Osmont, 1922), and two early sound films, Aux urnes, citoyens!/Tu sera député (Jean Hémard, 1932) and La dame de chez Maxim's (Alexander Korda, 1933) starring Florelle.Singer (Actor) (1906) Questions indiscrètes- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
Segundo de Chomón became involved in film through his wife, who was an actress in Pathé films. In 1902 he became a concessionary for Pathé in Barcelona, distributing its product in Spanish-speaking countries and managing a factory for the coloring of Pathé films. He began shooting footage of Spanish locations for the company, then in 1905 moved to Paris where he became a trick film specialist. The body of work he created over five years was outstanding. Films such as The Red Spectre (1907), Kiri-Kis (1907), The Invisible Thief (1909) and A Panicky Picnic (1909) are among the most imaginative and technically accomplished of their age.
De Chomón created fantastical narratives embellished with ingenious effects, gorgeous color, innovative hand-drawn and puppet animation, tricks of the eye that surprise and delight, and startling turns of surreal imagination. It is curious why he is not generally known as one of the early cinema masters, except among the cognoscenti in the field. Perhaps it is because there is a smaller body of work than that created by Georges Méliès (his works can perhaps be described as a cross between that of Méliès and another who combined trickery with animation, Émile Cohl); perhaps it's because he was a Spaniard working in France for the key part of his film career that has meant that neither side has championed him as much as they might have done. De Chomón carried on as a filmmaker, specializing in trick effects, working for Pathé, Itala and others, and contributing effects work to two of the most notable films of the silent era, Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (1914) and Abel Gance's Napoleon (1927).Director (Cameraman, Special Effects) (1906) The Inexperienced Chauffeur
(1907) Music, Forward!
(1907) The Red Spectre
(1927) Napoleon- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Albert Dieudonné was born on 26 November 1889 in Paris, France. He was an actor and writer, known for Son crime (1921), Gloire rouge (1923) and Sous la griffe (1917). He died on 19 March 1976 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France.Actor (1908) The Assassination of the Duke de Guise
(1927) Napoleon
(1935) Napoléon Bonaparte
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995– ) The Music of Light- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Composer chiefly remembered for his symphonic poems -the first of that genre to be written by a Frenchman- and for his opera 'Samson et Dalila'. Notable for his pioneering efforts on behalf of French music, he was also a gifted pianist and organist, and a writer of criticism, poetry, essays, and plays. Of his concerti and symphonies, in which he adapted the virtuosity of Franz Liszt's style to French traditions of harmony and form, his 'Third Symphony' is most often performed.Composer (1908) The Assassination of the Duke de Guise- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Albert Capellani was born on 23 August 1874 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Oh Boy! (1919), The Virtuous Model (1919) and The Easiest Way (1917). He died on 26 September 1931 in Paris, France.Director (1908) Drink
(1912) Les misérables
(1913) Les Misérables, Part 1: Jean Valjean
(1913) Les Misérables, Part 2: Fantine
(1913) Germinal; or, The Toll of Labor- Émile Zola was born on April 2, 1840, in Paris, France. His father was an Italian engineer. Young Zola studied at the Collége Bourbon in Provence, where his schoolmate and friend was Paul Cezanne. In 1858 Zola returned to Paris and became a student at the Lycée Saint-Louis, from which he graduated in 1862. After working at clerical jobs, he began to write a literary column for a Parisian newspaper. Zola's main literary work was "Les Rougon-Macquart", a monumental cycle of twenty novels about Parisian society during the French Second Empire under Napoleon III and after the Franco-Prussian War.
Zola was the founder of the Naturalist movement in 19th-century literature. His medicinal approach in scrupulous description of the lives of ordinary people was based on the contemporary theory of hereditary determinism, which he used to demonstrate how genetic and environmental factors influence human behavior. His most notable novels, "L'assommoir" (1877), "Nana" (1880) and "Germinal" (1885), displayed Zola's concerns of both scientific and artistic nature, as well as his stances on social reform. His life in the Parisian intellectual elite was that of a statesman and a bon vivant. He lived in a villa in Medan on the Seine and had a home in Paris. He was a political apprentice and follower of Victor Hugo in his stand against the corrupt monarchy of Napoleon III. Zola was among the strongest proponents of the Third Republic and was elected to the Legion of Honour. At the same time he was an important figure in the Parisian cultural milieu. He entered a circle of realist writers such as Edmond de Goncourt, Alphonse Daudet, Ivan Turgenev and Gustave Flaubert, his literary mentor and a close friend. After his novels brought him critical and financial success, Zola himself became surrounded by such followers as Guy de Maupassant and Paul Alexis, among others.
Zola shook the Parisian art world with his novel "L'Oevre" ("The Masterpiece") in 1886. Its protagonist, named Claude Lantier, was actually an amalgam of several artists including Paul Cezanne, Edouard Manet and Claude Monet. Zola also portrayed himself and his friend and mentor Gustave Flaubert. However, the personality and artistic career of painter Paul Cezanne was shown with a closer resemblance, especially when it came to intimate personal characteristics. Zola and Cezanne were schoolmates and close friends from childhood, which gave the writer a wealth of material for the novel. Cezanne's reticent personality, his self-doubt, his artistic anxieties and his more hidden sexual anxieties all came out in Zola's narrative. He revealed Cezanne's "passion for the physical beauty of women, and insane love for nudity desired but never possessed", his almost misogynistic perception of the "satanic female beauty", which affected his sexuality, and sublimated in his brush-strokes that he laid on his paintings. He showed Cezanne's work on his numerous sketches of nudes and impressionistic bathers as an outlet to artist's masculinity. He also hinted on Cezanne's countless depictions of apples as a sublimation and displacement of the artist's erotic interests. Zola used Cezanne's inner struggles of artistic and sexual nature and the interdependence of his sexual and artistic anxiety, to show some intricate parts of an eternal conundrum where lies one of the mysterious sources of creativity. In Zola's novel the artist fails to depict a perfectly beautiful nude, his wife has a baby that has a disfigured head and dies, then artist presents a painting of his dead child to the Salon, then artist commits suicide. In real life Cezanne, as a highly sensitive and refined individual, took Zola's novel too personally. The book ended their life-long friendship. Even the wise and friendly comments by Claude Monet and Camille Pisarro failed to help their reconciliation. Zola's powerful literary image had formed a lasting perception of Cezanne among his fellow artists, as well as among critics and public. Cezanne fled from the Parisian art world into a self-imposed isolation.
Zola risked his career in February of 1898, when he defended army Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer who was wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for treason. Zola accused the French government of anti-Semitism in an open letter to François Félix Faure, the President of France. Zola's "J'Accuse" was published on the front page of the Paris daily "L'Aurore". Zola declared that Dreyfus' conviction was based on false accusations and forged "evidence" of espionage, which the court that convicted him knew was false, and was a misrepresentation of justice. Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing "L'Accuse" and was convicted two weeks later, sentenced to jail, and removed from the Legion of Honour. Zola managed to escape to England. He returned during the collapse of the government and continued defending Dreyfus, who was imprisoned on the hellish penal colony in South America called Devil's Island. France became deeply divided by the case, known as the Dreyfus affair. Zola stood together with the more liberal commercial society opposite the reactionary army and Catholic church. Zola's open letter formed a major turning point in the Dreyfus affair. The case was reopened and Dreyfus was acquitted, then convicted again, but ultimately freed and completely exonerated by the French Supreme Court.
Zola's strange and tragic death from carbon monoxide poisoning was caused by a stopped chimney and remained an unresolved mystery. His enemies were blamed, but nothing was proved. He died on September 29, 1902, in Paris, and was initially laid to rest in the Cimetiere de Montmartre in Paris. On June 4, 1908, Zola's remains were laid to rest in the Pantheon in Paris, France.Writer (1908) Drink
(1913) Germinal; or, The Toll of Labor
(1920) Travail
(1921) La terre
(1926) Nana
(1928) L'Argent
(1930) Au bonheur des dames
(1938) La Bête Humaine - Director
- Writer
- Producer
A prolific director--over 700 films, most of them short- or medium-length--Louis Feuillade began his career with Gaumont where, as well as directing his own features, he was appointed artistic director in charge of production in 1907. His work was largely comprised of film series; his first series, begun in 1910 and numbering 15 episodes, was 'Le Film Esthétique', a financially unsuccessful attempt at "high-brow" cinema. More popular was La vie telle qu'elle est (1911), which moved from the costume pageantry of his earlier work to a more realistic--if somewhat melodramatic--depiction of contemporary life. Feuillade also directed scores of short films featuring the characters Bébé and René Poyen. His most successful feature-length serials were Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine (1913), which chronicled the diabolical exploits of the "emperor of crime," and Les vampires (1915), which trailed a criminal gang led by Irma Vep (Musidora) and was noted for its imaginative use of locations and lyrical, almost surreal style.Director (1909) The Blind Man of Jerusalem
(1913) Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine
(1915) Les vampires
(1916) Judex
(1918) Vendémiaire
(1918) Tih Minh- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
This celebrated star of the French stage had a sporadic love-hate affair with early cinema. After her film debut in Le duel d'Hamlet (1900) she declared she detested the medium; yet she consented to appear in another film, La Tosca (1909). Upon seeing the results, she reportedly recoiled in horror, demanding that the negative be destroyed. Her next film appearance, in the Film d'Art production of La dame aux camélias (1912), was a critical and popular success, helping give cinema artistic dignity. The following year she made Les amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912) in Britain. The receipts from this film's distribution in the US provided Adolph Zukor with the funds to found Paramount. Bernhardt, at 69, was offered a fortune to make films with other companies, but stayed with Film d'Art, appearing in Adrienne Lecouvreur (1913). She appeared in two more pictures after losing a leg in 1915, Jeanne Doré (1915) and Mothers of France (1917), both produced as WWI morale boosters. In 1923, when she was 79, her hotel room was turned into a studio so that she could appear in the film La voyante (1924). But her failing health halted production and she died before the film was completed. She was portrayed on the screen by Glenda Jackson in The Incredible Sarah (1976).Actress (1912) Queen Elizabeth
(1915) Those of Our Land- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Although all too frequently neglected by fans of silent comedy, Max Linder is in many ways as important a figure as Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, not least because he predated (and influenced) them all by several years and was largely responsible for the creation of the classic style of silent slapstick comedy.
Linder started out as an actor in the French theatre, but after making his screen debut in 1905 he quickly became an enormously famous and successful film comedian on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to his character "Max," a top-hatted dandy. By 1912 he was the highest-paid film star in the world, with an unprecedented salary of one million francs. He began to direct films in 1911 and showed equal facility behind the camera, but his career suffered an almost terminal blow when he was drafted into the French army to fight in World War I. He was gassed, and the illness that resulted would blight his career. Although offered a contract in America, recurring ill health meant that his US films had little of the sparkle of his early French work, and a brief attempt to revive his career by making films for the recently-formed United Artists (one of whose founders, of course, was Chaplin) in the early 1920s came to little, although these later films are now regarded as classics. He returned to France and killed himself in a suicide pact with his wife in 1925.Actor (Director) (1912) Entente cordiale
(1913) Jealous Husband
(1917) Max, the Heartbreaker- Writer
- Art Department
- Music Department
Although Hugo was fascinated by poems from childhood on, he spent some time at the polytechnic university of Paris until he dedicated all his work to literature. He was one of the few authors who were allowed to reach popularity during his own lifetime and one of the leaders of French romance.
After the death of his daughter Leopoldine in 1843, he started a career in politics and became member of the Paris chamber where he fought for leftist ideas. After the re-establishing of monarchy, he had to go into exile to Guernesey (1851-1870) where his literary work became more important, e.g. "Les Miserables" was written during that period. After his return to Paris he did not join politics anymore.Writer (1912) Les misérables
(1913) Les Misérables, Part 1: Jean Valjean
(1913) Les Misérables, Part 2: Fantine
(1923) The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1925) Barricade (Les Miserables Part II)
(1928) The Man Who Laughs- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Léonce Perret was born on 13 March 1880 in Niort, Deux-Sèvres, France. He was a director and actor, known for L'enfant de Paris (1913), The A.B.C. of Love (1919) and Léonce et les écrevisses (1913). He was married to Valentine Petit. He died on 12 August 1935 in Paris, France.Director (Actor) (1913) Léonce cinématographiste
(1913) L'enfant de Paris
(1925) Madame Sans-Gêne (USA)- René Poyen was born on 5 October 1908 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Pierrot, Pierrette (1924), Judex: Prologue + L'ombre mystérieuse (1917) and Judex (1916). He died on 4 February 1968 in Paris, France.Actor (1913) Léonce cinématographiste
(1915) Les vampires
(1916) Judex - Director
- Writer
- Actor
Jacques Feyder was born on 21 July 1885 in Ixelles, Brabant, Belgium. He was a director and writer, known for Carnival in Flanders (1935), Le grand jeu (1934) and Fahrendes Volk (1938). He was married to Françoise Rosay. He died on 24 May 1948 in Rive-de-Prangins, Switzerland.Director (Actor) (1913) Protéa
(1915) Les vampires
(1922) Coster Bill of Paris
(1925) Mother (Switzerland)
(1935) Carnival in Flanders (Belgium)- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Alfred Machin started his film work as camera man for Pathe at the beginning of 20 Century. During 1907 and 1909 he was in Africa, shooting documentary shorts. In 1910 he worked at the Pathe studio in Nizza, in 1911 he was one of the founding directors of the Pathe-filiale in Amsterdam, in 1913 he was the same in Brussel. In 1913/14 he made the pazifistic Maudite Soit la Guerre, which was released two months before the outbreak of WW I. In 1921 he purchased the Pathe studio in Nizza, founded his own production company and made nine pictures, before he died in 1929.Director (Cameraman) (1914) War Is Hell
(1918) Hearts of the World (England, UK | USA)- Germaine Rouer was born on 2 November 1897 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Ladies' Paradise (1930), Roger la Honte (1933) and Les vampires (1915). She died on 26 December 1994 in Paris, France.Actress (1915) Les vampires
(1921) La terre
(1930) Au bonheur des dames
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995– ) The Music of Light - Oscar-Claude Monet was born on November 14, 1840, in Paris, France. His father, named Adolphe Monet, was a grocer. His mother, named Louise-Justine Monet, was a singer. Young Monet grew up in Le Havre, Normandy. There he developed a reputation for the caricatures he loved to draw. He studied drawing with Jean-Francois Ochard, an apprentice of Jacques-Louis David. Then he studied painting 'en plein air' with marine painter 'Eugene Boudin'. After having served in the French Army in Algeria for two years, Monet was decommissioned after contracting a typhoid. In 1862, in Paris he joined the studio of Charles Gleyre, where he met Alfred Sisley, Frederic Bazille, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
In 1865 Monet submitted his painting to the official Salon for the first time. His 'Le dejeuner sur l'uerbe' (The Picnic 1865), depicting his lady friend Camille Doncieux and artist Bazille, was gently criticized by Courbet; Monet modified the painting, then, still unsatisfied, dismissed it from the show. In 1866, he painted Camille Doncieux as 'Camille, ou la femme a la robe verte' (Woman in the green Dress), and in 1867, she bore their first child, named Jean. Monet's paintings were treated as inferior at the Salon shows. In 1868 he made a suicide attempt. With the modest financial support from Frederic Bazille, Monet survived the first attack of depression. In 1870 he married Camille Doncieux and they settled in Argenteul. There he painted from a boat on the Seine River, capturing his impressions of the interplay of light, water and atmosphere.
Claude Monet became enthusiastic over the London landscapes, when he took refuge in England, to avoid the Franco-German War of 1870-1871. In London he was joined by his friend Camille Pissarro and the two artists continued painting landscapes. At that time Monet became interested in the paintings of William Turner in London museums. Turner's influence on Monet remained noticeable, especially in some later more vivdly chromatic paintings of the Thames, which he made during his visits to London in the 1890's and 1900's. In 1899, in London, Monet painted the river Thames in the series of paintings of the Houses of Parliament with the reflections of light in the river and fog. Then Monet said, "Without the fog, London would not be a beautiful city."
Monet's painting 'Impression, soleil levant' (Impression, Sunrise 1872) was untitled until the first show in 1874, in the Paris studio of photographer Nadar. A title was needed in a hurry for the catalogue. Monet suggested simply 'Impression'. The catalogue editor, Renoir's brother Edouard, added an explanatory 'Sunrise'. From the painting's title, art critic Louis leroy coined the term "Impressionism", which he intended to be derogatory. Monet's title came under criticism which seized upon the first word. Monet with Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, were joined by Edgar Degas, and continued to exhibit together despite the financial failure of the first show.
Impressionists slowly gained recognition after 1880, when public begun to recognize the value of their works. In 1883 Monet was able to rent a house in Giverny, in Haute-Normandie. In 1890 Monet bought the house and expanded the garden into a beautifully landscaped park with a pond. There he painted many landscapes, and his water lily pond became the favorite subject of his paintings during the next 40 years of his life. Monet outlived his second wife and first son Jean. He suffered from cataracts, which affected his vision so that his later paintings had a general reddish tone. After two cataract surgeries in 1923, Monet even repainted some of the reddish paintings. He died on December 5, 1926, and was laid to rest at the Giverny church cemetery.
"My king is the sun, my republic is water, my people are flowers and leaves," said Claude Monet. He was the first artist to present his initial impressions as completed works. In 2004, his London painting 'Le Parlement, Effet de Brouillard' (The Parliament, Effects of Sun in the Fog. 1904), sold for over $20,000,000.Painter [1877] The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train
(1915) Those of Our Land - Pierre-Auguste Renior was born on February 25, 1841, in Limoges, France. His father was a tailor and his mother was a dressmaker. In 1845 his family moved to Paris and settled near the Louvre Museum. There young Renoir had his first experience with art.
From age 13 he became an apprentice painter in a porcelain factory, where he painted for five years. At age 19 he took drawing lessons from Charles Gleyre, and in 1862 he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, a classical school of fine arts in Paris. There he met Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Frederic Bazille, the future founders of Impressionism. During the 1860's Renoir was still painting in the academic tradition, and his portrait of his mistress, Lise Trehot, was traditional enough to be accepted at the 1867 Salon. In 1869 Renoir moved in with 'Claude Monet' and Frederic Bazille. Under their influence he updated his technique and color scheme. He started using little brush-strokes and vibrant pure colors while painting mainly outdoors, 'en plein aire'.
In 1874 Renoir took part in the first exhibition of the 'Society of independent artists' in the Paris studio of photographer Nadar. Monet's painting 'Impression, soleil levant' (Impression, Sunrise 1872) was untitled until the first show in 1874. A title was needed in a hurry for the catalogue. Monet suggested "Impression" as a simple title for his painting. The catalogue editor, Renoir's brother Edouard, added an explanatory 'Sunrise', thus making "Impression: soleil levant" the official title for Monet's work. From the painting's title, art critic Louis Leroy coined the term "Impressionism", which he intended to be derogatory. Monet's title came under criticism which seized upon the first word. Renoir with Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, were joined by Edgar Degas, and Georges Seurat, and continued to exhibit together despite the financial failure of the first show.
Impressionists slowly gained recognition after 1880, when public begun to recognize the value of their works. In 1881 Renoir traveled to Algeria, then to Spain, and later to Italy to see masterpieces of Titian and Raphael in Florence and Rome. In 1882 Renoir met composer Richard Wagner at his home in Sicily, and painted his portrait. In 1883 he had his first one-man exhibition at the Paris gallery of Paul Durand-Ruel, who became his art dealer. He received commissions to paint portraits of prominent Parisians, and also made several group portraits of his friends, models, writers, and fellow artists, such as the 'Luncheon of the Boating Party' (1881). In 1887, being already famous, Renoir donated several paintings to Queen Victoria on her Golden Jubilee. At that time he worked on a big composition 'Les baigneuses' (The Bathers), for which he made a series of nude female studies representing feminine grace with masterful depiction of the soft forms and tender texture of skin. His lively, joyful paintings brought him fame and steady success.
In 1880 Renoir met Aline Chairgot. She became his model and a painting assistant. In 1885, their first son, Pierre Renoir, was born. They married in 1890, and spent much time in Essoyes, the childhood home of his wife. In 1894, while living in Montmartre in Paris, they had their second son, named Jean Renoir, who later became a famous filmmaker. His third son, Claude Renoir, was born in 1901. Family life was beneficial to Renoir's work. He became as interested in painting people as he was in painting landscapes. By the age of 50 Renoir became wealthy and famous, but his health declined. During the 1890s he developed rheumatoid arthritis and had to move to a warmer climate in the South of France. In 1907 he bought a farm at Cagnes-sur-Mer. There Renoir expanded the garden into a beautifully landscaped park and continued painting landscapes and nudes.
Renoir suffered from complications of arthritis and was wheelchair-bound during the last 20 years of his life. He also suffered from cataracts, which affected his vision so that his later paintings had a general reddish tone and softer lines. He continued to paint with a brush on a stick strapped to his arm, because he lost mobility in his fingers and in his right shoulder due to ankylosis. Renoir did not give up art, he even started making sculptures with an assistant. He died at his house in Cagnes on December 3, 1919, and was laid to rest at the Cagnes-sur-Mer church cemetery.
In 1962 his son Jean Renoir wrote 'Renoir My Father', the definitive biography of August Renoir. The value of his art has been going up. In 1990, a smaller version of Renoir's painting 'Bal au moulin de la Galette' (1876), was sold at an auction for $78,000,000.Painter (1915) Those of Our Land - Writer
- Director
- Producer
Revered by such legendary fellow directors as Ingmar Bergman and Jean Renoir, Julien Duvivier is one of the most legendary figures in the history of French cinema. He is perhaps the most neglected of the "Big Five" of classic French cinema (the other four being Jean Renoir, Rene Clair, Jacques Feyder, and Marcel Carne), partly due to the uneven quality of his work. But despite his misfires, the cream of his oeuvre is simply stellar and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as filmdom's most breathtaking masterpieces. Initially working as a stage actor, Duvivier began his movie career in 1918 as an assistant to such seminal French helmsmen as Louis Feuillade and Marcel L'Herbier. A year later, he directed his first film, "Haceldama ou le prix du sang" (1919), which was not successful and evinced nothing of the lyricism and beauty that would define the director's later work. He continued directing, however, eventually earning a job with Film D'Art, a production company founded by producers Marcel Vandal and Charles Delac. It was here, at Film D'Art, that Duvivier was to really find his way at an artist. In the 1930s, Duvivier's talents came into full bloom, beginning with "David Golder" in 1930. Duvivier's subsequent efforts in this decade, aided by the advent of sound in motion pictures, would establish Duvivier as one of the leading forces in world cinema. It was also in the 1930s that Duvivier began working with Jean Gabin, an actor who would appear in many of Duvivier's most career-defining films, most notably "Pepe le Moko" (1937). "Pepe" was the cracklingly entertaining story of a sly gangster and master thief (Gabin) who lives in the casbah section of Algiers. A prince of the underworld, Pepe's criminal mastery is shaken when his arch nemesis Inspector Slimane, exploits a young Parisian beauty as a ploy to capture this most elusive the casbah's crooks. The latter film made Jean Gabin an international star and also attained enough popularity and critical acclaim to earn Duvivier an invitation from MGM to direct a biopic of great director Johann Strauss, entitled "The Great Waltz" (1938). Duvivier found Hollywood agreeable and would later return there during WWII. His wartime output was of varied quality, one of the most meritorious being "Tales of Manhattan" (1942). Duvivier returned to France after the war, where he found his reputation and standing to be badly damaged by his absence during the war years. He continued to work in France for the remainder of his life, however, eventually regaining success with such films as the Fernandel vehicle "Le Petit monde de Don camilo" (1951) which as awarded a prize at the Venice Film Festival. Duvivier had just completed production on his final project, "Diaboliquement vôtre" (1967), when he was killed in an auto accident at the age of 71. Though his life and career ended with this tragic accident, his legacy lives on through his films and in the minds and hearts of many.Director (Assistant Director) (1918) Tih Minh
(1921) La terre
(1930) Au bonheur des dames
(1932) Here's Berlin (Germany)
(1935) La bandera
(1937) Christine
(1937) Pépé le Moko- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Born an illegitimate son of a wealthy physician, Abel Flamant, and a working class mother, Francoise Perethon. He was raised by his mother and her boyfriend, who later became her husband, Adolphe Gance. Pressured by his parents, he began his working career as a lawyer's clerk in hopes of achieving a prosperous career in law. But his passion for the theatre lured him to the stage and at 19 he made his stage debut in Brussels. Within a year, after returning to Paris, he made his screen debut as an actor in Moliere (1909). He made other film appearances in minor roles as well as taking a crack at screen-writing.
Living in poverty during this period in his life, he suffered from starvation and tuberculosis. But he regained strength enough to form a production company in 1911, and made his debut as a director that same year with La Digue (1911). However, like the rest of his early films, it was unsuccessful and as a consequence, he returned to the stage with a five-hour long play, Victoire de Samothrace, which he wrote himself. It was due to be a success with Sarah Bernhardt in the lead role, but the sudden outbreak of WWI canceled the premiere.
Due to his ill health he was kept out of most of the war. During this time he managed to achieve a profitable status at the Film d'Arte company as a director. He turned out such successful films as Mater Dolorosa (1917) and La Dixieme Symphonie (1918), but he gained a reputation at Film d'Arte as a wild experimentalist - using such outlandish techniques for the time as close-ups and dolly shots. As a consequence, he was frequently at odds with the management. At the point of being one of the most well known film directors in France, he entered the tail end of WWI. He was discharged shortly after due to mustard gas poisoning. But he requested that he be redrafted so that he could shoot on-location battle scenes for his latest idea for a film J'accuse! (1919). The three-hour long, triangular melodrama about the "futility of war" became a box-office smash all over Europe. It was Europe's first fictional film to show authentic footage of the catastrophes of war. Being an experimentalist, he employed a rapid cutting technique that is said to have influenced such Russian filmmakers as Sergei Eisenstein and Pudovkin.
During the making of his next film, The Wheel (1923), he and his second wife, Ida Danis, fell ill with the flu. Although he recovered and worked on the film in stages, his wife did not - she died shortly before the film's release. Grieved by death of his wife and friend, actor Severin Mars, who starred in many of his films, he fled Europe and sailed to America. The trip turned out to be a nationwide promotion of I Accuse. He recalls that he did not like the Hollywood filmmaking system and refused an offer from MGM to direct for a hefty sum. The happiest moment was D.W. Griffith's praise of I Accuse at a screening in New York.
Returning to France, Gance released the final cut of La Roue to much acclaim, especially for its montage sequence. His most important and outstanding film is Napoleon (1927). Considered to be a dictionary of all the techniques of the silent film era and an introduction to some techniques to come. It was shot using a three-camera panoramic process that involves the use of three projectors and a curved windscreen to create a deep, vast panoramic look. A couple thousand extras were used to fill the shots. Being the experimentalist that he was, he shot scenes in color, more than a decade before Hollywood would make The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939) in color, and in 3-D. But he decided against incorporating them into the film in fear that they would jar the audience's attention. The film received a standing ovation the night of its premiere at the Paris Opera. It was then shown only in 8 European cities due to the expensive and technical apparatus and large size theatre needed to project the film. In the US, MGM purchased the distribution rights and elected not to show the film using the three projector windscreen equipment, claiming that it would interfere with the introduction of sound. Nonetheless, that doesn't explain why MGM decided to drastically cut the film and rearrange it. As a consequence, the general release in the US was a not a success, audiences laughed at the film and critics panned it. It was the last film of Gance's career that was to possess that magnitude of creativeness. His sound films were mainly done for studios, where he lacked the ability to be creative. He would return to Napoleon a couple times in his career. In 1934 he added stereophonic sound effects to the original film using a Pictographe. He had criticized film historians throughout the rest of his life for not giving his film Napoleon (1927) the attention it deserves. Finally, British director Kevin Brownlow spent two decades doing the arduous task of putting the film back together in its original format. It was first screened in London using the three projector format with a score composed and conducted by Carl Davis in 1979. Francis Ford Coppola produced the screenings at the Radio City Hall in the US, in 1981 to much acclaim. His father Carmine Coppola, composed and conducted the score in the US. Finally, Napoleon (1927) and its director received the respect they deserve.Director (Actor) (1919) J'accuse!
(1923) The Wheel
(1927) Napoleon
(1928) The Fall of the House of Usher
(1930) Autour de la fin du monde
(1931) End of the World
(1931) End of the World
(1935) Napoléon Bonaparte
(1938) I Accuse
(1943) Captain Fracasse
(1960) The Battle of Austerlitz
(1972) Bonaparte et la révolution- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Léonce-Henri Burel was born on 23 November 1892 in Indre, Loire-Atlantique, France. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Diary of a Country Priest (1951), A Man Escaped (1956) and Mother (1925). He died on 21 March 1977 in Mougins, Alpes-Maritimes, France.Cameraman (1919) J'accuse!
(1921) La terre
(1922) Coster Bill of Paris
(1923) The Wheel
(1925) Salammbo
(1925) Mother (Switzerland)
(1927) The Prince of Adventurers
(1927) Napoleon
(1935) Napoléon Bonaparte
(1951) Diary of a Country Priest
(1952) The Truth of Our Marriage
(1956) A Man Escaped
(1959) Pickpocket
(1962) The Trial of Joan of Arc
(1972) Bonaparte et la révolution- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Séverin-Mars was born on 21 February 1873 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. He was an actor and director, known for The Wheel (1923), Macbeth (1915) and La dixième symphonie (1918). He died on 17 July 1921 in Courgent, Yvelines, France.Actor (1919) J'accuse!
(1923) The Wheel- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Henri Pouctal was born on 21 October 1860 in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne, France. He was a director and actor, known for La dame aux camélias (1912), L'instinct (1916) and Volonté (1917). He died on 2 February 1922 in Paris, France.Director (1920) Travail- Simone Genevois was born on 13 February 1912 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France. She was an actress, known for La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d'Arc (1929), Simone (1918) and Napoleon (1927). She was married to Jacques Pathé and André Conti. She died on 16 December 1995 in Ascona, Switzerland.Actress (1920) Travail
(1927) Napoleon
(1929) Saint Joan the Maid - Director
- Writer
- Producer
Marcel L'Herbier was born on 23 April 1888 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for L'inhumaine (1924), Le bonheur (1934) and Sacrifice d'honneur (1935). He was married to Marcelle Pradot. He died on 26 November 1979 in Paris, France.Director (1920) L'homme du large
(1924) The Inhuman Woman
(1926) The Living Dead Man
(1928) L'Argent
(1929) Autour de l'argent
(1931) Le parfum de la dame en noir- Director
- Writer
- Costume Designer
Claude Autant-Lara was born on 5 August 1901 in Luzarches, Val-d'Oise, France. He was a director and writer, known for Devil in the Flesh (1947), The Crossing of Paris (1956) and The Red and the Black (1954). He was married to Ghislaine Autant-Lara. He died on 5 February 2000 in Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes, France.Director (Assistant Director, Actor) (1920) L'homme du large
(1924) The Inhuman Woman
(1924) At 3:25
(1926) Nana
(1930) Construire un feu
(1946) Beauty and the Beast
(1949) Occupe-toi d'Amélie..!
(1952) The Seven Deadly Sins
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Louis Delluc was born on 14 October 1890 in Le Buisson-de-Cadouin, Dordogne, France. He was a director and writer, known for Fumée noire (1920), L'inondation (1924) and The Woman from Nowhere (1922). He was married to Ève Francis. He died on 22 March 1924 in Paris, France.Film Critic (Director) (1921) Fièvre- Director
- Writer
André Antoine was born on 31 January 1858 in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France. He was a director and writer, known for La terre (1921), Mademoiselle de La Seiglière (1921) and The Swallow and the Titmouse (1924). He died on 19 October 1943 in Le Pouliguen, Loire-Atlantique, France.Director (Writer) (1921) La terre- Production Designer
- Set Decorator
- Art Department
Robert Mallet-Stevens was born on 24 March 1886 in Paris, France. He was a production designer and set decorator, known for L'inhumaine (1924), Miracle of the Wolves (1924) and La ronde de nuit (1925). He was married to Andrée Léon-Berheim. He died on 8 February 1945 in Paris, France.Architect (Set Decorator, Costume Designer) (1921) The Three Musketeers
(1924) Miracle of the Wolves
(1924) The Inhuman Woman
(1927) The Chess Player- Jean Forest was born on 25 September 1912 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Mother (1925), Tovaritch (1935) and Mother of Mine (1926). He died on 27 March 1980.Actor (1922) Coster Bill of Paris
(1925) Mother (Switzerland) - Director
- Actor
- Writer
Maurice de Féraudy was born on 3 December 1859 in Joinville-le-Pont, Val-de-Marne, France. He was a director and actor, known for A Very Long Engagement (2004), The Next Karate Kid (1994) and La Vie En Rose (2007). He was married to Eugénie Lainé. He died on 12 May 1932 in Paris, France.Actor (1922) Coster Bill of Paris- Anatole France, the 1921 Nobel laureate for literature, was born Jacques Anatole Thibault in Paris on April 16, 1844, the son of a Paris book dealer. He attended the Parisian boys' school Collège Stanislas, where he received a classical education, and later matriculated at the École des Chartes. For 20 years after finishing his education, he worked at various positions, including the post of assistant librarian of the French Senate from 1876 to 1890, before devoting himself full-time to writing. He was able to write even when he worked, and in his life-time in which he became the premier French man of letters, he produced a vast output of novels, as well as works in every genre. A story-teller in the French classical style, his literary precursors were Voltaire and Fénélon. His urbane skepticism and enlightened hedonism were in the spirit and tradition of the French enlightenment of the 18th century. His epicurean philosophy was limned in his 1895 book of aphorisms, "The Garden of Epicurus."
France's first great success was the novel "Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard (1881), which was honored by the Académie Française. France later became a member of the Académie in 1896. He published an autobiographical novel in 1885, "Le Livre de mon ami" ["My Friend's Book"], which he followed up with "Pierre Nozière" (1899), "Le Petit Pierre" (1918), and "La Vie au fleur" (1922) ["The Bloom of Life"].
France was the literary critic on the "Le Temps" newspaper, and his reviews were published in a four-volume collection entitled "La Vie littéraire" [On Life and Letters] between 1888 and 1892. It was in this period that France wrote historical fiction about past civilizations, focusing particularly on the transition from paganism to Christianity. He published "Balthazar" (1889), a story of the conversion of one of the Magi, and "Thaïs" (1890), about the conversion of an Alexandrian courtesan. In 1891, he published "L'Étui de nacre" ["Mother of Pearl"], the story of a hermit and a faun. It was during this period that the classicist France reacted strongly against Emile Zola's naturalism.
Approximately half of France's output appeared in periodicals and newspapers. The style of his novels was rooted in elegance and a subtle irony. "La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque" ["At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque], a historical novel about life in 18th century France, was published in 1893. It proved to be the most celebrated of France's novels; that same year, he used the central character of the novel, the Abbé Coignard, in "Les Opinions de Jérôme Coignard." The Abbé again appeared in "Le Puits de Sainte Claire" ["The Well of Saint Claire"], a collection of stories published in 1895.
With "Le Lys rouge" ["The Red Lily"], a tragic love story published in 1894, France returned to contemporary fiction. In 1896, he began a cycle of prose works focused on the character of Professor Bergeret, one of his most famous literary creations, in the "Histoire contemporaine," published between 1896 and 1901.
He protested the unjust conviction of Captain Alfed Dreyfuss for treason and the anti-semitism of the French establishment that permitted his persecution, and developed an empathy for socialism. After the Dreyfus Affair, in which he came out in support of Zola, Dreyfus' great champion, France's work became more engaged socially and slanted increasingly towards political satire. In 1908, he published a satire about the Dreyfus Affair, "L'Île des pingouins" ["Penguin Island"]. Also that year, his biography of Joan of Arc was published. His other major works of his later period include "Les Dieux ont soif (1912) ["The Gods are Athirst"], a novel about the French Revolution, and "La Révolte des anges" (1914) ["The Revolt of the Angels].
Anatole France was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921, "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament." In the presentation Speech by E.A. Karlfeldt, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, the author of historical novels about the transition from paganism to Christianity was praised for limning "a faith purified by healthy doubts, by the spirit of clarity, a new humanism, a new Renaissance, a new Reformation."
Karlfeldt would go on to praise rance as "the faithful servant of truth and beauty, the heir of humanism, of the lineage of Rabelais, Montaigne, Voltaire, [and ]Renan," but first, he would honor him as embodying the best of French civilization and letters:
"Sweden cannot forget the debt which, like the rest of the civilized world, she owes to French civilization," Karlfeldt said. "Formerly we received in abundance the gifts of French Classicism like the ripe and delicate fruits of antiquity. Without them, where would we be? This is what we must ask ourselves today. In our time Anatole France has been the most authoritative representative of that civilization; he is the last of the great classicists. He has even been called the last European. And indeed, in an era in which chauvinism, the most criminal and stupid of ideologies, wants to use the ruins of the great destruction for the building of new walls to prevent free intellectual exchange between peoples, his clear and beautiful voice is raised higher than that of others, exhorting people to understand that they need one another. Witty, brilliant, generous, this knight without fear is the best champion in the sublime and incessant war which civilization has declared against barbarism. He is a marshal of the France of the glorious era in which Corneille and Racine created their heroes.
France used the occasion to himself honor the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, the Swedish Prime Minister Karl Hjalmar Branting, a diplomat who worked for disarmament and helped draft the Geneva Protocol, a proposed international security system mandating arbitration between belligerent nations. France also denounced the Versailles Treaty as being unjust and a continuation of the Great War and called for the instillation of common sense among diplomats lest Europe meet its doom. After France received his Prize from the King of Sweden, after all the laureates had again ascended the rostrum, France turned to Professor Walther Nernst, the German Nobel laureate for chemistry, and shook his hand cordially for an extended time. The gesture profoundly moved the crowd as the symbolism of the meeting of the heart (literature) and the head (science) and of two nations so recently engaged in waging a ruinous war against each other was not missed. The audience applauded the gesture as a symbol of reconciliation between France, the nation, and Germany.
Anatole France's writings were put on the Index of Forbidden Books of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1920s. Between 1925 and 1935, France's collected works were published in 25 volumes.
Anatole France died on October 12, 1924 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France and was buried in the Ancient Cemetery of Neuilly, Hauts-de-Seine.Writer (1922) Coster Bill of Paris - Ivy Close began a dynasty that has now covered four generations of the history of Cinema and Television. She married the photographer Elwin Neame (1885-1923) and reared two sons Ronald Neame (1911-2010), a successful cinematographer, screenwriter, producer and director and Derek Neame (1915-1979), an author who scripted several films. Her grandson Christopher Neame (1942- ) and her great-grandson Gareth Neame (1967- ) have become successful producers. Her second husband was the Australian-born make-up artist and former stuntman Curly Batson, who died in 1957.Actress (1923) The Wheel
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
American painter and artist in various media who participated in a few films. He helped found the Dada movement and was the prime American participant in the Surrealist movement. An American expatriate to Paris in the 1920s, he was a member of the so-called "Lost Generation" of creative minds associated with that time and place. His art encompassed not only painting but photography and collage. He acted for René Clair in one film and was assistant director to Marcel Duchamp on another. He directed a few films of a surrealist nature in the 1920s.Director (Cameraman, Assistant Director, Actor) (1923) Return to Reason
(1924) Ballet mécanique
(1924) Entr'acte
(1926) Anemic Cinema- Director
- Writer
- Production Manager
Jean Epstein was born on 25 March 1897 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), Mauprat (1926) and Le lion des Mogols (1924). He died on 2 April 1953 in Paris, France.Director (1923) The Faithful Heart
(1924) La belle Nivernaise
(1928) The Fall of the House of Usher
(1929) Finis terrae
(1934) Chanson d'Armor
(1938) Les bâtisseurs
[1946] The Intelligence of a Machine (Book)
(1947) Le tempestaire- Blanche Montel was born on 14 August 1902 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France. She was an actress, known for Three Musketeers (1932), La belle Nivernaise (1924) and L'Arlésienne (1930). She was married to Henri Decoin. She died on 31 March 1998 in Luzarches, Val-d'Oise, France.Actress (1924) La belle Nivernaise
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Henry Roussel was born on 8 September 1870 in Paris, France. He was an actor and director, known for Violettes impériales (1924), Visages voilés... âmes closes (1921) and La faute d'Odette Maréchal (1920). He died on 7 February 1946 in Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.Director (1924) Her People- Cinematographer
Jules Kruger was born on 12 July 1891 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was a cinematographer, known for Behold the Man (1935), La fin du monde (1931) and End of the World (1931). He died on 13 December 1959 in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France.Cameraman (1924) Her People
(1927) Napoleon
(1928) L'Argent
(1931) End of the World
(1931) End of the World
(1935) La bandera
(1935) Napoléon Bonaparte
(1937) Pépé le Moko
(1972) Bonaparte et la révolution- Actress
- Soundtrack
Raquel Meller was born in Tarazona, Zaragoza, Aragón (Spain) from a very poor family. Since her parents could not afford her education she was sent to live with an aunt who was a nun at a convent. At age 12 she returned with her parents who were then residing in Barcelona and shortly after began working as a seamstress in a shop that catered to many show business personalities. In 1907 she left the shop to start singing "cuplés" ("couplets") using the name "La Bella Raquel". Although these songs were considered indecent and were initially performed in venues attended by men only, Raquel with her beauty and charismatic presence raised the "cuplé" genre to a more respectable art making it acceptable to families. After a love affair with a German named Moeller, Raquel adopted his last name changing it to Meller to make it sound Spanish.
The quality of her voice was a source of debate, but for her fans and theater-goers in general Meller could do no wrong. "Raquel Meller is a genius." exclaimed at one point Sarah Bernhardt. Songs such as "La Violetera", "El Relicario", "Flor de Te", "Mimosa", "Flor del Mal", etc., became standards thanks to her interpretation. She was the first Spanish popular singer to succeed in Europe and the Americas including the United States where her recordings enjoyed great popularity and her live concerts in 1926 broke box-office records in the most important American cities. At the height of her popularity she endorsed several products as well as backing many articles named after her from dolls, to perfume, all of which supplemented her already high income making her one of the wealthiest women in the world.
She was also a hit on the big screen, starring in important films such as_Violettes impériales (1923)_and Carmen (1926). Meller filmed mostly in France but in 1927 she starred in a short sound feature for Movietone Fox in New York in which she sang four of her hits. Charles Chaplin, a big Meller fan, offered her the part of Josephine de Beauharnais in a film he was planning based on life of Napoleon Bonaparte but Raquel could not find time for the project. A few years later Chaplin wanted her for the part of the blind girl in _City Lights (1931)_but Raquel was now involved in a play written especially for her by Maurice Rostand in which she could achieve her dream of becoming a serious stage actress in a respectable Paris theater. Chaplin replaced her with Virginia Cherrill but he kept Raquel's theme "La Violetera" in the film music score taking credit for its composition which resulted in a law suit by the song's composer Jose Padilla.
Raquel continued performing and was a big draw in vaudeville circuits well into the 1940s. Her private life was followed with great interest by the media and the public. She was imperious, ruthless (especially with the competition), lovable, funny, temperamental, generous, witty and totally egomaniac. Her love life was not as turbulent as many believed but among her many admirers there were royalty, heads of state, intellectuals, painters and assorted VIPs. In 1919 she married celebrated Guatemalan journalist diplomat Enrique Gomez Carrillo and adopted a baby girl in Buenos Aires naming her Elena. However after a couple of years of honeymoon bliss came a collision of both temperaments and they divorced in 1922. She had another short lived marriage in 1940 this time to a French businessman named Edmond Sayac and they were together long enough to adopt a baby boy whom they named Jordi Enric.
By then Raquel Meller's career was over, only to surface again in 1957 in the wake of Sara Montiel's box-office success in the films_El último cuplé (1957)_ and_La violetera (1958)_,in which Montiel revived Raquel's greatest hits. As with other rivals in the past, Meller became Montiel's nemesis, but by then a new generation that simply did not know her just plain ignored her. She attempted several comebacks but all were critical and commercial failures. Bitterly, she retired and stayed out of the public eye until her death in Barcelona on July 26, 1962. A plan to film her story starring Sara Montiel (of course) was foiled by Meller's relatives, but some of her story made it to the big screen anyway in Montiel's vehicle La reina del Chantecler (1962).
Most of Raquel's recordings, considered lost for years, have been trickling out on CDs. However her films remain unedited in home video formats and are seldom shown in silent films revivals or festivals. Raquel Meller has been the subject of many books and articles in Europe. There are streets named after her in France and Spain, while her statue commands a plaza with her name in Barcelona. It is inexcusable that film preservationists and the cinemateques of France, Spain and the United States have shown little or no interest in Meller's filmography. Without these films it is impossible to assess Raquel's personal charisma which was the source of her enormous success and fame.Actress (Singer) (1924) Her People- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Alexandre Volkoff was born on 27 December 1885 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. He was a director and writer, known for Amore imperiale (1941), La maison du mystère (1923) and Kean (1924). He died on 22 May 1942 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.Director (Assistant Director) (1924) Edmund Kean: Prince Among Lovers
(1927) The Prince of Adventurers
(1927) Napoleon- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Ivan Mozzhukhin was a legendary actor of Russian silent films, who escaped execution by the Soviet Red Army and had a stellar career in Europe.
He was born Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin on September 26, 1889, in the village of Kondol, Saratov province, Russia (now Penza province, Russia). His father was general manager of the large estate of Prince Obolensky. Mozzhukhin attended all-boys Gymnasium in Penza, then studied at the Law School of Moscow University for two years. There he was active in amateur stage productions and joined a touring troupe, then returned to Moscow and was a member of the Vvedensky Narodny Dom Theatre. He made his film debut in 1908. From 1911-14 he worked in the films of producer Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. Mozzhukhin shot to fame after his leading role as violinist Trukhachevsky in Kreytserova sonata (1911) by director Pyotr Chardynin, based on the eponymous story by Lev Tolstoy. He starred as Adm. Kornilov in Defense of Sevastopol (1911) and in about 30 more silent films made by Chardynin, Yevgeny Bauer and Khanzhyonkov.
By the mid-'10s Mozzhukhin was the indisputable leading star of the Russian cinema, having such film partners as 'Diaghilev''s ballerina Vera Karalli, and his own wife Nathalie Lissenko. His facial expressions were studied by many actors and directors as exemplary acting masks. From 1915-19 he worked in about 40 films by directors Yakov Protazanov and Viktor Tourjansky under the legendary Russian producer Joseph N. Ermolieff. His best known films of the Russian period were Queen of Spades (1916) and Otets Sergiy (1918), both by Protazanov. Mozzhukhin's incredible popularity brought him significant wealth, but that came with attendant pressure; he also became famous for his numerous love affairs with his admirers.
In 1918 the Russian Communist revolution had already caused irreversible destruction of cultural and economic life, and Mozzhukhin moved under protection of the anti-Communist White Russian forces in Yalta, Crimea. There he worked for Ermolieff during the Russian Civil War. Meanwhile, Soviet government leader Vladimir Lenin ordered the seizure and nationalization of all film studios and their films, properties and other assets to use for making Soviet propaganda' most of Mozzhukhin's 70 films were arrested and / or censored. Lev Kuleshov used fragments of Mozzhukhin's films to demonstrate his editing ideas. Mozzhukhin's face was used in Kuleshov's psychological montage to illustrate the principles of film editing, known today as the Kuleshov Effect.
Mozzhukhin suffered terribly from the loss of his property after the Communist revolution. However, he continued working in Yalta with Ermolieff until the end of 1919. When the Red Army advanced into Crimea and broke through to Yalta, however, he joined the White Russians and fled the now-communist Russia at the end of the Civil War. He managed to save a few rolls of his silent films, which he took aboard the Greek steamer Pantera\ in February of 1920. He left Russia together with his film partners from the Ermolieff film company, his wife Nathalie Lissenko, actors Nicolas Koline and Nicolas Rimsky, actress Nathalie Kovanko, cinematographer Nikolai Toporkoff, director Viktor Tourjansky and producer Joseph N. Ermolieff. They emigrated together to Paris, France, and started a Russian-French film company.
In 1926 Mozzhukhin got a lucrative contract with Universal Pictures in Hollywood, and was cast as the male lead in Surrender (1927). However, his stint in Hollywood was not a success, due to numerous pressures from the studio's producers who insisted on his taking the stage name John Moskin. In addition, Mozzhukhin and his female co-star Mary Philbin did not get along at all, and that was quite apparent from the footage that they had no chemistry whatever. Ats Hollywood at that time was just making the transition from silent films to talkies, Mozzuhkhin--who did not speak English--was not offered any further roles, and he returned to Europe. Soon Aleksandr Vertinskiy began to comment that Mozzhukhin's troubles in Hollywood were the results of a conspiracy by the powers in Hollywood to destroy a strong competitor.
By 1939 Mozzhukhin had made over 100 films in Russia, France, Italy, the US, Germany and Austria. He continued starring in the talkies of the 1930s, although not as successfully as he had during the silent era. He also wrote screenplays for several of his films, and planned to direct a film in France, but the project was abandoned because he contracted a severe form of tuberculosis and was hospitalized. Mozzhukhin died of tuberculosis in a Paris clinic on January 17, 1939, and was laid to rest in the Russian Cemetery at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, in Paris, France.
Mozzhukhin's home in Kondol, Penza province, is now restored as the public Memorial Museum of Ivan Mozzhukhin. There, since the 1990s, the museum has annual showing of Mozzhukhin's films, also known as Mozzhukhin's Festivities.Actor (1924) Edmund Kean: Prince Among Lovers
(1926) The Living Dead Man
(1927) The Prince of Adventurers- Producer
- Production Manager
- Art Director
Alexandre Kamenka was born on 18 May 1888 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a producer and production manager, known for Le brasier ardent (1923), Le lion des Mogols (1924) and Grisou (1938). He died on 3 December 1969 in Paris, France.Producer (1924) Edmund Kean: Prince Among Lovers
(1928) The Horse Ate the Hat
(1931) À Nous la Liberté
(1936) The Lower Depths- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Fernand Léger was born on 4 February 1881 in Argentan, Orne, France. He was a director and actor, known for L'inhumaine (1924), Ballet mécanique (1924) and Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947). He was married to Nadia Leger and Jeanne-Augustine Lohy. He died on 17 August 1955 in Gif-sur-Yvette, Essonne, France.Director (Assistant Director) (1924) Ballet mécanique
(1924) The Inhuman Woman- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Raymond Bernard was born on 10 October 1891 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Anne-Marie (1936), Adieu... Chérie (1946) and La maison vide (1921). He was married to Jeanne Salley. He died on 11 December 1977 in Paris, France.Director (1924) Miracle of the Wolves
(1927) The Chess Player- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marie Glory was born on 3 March 1905 in Mortagne-au-Perche, Orne, France. She was an actress, known for Monte Cristo (1929), La femme idéale (1934) and ...And God Created Woman (1956). She died on 24 January 2009 in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France.Actress (1924) Miracle of the Wolves
(1928) L'Argent
(1929) Autour de l'argent
(1956) ...And God Created Woman- Édith Jéhanne was born on 9 February 1899 in Châteauroux, Indre, France. She was an actress, known for The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927), Tarakanova (1930) and The Chess Player (1927). She died on 14 June 1949 in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, Ille-et-Vilaine, France.Actress (1924) Miracle of the Wolves
(1927) The Chess Player
(1927) The Love of Jeanne Ney - Composer
- Music Department
Henri Rabaud was born on 10 November 1873 in Paris, France. He was a composer, known for Miracle of the Wolves (1924), The Chess Player (1927) and Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995). He was married to Marguerite Mascart. He died on 11 September 1949 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.Composer (1924) Miracle of the Wolves
(1927) The Chess Player- Writer
- Director
- Producer
René Clair was born on 11 November 1898 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Man About Town (1947), Beauties of the Night (1952) and The Grand Maneuver (1955). He was married to Bronia Clair. He died on 15 March 1981 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.Director (Writer) (1924) Entr'acte
(1924) At 3:25
(1928) The Horse Ate the Hat
(1930) Miss Europe
(1931) Le Million
(1931) À Nous la Liberté- Actor
- Writer
Francis Picabia, one of the founders of Dada movement who owned a massive collection of vintage cars and yachts, was known for his witty art, absurdist humour, and made innovative artworks that are now selling for as much as $1,600,000.
He was born François Marie Martinez Picabia on January 22, 1879, in Paris, France, of a Cuban diplomat father, and a French mother. From 1895-1897 he studied art at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. He evolved to painting in the Impressionist style of Alfred Sisley and exhibited his works at the Salon des Independantes of 1903, along with the works of, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cezanne among other post-impressionists.
He found inspiration in the works of Henri Matisse and changed his manner of painting to Fauvism. By 1911, Picabia developed his highly personal fusion of Fauvism and Cubism. At that time he became a friend of Guillaume Apollinaire, who introduced him to Marcel Duchamp and Fernand Léger. They had meetings at the studio of Jacques Villon in the village of Puteaux, near Paris, and became known as the Puteaux Group. Picabia also developed a more lyrical variation of Cubism which was named Orphism by Guillaume Apollinaire. From 1913-1920 Picabia and Duchamp with Man Ray were involved with the Dadaist movement. They instigated and participated in Dada shows in New York, Barcelona, Zurich, Berlin, Cologne, and Paris, creating scandals to promote their art. In 1918 a Dada show was attended by André Breton, Paul Éluard, and Louis Aragon, starting another round of cross-influence among several highly creative people. At that time Picabia was making hard, brassy pictures and picture-objects, proposing the machine as a model of human behavior. He humorously associated mechanistic forms with sexual allusions to produce shocking satires of bourgeois values.
In 1921, Picabia finally quit Dada and returned to figurative art. He remained a highly individualistic figure in the art world of the 1920's. Picabia laughed at the Surrealist Manifesto by 'Andre Breton' and the Surrealists in the last issue of 391, a Dada magazine that he published until 1924. He quit publishing the magazine because for him, new technologies of cinema, the moving images, had opened an illusion-producing tool with a greater power than a still image. With the declaration of 'Instantaneism' Picabia transfered the spirit of Dada into another phase of artistic production involving the concepts of the machine, the speed, and the "now" as ways to change the norms and codes of social conventions.
During the 1930s Picabia developed a close friendship with Gertrude Stein. At that time he was writing poetry and painted in an abstract style. He left Paris during the occupation in the Second World War, and lived in the south of France. By the end of WWII, he returned to Paris, and resumed painting and writing poetry. In 1949, he had a retrospective show of his works in Paris. Francis Picabia was known for his inventiveness, absurdist humour, and dis-concerning changes of style. He died on November 30, 1953, in Paris. A Picabia painting was recently sold for as much as $1.6 million.
Francis Picabia claimed to prefer machines to the old world of sentiment. He inherited wealth, which bought him a major collection of automobiles and yachts. He owned as many as 160 vintage and rare cars. He was also involved in making exotic car designs and used some of his cars in films. In René Clair's Dada film Entr'acte (1924), Picabia is squeezed into a tiny Citroen together with composer Erik Satie.Painter (Actor) (1924) Entr'acte- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Erik Satie was born on 17 May 1866 in Honfleur, Calvados, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Badlands (1973), The November Man (2014) and Mr. Nobody (2009). He died on 1 July 1925 in Paris, France.Composer (1924) Entr'acte
(1963) The Fire Within
(1968) The Immortal Story- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Born in Brazil in 1897, Alberto Cavalcanti began his film career in France in 1920, working as writer, art director and director. He directed the avant-garde documentary Nothing But Time (1926) ("Nothing but Time"), a portrait of the lives of Parisian workers in a single day. He moved to England in 1933 to join the GPO Film Unit under John Grierson, working as a sound engineer (Night Mail (1936)) then as a producer. He went to work for Ealing Studios during the war, initially as head of Michael Balcon's short film unit until 1946, again working as an art director, producer and director. His notable films as director include Champagne Charlie (1944), The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947) and I Became a Criminal (1947). After the latter film he moved back to Brazil. There he made Song of the Sea (1953) ("The Song of the Sea") and A Real Woman (1954) ("Woman of Truth") with his own production company. However, his progressive political views caught the attention of the the right-wing Brazilian authorities, and Cavalcanti thought it prudent to return to Europe in 1954. He eventually settled in France, where he continued his work in television. He died in Paris in 1982.Director (Assistant Director, Art Director) (1924) The Inhuman Woman
(1926) Nothing But Time
(1926) The Living Dead Man- Actress
- Producer
- Costume Designer
Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois. She was destined to be perhaps one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era. Her personality and antics in private definitely made her a favorite with America's movie-going public. Gloria certainly didn't intend on going into show business. After her formal education in the Chicago school system and elsewhere, she began work in a department store as a salesclerk. In 1915, at the age of 18, she decided to go to a Chicago movie studio with an aunt to see how motion pictures were made. She was plucked out of the crowd, because of her beauty, to be included as a bit player in the film The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915). In her next film, she was an extra also, when she appeared in At the End of a Perfect Day (1915). After another uncredited role, Gloria got a more substantial role in Sweedie Goes to College (1915). In 1916, she first appeared with future husband Wallace Beery. Once married, the two pulled up stakes in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles to the film colony of Hollywood. Once out west, Gloria continued her torrid pace in films. She seemed to be in hit after hit in such films as The Pullman Bride (1917), Shifting Sands (1918), and Don't Change Your Husband (1919). By the time of the latter, Gloria had divorced Beery and was remarried, but it was not to be her last marriage, as she collected a total of six husbands. By the middle 1920s, she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. It has been said that Gloria made and spent over $8 million in the '20s alone. That, along with the six marriages she had, kept the fans spellbound with her escapades for over 60 years. They just couldn't get enough of her. Gloria was 30 when the sound revolution hit, and there was speculation as to whether she could adapt. She did. In 1928, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role of Sadie Thompson in the film of the same name but lost to Janet Gaynor for 3 different films. The following year, she again was nominated for the same award in The Trespasser (1929). This time, she lost out to Norma Shearer in The Divorcee (1930). By the 1930s, Gloria pared back her work with only four films during that time. She had taken a hiatus from film work after 1934's Music in the Air (1934) and would not be seen again until Father Takes a Wife (1941). That was to be it until 1950, when she starred in Sunset Boulevard (1950) as Norma Desmond opposite William Holden. She played a movie actress who was all but washed up. The movie was a box office smash and earned her a third Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, but she lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950). The film is considered one of the best in the history of film and, on June 16, 1998, was named one of the top 100 films of all time by the American Film Institute, placing 12th. After a few more films in the 1950s, Gloria more or less retired. Throughout the 1960s, she appeared mostly on television. Her last fling with the silver screen was Airport 1975 (1974), wherein she played herself. Gloria died on April 4, 1983, in New York City at the age of 84. There was never anyone like her, before or since.Actress (1925) Madame Sans-Gêne (USA)- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Henri de la Falaise was a French aristocrat brought to America after meeting and falling in love with Gloria Swanson while working as her interpreter on Madame Sans-Gêne (1925). A World War I veteran of the French army, a few years prior to his work on the film he had been awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government for bravery during World War I. Although a Marquis, he was not a rich man, and his new wife's fortune far outstripped his own when they were married in early 1925.
Gloria found him a minor job in the film industry, but the difference in their professional standings was difficult to surmount. Swanson drifted into the arms of film producer Joseph P. Kennedy (the father of American President John F. Kennedy); meanwhile, Henri had already met--and possibly begun an affair with--his future wife, actress Constance Bennett. After their marriage in 1931, he became a low-key film director and producer, before returning to obscurity with his third wife, Emmita. Swanson helped to smuggle the couple from besieged France during WWII. Henri again fought in the war and was awarded a second Croix de Guerre. Swanson described him as the love of her life, and the abortion of his child in 1928 at the height of her fame because of studio pressures one of her greatest tragedies.Director (Translator) (1925) Madame Sans-Gêne (USA)- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Henri Fescourt was born on 23 November 1880 in Béziers, Hérault, France. He was a director and writer, known for Les misérables (1925), Monte Cristo (1929) and Mathias Sandorf (1921). He died on 9 August 1966 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.Director (1925) Barricade (Les Miserables Part II)- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he began to make movies; he wanted to make a star of her. They separated in 1930, although he remained married to her until 1943. His next partner was Marguerite Renoir, whom he never married, although she took his name. He left France in 1941 during the German invasion of France during World War II and became a naturalized US citizen.Director (Actor) (1926) Nana
(1931) Baby's Laxative
(1931) La Chienne
(1932) Night at the Crossroads
(1932) Boudu Saved from Drowning
(1935) Toni
(1936) The Lower Depths
(1936) The Crime of Monsieur Lange
(1937) La Grande Illusion
(1938) La Marseillaise
(1938) La Bête Humaine
(1939) The Rules of the Game
(1946) A Day in the Country
(1950) The Ways of Love
(1951) The River (USA | India)
(1952) The Golden Coach
(1955) French Cancan
(1959) Experiment in Evil
(1959) Picnic on the Grass
(1968) Louis Lumière- Catherine Hessling was born on 22 June 1900 in Moronvilliers, Marne, France. She was an actress, known for Nana (1926), Little Red Riding Hood (1930) and Whirlpool of Fate (1925). She was married to Jean Renoir. She died on 28 September 1979 in La-Celle-Saint-Cloud, Yvelines, France.Actress (Model) (1926) Nana
- Alexandre Koubitzky was an actor, known for Napoleon (1927). He died on 13 January 1937 in Moscow, USSR.Singer (Actor) (1927) Napoleon
(1935) Napoléon Bonaparte - Actor
- Make-Up Department
- Director
Acho Chakatouny was born in 1895 in Yerevan, Russian Empire [now Armenia]. He was an actor and director, known for Michel Strogoff (1926), L'Atalante (1934) and Napoleon (1927). He died on 4 April 1957 in Paris, France.Actor (1927) Napoleon
(1934) L'Atalante
(1935) Napoléon Bonaparte- Actress
- Soundtrack
At age 16, Annabella was chosen by Abel Gance to appear in Napoleon (1927). In the 30s, she became a star of French movies. She made movies in numerous other countries, before being called to Hollywood in 1938, where she met and married Tyrone Power. She remained in the USA until 1947. Then she attempted a comeback in France. She retired from show business in 1954.Actress (1927) Napoleon
(1931) Le Million
(1935) La bandera
(1935) Napoléon Bonaparte
(1938) Hotel du Nord
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood- Harry Krimer was born on 10 March 1896 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Napoleon (1927), Les vagabonds magnifiques (1931) and Le billet de logement (1932). He died on 4 January 1991 in Saint-Josse-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France.Actor (1927) Napoleon
(1935) Napoléon Bonaparte
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995– ) The Music of Light - Additional Crew
- Actor
Simon Feldman was born on 15 July 1890 in Odessa, Ukraine. He was an actor, known for Fantômas (1932), Napoleon (1927) and Le prince charmant (1925). He died on 6 November 1992 in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France.Technical Director (1927) Napoleon
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995– ) The Music of Light- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Viktor Tourjansky was a Russian film director who emigrated after the communist revolution of 1917, and worked in France, Germany, USA, UK, and Italy.
He was born Viacheslav Konstantinovich Turzhanski on March 4, 1891, in Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire (now Kiyiv, Ukraine). Studied painting and art history. In 1911 he moved to Moscow and studied acting under Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. In 1912-1914, Tourjansky worked for Aleksandr Khanzhonkov. He made his film debut as an actor in 'Tragedia pereproizvodstva' (1912), and co-starred in 'Brothers' (1913) by director Pyotr Chardynin, and in several other silent films. From 1914-1919 he worked in Yalta for Joseph N. Ermolieff, owner of one of the most successful Russian silent-film companies. At that time Tourjansky directed over twenty silent films in Russia.
Tourjansky suffered terribly from the loss of his property after the Communist Revolution of 1917. However, he continued working in Yalta with Ermolieff until the end of 1919. But when the Red Army advanced in Crimea and reached Yalta, he joined the White Russians and fled the communist Russia at the end of the Civil War. Tourjansky managed to save a few rolls of his silent films, which he took aboard the Greek steamer "Pantera" in February of 1920. He left Russia together with his film partners from the Ermolieff film company, actors Ivan Mozzhukhin, Nicolas Koline and Nicolas Rimsky, actress Nathalie Lissenko, his wife Nathalie Kovanko, cinematographer Nikolai Toporkoff and producer Joseph N. Ermolieff. They emigrated together to Paris, France, and started a Russian-French film company.
In Paris, Tourjansky changed his first name to Viktor (Victor) and continued his collaboration with Russian producers Alexandre Kamenka and Joseph N. Ermolieff. During 1920s and 1930s he also collaborated with producer Gregor Rabinovitch and directed films for various French, British, and German studios. Tourjansky often filmed his wife, Russian actress Nathalie Kovanko. She starred in fourteen of his films made in Russia and Europe. Eventually Tourjansky separated from Nathalie Kovanko, and later she returned to the Soviet Union.
Bethween WWI and WWII, Tourjansky directed over thirty French, British, American, and Franco-German films. He collaborated with director Abel Gance on the innovative film Napoleon (1927). In 1927 Tourjansky came to Hollywood. There, from 1927 - 1930, he worked at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios where he re-united with his former teacher, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, who visited from Russia. Tourjansky was co-director of the Academy Award-winning film Tempest (1928), albeit he was uncredited. In Hollywood Tourjansky was hired to direct After Midnight (1927), but he questioned the talent of Norma Shearer, mentioning that the "Queen of MGM" had a cross-eyed stare, without knowing that she was about to marry Irving Thalberg, the powerful MGM producer. Tourjansky was fired from the project, and was sent to co-direct a western, The Adventurer (1927), on location in the inhospitable Mohave Desert. After he suffered for several weeks working in the sandy, windy, and hot desert, and dealing with nerve-wrecking logistical problems, Tourjansky did not achieve the result he wanted for the film. He became disillusioned and dissatisfied, and never wanted to direct another Hollywood film.
Back in Paris, Tourjansky opened his own office and re-established himself among the French-Russian film community. He was tirelessly wooing investors for his new projects, networking among intellectuals and businessmen of all backgrounds, including famous Russian émigrés in Paris, such as Aleksandr Kuprin and Yevgeni Zamyatin, as well as French, German, and British producers. Eventually his persistence and determination produced successful results. In 1931, Tourjansky spotted then unknown 21-year-old Simone Simon on the terrace of the Café de la Paix. He made her a famous actress after their first film together, The Unknown Singer (1931) (The Unknown Singer 1931). Tourjansky and Simon worked together again in Les yeux noirs (1935).
In 1936 he was hired by UFA-Film and moved to Potsdam-Babelsberg, then to Munich, Bavaria. There he worked for the rest of his life as film director and producer. Tourjansky made success with The Blue Fox (1938) (The Blue Fox 1938), a comedy starring Swedish actress Zarah Leander, who was rumoured to be a Soviet-controlled agent and a mistress of Adolf Hitler. Tourjansky himself had several personal meetings with the Reichskanzler during the late 1930s, and was summoned to make several propaganda films, such as Enemies (1940). As a consequence his reputation among the cosmopolitan film community had suffered.
After the Second World War, he lived in Munich, and worked for various film studios with various results. His last film made in the Nazi Germany, a criminal drama Orient-Express (1944), was released after the war. In 1950, he directed Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte (1950) (The Man Who Wanted to Live Twice 1950), a film starring the famous Russian émigré actress Olga Tschechowa. Later Tourjansky directed period epic films, such as Herod the Great (1959), Prisoner of the Volga (1959), The Cossacks (1960), and The Pharaohs' Woman (1960), some of which were considered among his better works. During the 1950s and 1960s he was wintering in Italy and worked there as producer and writer under the artistic name Arnaldo Genoino. Viktor Tourjansky died on August 13, 1976, in Munich, Germany.Assistant Director (Director) (1927) Napoleon- Director
- Writer
- Producer
The great neglected independent film-maker Jean Dreville had no formal education - he was educated privately at home. He showed an early interest in photography and art and his first jobs were as photographer, poster designer and draftsman. His break into films came in 1928 when he made his first short films. In the 1930's, when films about Russia were popular with supporters of the Popular Front, he got on the bandwagon with 'Troika on the White Piste' (1938) and 'Sleepless Nights of St Petersburg' (1938). After the Second World War he had a big success with 'Heavy Water Battle' (1948), a spy thriller made in documentary style set in Nazi-occupied Norway, about Allied attempts to obliterate the factory producing heavy water to power V2 rockets. In 1960 he co-directed the fine French-Soviet aviation spectacular, Normandie-Niemen. In his later career he turned increasingly to comedy.Director (Actor) (1927) Napoleon
(1928) The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1929) Autour de l'argent
(1952) The Seven Deadly Sins
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995– ) The Music of Light- Actor
- Director
Pierre Blanchar was born on 30 June 1892 in Philippeville, Constantine, France [now Skikda, Algeria]. He was an actor and director, known for Crime and Punishment (1935), The Man from Nowhere (1937) and Life Dances On (1937). He was married to Marthe Vinot. He died on 21 November 1963 in Suresnes, France.Actor (1927) The Chess Player
(1933) Zero for Conduct
(1937) Christine
(1946) Pastoral Symphony- Director
- Writer
- Producer
The daughter of a cavalry captain, she was raised by a grandmother in Paris, where she studied various forms of art with an emphasis on music and the opera. In 1905 she married engineer-novelist Marie-Louis Albert-Dulac and under his influence veered toward journalism. As one of the leading radical feminists of her day, she was editor of La Française, the organ of the French suffragette movement. She also doubled as theater and cinema critic of the publication and became increasingly enamored with film as an art form. In 1915 she formed, with her husband, a small production company, Delia Film, and began directing highly inventive, small-budget pictures. Chronologically, she was the second woman director in French films, after Alice Guy, a contemporary of Georges Méliès. With La fête espagnole (1920) and her masterpiece, _Souriante Madame Beudet, La (1922)_, Dulac emerged as a leading figure in the impressionist movement in French films. In the late 20s, she was an important part of the "second avant-garde" of the French cinema with the surrealistic _Coquille et le Clergyman, La (1927)_ and a number of other experimental films. In these as well as in her theoretical writing, her goal was "pure" cinema, free from any influence from literature, the stage, or even the other visual arts. She talked of "musically constructed" films, or "films made according to the rules of visual music." Dulac was also instrumental in the development of cinema clubs throughout France in the mid-20s. Sound put an end to her experimentations and her career as a director. From 1930 until her death she was in charge of newsreel production at Pathé, then at Gaumont.Director (Film Critic) (1928) The Seashell and the Clergyman
(1929) Arabesque- Writer
- Director
- Editor
The illegitimate son of a Danish farmer and his Swedish housekeeper, Carl Theodor Dreyer was born in Copenhagen on the 3th of February, 1889. He spent his early years in various foster homes before being adopted by the Dreyers at the age of two. Contrary to popular belief (perhaps nourished by the fact that his films often deal with religious themes) Dreyer did not receive a strict Lutheran upbringing, but was raised in a household that embraced modern ideas: in his spare time the adoptive father was an avid photographer, and the Dreyers voted for The Danish Social Democrates. When he was baptized the reasoning was culturally, not religiously motivated. Dreyer's childhood was an unhappy one. He did not feel his adoptive parents' love (especially the mother), and longed for his biological mother, whom he never knew.
After working as a journalist, he entered the film industry, and advanced from reading scripts to directing films himself. In the silent era his output was large, but it quickly diminished with the arrival of the talkie. In his lifetime he was recognized as being a fanatical perfectionist amongst producers, and thus difficult to work with. His career was dogged by problems with the financing of his films, which led to large gaps in his output - and after the critics, too, denounced Vampyr (1932), he returned to journalism in 1932, and became a cinema manager in 1952 - though he still made features up to the mid- 1960s, a few years before his death. His films are typically slow, intense studies of human psychology, usually of people undergoing extreme personal or religious crises. He is now regarded as the greatest director ever to emerge from Denmark.Director (Writer) (1928) The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1932) Vampyr- Renée Jeanne or Maria Falconetti, born in Pantin (not in Sermano, Corsica, as many film dictionaries wrongly attest) on July 21, 1892 and died in Buenos Aires on December 12, 1946, is a French actress of theater and cinema. Joining the troupe of the Odeon theater in 1916, she made her debut in "l'Arlésienne", and played the heroines of Saint-Georges de Bouhélier "The Life of a Woman", 1919. She made a short passage at the Comédie Française (1924-1925), where she plays Rosine among others in "La Dame aux camélias" and "Lorenzaccio". His last role before a long stay in South America will be that of Andromache in "The Trojan War will not happen", Jean Giraudoux. She remains world famous for having embodied in the cinema the main role of "The Passion of Joan of Arc" by Carl Theodor Dreyer.Actress (1928) The Passion of Joan of Arc
- Art Director
- Production Designer
- Art Department
Art director and painter, trained in stage design in Düsseldorf and at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin. Hermann Warm was an important figure in the German expressionist cinema of the 1920's and early 30's. He was instrumental in changing traditional concepts of using painted backdrops in favour of three-dimensional constructions. He was also among the first to petition producers to give the art director copies of film scripts, in order for pre-production sketches to be made.
Warm began in films in 1912 with Deutsche Vitaskop, after working as a theatrical designer. Following a stint designing stage sets for the German Army in Vilnius, he joined Decla-Bioskop as full art director in 1919, often working in close collaboration with Walter Röhrig. Some of Warm's best work was for the directors Fritz Lang, (designing the famous sets for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)), Henrik Galeen (The Student of Prague (1926)) and Carl Theodor Dreyer (Vampyr (1932)). By the late 1930's, Warm found regular film work as a free-lancer more difficult to come by, having repeatedly failed to obtain a long-term contract from Ufa. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1941. Though he returned to Germany six years later, he never again achieved the same level of artistic success.Set Designer (1928) The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1932) Vampyr- Writer
- Director
- Actor
The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the university there, where his close friends included Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca.
After moving to Paris, Buñuel did a variety of film-related odd jobs in Paris, including working as an assistant to director Jean Epstein. With financial assistance from his mother and creative assistance from Dalí, he made his first film, the 17-minute Un chien andalou (1929), in 1929, and immediately catapulted himself into film history thanks to its shocking imagery (much of which - like the sliced eyeball at the beginning - still packs a punch even today). It made a deep impression on the Surrealist Group, who welcomed Buñuel into their ranks.
The following year, sponsored by wealthy art patrons, he made his first feature, the scabrous witty and violent L'Age d'Or (1930), which mercilessly attacked the church and the middle classes, themes that would preoccupy Buñuel for the rest of his career. That career, though, seemed almost over by the mid-1930s, as he found work increasingly hard to come by and after the Spanish Civil War he emigrated to the US where he worked for the Museum of Modern Art and as a film dubber for Warner Bros.
Moving to Mexico in the late 1940s, he teamed up with producer Óscar Dancigers and after a couple of unmemorable efforts shot back to international attention with the lacerating study of Mexican street urchins in The Young and the Damned (1950), winning him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.
But despite this new-found acclaim, Buñuel spent much of the next decade working on a variety of ultra-low-budget films, few of which made much impact outside Spanish-speaking countries (though many of them are well worth seeking out). But in 1961, General Franco, anxious to be seen to be supporting Spanish culture invited Buñuel back to his native country - and Bunuel promptly bit the hand that fed him by making Viridiana (1961), which was banned in Spain on the grounds of blasphemy, though it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
This inaugurated Buñuel's last great period when, in collaboration with producer Serge Silberman and writer Jean-Claude Carrière he made seven extraordinary late masterpieces, starting with Diary of a Chambermaid (1964). Although far glossier and more expensive, and often featuring major stars such as Jeanne Moreau and Catherine Deneuve, the films showed that even in old age Buñuel had lost none of his youthful vigour.
After saying that every one of his films from Belle de Jour (1967) onwards would be his last, he finally kept his promise with That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), after which he wrote a memorable (if factually dubious) autobiography, in which he said he'd be happy to burn all the prints of all his films- a classic Surrealist gesture if ever there was one.
Director (Assistant Director, Writer) (1928) The Fall of the House of Usher
(1929) Un Chien Andalou
(1930) L'Age d'Or
(1956) That Is the Dawn
(1967) Belle de Jour
(1969) The Milky Way
(1972) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
(1974) The Phantom of Liberty
(1977) That Obscure Object of Desire- It was not obvious from the start that Pierre Alcover, a hefty John Blunt, would become a stage and movie actor. In fact he seems to be one of his kind for they are few those who made the transition from warehouseman at Les Halles (Paris' traditional central market) to winner of a first prize at the Conservatoire de Paris. But Alcover was both able to carry a 200 kilo load on his broad back as to tell the lines of famous playwrights on the boards of l'Odéon, the prestigious theater where he debuted in 1916. On the silver screen, his imposing stature and his gruff tone predisposed him to violent roles, on either side of the law. He was either a bandit (L'affaire du courrier de Lyon (1937), Life Dances On (1937) Louis Jouvet 's accomplices) or a cop (the inefficient policeman in Marcel Carné's comedy Drôle de drame (1937), also with Jouvet). A bad boy (in Fritz Lang's only French film Liliom (1934)), a head spy (in Jacques Robert's La chèvre aux pieds d'or (1925), En plongée (1926), a convict (with a heart) in the touching La petite Lise (1930) directed by Jean Grémillon, he was the head warden in Criminel (1933), the French version of The Criminal Code (1930), the chief of the Czar's police in Pierre Billon's Au service du tsar (1936) and even Sanson the executioner in Sous la terreur (1935)! Anyway, whether a lawbreaker or a law enforcer, Pierre Alcover brought the same conviction (no pun intended) to the role he was given to play. One of the great character actors of the 1920s and 1930s.Actor (1928) L'Argent
(1929) Autour de l'argent
(1931) Le Million
(1937) Christine - Born in Berlin, Germany. After her role in Metropolis (1927) she made a string of movies in which she almost always had the starring role, easily making the transition to sound films. Her last film was An Ideal Spouse (1935) which was released in 1935. She died on June 11th 1996 of heart failure in Ascona, Switzerland.Actress (1928) L'Argent
(1929) Autour de l'argent - Writer
- Additional Crew
Charles A. Lindbergh was born on 4 February 1902 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a writer, known for The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Coast to Coast in 48 Hours (1929) and 40,000 Miles with Lindbergh (1928). He was married to Anne Morrow Lindbergh. He died on 26 August 1974 in Kipahulu, Maui, Hawaii, USA.Aviator 1927 Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic (1928) L'Argent- Writer
- Art Department
- Actor
Surrealist-turned-catholic painter Dalí worked on various movies as well. While a member of the French surrealist group, he co-wrote Un chien andalou (1929) and L'Age d'Or (1930) with Luis Buñuel. The latter may have marked the beginning of a long-lasting quarrel with the surrealists when Dalí did not agree on Buñuel's anti-clericalism. While Dalí's painting style became increasingly conventional, he worked on projects with Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he wrote the dream sequence of Spellbound (1945). Plans on a movie with the Marx Brothers were dropped. The money Dalí earned in Hollywood and elsewhere, along with his racism and his fascination for Europe's fascist dictators, put an end to his relations with the (at that time mostly trotskyist) surrealists, whose leading figure André Breton since nicknamed Dalí "Avida Dollars" (anagram).Painter (1929) Un Chien Andalou
(1930) L'Age d'Or- Director
- Writer
- Production Designer
Marco de Gastyne was born on 15 July 1888 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Douchka (1964), Madonna of the Sleeping Cars (1928) and La châtelaine du Liban (1926). He was married to Choura Milena and Mary Christian. He died on 8 November 1982 in Paris, France.Director (1929) Saint Joan the Maid- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Jean Vigo had bad health since he was a child. Son of anarchist militant Miguel Almareyda, he also never really recovered from his father's mysterious death in jail when he was 12. Abandoned by his mother, he passed from boarding school to boarding school. Aged 23, through meetings with people involved in the movies, he started working in the cinema, then bought a camera and shot his first film, a short documentary, À Propos de Nice (1930) then, two years later, Taris (1931) (aka Taris champion de natation). These two very personal works frighten the producers, and it lasted two years before someone showed some interest in his project of a children movie. This would be his masterpiece, Zero for Conduct (1933) (aka Zero for Conduct), a subversive despiction of an authoritarian boarding school, which directly came from Vigo's memories. The film is straightaway censored for its "anti-French spirit." In despair, he nevertheless shot L'Atalante (1934), a romantic and realistic story of a young couple beginning their life together in a barge. He died just afterward of septicemy. His work would not be recognized before 1945. This accursed filmmaker is now admired for his poetic realism.Director (1930) À Propos de Nice
(1933) Zero for Conduct
(1934) L'Atalante- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
Boris Kaufman, the Oscar-winning cinematographer who shot Jean Vigo's oeuvre and helped introduce a neo-realistic style into American films, was born on August 24, 1897, in Bialystok, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. The youngest son of librarians, the Soviet directors Denis Kaufman (a.k.a. Dziga Vertov, meaning "Spinning Top") and Mikhail Kaufman were his older brothers. Dziga Vertov was one of the great innovators in Soviet cinema, the father of the agit-prop film, who directed Man with a Movie Camera (1929), and his brother Boris imitated his beloved camera tricks when he shot the documentary À Propos de Nice (1930) for Vigo.
The Kaufmans' parents decided to move to Moscow at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and Denis went to school in St. Petersburg. In 1917, Russia experienced two revolutions, one which overthrew the Czar and the later, the "October" Revolution, which overthrew the bourgeois democracy and established the Bolshevik Party as the new rulers of what they called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Denis and his brother Mikhail were enamored of the October Revolution and volunteered their services as filmmakersto the new socialist state.
During the revolutionary period, Kaufman's parents moved back to Poland, which after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, became independent from the Soviet Union. They took along Boris, who was much younger than his brothers. Poland and the Soviet Union eventually fought a border war, and the young Kaufman's parents sent him to Paris to be educated. Their son Denis, now Dziga Vertov, whose new name connoted the speed of the new medium and of his new life as a revolutionary artist, as well as the revolutions of a film reel, become a cinema philosopher as well as director. Dziga Vertov issued manifestos calling for filmmakers to take a formative role in shaping the new socialist order, replacing "dream films" with movies articulating "Soviet actuality."
Boris Kaufman, who eventually emigrated to France in 1927, later credited his brother Mikhail with his education as a cameraman. "Mikhail taught me cinematography by mail," he told Columbia University Professor Erik Barnouw.
After the Kaufman brothers' parents died, Mikhail had taken on a paternal responsibility for Boris, writing him regularly, and informing him about his film work. Though the brothers never met again after 1917, they did stay in touch via the mails throughout their lives. Boris viewed his brother's films in Paris and was drawn to similar work with Jean Vigo.
A photographer himself, Vigo had acquired a movie camera in order to make films, but he couldn't master it. Vigo had the great luck of meeting and collaborating with Kaufman, who was to evolve into one of the masters of black-and-white cinematography. It was Kaufman who is responsible for the wintry style of L'Atalante (1934), Vigo's sole feature film, as well as the imagery of his other filmed worked, such as Zero for Conduct (1933). As a cinematographer, Kaufman was instrumental in helping Vigo realize his vision on film. The films Kaufman shot for Vigo are both romantic and surreal, infused with a dream-like quality.
Vigo, a consumptive, died of tuberculosis in October 1934, ending their great collaboration that had started with À Propos de Nice (1930), and had continued with the documentary about the swimmer Jean Taris, Taris (1931). The latter documentary featured underwater visuals captured by Kaufman that underscored the dreamy quality of swimming, of being underwater. Vigo and Kaufman enhanced this dreaminess by utilizing slow-motion photography, to serve as correlative for the natural slowing of the body in swimming and to elucidate the glow of skin under water.
The collaborators moved on to fiction with Zero for Conduct (1933), a short film drawn from Vigo's memories of an authoritarian boarding school. The movie influenced the directors of the French New Wave, particularly François Truffaut and his The 400 Blows (1959), and was the inspiration for Lindsay Anderson's If.... (1968). The great classic "L'Atalante" (1934) finished up the collaboration, one of the greatest between a director and a cinematographer. The realization of Vigo's genius would have been unthinkable without Kaufman.
Kaufman shot Lucrezia Borgia (1935) for Abel Gance, but with the passing of Vigo, he temporarily lost his direction. He shot two shorts for the avant-garde director Dimitri Kirsanoff and was the director of photography on four films with director Léo Joannon.
After serving in the French Army during the sitzkrieg and the Battle of France, Kaufman emigrated to Canada as a war refugee. He was hired by John Grierson to be a cameraman for the National Film Board of Canada. Kaufman moved to the United States in 1942, where he eventually became a citizen. Locked out of feature work by the guild system, Kaufman supported himself shooting short subjects and documentaries before Elia Kazan chose him to shoot On the Waterfront (1954). The Kazan film, for which Kaufman won an Academy Award for cinematography, was his first American feature.
Kazan had wanted Kaufman, with his roots in the documentary, as a collaborator as he planned to inject realism on the order of the Italian neo-realists into American film. Kazan, in his autobiography "A Life" says it was his collaboration with Kaufman that taught him that cinematographers were artists in their own right. (Interestingly, being a former Russian/Soviet citizen and the brother of two prominent Soviet directors, Kuafman was under suspicion during the Cold War of communist sympathies. It was likely that his correspondence with his brother in the USSR was read by U.S. intelligence agents. His lack of career progression until Kazan picked him to shoot On the Waterfront (1954) may have been a result of anti-red paranoia. Thus, only someone like Kazan -- one of the few directors, and the most prominent filmmaker to testify as a friendly witness before the Houe Un-American Activities Committee -- having established his anti-communist credentials, could have employed Boris Kaufman during the height of the post-World War II Red Scare. And, of course, the film Kaufman shot for Kazan is a not-so-thinly veiled anti-communist apologia for informing.)
Kaufman also photographed Baby Doll (1956) (for which he received a second Oscar nomination) in B+W and Splendor in the Grass (1961) in color for Kazan. He was the director of photography on Sidney Lumet's first film, 12 Angry Men (1957), and he also shot The Fugitive Kind (1960), Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) and the gritty The Pawnbroker (1964) for Lumet, all in B+W.
Interestingly, Kaufman shot the landmark nudist film Garden of Eden (1954), which led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision (Excelsior Pictures Corp. v. Regents of University of New York State), in which the majority held that the film was not obscene or indecent, and that nudity was not itself obscene. A decade later, he shot Nobel Prize-winning author Samuel Beckett's sole foray into film, Film (1965), which was directed by Alan Schneider from Beckett's screenplay. These two movies are testimonials to his adventuresome and iconoclastic spirit, rooted in the experimental cinema.
Boris Kaufman retired in 1970, after shooting for Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970) for Otto Preminger. He died on June 24, 1980, in New York, New York.Cameraman (1930) À Propos de Nice
(1933) Zero for Conduct
(1934) L'Atalante- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Jean Cocteau was one of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer, and actor. He began writing at 10 and was a published poet by age 16. He collaborated with the "Russian Ballet" company of Sergei Diaghilev, and was active in many art movements, but always remained a poet at heart. His films reflect this fact. Cocteau was also a homosexual, and made no attempt to hide it. His favorite actor was his close friend Jean Marais, who appeared in almost every one of his films. Cocteau made about twelve films in his career, all rich with symbolism and surreal imagery. He is now regarded as one of the most important avant-garde directors in cinema.Director (Poet, Writer, Actor) (1930) The Blood of a Poet
(1945) Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
(1946) Beauty and the Beast
(1950) Orpheus
(1951) Venom and Eternity
(1954) Bonnes vacances
(1960) Testament of Orpheus
(1988) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown- Dita Parlo was born on 4 September 1906 in Stettin, Pomerania, Germany [now Szczecin, Zachodniopomorskie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for The Grand Illusion (1937), L'Atalante (1934) and Melody of the Heart (1929). She was married to Frank Guetal. She died on 12 December 1971 in Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine, France.Actress (1930) Au bonheur des dames
(1934) L'Atalante
(1937) La Grande Illusion
(1950) Justice Is Done - Director
- Writer
- Producer
Augusto Genina was born on 28 January 1892 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Cielo sulla palude (1949), Bengasi (1942) and L'assedio dell'Alcazar (1940). He was married to Carmen Boni. He died on 18 September 1957 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.Director (1930) Miss Europe- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Georg Wilhelm Pabst is considered by many to be the greatest director of German cinema, in his era. He was especially appreciated by actors and actresses for the humane way in which he treated them. This was in contrast to some of his contemporaries, such as Arnold Fanck, who have been characterized as martinets.Writer (1930) Miss Europe
(1931) Comradeship (Germany)- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mary Louise Brooks, also known by her childhood name of Brooksie, was born in the Midwestern town of Cherryvale, Kansas, on November 14, 1906. She began dancing at an early age with the Denishawn Dancers (which was how she left Kansas and went to New York) and then with George White's Scandals before joining the Ziegfeld Follies, but became one of the most fascinating and alluring personalities ever to grace the silver screen. She was always compared to her Lulu role in Pandora's Box (1929), which was filmed in 1928. Her performances in A Girl in Every Port (1928) and Beggars of Life (1928), both filmed in 1928, proved to all concerned that Louise had real talent. She became known, mostly, for her bobbed hair style. Thousands of women were attracted to that style and adopted it as their own. As you will note by her photographs, she was no doubt the trend setter of the 1920s with her Buster Brown-Page Boy type hair cut, much like today's women imitate stars. Because of her dark haired look and being the beautiful woman that she was, plus being a modern female, she was not especially popular among Hollywood's clientele. She just did not go along with the norms of the film society. Louise really came into her own when she left Hollywood for Europe. There she appeared in a few German productions which were very well made and continued to prove she was an actress with an enduring talent. Until she ended her career in film in 1938, she had made only 25 movies. After that, she spent most of her time reading and painting. She also became an accomplished writer, authoring a number of books, including her autobiography. On August 8, 1985, Louise died of a heart attack in Rochester, New York. She was 78 years old.Actress (1930) Miss Europe- Writer
- Director
- Producer
German film director E.A. Dupont was an influential critic and newspaper columnist before breaking into the film industry. He wrote several screenplays and worked as a story editor for Richard Oswald before turning to directing in 1917. Over the next eight years Dupont became a respected exponent of the German expressionist movement. He was particularly acclaimed for his film Variety (1925), which stood out for brilliant lighting effects and fluid camera work. Encouraged by his success, Dupont left Decla-Bioskop and joined Universal in Hollywood, but only completed one film. Crossing the Atlantic again, he signed with British National Pictures in 1928. He briefly became their leading director, again demonstrating his visual flair with two prestige productions: Moulin Rouge (1928) and Piccadilly (1929). The latter was BIP's most expensively made picture up to this time.
After the advent of sound Dupont's career began to falter. His first "talkie", the "Titanic" story Atlantic (1929)-- shot in both English and French-- was an expensive flop, due mainly to poor dialogue and stilted performances. His next two ventures, respectively in France and Germany, had an even worse critical reception. Dupont next tried his luck in Hollywood. After 1933 he worked at different times for Universal, Paramount and Warner Brothers. Critical success proved elusive, as almost all of his assignments were low-budget second features. After being fired from the set of Hell's Kitchen (1939) for slapping a junior member of the cast who had mocked his accent, Dupont spent most of the 1940s in Hollywood as a talent agent and publicist. He eventually resumed his directing career with an offbeat minor film noir, The Scarf (1951), and a watchable precursor to The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Steel Lady (1953). Among his last films was the notorious sci-fi stinker The Neanderthal Man (1953). He died of cancer in December 1956.Director (1930) Atlantis (England, UK)- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Additional Crew
Among the foremost technical innovators in his field, a charter member of the American Society of Cinematographers, English-born Charles Rosher had initially aimed for a diplomatic career. Fortunately, he chose a different career option and attended lessons in photography at the London Polytechnic in Regent Street. He must have been a keen student, for he found himself apprenticed to noted portrait photographers David Blount and Howard Farmer, soon afterward becoming assistant to Richard Neville Speaight (1875-1938), the official Royal photographer. Having learned the art of still photography, Rosher departed England for the United States sometime in late 1908, equipped with a Williamson camera.
In 1910, Rosher found his first job in the fledgling film industry through a connection forged with an English compatriot, the pioneer producer David Horsley: as principal cameraman for Horsley's East Coast-based Centaur Film Company (which made Rosher Hollywood's first ever full-time cinematographer). Centaur was renamed Nestor Studios upon its permanent relocation to California in 1911, setting up at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. Essentially all of Rosher's early work consisted of one and two reelers, invariably made for Nestor's chief director, Al Christie. Some were comedies, many were 'quota quickie' westerns, such as The Indian Raiders (1912), for which Nestor imported genuine Indians from New Mexico.
In 1913, Rosher accompanied directors Raoul Walsh and Christy Cabanne on his famous expedition to Mexico to shoot the feature film The Life of General Villa (1914). The rebel leader Pancho Villa had agreed to grant exclusive rights to filming of his battles against the Federales by the Mutual Film Corporation, in exchange for a fee of $25,000 and 20% of all revenues from the picture. There were a number of hazards experienced by Rosher during this adventure, including capture by enemy forces, and at times coercive interference from Villa, who fancied himself as a filmmaker.
Upon his return to the other side of the border, Rosher had a brief spell with Universal (which had absorbed Nestor), followed by two years with the Lasky Feature Play Company (which later became Paramount). He then worked at United Artists from 1919 to 1928, becoming the favourite cinematographer of the company's biggest asset, Mary Pickford, lighting her in such a way that her true age never interfered with the image of the ingénue she persisted in portraying on screen. During this period, Rosher also developed his own unique visual style, which married artistry with technical know-how. He was much acclaimed for the sharpness and clarity of his photography, for the effects he achieved by combining natural and artificial light, photographing people against reflecting surfaces (glass, water), double exposure effects, split screen techniques, and so on. Rosher also patented several inventions, including a system for developing black & white film, ABC Pyro (A=pyro,B=sulfite,C=carbonate).
In 1929 Rosher became co-recipient (with Karl Struss) of the first-ever Oscar for cinematography bestowed by the Academy, for a film made at Fox: Sunrise (1927) - still regarded today as one of the finest examples of 1920's filmmaking. With its many scenes bathed in light or twilight, it has also been likened to a cinematic French impressionism. Rosher himself recalled this as one of the most difficult assignments of his career, particularly in terms of lighting such tricky scenes as the moonlit, fog-bound swamp, necessitating a very mobile camera. "Sunrise", inevitably, ended up winning the top award for 'unique and artistic production'. Two years later, after a falling out with Pickford during filming of Coquette (1929) , Rosher went his own way. He was never out of a job for long, working variously for RKO (1932-33), MGM (1930,1934) and Warner Brothers (1937-41).
Though he had made his reputation with black & white photography, Rosher easily adapted to the medium of colour. He enjoyed a major resurgence in the second half of his career, shooting some of the most sumptuous technicolor musicals (Ziegfeld Follies (1945), Show Boat (1951)) and dramas (The Yearling (1946),Scaramouche (1952)) during his tenure at MGM, which lasted from 1942 to 1954. He won his second Oscar for "Yearling" and became the only ever recipient of a fellowship by the Society of Motion Picture Engineers. Rosher retired in 1955, except for occasional lectures and guest appearances at film festivals. He settled down on a 1,600-acre plantation he had acquired at Port Antonio on Jamaica, formerly owned by Errol Flynn. He died in 1974 in Portugal, after a fall, at the respectable age of 88.Cameraman (1930) Atlantis (England, UK)- Writer
- Production Manager
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Claude Heymann was born on 13 November 1907 in Paris, France. He was a writer and production manager, known for Victor (1951), Aux frontières du possible (1971) and Adieu Paris (1952). He died on 13 April 1994 in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.Writer (Assistant Director, Art Director, Actor) (1930) L'Age d'Or
(1931) La Chienne
(1946) A Day in the Country
(1960) Shoot the Piano Player
(1995) Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood- Production Designer
- Art Director
- Set Decorator
Hungarian-born Alexandre Trauner came to Paris in 1929 to escape the anti-semitic Horty regime in his native country, and to paint. Instead, he became involved in the film industry as an assistant to the famous art director Lazare Meerson. Influenced by cubism and impressionism, he embraced the intellectual freedom in the French capital and branched out into architecture, even fashion design and tapestry. However, by the mid-30s, Trauner had worked his way up to being a motion picture production designer in his own right. He became part of a famous collaboration with the director Marcel Carné, writer Jacques Prevert and composers Joseph Kosma and Maurice Jaubert on a number of seminal French films, including Hotel du Nord (1938) and Le Jour Se Leve (1939). Trauner's meticulously researched, intricate studio sets evocatively captured not only the virile, romantic atmosphere of Paris boulevards and canals (Children of Paradise (1945) and Gates of the Night (1946)), but also a fog-enshrouded Le Havre (Port of Shadows (1938)) and a windswept Brittany coastline (Remorques (1941)).
Post-war, and having gained international recognition, Trauner became much sought-after by Hollywood directors with European assignments. His next famous partnership was with Billy Wilder who invited him to come to the U.S. where Trauner was subsequently based. He travelled to the Congo, detailing Sister Luke's hardships for Fred Zinnemann's The Nun's Story (1959), then worked on some of Wilder's best films during the next few years, creating the effective, lived-in ambiance of The Apartment (1960) and the stark cold war atmosphere of divided Berlin for One, Two, Three (1961). After that, he was back in action as art director on another romantic Parisian melodrama, Anatole Litvak's charming and moody Goodbye Again (1961). Demonstrating his versatility, he created impressive visuals of war-torn Warsaw (filmed on location) for The Night of the Generals (1967); built the most sumptuous of Victorian sets at Pinewood, replete with equally opulent Baker Street interiors, for Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970); and summoned an exotic vision of the fictional kingdom of Kafiristan for John Huston's cracking adventure yarn, The Man Who Would Be King (1975). Coming full circle, Trauner wound down his distinguished career back in France, with a darker view of Paris via the Metro and its inhabitants, in Subway (1985). He created a near-perfect replica of the Paris Blue Note Club and New York's Birdland at Studio Clair (in the Parisian suburb of Epinay-sur-Seine) for the most compelling of jazz films, 'Round Midnight (1986).
For a man who enjoyed one of the longest careers in French cinema, Trauner remained remarkably self-effacing, even after winning his Oscar (for 'The Apartment') and three Cesar Awards. He attributed much of his success to invention, and to not necessarily sticking to reality, but to be continuously "new and surprising".Set Designer (Art Director) (1930) L'Age d'Or
(1935) Carnival in Flanders
(1938) Hotel du Nord
(1938) Port of Shadows
(1939) Le Jour Se Leve
(1943) Carnaval zonder masker
(1945) Children of Paradise
(1952) The Seven Deadly Sins
(1955) Rififi
(1985) Subway- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Jacques Prévert was born on 4 February 1900 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a writer and actor, known for Children of Paradise (1945), The Score (2001) and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). He was married to Janine Tricotet and Simone Dienne. He died on 11 April 1977 in Omonville-la-Petite, Manche, France.Writer (Actor) (1930) L'Age d'Or
(1934) L'Atalante
(1936) The Crime of Monsieur Lange
(1938) Port of Shadows
(1939) Le Jour Se Leve
(1943) Carnaval zonder masker
(1945) Children of Paradise- Additional Crew
A French inventor, Professor Henri Chretien developed the anamorphic wide-screen process that resulted in CinemaScope. Although similar systems had been patented earlier, Chretien developed his during World War I for use in tank periscopes. In the 1920s he applied it to film in Construire un feu (1930) and other shorts directed by the innovative French director Claude Autant-Lara. Chretien named his process "hypergonar" (from gonos=generation ?) and his lens an "anamorphoser". However, Chretien's process languished until 20th Century-Fox president Spyros Skouras acquired rights to it in 1952. Fox personnel further developed the process, and the US optical firm Bausch & Lomb perfected the lens to reduce distortion. The first film to use the refined CinemaScope process was The Robe (1953) in 1953. For creating the process, Chretien received a 1953 Academy Award.Inventor of Hypergonar (Anamorphic Widescreen) (1930) Construire un feu- Jack London was the best-selling, highest paid and most popular American author of his time.
He was born John Griffith Chaney, on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco. He was raised by his mother Flora Wellman and his stepfather John London (he didn't know who his father was until his adulthood). After graduation from a grammar school he worked 12 to 18 hours a day at a cannery. Jack had a special relationship with his black foster mother, Virginia (Jenny) Prentiss. She loaned him some money and in 1891 he bought a sloop and became an oyster pirate. A few months later he joined the California Fish Patrol. In 1893 he joined the crew of a sealing schooner, bound for Japan. His first story, "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan", based on his sailing experiences, was published in November of 1893. Still unemployed, he became a tramp and hoboed around the country. In 1894 he was arrested for vagrancy and spent a month in jail, where he was a witness to "awful abysses of human degradation." His entire life, after these events, became a race to erase the traumatizing memories of his childhood and youth.
He continued his self-education at the Oakland Public Library. Among his readings were works by Gustave Flaubert and Lev Tolstoy. In 1896 he was admitted to the University of California, but after a year was forced to leave due to financial reasons. In 1897 he went to the Canadian Yukon and joined the Klondike Gold Rush. There he experienced all the hardships of uncivilized life and suffered from--among other things--severe frostbite, scurvy, malaria and dysentery. This left his health seriously impaired. London's struggles for survival inspired "To Build a Fire" (1902), which is considered his best short story. Writing became his ticket out of poverty; a way, in his words, to "sell his brains". His first marriage to Bess Maddern began as a friendship, not love, and ended 3 years later, leaving her with two daughters. His second marriage to Charmian Kittrdge, an editor, lasted until his death.
"The Call of the Wild" (1903) was his biggest success. "The Sea-Wolf" (1904) was turned into the first full-length American movie. Later came "The Iron Heel" (1908), a premonition of the Orwellian world, and the autobiographical "Martin Eden" (1909). The highest-paid writer of his time, he earned over $2 million yet he was always broke. In 1905 he bought a ranch in California, where he designed the first concrete silo in the state. His books provided operating income. He once said, "I would write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate." His ecological approach and effort to adapt the ideas of Asian sustainable agriculture was ahead of his time. In 1913 his Big House was ruined by a devastating fire and Jack was financially and mentally hurt. He built a small cottage and made big plans, but he lived only 3 more years. His 1400-acre ranch is now a National Historic Landmark, named Jack London State Historic Park. The writer's cottage was preserved by his wife Charmian, who lived there until her death in 1955.
His changing views and philosophy were often misunderstood as he grew out of his own mistakes. At one time he wrote, "I have been more stimulated by [Friedrich Nietzsche] than by any other writer in the world." Later London disregarded the "superman" theory of Nietzsche, calling himself Nietschze's "intellectual enemy." His readings of Carl Jung contributed to his complex philosophy. His other influences ranged from Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson to Charles Darwin, Aldous Huxley and Karl Marx. While sympathizing with the Mexican revolution in "The Mexican", he wrote differently about it when he was sent to Mexico as a reporter in 1914. By age 40, somewhat disillusioned, he resigned from the Socialist party and from various clubs. During his last years London was in extreme pain, caused by complications from kidney failure (uremia is recorded on his death certificate). He was laid to rest at his ranch according to his will: "And roll over me a red boulder from the ruins of the Big House."Writer (1930) Construire un feu - Vanda Gréville was born on 10 January 1908 in Kensington, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Der Ball (1931), Le bal (1931) and A Gentleman of Paris (1931). She was married to Edmond T. Gréville. She died on 26 December 1997 in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, England, UK.Actress (1931) End of the World
(1931) Le Million - Georges Feydeau was born on 8 December 1862 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for The Girl from Maxim's (1933), Ooh La La! (1968) and La vida en broma (1950). He was married to Marie-Anne Carolus-Duran. He died on 5 June 1921 in Paris, France.Writer (1931) Baby's Laxative
(1949) Occupe-toi d'Amélie..! - Actress
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
Lilian Harvey was born on January 19th, 1906 in London. Her mother was English and her father was German. When she was eight her family moved to Berlin shortly before the outbreak of WW1. She spent much of the war at school in Switzerland where she broadened her knowledge of languages and classical dance.
After graduating high school in Berlin, she worked in theatre revues before debuting in her first film "Der Fluch" for Robert Land. After many roles in silent films, UFA found great use for her acting, dancing and language skills in many famous light operettas made with the advent of sound. These highly popular films (usually co-starring Willy Fritsch, with whom she became irrevocably associated in the public's mind as the romantic dream-team of the European cinema) were usually made in three different languages at once. The cast would be switched around her for the various takes in German, French and English (Laurence Olivier had his first film role in one of her vehicles).
Her most successful film, 1931's "Der Kongress Tanzt"/"Le congress s'amuse"/"Congress Dances" led to a contract in Hollywood with the Fox Film Company. She dissolved this contract after a few pictures, walking out on a role that was filled by then-unknown Alice Faye and returning to UFA to be with director Paul Martin, with whom she was romantically involved. The Nazi regime had come to power in her absence and Lilian Harvey found it difficult to work under Goebbels.
She was instrumental in helping those persecuted by the Nazis escape until her film popularity waned and she was forced to escape as well. She eventually landed in the USA and spent most of WW2 in Los Angeles working as a volunteer nurse. Her former directors and co-workers like Michael Curtiz and Billy Wilder remained social contacts, but the stigma of having been UFA's biggest star of the early thirties kept her from reigniting her own film career. She did theatre work and continued to work on European stages after the war. She received war reparations in the early sixties and lived on the Riviera until her death on July 27th, 1968.Actress (1931) Le congrès s'amuse (Germany)- Writer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
René Fauchois was born on 31 August 1882 in Rouen, France. He was a writer and actor, known for Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées (1938), Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) and Mlle. Desiree (1942). He was married to Camille Jourlait, Lucie Caffaret and Odette Lévi. He died on 10 February 1962 in Paris, France.Actor (1932) Boudu Saved from Drowning