Quantcast
Channel: European Film Star Postcards
Viewing all 4109 articles
Browse latest View live

Francine Mussey

0
0
French film actress Francine Mussey (1897-1933) appeared in several French and German films. Her career began in the silent film era of the 1920s and ended in 1933 when she committed suicide by ingesting poison at age 35.

Francine Mussey
French postcard in the Les Vedettes de l'Écran series by Editions Filma, no. 101. Photo: C. Prochazka, Vincennes.

Fatal resolution


Francine Mussey was born in the 18th arrondissement of Paris as Marcelle Fromholt in 1897. She made her debut in the silent film L'épave/The Pavement (Lucien Lehmann, 1920), opposite actors Marcel Bonneau and Jean-François Martial.

In the French silent film La maison du mystère/The House of Mystery (Alexandre Volkoff, 1923), she co-starred with Russian film star Ivan Mozzhukhin and Charles Vanel. Henry Miyamoto at IMDb: "An art film shot as a serial. An imaginative wedding scene shot in silhouette, begins a tale of murder blackmail and romance covering a period of about 18 years, ending around 1923. The film had the MOMA audience breaking out into applause at the end of each chapter, starting from about chapter 3. At the June 28, 2003 showing at the Gramercy Theatre in New York, only 2 people left of the 150 people who came to see the film, and they came back to see the end of the film. A remarkable feat since the film ran over 7 hours."

Francine Mussey played in Germany opposite Ernst Verebes in Der Mann im Sattel/The Man in the Saddle (Manfred Noa, 1925). She appeared in the classic epic Napoléon vu par Abel Gance/Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927) which tells the story of Napoleon's early years. The film runs for five and a half hours and is now seen as one of the greatest masterpieces of the silent cinema.

Mussey would go on to appear in a number of films throughout the 1920s and into the sound film era of the early 1930s. In Germany she played a supporting part in Die Frau die nicht nein sagen kann/The Woman Who Couldn't Say No (Fred Sauer, 1927) starring Lee Parry, Gustav Fröhlich and Hans Albers.

For Warner Bros, she co-starred with Jean Gabin in the sound film La foule hurle (Jean Daumerie, Howard Hawks, 1932). It was the alternate language version of The Crowd Roars (Howard Hawks, 1932) with James Cagney and Joan Blondell. Her last film was the French comedy L'âne de Buridan/Buridan's Donkey (Alexandre Ryder, 1932) starring René Lefèvre, Colette Darfeuil and Mona Goya.

Only 35, Francine Mussey died in 1933 in Paris. She committed suicide by ingesting poison. She was married to rowing ace Jean-Pierre Stock. Cinémagazine (April 1933): "The loss of her child a little more than a year ago, and the discouragement of this continual struggle that is cinema have led to this fatal Resolution".


Trailer La Maison du mystère/The House of Mystery (1923). Source: Flicker Alley (Vimeo).

Source: Cinémagazine (French), Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

Fanfare (1958)

0
0
During the Netherlands Film Festival, EFSP presents the Unofficial Dutch Film Star Postcards Festival. One of the classics of the Dutch cinema is the comedy Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958). The film was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. With 2,6 million visitors it is the second biggest box office hit in the history of the Dutch cinema.

Hans Kaart in Fanfare (1958)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3796. Photo: Jutka Mol-Rona / Sapphire Film Productie. Publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Hans Kaart.

Fanfare, Arena cinema
Dutch postcard by A. de Herder, Rotterdam. The Arena Cinema was located at the Kruiskade, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The presented film was the Dutch comedy Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958), starring Hans Kaart.

Classic Dutch Comedy


Fanfare (1958) is a classic Dutch comedy film of the 1950s directed by Bert Haanstra. The film was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the 1st Moscow International Film Festival.

Fanfare belongs to the milestones of Dutch film history. With over 2,6 million cinema visitors it is the second most successful Dutch film of all time, only surpassed by Paul Verhoeven's Turks Fruit/Turkish Delight (1973) with Rutger Hauer and Monique van de Ven.

Fanfare was filmed in the village of Giethoorn, in the film the fictional place of Brederwiede, a typical 1950s village, with canals instead of roads.

The scenario was written by director Bert Haanstra and journalist/author Jan Blokker. The music was composed by Jan Mul and was performed by the Concertgebouworkest.

The story: after a fight between the two leading musicians (Hans Kaart and Bernard Droog) the brass band in a small village splits up into two separate bands. They both want to win a contest and will do anything to prevent the other band from winning it.

There is also a love story: the young policeman (Wim van den Heuvel) and the girl (Ineke Brinkman) are both children of one of the band leaders.

At the end of the film, the two rival brass bands end up on a music tournament. The two pieces of music of the rival brass bands are combined by a planned coincidence. Haanstra filmed this competition on a meadow in Diever. He used musicians of various corps from the Diever region as a figurant.

The film was Bert Haanstra's feature film debut and is unique in the Dutch cinema. The cost was 450 thousand guilders, but the film raised 1.2 million guilders.

Fanfare (1958)
Dutch postcard van Leer's Fotodrukind. N.V., no. 659, sent in 1960.

This the brassband which performed in the classic Dutch film Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958). In the film, the brass band in a small village splits up after a fight into two separate bands. They both want to win a contest and will do anything to prevent the other band from winning it.

Andrea Domburg in Fanfare (1958)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3792. Photo: Jutka Mol-Rona / Sapphire Film Productie. Publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Andrea Domburg.

Ineke Brinkman


Dutch actress and film actress Ineke Brinkman (1934) was active in the Netherlands and Norway. She studied acting with actor Bernard Droog and at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

In 1954, she made her stage debut in Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams. In 1958 she played a role in the popular film Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Hans Kaart, Bernard Droog and Wim van den Heuvel.

After a fight the brass band (in Dutch: fanfare) in the small village of Giethoorn splits up into two separate bands. They both want to win a contest and will do anything to prevent the other band from winning it.

In 1960 Brinkman received a prize for her role in the play Five Finger Exercise by Peter Shaffer. Brinkman married a Norwegian in 1958 and soon she moved to Norway. There she went to direct amateur plays and acted at the National Theater and Det norske teatret in Oslo.

In 1977 she founded a cabaret which still exists. She returned in 1984 to the Netherlands for a short time and appeared on TV in the comedy series Schoppentroef/Spades trump (Bram van Erkel a.o., 1984) with Gerard Cox and she also acted in a stage production.

Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel in Fanfare (1958)
Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers (IFP), Amsterdam, no. 1920. Photo: publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel.

Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel in Fanfare (1958)
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3794. Photo: Jutka Mol-Rona / Sapphire Film Productie. Publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958)Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers (IFP), Amsterdam, no. 1920. Photo: publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel.

Wim van den Heuvel


Dutch actor Wim van den Heuvel (1928) was the Jeune Premier of the classic Dutch feature film Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958). He played police officer Douwe, who is in love with Marije (Ineke Brinkman).

Fanfare made him well known in the Netherlands and he appeared in many TV plays and series. On stage he performed at the theatre companies Puck, Ensemble, De Nederlandse Comedie, Toneelgroep Centrum, De Haagse Comedie and Het Nationale Toneel.

Films in which he appeared are Kermis in de regen/Fair in the Rain (Kees Brusse, 1962), Ongewijde aarde/Unconsecrated Earth (Jef van der Heijden, 1967) with Ton Lensink, and Minoes/Miss Minoes (Vincent Bal, 2001) starring Carice van Houten.

Wim van den Heuvel was married to actress Karin Haage and since 1972 to actress Guusje Westermann. The actor André van den Heuvel is his brother.

Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel in Fanfare (1958)
Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers (IFP), Amsterdam, no. 1932. Photo: publicity still for Fanfare (Bert Haanstra, 1958) with Ineke Brinkman and Wim van den Heuvel.


Trailer Fanfare (1958). Source: indebioscoop (YouTube).


Impressions of the shooting of Fanfare. Source: PunterRadio1 (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb

Mireille Darc (1938-2017)

0
0
Last Monday, 28 August 2017, French actress Mireille Darc passed away in Paris. She was Alain Delon's longtime costar and companion. She usually played comedic roles or the ‘cool blonde’ in thrillers, but she also appeared as the lead character in Jean-Luc Godard's disturbing classic Week End (1967). Darc was 79.

Mireille Darc
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/331. Photo: Gérard Decaux.

Mireille Darc (1938-2017)
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 473. Photo: Sam Levin.

Mireille Darc
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/197. Photo: Gérard Decaux.

Jean-Luc Godard


Mireille Darc was born Mireille Aigroz in Toulon, France in 1938. Her Swiss father was a gardener and her French mother worked in a grocery shop. At fourteen, she decided to go to the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Toulon (Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Toulon), and in 1959 she went to Paris, for she intended to become a member of the Comédie Française.

But the energetic and adventurous Darc worked first as a mannequin and a television performer. She was spotted for TV by director Claude Barma and debuted in his La Grande Brétèche/Great Bretèche (1960). Her first leading TV role came the following year with Hauteclaire (Jean Prat, 1961).

She decided to become a film actress, and she made her film debut in a small role alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo in the ‘policier’ Les Distractions/Trapped by Fear (Jacques Dupont, 1960).

In the comedy Pouic-Pouic (Jean Girault, 1963) she had a bigger part as Louis de Funès’ daughter. Opposite Jean Gabin, she played his former-maid-turned-hooker in Monsieur (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1964) and she starred as a spy opposite Lino Venturain the action comedy Les Barbouzes/The Great Spy Chase (Georges Lautner, 1964).

In 1964, she also made her stage debut opposite Philippe Noiretand Bernard Blierin the play Photo finish, written by Peter Ustinov. She also recorded a few EP’s.

Darc had her breakthrough with the psychological thriller Galia (Georges Lautner, 1965). Together with director George Lautner, she would make a total of thirteen films, including the terrific Film Noir parody Ne nous fâchons pas/Let's Not Get Angry (Georges Lautner, 1966).

Her most famous film of the 1960s is Jean-Luc Godard’s classic comedy-drama Week End (1967). It tells the story of a young couple (Darc and Jean Yanne), who set out to visit their parents in the countryside one week-end, and find themselves falling upon an incredible traffic jam and a subsequent nightmarish odyssey with car crashes, anarchy and cannibalism.

At Films de France, James Travers calls Week End“a deeply disturbing picture of a world that is in the process of disintegration as the forces of capitalism and socialist revolution lock horns and tear the established order apart. The film is best remembered for its ten minute long sequence in which the camera tracks slowly along a seemingly interminable traffic jam in a country lane, whose peace is ruined by the unending blare of irate klaxons - a chilling visual metaphor for where our society may be heading.”

It was through Mireille Darc’s insistence that she would make a film with Jean-Luc Godard that the director was able to secure the comparatively large budget for Week-End. Darc was under contract with a film production company and refused to make another film until she had appeared in a film directed by Godard. As a result, Week End is the best known and most commercially successful of Godard’s political films, and some regard it as one of the most important films of the 1960s.

Mireille Darc (1938-2017)
Romanian postcard by Filmului Acin.

Merry Christmas with Mireille Darc
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 436.

Mireille Darc (1938-2017)
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Alain Delon


In 1968, Mireille Darc met and fell in love with Alain Delon on the set of Jeff (Jean Herman, 1969). Their love affair would last for fifteen years. (However, some sources claim they separated in 1978).

After Jeff, they appeared together in several more films: Borsalino (Jacques Deray, 1970), Madly/The Love Mates (Roger Kahane, 1970), Il était une fois un flic/There Was Once a Cop (Georges Lautner, 1971), Les seins de glace/Icy Breasts (Georges Lautner, 1974), Borsalino and Co. (Jacques Deray, 1974), L'Homme pressé/The Hurried Man (Edouard Molinaro, 1977), Mort d'un pourri/Death of a Corrupt Man (Georges Lautner, 1977), Pour la peau d'un flic/For a Cop's Hide (Alain Delon, 1981) and the television series Frank Riva (2003-2004).

Mireille Darc was most successful with her roles in comedies like the international hit Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire/Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (Yves Robert, 1972) starring Pierre Richard. She also co-starred as Richard's girlfriend in the sequel, Le Retour du grand blond/The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (Yves Robert, 1974). A sensation was her ultra-sexy dress in these amiable and enjoyable spy comedies.

In the early 1970s, Darc was very popular film star and sex symbol in France, but the following decade was a troublesome period for her. In 1980, she had an open-heart operation and the painful experience lead her to write a documentary film. She switched from acting to directing, choosing subjects such as organ transplants, prostitution, and prisons for women.

In 1983 she was seriously injured when the car in which she was riding collided with a truck. She sustained many injuries from the accident and her acting career was interrupted. She quit film acting, to focus on photography and her stage work. For television she directed the moderately successful TV film La Barbare/The Savage (Mireille Darc, 1989) with Murray Head.

During the 1990s, she appeared in several popular TV series including Les coeurs brûlés/Burnt Hearts (Jean Sagols, 1992-1994). In 2005 she published her memoirs, Tant que battra mon coeur/Until My Heart is Beating, and that same year, Jacques Chirac awarded her the Légion d'honneur.

For the first time, she appeared on stage opposite Alain Delon in Sur la route de Madison/The Bridges of Madison County (2007), directed by Anne Bourgeois. The play is an adaptation of the novel by Robert James Waller and the film by Clint Eastwood.

Mireille Darc has been married twice: first to journalist and writer Pierre Barret (1983-1988 - his death) and since 2002 to architect Pascal Desprez. She is the godmother of author Romain Sardou. Darc last screen appearance was in the TV film Le grand restaurant II (Gérard Pullicino, 2011) with Pierre Palmade.

Mireille Darc (1938-2017)
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 123.

Mireille Darc (1938-2017)
Vintage postcard.

Mireille Darc (1938-2017)
French postcard by Corvisart, Epinal.


Trailer for Pouic-Pouic (1963). Source: Joebodnar (YouTube).


Mireille Darc sings Helicopter, written by Serge Gainsbourg. Source: Johnxxx2000 (YouTube).

Sources: Mireille Darc (Tant que battra ma cœur - French), James Travers (Films de France), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

Il tamburino sardo (1915)

0
0
On the last two Thursdays, we did posts on Naufragio/Shipwreck (Umberto Paradisi, 1915) and Il piccolo scrivano fiorentino/The little scribe from Florence (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1915). Both belonged to a series of films based on the stories in Cuore (1886) by Edmondo De Amicis. The series was produced by Gloria, the film company in Turin that also produced the first films of diva Lyda Borelli. Child star Ermanno Roveri acted in many of these films, but in Il tamburino sardo/The Little Drummer Boy (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915) the boy of the title is played by Vittorio Petrungaro.

Il tamburino sardo (1915)
Italian postcard for the film Il tamburino sardo (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915), with Vittorio Petrungaro as the boy and Telemaco Ruggeri as the captain. Caption: The captain wrote with a pencil on a paper, leaning onto the little window.

Il tamburino sardo (1915)
Italian postcard for the film Il tamburino sardo (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915). Caption: Not taking care of his wound that caused him a very strong pain, he continued to run.

Il tamburino sardo (1915)
Italian postcard for the film Il tamburino sardo (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915). Caption: Killed! the captain whispered, biting his fist.

The Little Drummer Boy


Il tamburino sardo/The Little Drummer Boy (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915) is based on the 1889 story of the same name of the series Cuore (Heart) by Edmondo De Amicis.

During the Italian Risorgimento, in the countryside of Verona, a Sardinian boy meets Italian soldiers and becomes their mascot (the little drummer boy). It happens just before a big battle with the Austrian army.

During the battle, the Italian soldiers are surrounded by the Austrian enemy, and trapped in an abandoned house. The captain sends the drummer boy, small and agile, across the enemy lines to get help.

The boy succeeds with great difficulty, despite being shot by the enemy. Afterwards the captain visits a hospital and notices the boy's leg is amputated.

A doctor tells his leg could have been saved if he hadn't run like madman. The captain realises that the boy has been a hero. Vittorio Petrungaro plays the boy and Telemaco Ruggeri the captain.

In 2011 the Milanese cinematheque Cineteca Italiana restored a tinted print of Il tamburino sardo (1915).

Il tamburino sardo (1915)
Italian postcard for the film Il tamburino sardo (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915). Captain: He managed to pass unobserved behind the Austrians.

Il tamburino sardo (1915)
Italian postcard for the film Il tamburino sardo (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915). Caption: The walls and the floor were splattered with blood, corpses lay through the doors.

Il tamburino sardo (1915)
Italian postcard for the film Il tamburino sardo (Vittorio Rossi Pianelli, 1915). Captain: It was then that this rude soldier exclaimed with sweet and affectionate voice: I am just a captain, but you are a hero.

Sources: European Film Gateway and IMDb.

Elton John

0
0
Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (1947) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, record producer, and occasional actor (Tommy!). He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums. In his five-decade career Elton John had more than fifty Top 40 hits and has sold more than 250 million albums, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world.

Elton John
Dutch postcard by Muziek Parade, Bussum, no. AX 7212.

Elton John
Dutch postcard by Muziek Parade, Bussum, no. AX 7297.

Gospel-chorded rockers and poignant ballads


Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in the Pinner area of London, in 1947. He was the eldest child of Stanley Dwight, a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, and the only child of Sheila Eileen (née Harris). He was raised in a council house by his maternal grandparents, in Pinner. His parents did not marry until he was 6 years old, when the family moved to a nearby semi-detached house.

Both of Dwight's parents were musically inclined, his father having been a trumpet player with the Bob Millar Band, a semi-professional big band that played at military dances. Elton learned to play piano at the age of 4. Only 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music and for the next five years, he attended Saturday classes at the Academy in central London.

By 1962 he and his friends formed a band called Bluesology. By day, the 15 years-old ran errands for a music publishing company. His nights, he divided between solo gigs at a London hotel bar and working with Bluesology.

His father tried to steer him toward a more conventional career, such as banking. At age 17, he left Pinner County Grammar School just prior to his A Level examinations to pursue a career in the music industry. His parents divorced and his mother married Fred Farebrother, whom Elton affectionately dubbed "Derf".

In 1966, the band became musician Long John Baldry's supporting band, and played 16 times at the legendary Marquee Club. Dwight met his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, in 1967, after they had both answered an advert by the A&R manager for Liberty Records for songwriters. Six months later Dwight was going by the name Elton John (merging the names of two members of Bluesology: saxophonist Elton Dean and Long John Baldry). For two years they wrote songs for other artists, including Lulu, and John also worked as a session musician for artists such as the Hollies and the Scaffold.

In 1969 his debut album, Empty Sky, was released. The formula for this and subsequent albums was gospel-chorded rockers and poignant ballads. In 1970 the single Your Song from his second album Elton John reached the top ten in the UK and the US. It was his first hit single. The album soon became his first hit album, reaching number four on the US Billboard 200 and number five on the UK Albums Chart. John and Taupin then wrote the soundtrack to the film Friends and then the album Madman Across the Water.

Elton John
American card by Fotofolio, NY, NY, no. P 287. Photo: Terry O'Neill, 1975.

Elton John
British card by Rocket Record, no. 6434.

Elton John
British card by Rocket Record.

Glam Rock Star


1970–1976 is Elton John's most commercially successful period, but is also held in the most regard critically. In 1972, he released Honky Château with the hit singles Rocket Man and Honky Cat. It became John's first US number one album, spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200.

It began a streak of seven consecutive US number one albums. The pop album Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player came out at the start of 1973 and reached number one in the UK, the US, Australia among others. The album produced the hits Crocodile Rock, his first US Billboard Hot 100 number one, and Daniel.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, released in October 1973, gained instant critical acclaim and topped the chart on both sides of the Atlantic, remaining at number one for two months. It temporarily established John as a glam rock star. It contained the hits Bennie and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Candle in the Wind.

In 1974, a collaboration with John Lennon took place, resulting in Lennon's appearance on Elton John's single cover of the Beatles'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Lennon is credited as Dr. Winston O'Boogie. The song was used for the film All This and World War II (Susan Winslow, 1976). John also released the album Caribou (1974), which featured The Bitch Is Back and the orchestrated Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me.

Pete Townshend of the Who asked John to play a character called the 'Local Lad' in the film of the rock opera Tommy (Ken Russell, 1975). In the film, he is shown performing the song Pinball Wizard while playing a pinball machine integrated with a miniature piano keyboard.

The 1975 autobiographical album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy debuted at number one in the US, the first album ever to do so, and stayed at the top for seven weeks. John revealed his previously ambiguous personality on the album, with Bernie Taupin's lyrics describing their early days as struggling songwriters and musicians in London. Someone Saved My Life Tonight was the hit single from this album. His next album, the rock-oriented Rock of the Westies, again entered the US albums chart at number 1.

In 1976, the live album Here and There was released. A few months later it was followed by the Blue Moves album, which contained the single Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word. His biggest success that year was Don't Go Breaking My Heart, a duet with Kiki Dee that topped both the UK and US charts. In November 1977, Elton John announced he was retiring from performing.

Elton John
French postcard, no. A026.

Elton John
French postcard by Humour à la Carte, Paris, no. 3260.

Elton John
French postcard, no. A105.

Lasting impact on British culture


Elton John kept recording and had several other hits throughout the 1980s, including Nikita which featured in a music video directed by Ken Russell. Along with Tim Rice, Elton John wrote the songs for Disney's animated film The Lion King (Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, 1994). Both John's songs Can You Feel the Love Tonight and Circle of Life became hits.

John also achieved success in musical theatre, both in the West End and on Broadway, composing the music for the stage version of The Lion King (1997), Aida (1999) and Billy Elliot the Musical (2005). In 2000, he and Tim Rice teamed again to create songs for the animated film The Road to El Dorado (Bibo Bergeron, Don Paul, 2000).

On 6 September 1997, he performed a new version of Candle in the Wind, in tribute to Princess Diana at her funeral, with new lyrics specially written by Bernie Taupin. The song became the fastest and biggest-selling single of all time, eventually selling over 33 million copies worldwide.

Elton John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, is an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. Having been named a Order of the British Empire in 1996, John was made a Knight Bachelor by Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998. John received five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards – winning two awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music and the first Brits Icon in 2013 for his "lasting impact on British culture", an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, a Disney Legends award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004.

Elton John announced he was bisexual in 1976 and he has been openly gay since 1988. In 2005 he entered into a civil partnership with filmmaker David Furnish, the first day that civil unions between homosexuals were legal in England and Wales. After same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales in 2014, he wed Furnish on 21 December 2014. His husband made the documentary Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras (1997). Elton John and David Furnish have two sons, both born via surrogate: Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John (2010) and Elijah Joseph Daniel John (2013). The godmother of his sons is Lady Gaga.

Elton John is a champion for LGBT social movements worldwide. He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. In 1992, he decided that all profits from his singles would be donated to AIDS charities and formed the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The foundation has become one of the world's largest nonprofit AIDS organisations. In 1993 it began hosting the annual Academy Award Party, which has since become one of the highest-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over US $200 million.

In 2006, Elton John was estimated to have sold 250 million albums during his career. From 1970 till 2009, he has had at least one charted Billboard hit every year.


Trailer for Friends (Lewis Gilbert, 1971). Title song: Elton John. Source: Paulo Moreira (YouTube).


Elton John performs Pinball Wizard in Tommy (Ken Russell, 1975). Source: Umbrella Entertainment (YouTube).


Elton John and Kiki Dee sing Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Source: EltonJohnVEVO (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst, Part 5

0
0
In the fifth post on Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst, we focus on what happedned in the German studios like the glass house of the pioneering Eiko film. Pictures of the gigantic forest set for Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (1924), of the groundbreaking 'entfesselte kamera' (unchained camera) as used for F.W. Murnau's Der letzte Mann (1924) and of the model for Leni Riefenstahl's Der heilige berg (1926). Ross Verlag published the collectors cards in 1935 for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst by the 'Cigaretten-Bilderdienst', Altona-Bahrenfeld.

Luciano Albertini in Der Mann auf dem Kometen (1925)
Luciano Albertini in Der Mann auf dem Kometen (1925). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 129. Photo: Phoebus-Film. Publicity still for Der Mann auf dem Kometen/The Man on the Comet (Alfred Halm, 1925).

Leni Riefenstahl in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü (1929)
Leni Riefenstahl in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü (1929). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 130, group 40. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü//The White Hell of Piz Palü (Arnold Fanck, G. W. Pabst, 1929).

Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit (1925)
Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit(1925). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no, 131, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit/Ways to Strength and Beauty (Nicholas Kaufmann, Wilhelm Prager, 1925). Capture: Morgen (Morning).

Max Schreck in Nosferatu (1922)
Max Schreck in Nosferatu (1922). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 134. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for the first German horror film, Nosferatu (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1922).

Paul Wegener and Lyda Salmonowa in Der verlorene Schatten (1921)
Paul Wegener and Lyda Salmonova in Der verlorene Schatten (1921). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 134. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der verlorene Schatten/The Lost Shadow (Rochus Gliese, 1921).

Anita Dorris and Paul Wegener in Svengali (1927)
Anita Dorris and Paul Wegener in Svengali (1927). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 135, group 43. Photo: Terra Film. Publicity still for Svengali (Gennaro Righelli, 1927).

Willy Fritsch, Gerda Maurus and Gustl Stark-Gstettenbauer in Frau im Mond (1929)
Willy Fritsch, Gerda Maurusand Gustl Stark-Gstettenbauer in Frau im Mond (1929). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 138, group 40. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Frau im Mond/Woman in the Moon (Fritz Lang, 1929).

The Old Glass House of the Eiko Film Studio,
The Old Glass House of the Eiko Film Studio. German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 139, group 43. Photo: Eiko.

Small set for a society drama in the old glasshouse
Small set for a society drama in the old glass house of the Eiko Film studio. German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 140. Photo: Ufa.

Heinrich George and Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1926)
Heinrich George and Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1926). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture, picture no. 143, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Caption: "Heinrich George plays the scene".

Ungarische Rhapsodie (1928)
Ungarische Rhapsodie (1928). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 146, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928). Caption: "Harvest on a giant estate in Hungary as a backdrop for the film Hungarian Rhapsody".

For the film Anna Boleyn a tournament set is built at the Tempelhof studio
For the film Anna Boleyn a tournament set is built at the Tempelhof studio. German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 149. Photo: Union-Messter-Film. Set for Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).

And as it later appeared in the film.
And as it later appeared in the film. German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 150, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Set for Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).

Paul Richter in Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)
Paul Richter in Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 151, group 40. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). Caption: The artistic studio forest in the film Nibelungen. Paul Richter as Siegfried.

Model Der heilige Berg (1926)
Model Der heilige Berg (1926). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 153, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Model for the film Der heilige Berg/The Holy Mountain (Arnold Fanck, 1926).

Ufa Studio Set
Ufa Studio Set. German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no, 158, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Caption: "Lighting of a small studio scene."

Emil Jannings during the shooting of Der letzte Mann (1924)
Emil Jannings during the shooting of Der letzte Mann (1924). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 160, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1924). Caption: The Last Laugh is filmed, with a fixed camera.

The unchained camera on rails
The unchained camera on rails. German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 161. Photo: Ufa.

The unchained camera on the chassis
The unchained camera on the chassis. German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 162, group 43. Photo: Ufa.

Hermann Thimig and Ossi Oswalda in Die Puppe (1919)
Hermann Thimig and Ossi Oswalda in Die Puppe (1919). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 164, Group 40. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Die Puppe/The Doll (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919). Caption: From the film Die Puppe. Trick shot. Ossi Oswalda appears in Hermann Thimig's dream.

See also Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

To be continued next Saturday!

Basil Gill

0
0
Handsome British stage actor and film actor Basil Gill (1877-1955) was a popular matinee idol during the 1910s. His stage career included many major roles in plays of William Shakespeare but also in modern plays. Between 1911 and 1938, he also appeared in thirty-five British silent and sound films.

Basil Gill and Constance Collier
Basil Gill and Constance Collier. British postcard by J.J. Samuels, London, no. 4-8-102. Photo: Bassano.

Basil Gill in High Treason (1929)
British postcard issued with Sarony Cigarettes, no. 67 of a second series of 42 Cinema Stars. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for High Treason (Maurice Elvey, 1929).

The handsomest man on the stage


Basil Gill was born in 1877 in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England. He was a son of the Rev. John Gill, of Cambridge.

For approximately two years until May 1894, he taught art at The Grammar School, Wallington, U.K. before leaving for a post in Switzerland.

His first stage appearance was in The Sign of the Cross, Wilson Barrett's most successful play, in Bury, Lancashire in 1897. The following year he appeared in this play in London. He then toured Australia and the USA with The Sign of the Cross and Ben-Hur. American newspapers called him 'the handsomest man on the stage'.

In 1903 Gill joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company at His Majesty's Theatre, London, and played several important roles in plays of William Shakespeare. He left the company in 1907.

He was regarded as a matinee idol and also played romantic parts in modern plays. But Gill continued to perform in Shakespeare's plays during his career. The accomplished actor received numerous reviews commenting on the clarity and quality of his voice.

Basil Gill
British postcard by Beagles & Co, London, no. 400A. Photo: Lizzie Caswall Smith. Basil Gill as Ferdinand in the play The Tempest by William Shakespeare.

Basil Gill
British postcard by Beagles & Co, London, no. 400B. Photo: F.W. Burford.

A mini-boom in Shakespeare adaptations


Basil Gill made his film debut in the silent historical film Henry VIII (Will Barker, 1911). In this film he appeared with Arthur Bourchier and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, on whose version of William Shakespeare and John Fletcher's play the film was based. The film's success sparked a mini-boom in Shakespeare adaptations.

From then on the popular matinee idol played romantic leads and character roles in period drama on screen from 1911. He appeared in such silent films as On the Banks of Allan Water (Wilfred Noy, 1916), the drama Missing the Tide (Walter West, 1918) starring Violet Hopson, and The Rocks of Valpre (Maurice Elvey, 1919).

In 1926, Gill appeared in two short films made in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, Santa Claus (George A. Cooper, 1926) as the title character, and Julius Caesar (George A. Cooper, 1926) as Brutus.

He co-starred with Madeleine Carroll in the comedy The School for Scandal (Thorold Dickinson, Maurice Elvey, 1930), the first sound film adaptation of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The School for Scandal. It is also the only feature-length film shot using the unsuccessful Raycol colour process.

Gill appeared in many more films, including The Wandering Jew (Maurice Elvey, 1933) starring Conrad Veidt as the Jew who urges Roman authorities to crucify Jesus and release Barabbas. As a punishment, he is condemned by God to wander the Earth for many centuries. His final film was The Citadel (King Vidor, 1938) with Robert Donat.

Basil Gill died in 1955 in Hove, East Sussex, England. He was married to actress Margaret von Cavania.

Basil Gill
British postcard by H. Dunn & Co, London, no. A. 511. Photo: Caswall Smith.

Basil Gill
British postcard by Rotary, no. 1199 E. Photo: F.W. Burford.

Sources: Shakespeare & The Players, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Estella Blain

0
0
Gorgeous Estella Blain (1930-1982) was one of the sexy stars in Brigitte Bardot style of the French cinema of the 1950s. Her career lost steam during the 1960s and her life ended in tragedy.

Estella Blain
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 41. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Estella Blain
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1027. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Estella Blain
Big vintage card. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sexy Schoolgirls


Estella Blain was born as Micheline Estellat in Paris in 1930.

In 1953 she married the actor Gérard Blain. The following year they appeared together in the film Les fruits sauvages/Wild Fruit (Hervé Bromberger, 1954). She played a young girl who accidentally kills her alcoholic father and with a group of rebellious youngsters she finds refuge in an old, deserted village. Estella and Gérard divorced in 1956, but she kept his name.

She played one of the sexy schoolgirls in Les collégiennes/The Twilight Girls (André Hunebelle, 1957) with Agnès Laurent and Catherine Deneuve in her first, small film role.

Blain worked again with director Hervé Bromberger at La bonne tisane/Good Medicine (Hervé Bromberger, 1958) in which she played a young idealistic nurse on her first tour of duty, who is horrified by the carelessness of her colleagues and the doctors.

She was quite busy in this period. In the routine spy thriller Le fauve est lâché/The Beast Is Loose (Maurice Labro, 1959) she starred opposite tough guy Lino Ventura. In Les dragueurs/The Chasers (Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1959), she was one of the girls chased by Jacques Charrier and Charles Aznavour.

In the thriller Des femmes disparaissent/The Road to Shame (Edouard Molinaro, 1959) she played a victim of white-slave trade who is saved by her car mechanic fiance, played by Robert Hossein. At Films de France, James Travers reviews: “an all too obvious imitation of the American gangster movie, although Molinaro does manage to evoke the essence of classic film noir very effectively in some sequences. The problem with the film is that it is too much of a pastiche, with very little substance to it – no real characterisation, a threadbare plot, and interminable, badly choreographed, fight scenes. On the plus side, Art Blakey’s marvellous jazz score gives the film a touch of stylish modernity, an innovation which thriller directors of the time were quick to emulate”.

Estella Blain
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 977. Offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Estella Blain
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 703. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Estella Blain
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 802. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Estella Blain
French postcard. Photo Studio Harcourt, Paris.

A Zombie-like Killing Machine


In 1959 Estella Blain also had a son, Michel Blain-Estellat, who later became an actor and director. For him she wrote the series Un enfant nommé Michel/A child named Michael in which he performed the title role.

During the 1960s, her film career went downhill. She played in such mediocre international productions as the Italian adventure film I pirati della costa/Pirates of the Coast (Domenico Paolella, 1960) starring Lex Barker, and the German operetta Im weißen Rößl/The White Horse Inn (Werner Jacobs, 1960) starring Peter Alexander.

Her best known role was a supporting part as the poisonous Madame De Montespan in Angélique et le roy/Angelique and the King (Bernard Borderie, 1966), the third in the series of five films adapted from the stories by Anne and Serge Golon featuring Michèle Mercier.

As a singer she had two melancholic hit songs in 1965, Solitude (Dim Dam Dom) and Il ne faut pas (It is not necessary), which she had both written and composed herself. Blain also played a singer in the dark, surrealistic horror film Miss Muerte/The Diabolical Dr. Z (Jesus Franco, 1966). Miss Muerte is an exotic dancer who becomes a zombie-like killing machine, who lures and kills victims with razor-sharp and poisoned fingernails while clad in a skull-mask and a revealing bodysuit.

At IMDb, reviewer Jens Kofoed-Pihl names it “one of the best, creepiest and most stylish from the Godfather of Eurosleaze” (cult film maker Jesus Franco) and “a masterpiece of the macabre!” Robert Pirsching at AllMoviecalls it “One of Franco's most entertaining films”.

However, at the end of the decade Blain was only incidentally seen on TV and in the theatre, although she had a small part in the film comedy A Flea in Her Ear (Jacques Charon, 1968) starring Rex Harrison. Her last film role was in the dark satire Le mouton enragé/Love at the Top (Michel Deville, 1974) starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Romy Schneider.

Estella Blain died on 1 January 1982 in her home in Port-Vendres, France. Lonesome and depressed about the failure of her film career she committed suicide with a gunshot. She was only 51.

Estella Blain
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1085. Photo: Sam Lévin, Paris.

Estella Blain
Vintage card.

Estella Blain and Philippe Mareuil in Le fauve est lâché (1959)
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 2964, 1967. Photo: publicity still for Le fauve est lâché/The Beast Is Loose (Maurice Labro, 1959) with Estella Blain and Philippe Mareuil.


Trailer of The Diabolical Dr Z (1966). Source: MontagTheMagician (YouTube).


Estella Blain sings Solitude (1968). Source: Orgasmo Sonoro (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Robert Firsching (AllMovie), DB du Monteil (IMDb), Jens Kofoed-Pihl (IMDb), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

New and rare from Didier Hanson

0
0
Regularly, postcard collector Didier Hanson sends scans of his new acquisitions to EFSP. This time he found one-century-old Russian postcards of the young and unforgettable Vera Kholodnaya. Earlier Didier has sent us postcards of German actress Maria Orska and of legendary Russian Opera singer Feodor Chaliapin. 

Vera Kholodnaya
Vera Kholodnaya. Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vera Kholodnaya. (1893-1919) was the first star of the Russian silent cinema. Only 26, the ‘Queen of Screen’ died of the Spanish flu during the pandemic of 1919. Although she worked only three years for the cinema, she must have made some forty short and feature films. The Soviet authorities ordered to destroy many of the Kholodnaya features in 1924, and only five of her films still exist.

Vera Kholodnaya and Vitold Polonsky
Vera Kholodnaya and Vitold Polonsky. Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vitold Polonsky (1879-1919) was one of the most popular actors in pre-Revolutionary Russian cinema.

Vera Kholodnaya and Vladimir Maksimov
Vera Kholodnaya,Vladimir MaksimovOlga Rakhmanova and Pyotr Chardynin in Molchi, grust'... molchi/Still, Sadness... Still... (Pyotr Chardynin, Cheslav Sabinsky, 1918). Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.
This is probably the final scene of Molchi, grust'... molchi/Still, Sadness... Still... (Pyotr Chardynin, Kharitonov, 1917). The alternative title is A Tale of Precious Love (Skazka lyubve dorogoi). The card depicts the final scene where Paola (Vera Kholodnaya) dies - which the Russian press compared to the death of Trilby. She is surrounded on the right by her partner, the musical clown Lorio (Pyotr Chardynin), and by her lover, the painter Volyntsev (Vladimir Maksimov), on the left. In the back the painter's mother (Olga Rakhmanova). The statues refer to the artist's studio. Only the first part of this film survives. At the time it was a huge success in Russia.

Maria Orska
Maria Orska. German postcard by Photochemie no. K 1684. Photo: Mocsigay, Hamburg. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Maria Orska (1893-1930) was a Russian-Jewish actress of the German stage and screen in the 1910s and 1920s.

Maria Orska
Maria Orska. German postcard by Photochemie, no. K 1486. Photo: Willnger, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Feodor Chaliapin as Mephisto
Feodor Chaliapin as Mephisto. Russian postcard, no. 496. Photo: publicity still for the stage production of Arrigo Boito's opera Mefistofele. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (Russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин) (1873–1938) was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large, deep and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.

Ossip Runitsch and Vera Kholodnaya
Ossip Runitsch and Vera Kholodnaya. Russian postcard, no. 73. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Russian actor, producer and stage director Ossip Runitsch(1889-1947) was one of the biggest stars of Russian silent cinema and one of the first iconic figures of Russian cinematograph.

Vera Kholodnaya
Vera Kholodnaya. Russian postcard, no. 135. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vera Kholodnaya
Vera Kholodnaya. Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vera Kholodnaya and Vitold Polonsky in U kamina (1917)
Vera Kholodnaya and Vitold Polonsky in U kamina (1917). Russian postcard, no. 126. Photo: publicity still for U kamina/By the fireplace (Pyotr Chardynin, 1917). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vera Kholodnaya, 1917
Vera Kholodnaya, 1917. Russian postcard, 1917. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Thanks, Didier!

Sources Yuri Tsivian (Silent Witnesses: Russian Films 1908-1919) and IMDb.

Blanche Montel

0
0
Blanche Montel (1902-1998) was a French actress who had a long career in French silent and sound cinema between the 1910s to the 1940s.

Blanche Montel
French postcard. Photo: Film Gaumont.

Blanche Montel
French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 11. Photo: Gerschell, Paris.

Blanche Montel
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 269. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.

Sensibility, Seductiveness and Freshness


Rose Blanche Jeanne Montel was born in Tours, France in 1902. When she was only 11, she was already engaged by filmmaker Alfred Machin to play a young Dutch girl, Kaatje, in La fille de Delft/A Tragedy in the Clouds (Alfred Machin, 1914). The film was shot at the Belgium Pathé studio of Chateau Karreveld at Molenbeek-Saint-Jean near Brussels.

Montel then worked in scenography until she met Gaumont film director Louis Feuillade, who was impressed by her sensibility, her seductiveness and her freshness. He directed her in various short films but also in long running serials like Barrabas (1919) with Édouard Mathé, Les deux gamines/The Two Girls (1921), and L'orpheline/The orphan (1921), often starring Sandra Milovanoff.

From the early 1920s on, Montel had leading parts in La fille des chiffoniers/The Girl of the Dust Bin (Henri Desfontaines, 1922), Son altesse/Her Higness (Henri Desfontaines, 1923), and Une vieille marquise très riche/An old very rich marchioness (Emilien Champetier, 1923).

It was followed by L'éveilleur d'instincts/The awakening of instincts(Emilien Champetier, 1925) with Armand Bernard, La vocation d'André Carel/The Vocation of André Carel (Jean Choux, 1925) with Michel Simon, Le roi de la pédale/King of the pedal (Maurice Champreux, 1925), and her last silent film La ronde infernale/The infernal round (Luitz-Morat, 1928) starring Jean Angelo.

Montel's first sound film was L'Arlésienne (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1930) and she remained quite active in the early 1930s in films such as the comedy Flagrant délit/Flagrante delicto (Hanns Schwarz, George Tréville, 1931), Clair de lune/Moonlight (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1932) with Henri Garat, and the drama L'enfant du miracle/The Miracle Child (D.B. Maurice, 1932).

Then followed parts in Miquette et sa mère/Miquette and Her Mother (Diamant-Berger, 1933) with Montel as Miquette, Les bleus du ciel/The Blue Ones of the Sky (Henri Decoin, 1933) with Albert Préjean, and La maison du mystère/The house of the mystery (Gaston Roudès, 1933).

In Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1933, she played Constance opposite Aimé Simon-Girard as D'Artganan. Other films were L'aventurier/The Adventurer (Marcel L'Herbier, 1934) starring Victor Francen, and Durand bijoutier/Durand Jeweller (Jean Stelli, 1938). In addition to these films Montel played smaller roles in various French films of the 1920s and 1930s. In those two decades she was also an acclaimed stage actress.

Blanche Montel in Flagrant Délit (1931)
Belgian postcard by Nels / Ern. Thill, Bruxelles / Alliance Cinematographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931). Flagrant Délit was an alternate-language version of Einbrecher/Burglars (Hanns Schwarz, 1930) with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch.

Blanche Montel in Flagrant Délit (1931)
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).

Blanche Montel and Henry Garat in Flagrant Délit (1931)
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Blanche Montel and Henri Garat in Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).

Blanche Montel and Henri Garat in Flagrant Délit (1931)
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Blanche Montel and Henri Garat in Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).

The Beautiful Nivernaise


A highlight among her silent films was  La belle Nivernaise/The Beauty from Nivernais (Jean Epstein, 1924).I

n the documentary series Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995), Kevin Brownlow and David Gill interviewed Blanche Montel. She tells ironically how surprised she was, that after she was asked to play the female lead in La belle Nivernaise, she found out that the Nivernaise was not a beautiful young girl but a very old and ugly boat.

This quite naturalist film on life aboard a barge precedes Jean Vigo's better known L' Atalante.

Between 1927 and 1934 Montel was married to film director Henri Decoin, but she did not play in many of his films.

In the early 1930s she played more often in films by Henri Diamant-Berger. Montel and Decoin had one son, Jacques (1928-1998). After she had divorced Henri Decoin she had an affair with Jean-Pierre Aumont, until 1940 when Aumont fled to the United States.

Blanche Montel's last performance was that of Madame Brown in a film by her ex-husband, L' Homme de Londres/The London Man (Henri Decoin, 1943), a Georges Simenon adaptation. In 1946 she started a new career as an impresario for artists.

After her son Jacques died in 1998, Blanche Montel soon also passed away in 1999 in Luzarches, at the high age of 95.

Blanche Montel
French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes de Cinéma, no. 56.

Blanche Montel
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 2. Photo: Studio Pour Vous.

Blanche Montel
French postcard, no. 75.

Blanche Montel
French postcard, no. 76.

Blanche Montel
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 1075. Photo: Studio Piaz.

Sources: Wikipedia (French), Cinememorial, CinéArtistes and IMDb.

Triboulet (1923)

0
0
Triboulet (1923) is an Italian period piece directed by actor Febo Mari for the Società Italiana Cines and the UCI. Achille Vitti played King Francis I of France, Umberto Zanuccoli played the title role, the historical jester of kings Louis XII and Francis I of France, and Elena Sangro played Giletta. G.B. Falci in Milano was the publisher of this series of black and white postcards for the film.

Elena Sangro in Triboulet
Elena Sangro. Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Cines/UCI. Publicity still for Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923)

Triboulet
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Cines/UCI. Publicity still for Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923), 3th and 4th episode.

Triboulet
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Cines/UCI. Publicity still for Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923), 3th and 4th episode.

Triboulet
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Cines/UCI. Publicity still for Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923), 3th and 4th episode.

Delirium of Love


Triboulet (1923) by Febo Mari was originally released as a six part serial, then reduced to a three-part serial, and finally just one single feature film of 2.500 metres. The six episodes were titled: 1) The King's Buffoon, 2) The King of the Misers, 3) The Mysteries of the Louvre, 4) The Cour des Miracles, 5) The Revenge of the Nameless, and 6) Delirium of Love.

The film was based on the novel of the same title (prob. 1910) by Michele Zevaco. Triboulet (1479–1536) was a historical figure, a jester of kings Louis XII and Francis I of France. He appears in Book 3 of François Rabelais' Pantagrueline chronicles. He also appears in Victor Hugo's Le Roi s'amuse and its opera version, Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, a blend of 'Triboulet' and French rigoler (to laugh), intended to deflect the censorship that Hugo's work had received.

After the defeat of Pavia, king Francesco (or Francis I) (Achille Vitti) dedicates himself to peace, though not disdaining from his notorious love life. At the age of 50 he is tired of Mme de Ferron ('la belle Ferronière'), and gets interested in young Gillette (Elena Sangro).

Gilette is an orphan raised by Triboulet (Umberto Zanuccoli), the king's buffoon, but in reality he is a nobleman called Ferrial. Gillette loves Manfred (Giovanni Schettini), the king of the Cour des Miracles (the Paris slums). Manfred saves Gillette from the clutches of Francis. Francis is in reality Gilette's father by a former mistress, Margentina (Tina Ceccaci Renaldi), now a mad and visionary woman.

Hurt in one of his actions, Manfred is saved and cured by an Italian couple, who travel with their servant Spadacappa. While in bed, immobilised, Gillette is abducted and locked up in a convent. Barely healed, Manfred descends the Louvre to free her. The palace takes fire and the king is lucky to escape save and sound. Other adventures follow, in which Manfred discovers the Italian couple are his parents, who have come to France to find him.

Triboulet
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Cines/UCI. Publicity still for Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923).

Triboulet
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Cines/UCI. Publicity still for Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923).

Triboulet
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Cines/UCI. Publicity still for Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923), 5th and 6th episode.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1923-1931 - Italian), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Isobel Elsom

0
0
Isobel Elsom (1893-1981) was an English screen, stage and television actress. She usually was cast as an aristocratic lady of the upper class. Elsom was directed in nine British silent films by her husband Maurice Elvey and frequently co-starred with Owen Nares. Later she worked with such directors as Charles Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock.

Isobel Elsom
British postcard in the Lilywhite Photographic series, no. L.E. 1.

Isobel Elsom
British postcard in the Lilywhite Photographic series, Cinema Stars, no. CM 51.

Wealthy murder victim


Isobel Elsom was born Isabelle Jeannette Reed in Chesterton, Cambridge, in 1893. She attended Howard College, Bedford England.

Over the course of three decades she appeared in 17 Broadway productions, beginning with The Ghost Train in 1926. In the late 1930s she settled in America.

Her best-known stage role was the wealthy murder victim in Ladies in Retirement (1939), a role she repeated in the 1941 film version. Her other theatre credits included The Innocents and Romeo and Juliet.

Elsom made her first screen appearance during the silent film era and appeared in nearly 100 films throughout her career. She often co-starred with Owen Nares in such romances as Onward Christian Soldiers (Rex Wilson, 1918).

Elsom met her first husband, director Maurice Elvey, when he cast her in his film Quinneys (Maurice Elvey, 1919). They married in 1923. He went on to direct her in eight more films before they divorced.

Isobel Elsom
British postcard by Rotary Photo, London, no. 5.37-1. Photo: Lallie Charles.

Isobel Elsom
British postcard by Rotary Photo, London, no. 5.37-2. Photo: Lallie Charles.

The epitome of opulent, grande dame haughtiness


According to Gary Brumburgh at IMDb, Isobel Elsom was 'the epitome of opulent, grande dame haughtiness'. "What the tiny-framed Elsom lacked in stature, she certainly made up for in pure chutzpah. The matronly actress remained in Hollywood and played a number of huffy bluebloods in both comedies and drama for over two decades, often as a minor Margaret Dumont-like foil".

Her sound film credits include The White Cliffs of Dover (Clarence Brown, 1944), The Unseen (Lewis Allen, 1945), Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), the fantasy / romantic comedy-drama The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947), Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin, 1947), The Paradine Case (Alfred Hitchcock, 1947), and The Two Mrs. Carrolls (Peter Godfrey, 1947) with Humphrey Bogart.

Her later films included Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (Henry King, 1955), the Vincent van Gogh biopic Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli, 1956) starring Kirk Douglas, and 23 Paces to Baker Street (Henry Hathaway, 1956).

Her final films included The Pleasure Seekers (Jean Negulesco, 1964) with Ann-Margret, and the successful musical My Fair Lady (George Cukor, 1964) featuring Audrey Hepburn. Elsom also appeared opposite Jerry Lewis in four of his late 1950s and early 1960s solo films.

Elsom's television credits included Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956-1957, 1962-1963, at least 4 appearances), Hawaiian Eye (1961-1962), Dr. Kildare (1963-1964) and My Three Sons (1965).

Elsom's second husband was actor Carl Harbord, from 1942 until his death in 1958. Sometimes she was billed as Isobel Harbord. She had no children. In 1981, Isobel Elsom died in Woodland Hills, California, aged 87.

Isobel Elsom
British postcard by Rotary Photo, London, no. 5.42-6. Photo: Lallie Charles.

08 Isobel Elsom_Will Scissors. (Actresses; 8)
British cigarette card by Wills' Scissors Cigarettes, no. 8. Collection: Manuel Palomino Arjona @ Flickr.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst, Part 6

0
0
Today the sixth and final post on Ross Verlag's collector cards series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst- Der Stumme Film. The silent cinema of the Weimar Republic stunned the world with films like Der Golem (1920) and Faust (1926). And every picturegoer in the world knew the stars of the Weimar cinema, like Conrad Veidt, Anny Ondra and Lilian Harvey. In 1935, Ross Verlag published the cards with these films and stars for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst by the 'Cigaretten-Bilderdienst', Altona-Bahrenfeld.

Werner Krauss in Geheimnisse einer Seele (1926)
Werner Krauss in Geheimnisse einer Seele (1926). German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Teil I. Der stumme Film (Cigaretten-Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld 1935), no. 165. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Geheimnisse einer Seele/Secrets of a Soul (G.W. Pabst, 1926).

Conrad Veidt in Die Brüder Schellenberg (1926)
Conrad Veidt in Die Brüder Schellenberg (1926). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 165, group 40. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Die Brüder Schellenberg/The Brothers Schellenberg/ (Karl Grune, 1926). Caption: Conrad Veidt in his double role in the film 'Die Brüder Schellenberg'.

Fritz Rasp at the set of Frau im Mond (1929)
Fritz Rasp at the set of Frau im Mond (1929). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 169, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Set photo of Frau im Mond/Woman in the Moon (1929) directed by Fritz Lang.

Gösta Ekman in Faust, Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926)
Gösta Ekman in Faust, Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 171. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Gösta Ekman as the old Faust in Faust, Eine deutsche Volkssage/Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926).

Willy Fritsch in Spione (1928)
Willy Fritsch in Spione (1928). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture, no, 173, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Spione/Spies (Fritz Lang, 1928).

Ossi Oswalda and Rudolf Forster in Amor am Steuer (1921)
Ossi Oswalda and Rudolf Forster in Amor am Steuer (1921). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 176, group 43. Photo: Ossi Oswalda-Film. Caption: Ossi Oswalda as chauffeur and Rudolf Forster in Amor am Steuer (Victor Janson, 1921).

Pola Negri in Sappho (1921)
Pola Negri in Sappho (1921). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 179, group 43. Photo: Union-Film. Publicity still for Sappho/Mad Love (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1921). Caption: Artistically composed mass scene from the film Sappho/Mad Love, with Pola Negri at the top of a human pyramid.

Scene from Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920)
Scene from Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 180, group 40. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam/The Golem: How He Came Into the World (Carl Boese, Paul Wegener, 1920).

Asta Nielsen in Engelein (1914)
Asta Nielsen in Engelein (1914). German collectors card for the album by Dr. Oskar Kalbus, Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst, Vol. I, Der Stummfilm (Cigaretten Bilderdienst, 1935). Photo: PAGU. Asta Nielsen in Engelein (Urban Gad, 1914).

Dina Gralla in Das Girl von der Revue (1928)
Dina Gralla in Das Girl von der Revue (1928). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 184, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Das Girl von der Revue/The Girl from the Revue (Richard Eichberg, 1928).

Anny Ondra
Anny Ondra. German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 186, group 40. Photo: Balázs.

Carola Toelle in Die Schuld des Grafen Weronski (1921)
Carola Toelle in Die Schuld de Grafen Weronski (1921). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 69, group 39. Photo: D.L.S. Publicity still for Die Schuld des Grafen Weronski/The debt of Count Weronski (Rudolf Biebrach, 1921).

Lil Dagover in Ungarische Rhapsodie (1928)
Lil Dagover in Ungarische Rhapsodie (1928). German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Teil I. Der stumme Film (Cigaretten-Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld 1935), picture no. 189, group 41. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928).

Lilian Harvey in Vater werden ist nicht schwer... (1926)
Lilian Harvey in Vater werden ist nicht schwer... (1926). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 192, Group 43. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Vater werden ist nicht schwer.../It's Easy to Become a Father (Erich Schönfelder, 1926).

Gerhard Ritterband in Der Tanzstudent (1928)
Gerhard Ritterband in Der Tanzstudent (1928). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 193. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der Tanzstudent/Because I Love You (Johannes Guter, 1928).

Werner Krauss and Heinerle in Der fidele Bauer (1929)
Werner Krauss and Heinerle in Der fidele Bauer (1929). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 194, group 40. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der fidele Bauer/The Merry Farmer (Franz Seitz, 1929).

Adele Sandrock and Carola Toelle in Die Schuld des Grafen Weronski (1921)
Adele Sandrock and Carola Toelle in Die Schuld des Grafen Weronski (1921). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 197. Photo: Maxim-Film. Publicity still for Die Schuld des Grafen Weronski/The debt of Count Weronski (Rudolf Biebrach, 1921).

Margarete Kupfer in Zuflucht (1928)
Margarete Kupfer in Zuflucht (1928). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 198, group 43. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Publicity still for Zuflucht/Refuge (Carl Froelich, 1928).

Werner Fuetterer and Hans Junkermann in Durchlaucht Radieschen (1927)
Werner Fuetterer and Hans Junkermann in Durchlaucht Radieschen (1927). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 199, group 43. Photo: Eichberg-Film. Publicity still for Durchlaucht Radieschen/Highness Radish (Richard Eichberg, 1927).

Die selige Exzellenz (1927)
Die selige Exzellenz (1927). German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 200, group 43. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Die selige Exzellenz/His Late Excellency (Adolf E. Licho, Wilhelm Thiele, 1927).

This was the last post on Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst.

Sandrine Bonnaire

0
0
Sandrine Bonnaire (1967) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter, who has appeared in more than 40 films. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for À nos amours (1983), the César Award for Best Actress for Sans toit ni loi (1985) and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for La Cérémonie (1995). Her other films include Sous le soleil de Satan (1987), and Monsieur Hire (1989).

Sandrine Bonnaire
French postcard in the Collection 91/2 series by Editions Humour à la carte, Paris, no. ST-70.

Vagabond


Sandrine Bonnaire was born in 1967 in the town of Gannat, Allier, in the Auvergne region. She was born into a working-class family, the seventh of eleven children.

Her acting career began at the age of 16 in 1983, when she starred in the film À nos amours/For Our Loves (Maurice Pialat, 1983). She played Suzanne, a sixteen-year-old girl from Paris, who engages in a number of affairs in reaction to her miserable situation at home.

David Anderson reviews at his blog Bunched Undies: "Just when you expect another titillating French romantic drama about young girls and lost innocence, Maurice Pialat takes us on a surprising and highly subjective guided tour of a damaged family’s personal pain. The film is comprised of shifting alliances and points of view, and presents the fragility of family dynamics in ways that range from subtle to harrowing."

The film won the Prix Louis-Delluc for Best Film in 1983 and the César Award for Best Film in 1984. Bonnaire was also awarded the César Award in 1984 for Most Promising Actress.

With Pialat, she also made the romantic crime drama Police (Maurice Pialat, 1985). Written by Catherine Breillat, the film is about a moody, jaded police detective (Gérard Depardieu) who starts to investigate a Tunisian drug ring, falls for a mysterious woman (Sophie Marceau) and is drawn into a shady and dangerous scheme.

Bonnaire’s international breakthrough came when she played the main character, Mona, in Sans toit ni loi/Vagabond (1986), directed by Agnès Varda, for which she won her second César Award. Mona is a vagabond, who wanders through French wine country one winter and fails both physically and morally. The acclaimed film combines straightforward narrative scenes, in which we see Mona living her life, with pseudo-documentary sequences in which people who knew Mona turn to the camera and comment on what they remember about her. Significant events are sometimes left unshown, so that the viewer must piece the information together to gain a full picture.

Then followed the French-Belgian drama La Puritaine/The Prude (Jacques Doillon, 1986) with Michel Piccoli, and another drama with Pialat Sous le soleil de Satan/Under the Sun of Satan (Maurice Pialat, 1987), starring Gérard Depardieu as a devout priest who tries to save the soul of Mouchette, a young girl who killed one of her lovers. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.

Sandrine Bonnaire
French postcard in the Le jour se lève series by Editions Humour à la carte, Paris, no. ST-169. Photo: Jean-Pierre Larcher.

Object of Affection


Sandrine Bonnaire starred as a girl who, whilst looking for her runaway brother, encounters a number of people who influence her life in another acclaimed drama, Les Innocents/The Innocents (André Téchiné, 1987).The film was partially inspired by a William Faulkner novel. Téchiné uses several French-Arab relationships to mirror the tensions between France and its former colonies. The film was nominated to four César Awards.

Her next film, Quelques jours avec moi/A Few Days with Me (Claude Sautet, 1988) with Daniel Auteuil, received three nominations at the 1989 César Awards.

An international success was Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte, 1989) starring Michel Blanc in the title role and Sandrine Bonnaire as the object of Hire's affection. The screenplay was based on the novel Les Fiançailles de M. Hire by Georges Simenon and is a remake of Julien Duvivier's film Panique/Panic (1947) with Michel Simon and Viviane Romance.

Bonnaire won new accolades with her leading role in the drama La captive du désert/Captive of the Desert (Raymond Depardon, 1990), which was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. The film was based in part on the experiences of Françoise Claustre who was captured by Chadian rebels in 1974, later joined by her husband, and the pair was finally released in 1977.

Sandrine Bonnaire played Joan of Arc in the two-part film Jeanne la pucelle/Joan the Maiden (Jacques Rivette, 1994).

In 1995, she starred as an apparently simple maid in the widely acclaimed thriller La Cérémonie (Claude Chabrol, 1995), also with Isabelle Huppert. The film echoes the case of Christine and Lea Papin, two French maids who brutally murdered their employer's wife and daughter in 1933. The film and its stars won awards internationally, including for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for both Bonnaire and Huppert. She reunited with Chabrol for the sociological mystery Au cœur du mensonge/The Color of Lies (Claude Chabrol, 1999).

Michel Blanc and Sandrine Bonnaire in Monsieur Hire (1989)
Dutch collectors card in the series 'Filmsterren: een portret' by Edito Service, 1995. Photo: Collection Christophe L. Publicity still for Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte, 1989) with Michel Blanc.

Intimate Strangers


In 2004, Sandrine Bonnaire starred with Fabrice Luchini in another film by Patrice Leconte, Confidences trop intimes/Intimate Strangers, which was an arthouse box office hit in the United States. She played a troubled woman, who on her initial appointment seeking psychiatric counseling, mistakenly enters a tax accountant's office, and an unusual relationship develops.

David Anderson at Bunched Undies: "It is a credit to the acumen of Luchini and Bonnaire that the story remains squarely on track as, on paper, it seems a bit far-fetched, yet there is never a moment here that feels forced or manipulative. Leconte presents a number of interesting observations on the nature of therapy itself by having virtually every character in the film, at one time or another, offer help and advice, usually with results that are more amusing than beneficial. Bonnaire’s ham-fisted attempt to cure a claustrophobic man is a welcome bit of comic relief, and reinforces the idea that therapy should usually be left to the professionals."

Her later films include Un cœur simple/A Simple Heart (Marion Laine, 2008) an adaptation of one of Gustave Flaubert's Three Tales, Salaud, on t'aime (Claude Lelouch, 2014) with Johnny Hallyday, and the international thriller Dusha shpiona/The Soul of a Spy (Vladimir Bortko, 2015).

Bonnaire has a daughter, Jeanne (1994), from a relationship with actor William Hurt, whom she met in 1991 during filming of the Albert Camus novel La Peste/The Plague (Luis Puenzo, 1991). They acted together in the international crime drama Ispoved neznakomtsu/Secrets Shared with a Stranger (Georges Bardawil, 1995).

From 2003 till 2015 she was married to actor and screenwriter Guillaume Laurant, with whom she had a second daughter, Adèle (2004). Sandrine Bonnaire’s latest film is Prendre le large (Gael Morel, 2017) in which she plays a middle-aged factory worker, whose life is upended when she follows her employer to Morocco.


French trailer for À nos amours/For Our Loves (Maurice Pialat, 1983). Source: Gaumont (YouTube).


French trailer for Sans toit ni loi/Vagabond (Agnes Varda, 1986). Source: cinetamaris (YouTube)>


DVD Trailer Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte, 1989). Source: KinoInternational (YouTube).

Sources: David Anderson (Bunched Undies), Wikipedia and IMDb.

René Poyen

0
0
René Poyen (1908-1968) was a talented child star of the silent French cinema. He started at the age of four as the popular character Bout-de-Zan (Tiny Tim) in a popular series based on the adventures of little rascals in cute hats. Most of these burlesque comedies were filmed between 1912 and 1916 by Louis Feuillade for the Gaumont company.

René Poyen
French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 172. Photo: Ajax.

Rascal Kid Actor


René-Georges Poyen was born in Paris, France, in 1908.

In 1912, he started his film career at Gaumont as Bout-de-Zan, the younger brother of rascal kid actor Bébé (René Dary), in the film comedy Bébé adopte un petit frère/Baby takes a little brother (Louis Feuillade, 1912).

Quite soon he replaced Dary and his character, becoming the child star of Gaumont in the subsequent years. Urbanora writes at The Bioscope: "Greater comic emphasis was placed on Bout-de-Zan being an ‘adult’ figure, as he dressed like an adult, aped adult mannerisms, and was generally an earthier character than Bébé. He would also often giving knowing looks to the camera, making the audience complicit in his trickery. "

Already in 1913 Poyen made 24 one-reelers with his popular mischievous alter ego; 16 in 1914; and 18 in 1915. That year he also played a small role in Louis Feuillade's famous crime serial Les Vampires/The Vampires (1915) starring Musidora as the mysterious Irma Vep, dressed in a black tights.

In 1917 he played 'The Licorice Kid' in another popular Feuillade serial Judex, featuring René Cresté as a caped superhero. He also appeared in the crime parody Le pied qui étreint (Jacques Feyder, 1917), and a handful of Bout-de-Zan shorts.

By then the era of the short Bout-de-Zan comedies was over, but Poyen continued to play in crime serials like La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917).

Bébé
Bébé (René Dary). French postcard. Photo Eclectic Films.

René Cresté as Judex
René Cresté. French postcard by Coquemer Gravures. Photo: Gaumont. Still for La nouvelle mission de Judex (Louis Feuillade, 1917-1918).

Bouboule


René Poyen appeared for Feuillade in the serial Les deux gamines/The Two Girls (Louis Feuillade, 1920), and the series films L'orphelin de Paris/The Orphan of Paris (Louis Feuillade, 1924).

He also performed in the features La proie (Marcel Dumont, 1921), La fille bien gardée (Louis Feuillade, 1923-1924), Romanetti/Le roi du maquis (Gennaro Dini, 1924), and Les murailles du silence (Louis de Carbonnat, 1925).

In the early 1920s, he was often paired with girl actress Bouboule, as in Le gamin de Paris/Paris Urchin (Louis Feuillade, 1923), La gosseline (Louis Feuillade, 1923), Pierrot, Pierrette (Louis Feuillade, 1924), and Lucette (Louis Feuillade, Maurice Champreux, 1924).

In the sound era, Poyen returned only twice more in films, in an uncredited role in Clochard/Tramp (Robert Péguy, 1932) and a last time as Bout-de-Zan in the comedy Le Bidon d'or/The Golden Canister (Christian Jaque, 1932).

René Poyen died in his hometown Paris in 1968.


Bout-de-Zan vole un éléphant/Bout de Zan Steals an Elephant (Louis Feuillade, 1913). Source: Tonytony 9292 (YouTube).


Bout-de-Zan Et L'Embusqué/Bout de Zan and the Shirker (Louis Feuillade, 1916). Source: Mau M (YouTube).

Sources: Urbanora (The Bioscope), Turner Classic Movies, IMDb and Wikipedia (French).

Maria Fromet

0
0
Maria Fromet (1902-1967), aka 'la petite Fromet', is mostly known for her countless parts as a little girl in the films by Pathé Frères of the early 1910s.

Maria Fromet
French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Félix.

La petite Fromet


Marie Léonie Fromet was born in 1902 in Chauny, Picardie, France. She was the daughter of the stage actors Paul and Marie Fromet. In 1906, Maria started to appear on stage at the age of four. It was the time when the French theatre was ruled by stars such as Réjane, Mistinguett, and Lucien Guitry.

In 1908, Fromet played in L'Oiseau bleu (The Blue Bird) by Maurice Maeterlinck. At the same time, her name was mentioned for the first time in the distribution of a film: Les Orphelins/The Orphans (Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset, 1908), a production by La Société Française des Films Éclair with Eugénie Nau.

It was in 1909 that Maria Fromet entered the Pathé stable, where directors Michel Carré, Georges Denola, Camille de Morlhon, and Georges Monca made her the inevitable little girl of the cinema of the day. She often struggled with evil characters, sometimes she was abandoned, or evolved on the contrary in comedy plots. An example is La récompense d'une bonne action/A Kindness Never Goes Unrewarded (Camille de Morlhon, 1909) in which a little rich girl is kidnapped by ruffians, but is saved by a little barefooted girl whom she earlier handed some pennies.

Publicity called her ‘la petite Fromet’ (little Fromet) and in some films her parents and her sisters - actresses too - were her partners. She appeared in the amusing comedy La tournée des grands ducs/The Grand Dukes Tour (Léonce Perret, 1910) with Polaire doing an Apache dance.

Polaire
Polaire. French postcard. Photo: Stebbing.

Cosette


In 1910 Albert Capellani directed Maria Fromet for the first time in the drama Athalie (Albert Capellani, Michel Carré, 1910) with Édouard de Max. She would be his performer in at least six films in three years.

Her starring role was that of Cosette in Capellani's four-part Victor Hugo adaptation Les Misérables (Albert Capellani, 1912) with Henry Krauss as Jean Valjean. In this film, Fromet showed real qualities as an actress, with remarkable finesse and the right tones.

Unfortunately for her career, Maria Fromet grew up too fast, and as early as 1913 the catalogues no longer called her "little" but just "Maria Fromet". So no more child roles were offered. On the stage of the Grand-Guignol she played in 1914 a teenage girl strangled by a madman in Les Morts étranges d'Albury by Albert-Jean. The rest of her trajectory was difficult, the roles less and less numerous.

After L’Ile sans nom/The Nameless Island (René Plaissetty, 1922), a big gap in her film career followed until a minor role in Jean Grémillon's silent film Gardiens de phare/The Lighthouse Keepers (1929) with her father Paul Fromet in the leading role.

In the theatre, Maria Fromet took her revenge, creating Mélo by Henri Bernstein in 1929. On screen she played a minor part in the film adaptation Mélo/The Dreamy Mouth (Paul Czinner, 1932), starring Gaby Morlay, Pierre Blanchar andVictor Francen.

Then Maria Fromet played in pieces by Édouard Bourdet: Les Temps difficiles and Margot. She was engaged by the Comédie-Française in 1937, where she played the classical and modern repertoire until her retirement. She also did a handful of minor film parts in the early 1930s and some occasional ones after that.

Maria Fromet died in Paris in 1967. She was 64. All in all she acted in over 100, mostly short, films.

Henry Krauss
Henry Krauss. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de l'Écran series by Editions Filma, no. 51. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma.

Source: Jacques Richard (1895 - French) and IMDb.

The Blue Diamonds: Riem de Wolff (1943-2017)

0
0
Last night, 11 September 2017, Dutch Indonesian singer and guitarist Riem de Wolff died at the age of 74. With his brother, Ruud de Wolff (1941-2000), he formed The Blue Diamonds, one of the most successful Dutch pop acts ever. Their hit song Ramona sold 7 million records and became an evergreen. Incidentally the brothers also acted in films and on TV.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by SYBA/MUVA. Photo: Phonogram, Amsterdam.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam. Publicity card for the release of the LP Till We Meet Again by Decca.

The Blue Diamonds
German postcard by ISV, no. H 66.

String Extase Boys


Ruud and Riem de Wolff were born in Batavia on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia). Ruud in Djakarta in 1941 and Riem in Depok in 1943.

In 194, they came to Holland together with their family. During their school years, they performed in bands like String Extase Boys and The Cool Cats. Those bands were exponents of the famous Indo-rock scene (Indo stands for Dutch Indonesian), the cradle for all Dutch rock music way back in the 1950s.

The Indo-rockers mixed their rural musical influences with the new Rock & Roll from the USA. In 1959 Ruud and Riem formed The Blue Diamonds, and recorded their first single, Till I Kissed You, a cover of the Everly Brothers. This was successfully followed by another cover, Oh Carol. They were so successful that The Everly Brothers forbade to cover more of their hits.

On instigation of producer Jack Bulterman the 'Dutch Everly Brothers' recorded in 1960 a song from 1927, Ramona. The song was originally written for the film Ramona (Edwin Carewe, 1928). It was not featured in the film itself, but was written for promotional appearances with the star of the film, Dolores del Rio.

The Blue Diamonds' up-tempo version of the slow waltz became a worldwide hit: number one in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, France, Spain, Germany, Japan, Thailand, and Indonesia, and it even reached the American Billboard Hot 100: #72. There were five different language versions of the song. The English version sold over 250,000 copies in the Netherlands (the first record to ever do so) and a German version sold over one million copies in Germany by 1961. By 1963 all Ramona versions together had sold seven million times, and The Blue Diamonds got the Dutch Edison award for the song.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by De Gruyter, no. 6. (De Gruyter was a Dutch grocery chain, which enclosed postcards of "famous stars from the fascinating world of cinema and hit parade" with their soap Trexop).

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, for Decca, no. 57. Photo: Combi Press, Amsterdam.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard for Decca, no. 907.

The Blue Diamonds: Riem de Wolff (1943-2017)
Dutch postcard by C.K.Z., Zeist, no. 387.

Schlagerfilms


As they had hits in the Netherlands with songs in English, The Blue Diamonds adapted their songs for the German market by translating them in German. Ramona became a golden record in Germany.

Their popularity lead to many appearances on German television, and also in two Schlagerfilms. The comedy Und du mein Schatz bleibst hier/And You My Dear Stay Here (Franz Antel, 1961) was an Austrian production with Vivi Bach, Hans Moser and Paul Hörbiger.

The German production Davon träumen alle Mädchen/That’s What All the Girls Dream Of (Thomas Engel, 1961) starred Harald Juhnke and Marion Michael.

Their hit Ramona was the title song of another Schlagerfilm, Ramona (Paul Martin, 1961) starring Senta Berger, but in the film the song was interpreted by Willy Hagara.

The Blue Diamonds had more hits in Germany like Wie damals in Paris (1961), Little Ship/Blaues Boot der Sehnsucht (1962) and Sukiyaki (1963), but their military service (1964-1966) and the rise of the Mersey Beat slowed down their careers. Their last German hit was Gib dein Wort, Linda Lou (1965) which they performed at the Deutschen Schlager-Festspielen. They reached the 6th place at this contest.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 4992. Photo: N.V. Phonogram, Amsterdam.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by Hercules, Haarlem, no. 662.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5754.

The Blue Diamonds and Caterina Valente
With Caterina Valente. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4821. Photo: Decca.

Last Hit


During the late 1960s and the 1970s Ruud and Riem de Wolff toured around the world, and especially in Western Europe and the Far East they stayed popular. From 1970 till 1972 they performed in the Dutch stage musical Tien miljoen geboden (Ten Million Commandments) by Seth Gaaikema, which was a huge success.

In 1971 they had a hit in Germany again with Ja, es steht schon bei den Propheten geschrieben/Nimm mich mit nach Capriciano. Since then they continued to perform on stage and TV.

In 1990 Ruud was offered the leading part in the film My Blue Heaven (Ronald Beer, 1990). The Dutch film told the story of an Indo family who starts a restaurant, that is burned down by racists. The film was not a commercial success, and Ruud’s film appearance was not repeated.

The Blue Diamonds was one of the few bands in the world where only death of one of the members could take it apart. Ruud de Wollf died, not very long after the group's last appearance at the end of 2000. They had recorded circa 130 records, which sold over 20 million copies.

After his brother's death Riem de Wolff first wanted to stop, but he decided to continue to perform and release albums. He appeared in the Dutch film Ver van familie/Far Away From Family (Marion Bloem, 2008), an adaptation of a novel of its director. Marion Bloem is also of Dutch Indonesian heritage, and told the tale of a young woman, who, following the death of her stepmother, leaves her life in the USA behind, and rekindles the bonds with her Indonesian-Dutch grandmother.

In 1987 the listeners to the Dutch Radio 5 station chose Ramona as the Best Pop Hit of the 1960s. The Blue Diamonds stood on top of the Dutch music scene and far beyond its borders for 40 years. Riem de Wolff continued to perform, now with his son as The New Diamonds. Last week he had a hemorrhage, followed by a second one this weekend. Monday night, he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. He was 74.

The Blue Diamonds
German postcard by Ufa.

The Blue Diamonds
German postcard by Krüger, sent by mail in 1964. At the backside is an advertisement for the single Ramona and other Fontana records of The Blue Diamonds.

The Blue Diamonds
German postcard by ISV, no. H 83. Photo: Philips. Please double-click to see this picture better.

The Blue Diamonds
German postcard by ISV, no. H 84.

The Blue Diamonds
Dutch postcard by Emdeeha B.V., Oosterbeek, for Bobos Jeans and Jackets.


Ramona (1960) by The Blue Diamonds. Source: Roquitoyo (YouTube).

Sources: Blue Diamonds.nl, IMDb, and Wikipedia (English and German).

Maurice Chevalier

0
0
The trademark of French actor, singer and entertainer Maurice Chevalier (1988-1972) was his casual straw hat, which he always wore on stage, plus a cane and a tuxedo. His signature songs included Louise, Mimi and Thank Heaven for Little Girls. For the cinema he worked with such directors as Max Linder, Ernst Lubitsch, Ludwig Berger, René Clair and Vincente Minelli. His heavy French accent, melodic voice and Gallic charm made him the prototype of the gallant French monsieur in the Hollywood cinema of the 1930s.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 201. Photo: Comoedia.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leurs expressions, no. 1051. Photo: Comoedia.

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch postcard, no 112. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 531. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch postcard, ca. 1932. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6709/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.

Roland Young, Genevieve Tobin, Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier in One Hour With You
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6732/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for One Hour with You (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932).

Folies-Bergère


Maurice Auguste Chevalier was born in Paris, France, in 1888, the youngest of nine children. His father was a house painter and his mother, Josephine van den Bosch, was French of Belgian descent.

His father did not work steadily. To help out, the 11-year-old Chevalier quit school and worked a number of jobs: a carpenter's apprentice, electrician, printer, and even as a doll painter. According to IMDb, he was even a sparring partner to heavyweight boxing champion Georges Carpentier.

After, he was injured and he began singing in Paris cafes. In 1901, he was singing, unpaid, at a cafe when a member of the theatre saw him and suggested he try for a local musical. In the following years, 'Mo' appeared in cafes and music halls as a singer and dancer.

In 1908 he debuted as a comical actor in short films like Trop crédules/Susceptible Youth (Jean Durand, 1908) and he even worked a few times with the celebrated comedian Max Linder in Par habitude/By habit (Max Linder, 1911) and Une mariée qui se fait attendre/A bride who is waiting (Louis J. Gasnier, 1911).

In 1909, he became the partner of the biggest female star in France, Fréhel. She secured him his first major engagement, as a mimic and a singer in l'Alcazar in Marseille. His act in l'Alcazar was so successful, that he made a triumphant re-arrival in Paris. However, due to her alcoholism and drug addiction, the liaison with Fréhel ended in 1911.

23-year-old Chevalier then started a relationship with 36-year-old Mistinguett at the Folies Bergère, where he was her dance partner. Soon she became his lover as well. He also appeared with her in the short comedies Une bougie récalcitrante/A recalcitrant candle (Georges Monca, 1912) and La valse renversante/The stunning waltz (Georges Monca, 1914).

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard. Photo Aldo.

Maurice Chevalier promoting Campari
French postcard. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères. Caption: "L'appetit vient en buvant, quand on boit du Campari."

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard. Photo Studio Manuel Frères. "L'appetit vient en buvant quand on boit du Campari."

Maurice Chevalier
Vintage postcard. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald in The Love Parade (1929)
French postcard by Cinémagazine Edition, Paris, no. 794. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929) with Jeanette MacDonald.

Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert in La Mare
French postcard. Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert In Paramount's romantic comedy La grande mare (Hobart Henley, 1930), the French language version of The Big Pond (Hobart Henley, 1930).

Jack Oakie, Clara Bow, Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5749/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Paramount on Parade (Dorothy Arzner a.o., 1930) with Jack Oakie and Clara Bow.

Maurice Chevalier and Miriam Hopkins in The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5976/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931) with Miriam Hopkins.

Chevalier sings Mama Inez
French postcard. Photo: Apers, Paris. Son text of Mama Inez.

German Prisoner Camp


During World War I, Maurice Chevalier fought in the French army. He was wounded by shrapnel in the back in the first weeks of combat and was taken as a prisoner of war.

During his two years in a German POW camp, he learned English from an English prisoner. According to Wikipedia, he was released in 1916 through the secret intervention of Mistinguett's admirer, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, the only king of a neutral country who related to both the British and German royal families. Later Chevalier was awarded a Croix de Guerre.

In 1917, Chevalier became a star in Le Casino de Paris and played before British soldiers and Americans. After the war he rose to world fame as a star of music halls.

He discovered jazz and ragtime. He went to London, where he found new  success at the Palace Theatre, even though he still sang in French. He started thinking about touring the United States.

Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4676/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard by Edition Ross, no. 5545/2. Photo: Paramount.

Trude Berliner and Maurice Chevalier
With Trude Berliner. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5748/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Unknown is for which film this still was made. Probably it was an alternative language version of a Paramount production, produced at the Paramount Studios near Paris.

Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6200/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier in The Smiling Lieutenant
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6200/2. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931).

Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7790/1. Photo: Paramount. Real-life lovers Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier at a Paramount set. Dietrich is dressed as the peasant girl from the beginning of The Song of Songs (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933). Chevalier wears what looks like a bathrobe, so he might just have been busy on another Paramount set at the same time. In the film A Bedtime Story (Norman Taurog, 1933) he wears the same shoes.

Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6200/3, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8034/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Paramount.

Bad Boy


After his London success, Maurice Chevalier toured the United States, where he met the American composers George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.

Chevalier returned to Paris and developed an interest in acting. He made a huge impression in the operetta Dédé by Henri Christiné and a libretto by Albert Willemetz.

In addition to his work on the stage, Chevalier began appearing in films like Le Mauvais garçon/Bad Boy (Henri Diamant Berger, 1922) and Jim Bougne, boxeur (Henri Diamant Berger, 1923). In Gonzague (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922), he co-starred with Marguerite Moreno and Georges Milton.

With the help of George Gershwin and Irving Berlin, he brought Dédé to Broadway in 1922. Douglas Fairbanksoffered him star billing in a Hollywood film with Mary Pickford, but Chevalier doubted his own talent for silent films. The films he had made in Paris had largely failed.

In 1922, Chevalier also met Yvonne Vallée, a young dancer, who became his wife in 1927. In these years, he created several songs still known today, such as Valentine (1924).

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch Postcard, no. 74. Photo: publicity still for Le petit café (1931), a Paramount production directed by the great director Ludwig Berger.

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch postcard. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Le petit café (Ludwig Berger, 1931).

Maurice Chevalier
French or Dutch postcard, no. 1876-33. Probably for Le petit café (Ludwig Berger, 1931). Card mailed in the Netherlands. The mark top right refers to the Dutch Central Board of Censorship.

Frances Dee and Maurice Chevalier in The Playboy of Paris (1930)
Dutch postcard, no. 93, Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Playboy of Paris (Ludwig Berger, 1930). Collection: Egbert Barten.

Frances Dee and Maurice Chevalier in The Playboy of Paris (1930)
Dutch postcard. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Playboy of Paris (Ludwig Berger, 1930) with Frances Dee.

Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald
With Jeanette MacDonald. Dutch postcard, no. 402. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
British postcard in the Colourgraph series, London, no. C 64.

Maurice Chevalier in The Love Parade
Belgian postcard by Delacre, Charleroi. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Love Parade. Postcard for the Trianon Cinema, Passage de la Bourse, Charleroi, Belgium, where the film was shown from Friday 19 September 1930 on.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard. Photo: Paramount.

The epitome of French charm and sophistication


When the sound film arrived in 1928, Maurice Chevalier tried his luck in Hollywood.

In 1929 he starred for Paramount Pictures in his first American film musical, Innocents of Paris (Richard Wallace, 1929). In this film he introduced his theme song, Louise (music by Richard A. Whiting, lyrics by Leo Robin).

He was nominated for Academy Awards for The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929) and The Big Pond (Hobart Henley, 1930). The Big Pond gave Chevalier his first big American hit songs, Livin' In the Sunlight - Lovin' In the Moonlight , plus A New Kind of Love.

Besides The Love Parade, Chevalier and director Ernst Lubitsch made four more hilarious pictures together, the all-star revue film Paramount on Parade (1930), The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) with Claudette Colbert and Miriam Hopkins, the Oscar nominated One Hour With You (1932) - again with Jeanette MacDonald, and The Merry Widow (1934), the first sound film version of the famous Franz Lehár operetta.

Between 1928 and 1935, Chevalier became recognised as 'the epitome of French charm and sophistication'. His films were instrumental in making film musicals popular again around 1932 and he became the highest-paid star in Hollywood. As the star of radio's long-running Chase and Sanborn Hour, he earned $5000 weekly, a record for radio performers up to that time.

Maurice Chevalier, Le petit Café
French postcard. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Le petit café/Playboy of Paris (Ludwig Berger, 1931). Collection: Egbert Barten.

Maurice Chevalier in Le petit café
Belgian postcard. Card for the Cine-Palace, Brussels, where the film ran 2-8 October 1931. Le petit café (Ludwig Berger, 1931) was the French language version of Playboy of Paris (Ludwig Berger, 1930).

Maurice Chevalier in The Smiling Lieutenant
Dutch postcard, no. 302. Photo: Paramount. Maurice Chevalier in the musical comedy The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931).

Maurice Chevalier and Lily Damita in Une heure près de toi
French postcard by Europe, no. 73. Photo: Paramount. With Lily Damita in Une heure près de toi (George Cukor, Ernst Lubitsch, 1932), the French language version of One Hour With You.

Maurice Chevalier and Edward Everett Horton in The Way To Love (1933)
British card. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Way to Love (Norman Taurog, 1933) with Edward Everett Horton.

Maurice Chevalier and Mutt in The Way to Love (1933)
British card. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Way to Love (Norman Taurog, 1933) with Mutt.

Maurice Chevalier and Baby Leroy in A Bedtime Story (1933)
British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for A Bedtime Story (Norman Taurog, 1933) with Baby Leroy.

Maurice Chevalier and Merle Oberon in Folies Bergère de Paris (1935)
Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Folies Bergère de Paris (Roy Del Ruth, 1935) with Merle Oberon.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 816. Photo: Paramount.

Serial Killer


In 1935 Maurice returned to Europe, where he also made several films, like Le vagabond bien-aimé/The Beloved Vagabond (Kurt Bernhardt aka Curtis Bernhardt, 1936), Avec le sourire/With a Smile (Maurice Tourneur, 1936), L'homme du jour/The Man of the Hour (Julien Duvivier, 1937) and Pièges/Snares (Robert Siodmak, 1939) in which he played a serial killer opposite Marie Déa and Pierre Renoir.

In 1937, he married the dancer Nita Raya. He had several stage successes, such as his revue Paris en Joie in the Casino de Paris. A year later, he performed in Amours de Paris. His songs continued to become big hits, such as Prosper (1935), Ma Pomme (1936) and Ça fait d'excellents français (1939). In 1938 he was decorated a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

During World War II, Chevalier kept performing for audiences. In 1941, he performed a new revue in the Casino de Paris: Bonjour Paris, which was another success. From 1941 to 1945, he sang the songs composed by Henri Betti with the lyrics of Maurice Vandair as Notre Espoir (1941), La Chanson du Maçon (1941) and La Fête à Neu-Neu (1943).

The Nazis asked Chevalier to perform in Berlin and to sing for the collaborating radio station Radio-Paris. He refused, but he did perform in front of war prisoners in Germany at the camp where he was interned in World War I, and succeeded in liberating ten people in exchange.

In 1942 he returned to Bocca, near Cannes, but returned to Paris in September. In 1944 when Allied forces freed France, Chevalier was accused of collaborationism. Even though he was acquitted by a French convened court, the English-speaking press remained hostile and he was refused a visa for several years.

For this Wikipedia gives also another explanation: "In 1944, he had already participated in a Communist demonstration in Paris. He was therefore even less popular in the U.S. during the McCarthyism period; in 1951, he was refused re-entry into the U.S. because he had signed the Stockholm Appeal." This was a petition against nuclear weapons and the U.S. State Department had declared Chevalier "potentially dangerous" to the security of the United States.

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch postcard, no. 196. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch postcard by JosPe, no. 30, mailed in 1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Maurice Chevalier visits the Netherlands
Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 290. In 1932 Maurice Chevalier visited the Dutch cities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Volendam.

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 392

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem. Photo: Maurice Chevalier in the fishertown of Volendam, The Netherlands. This picture was taken in 1932 when he visited Holland.

Maurice Chevalier in The Hague (1932)
Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem. 'Den Haag 21 September 1932' is written on the backside of the postcard. That night Chevalier performed at the Gebouw voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen (Arts & Sciences building) in Den Haag/The Hague, The Netherlands. The day before Chevalier had visited Volendam and Amsterdam and had performed at the still existing - Amsterdam movie palace Tuschinski Theater.

Gigi


After World War II, Maurice Chevalier was still popular in France. In 1946, he split from Nita Raya and started writing his memoirs, which took many years to complete.

He toured the world with his one-man show and acted in films like Le Silence est d'Or/Silence Is Golden (René Clair, 1946).

In 1952, he bought a large property in Marnes-la-Coquette, near Paris, and named it La Louque, as a homage to his mother's nickname. He started a relationship in 1952 with Janie Michels, a young divorcee with three children.

In the late 1950s, after the McCarthy era abated, he returned to Hollywood. The Billy Wilder film Love in the Afternoon (1957) with Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper was his first Hollywood film in more than 20 years.

Chevalier then appeared in the hit musical Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958) with Leslie Caron. Older and gray-headed he sang his signature songs, Thank Heaven for Little Girls, and I Remember it Well, the latter with Hermione Gingold.

The success of Gigi prompted Hollywood to give him an Honorary Academy Award in 1959 for his achievements in entertainment.

In the 1960s, he continued to make a few more films, including the drama Fanny (Joshua Logan, 1961), in which he starred with Leslie Caron and Charles Boyer. This film was an updated version of Marcel Pagnol's Marseilles Trilogy.

In 1965, at 77, Chevalier made another world tour. In 1967 he toured in Latin America, again, the US, Europe and Canada. The following year, he announced his farewell tour.

In 1970, a few years after his retirement, he sang the title song for Walt Disney's, The AristoCats (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1970). This marked his last contribution to the film industry.

Maurice Chevalier died in Paris, in 1972, aged 83.

Marie Déa and Maurice Chevalier in Pièges (1939)
German postcard. Photo: IFA. Publicity still for Pièges/Personal Column (Robert Siodmak, 1939) with Marie Déa.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard by Europe, no. 1064. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard by Viny, no 88. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 143. Photo: Erpe, Nice.


Trailer for Love Me Tonight (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932). Source: _ XYZT (YouTube).


Preview clip of The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1934). Source: Warner archive (YouTube).


Trailer for Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, 1957). Source:  (YouTube).


Trailer for Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958). Source: Warner Bros. (YouTube).

Sources: Volker Boehm (IMDb), AllMovieWikipedia and IMDb.

Arme Thea (1919)

0
0
The Maxim Film production Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) was a star vehicle for German actress Lotte Neumann. It was the first film in the 'Lotte Neumann-Serie'. Besides being one of the most successful actresses of the early German silent cinema, she also worked as screenwriter and producer. Ross Verlag produced a series of six sepia postcards with film scenes.

Lotte Neumann in Arme Thea (1919)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 620/1. Photo: Maxim Film. Publicity still for Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) with Lotte Neumann.

Lotte Neumann in Arme Thea (1919)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 620/2. Photo: Maxim Film. Publicity still for Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) with Lotte Neumann and Adolf Klein.

Lotte Neumann in Arme Thea (1919)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 620/3. Photo: Maxim Film. Publicity still for Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) with Adolf KleinLotte Neumann and Ernst Hofmann.

The daughter of a bailout


Lotte Neumann plays in Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) Thea von Hoffäcker, daughter of a chamberlain, Freiherr von Hoffäcker (Adolf Klein).

Georg Textor (Ernst Hofmann), man about town and son of a well-to-do merchant, is betrothed to Thea. When one day Georg flunks at the races, and his future father-in-law bets on the wrong horse, Textor’s one namely, the situation is alarming. Hoffäcker, suddenly very short of cash, wants to borrow 50,000 Mark from his friend Raschdorf.

The promised money-sum does not arrive fast enough with the chamberlain, whose creditors are already on his neck. Hoping that the 50,000 marks arrive shortly, Hoffäcker writes a check secured by Raschdorf. But when Raschdorf suddenly dies of a stroke, Hoffäcker’s world collapses. His aristocratic relatives advise him to shoot himself, as is common in their milieu, but the man refuses and instead serves a one-year sentence for bribery in prison.

Poor Thea, unknown to what has fallen upon her father, is said he is on a secret diplomatic mission to the Far East. After one year Hoffäcker is released and with his former bookmaker Heinlein (Guido Herzfeld) he finds a small job at the editorial office of Turflaterne, a second rate racing track magazine.

Thea learns that her father has returned from his 'diplomatic mission' to Berlin. Immediately she visits him in his new, humble domicile. Nothing has remained of the proud representative of the upper-class official caste. Thea cannot explain the outer decay of her father and does not get any response from him.

Georg doesn’t know any more. He has just returned home from a trip to Mexico, where he tried - unsuccessfully - to initiate rescue measures for the family company that had been in a state of misery. Textor is now also broke, and as luck would have it, he also lands with Heinlein and his shabby magazine. Georg meets his future sister-in-law, learns of Hoffäcker's descent, and makes it clear to him that he does not intend to marry the daughter of a bailout.

However, Georg quickly regrets his harsh words and wants to apologise to Thea and her father. But Hoffäcker has finally followed his blue-blooded 'advice' and has shot himself. The guilt has now been eradicated, so Georg asks Thea to marry him.

Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) was based on a novel by Rudolph Stratz. The sets were designed by Hans Sohnle. The film premiered in August 1919 at the Berlin cinema Kammerlichtspielen. Jupp Wiertz designed an elegant poster for the film.

Lotte Neumann in Arme Thea (1919)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 620/4. Photo: Maxim Film. Publicity still for Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) with Lotte Neumann and Adolf Klein.

Lotte Neumann in Arme Thea (1919)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 620/5. Photo: Maxim Film. Publicity still for Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) with Lotte Neumann.

Lotte Neumann in Arme Thea (1919)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 620/6. Photo: Maxim Film. Publicity still for Arme Thea/Poor Thea (Carl Froelich, 1919) with Lotte Neumann.

Source: The German Early Cinema Database, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Mina

0
0
Italian singer Mina (1940) dominated the Italian charts for fifteen years and reached an unsurpassed level of popularity in Italy. The ‘Queen of Screamers’ was a staple of musicarellos (the popular Italian musical comedies of the early 1960’s) and Italian television variety shows. During five decades, she had more than 70 singles in the Italian charts.

Mina
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 867.

Mina
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 959.

Mina
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 974.

The Rock and Roll Wave


Mina was born as Anna Maria Mazzini into a working class family in Busto Arsizio, Lombardy in 1940. After finishing secondary school in Cremona, she attended college where she majored in accounting.

She was caught up in the rock and roll wave sweeping across Italy in 1958. Mina listened to American rock and roll and jazz records, and was a frequent visitor of the Derby, the Santa Tecla and the Taverna Messicana clubs of Milan, known for promoting rock and roll.

She started a musical career with the backing of the band Happy Boys. Her repertoire included clumsy imitations of British and American rock and jazz songs, while her extra-loud and syncopated version of the song Nessuno (Nobody) showcased her excellent sense of rhythm. She soon signed with Davide Matalon, owner of the small record company Italdisc.

She introduced her stage name Mina with her first single, Non partir/Malattia. Her performance at the Sei giorni della canzone festival of Milan was described by the La Notte newspaper as the ‘birth of a star’. In 1959, Mina's TV appearances were the first for a female rock and roll singer in Italy and they were a revelation. Her loud syncopated singing earned her the nickname ‘Queen of Screamers’. The public also labelled her the ‘Tiger of Cremona' for shaking her head, hands, and hips wildly to the rhythm.

Her first Italian #1 hit was the surf pop Tintarella di luna (Moon Tan) in September 1959. It was performed in her first Musicarello (musical comedy film), Juke box - Urli d'amore/Juke Box - Howls of Love (Mauro Morassi, 1959) with Karin Baal.

In the following year she was seen in the films I Teddy Boys della canzone/The Teddy Boys of Music (Domenico Paolella, 1960), Urlatori alla sbarra/Howling to the bar (Lucio Fulci, 1960) opposite Adriano Celentano, Madri pericolose/Dangerous mothers (Domenico Paolella, 1960) with Ave Ninchi, and Mina... fuori la guardia/Mina... Watch Out! (Armando W. Tamburella, 1961).

In his review of I Teddy Boys della canzone, Tod Kimmell (The Willing Mind) writes at IMDb: “There has never been a film before or since like I Teddy Boys della canzone. Mainly, and blessedly, a vehicle for the incomparable Mina.(...) The big finale field party is almost impossible to watch, and certainly impossible to NOT watch. There are so many disparate sounds and beats fighting for attention, it’s like having delirium tremens... yet incredibly satisfying. I promise that if I ever, EVER, find a copy of this on 16mm, I will show it all over the country, outdoors, for free. Seeing it is a life altering experience that needs to be shared!”.

Mina, portrait by F. Picchioni
Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma.

Mina
Small collector's card, no. 49.

Mina
Italian postcard. Photo: RIFI.

#1 in Japan


Mina introduced a more refined sensual manner of singing in 1960 when she sang Gino Paoli's ballad Il cielo in una stanza (The Sky in a Room). The American version of the song, This World We Love In, charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. Performances of the song were included in the Musicarellos Io bacio... tu baci/I Kiss... You Kiss (Piero Vivarelli, 1961) opposite Umberto Orsini, and Appuntamento a Ischia/Rendezvous in Ischia (Mario Mattoli, 1962) with Antonella Lualdi.

After turning to light pop tunes, she also scored in other countries. The presentation of her German single Heißer Sand (Hot Sand, 1962) on Peter Kraus' TV show caused a boom of 40,000 record sales in ten days in Germany. The record went to #1 and spent over half a year on the German charts. Mina had six more singles on the German charts in the next two years.

With her single Suna ni kieta namida (Tears Disappear in the Sand), she also had a #1 in Japan and earned the title of the best international artist there.

Her films such as Canzoni nel mondo/Songs of the World (Vittorio Sala, 1963) with Gilbert Bécaud, and Per amore... per magia.../For Love... for Magic (Ducio Tessari, 1967) with Gianni Morandi were also shown abroad.

Her song L'eclisse twist was used on the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni's classic film L'eclisse/The Eclypse (1962) starring Monica Vitti and Alain Delon.

In 1963, Mina was banned by the RAI, the Italian public broadcasting service, because she would not cover up her love affair (and pregnancy) with actor Corrado Pani. He was already married although separated from his wife. Their son, Massimiliano Pani, was born in 1963. In Italy divorce was illegal and single motherhood was considered shameful, so her behaviour certainly did not accord with the dominant Catholic and bourgeois morals.

Despite the ban, Mina's record sales were unaffected and due to public demand, the ban was ended in 1964. Later, the RAI tried to continue to prohibit her songs, which were forthright in dealing with subjects such as religion, smoking and sex. Mina's cool act combined sex appeal with public smoking, dyed blond hair, and heavy use of eye make-up to create a ‘bad girl’ image.

Her main themes are anguished love stories performed in high dramatic tones. She was known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and for her image as an emancipated, independent woman. Her affair with Corrado Pani ended at the end of 1964.

Mina
Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti (GB), Verona, no. 54.

Mina
Italian postcard by Silvercart, Milano (Milan), no. 546/1.

Mina
German promotion card by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Polydor.

Distinctive Timbre and Great Power


In the mid 1960s Mina became a staple of such Italian television variety shows as La fiera dei sogni and Il macchiettario. She combined classic Italian pop with elements of blues, R&B and soul music during the late 1960s, especially when she worked in collaboration with composer Lucio Battisti.

Top Italian songwriters created material with large vocal ranges and unusual chord progressions to showcase her singing skills, particularly Brava (Brave, 1965) a rhythmic jazz number specially written by Bruno Canfora and the pseudo-serial Se telefonando (If Over the Phone, 1966) by Ennio Morricone. The latter song was covered by several performers abroad.

Her scatting performance of Spirale Waltz (1965) became the theme song for the Sci-Fi thriller La Decima Vittima/The 10th Victim (Elio Petri, 1965) starring Marcello Mastroianni.

Mina's easy listening duet with Alberto Lupo, Parole parole (Words words, 1972), was turned into a worldwide hit by Dalida and Alain Delon in 1974.

Mina's songs were used in the soundtracks for such major films as Matador (Pedro Amodovar, 1986) and Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990). Mina's voice has a distinctive timbre and great power. In live performances, she combined several modern styles with traditional Italian melodies and swing music, which made her one of the most versatile pop singer in Italian music.

Till the mid-1970s she stayed a dominant figure in the Italian pop music. Mina gave up public appearances in 1978 but she continued to release popular albums on a yearly basis with her son Massimiliano Pani as the producer. Between 1972 and 1995, she published a double album each year. 77 of Mina’s albums and 71 of her singles reached the Italian charts.

The duet album Mina Celentano, recorded with Adriano Celentano, was the biggest-selling album of 1998 in Italy. After releasing new footage of her recording sessions, Mina's singles started to chart in Italy again. The track Succhiando l'uva (2002), written for her by Zucchero, peaked at #3 on the chart. Mina's cover of Don't call me baby (Can't take my eyes off you) (2003) reached #4 in Italy, and the single Alibi (2007) reached #6. The triple CD The Platinum Collection (2004) reached #1 on the Italian charts. So did Olio (1999), Veleno (2002), Bula Bula (2005) and Todavía (2007).

Mina had affairs with the actors Walter Chiari and Gian Maria Volonté. She had a relationship for three years with the composer Augusto Martelli. In 1970 she married Virgilio Crocco, a journalist for Il Messaggero. Their daughter Benedetta Mazzini was born in 1971. In 1973, Virgilio Crocco was killed by a car accident. In 1965, her brother Alfredo Mazzini had also tragically died in a car accident.

Mina became engaged to her current husband, Swiss cardiologist Eugenio Quaini, in 1981. She obtained Swiss citizenship in 1989 and they were married in 2006. In 2001, president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi presented her with the Second Class of the Italian Order of Merit. In recent years, Mina has been writing a weekly column on the front page of La Stampa and a page in the Italian edition of the magazine Vanity Fair where she answers fan letters.


Mina - with I Solitari - sings Tintarella di luna in Juke box - Urli d'amore//Juke Box - Howls of Love (Mauro Morassi, 1959). Source: Miloš 02 (YouTube).


Mina sings Nessuno in the film Urlatori alla sbarra/Howlers in the Dock (Lucio Fulci, 1960). Source: StephenTheLoon (YouTube).


Leader of L'eclisse/The Eclypse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962). Source: Eliecer Gaspar (YouTube).


Mina sings Coriandoli. Source: Swing 52a (YouTube).

Sources: Mina (Official Site), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
Viewing all 4109 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images

Vimeo 10.7.0 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Vimeo 10.7.0 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

HANGAD

HANGAD

MAKAKAALAM

MAKAKAALAM

Doodle Jump 3.11.30 by Lima Sky LLC

Doodle Jump 3.11.30 by Lima Sky LLC

Doodle Jump 3.11.30 by Lima Sky LLC

Doodle Jump 3.11.30 by Lima Sky LLC

Vimeo 10.6.1 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Vimeo 10.6.1 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Vimeo 10.6.0 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Vimeo 10.6.0 by Vimeo.com, Inc.

Re:

Re:

Re:

Re: