Sybille Schmitz

June 10, 2014, 11:00 pm

Beautiful German actress Sybille Schmitz (1909-1955) started her career in the era of the silent cinema. With her typical face and her relaxed, slightly mysterious way of playing, she became a prominent Ufa star during the Third Reich. After the war she was beset by drug abuse and depression and at 45, she committed suicide.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7419/3, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3757/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto Atelier / Tobis.

Diary of a Lost Girl

Sybille Maria Christina Schmitz was born in Düren, in the West of Germany, in 1909. She was the daughter of a confectioner.

Schmitz attended an acting school in Köln (Cologne) and got her first engagement at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1927. Reinhardt was the most famous stage director of the Weimar republic.

Only one year later, she made her film debut with the SPD party film Freie Fahrt/Free Ride (1928). Her role as a mother who dies of premature birth, attracted her first attention from the critics.

Her other early films include Tagebuch einer Verlorenen/Diary of a Lost Girl (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1929) starring Louise Brooks, and Vampyr/Castle of Doom (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932) as the haunting beauty Leone. Her beautiful face with the shy look, enormous brooding eyes and sad mouth had a touch of strangeness, loneliness.

In the following years she often played a mysterious and unapproachable woman. She played her first leading role in the SciFi film F.P.1 antwortet nicht/F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (Karl Hartl, 1932) opposite Hans Albers.

Schmitz then established herself as a prominent Ufa star with Der Herr der Welt/Master of the World (Harry Piel, 1934), Abschiedswalzer/Farewell Waltz (Géza von Bolváry, 1934), the Oscar Wilde adaptation Ein idealer Gatte/An Ideal Husband (Herbert Selpin, 1935) with Brigitte Helm, and the horror thriller Fährmann Maria/Death and the Maiden (Frank Wisbar, 1936), in which she played a ferrywoman attempting to save a doomed youth from Death.

Schmitz and the alcoholic director Frank Wisbar lived some years together. Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, disliked her and thought her 'too foreign'. Schmitz suffered blacklisting by the regime for a while but stage director Gustaf Gründgens persuaded Goebbels to allow her to star in Der Tanz auf dem Vulkan/Dancing on the Volcano (Hans Steinhoff, 1938), one of the many circus melodramas made during the Nazi regime.

She then had roles in Die Frau ohne Vergangenheit/The Mysterious Woman (Nunzio Malasomma, 1939), Trenck, der Pandur (Herbert Selpin, 1940) with Hans Albers, and Titanic (Herbert Selpin, 1943), a technically amazing – for 1943 – film version of the sinking of the British luxury liner in 1912.

According to Hans J. Wollstein at All Movie the film “was promptly banned by Goebbels for being too depressing and not anti-British enough. The drama survives, however, and Schmitz once again offers a standout performance.”

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7419/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8142/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3348/1, 1941-1944. Photo: K.L. Haenchen, Berlin.

Drug Abuse, Depression, Suicide Attempts

After World War II, Sybille Schmitz was shunned by the German film community for continuously working during the Third Reich, and it became difficult for her to land roles.

She appeared in supporting roles in such films as Zwischen gestern und morgen/Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (Harald Braun, 1947) starring Hildegard Knef, Sensation im Savoy (Eduard von Borsody, 1950), and Illusion in Moll/Illusion in a Minor Key (Rudolf Jugert, 1952), but was beset with drug abuse, depression, several suicide attempts and the committal to a psychiatric clinic.

In 1940 she had married author Harald G. Petersson who wrote many of her screenplays and later would write the screenplays for the Winnetou films. Schmitz was bisexual and had a relationship with acting teacher Beate von Molo. Petersson could not cope with his wife’s bisexuality and her ever-increasing consumption of alcohol, so they went their separate ways.

Ironically, the last film she made less than two years before taking her own life, Das Haus an der Küste/The House on the Coast (Bosko Kosanovic, 1953 - now considered a lost film), had Sybille's character committing suicide as a last act of desperation. In 1955, Sybille Schmitz took a fatal overdose of sleeping pills in Munich. She was 45 years old. Schmitz left a note, not blaming anyone in particular for her death and stating that she simply grew weary of her life.

One year later, an action was brought against her doctor, Dr. Ursula Moritz, for improper medical treatment.

Sybille Schmitz's tragic final years inspired Rainer Werner Fassbinder to his acclaimed film Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss/Veronika Voss (1982) with Rosel Zech as the tragic film star of the title.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, nr. A 3231/1, 1941-1944. Photo: K.L. Haenchen, Berlin/Tobis.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3509/1, 1941-1944. Photo: K.L. Haenchen, Berlin.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 147, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto Atelier / Tobis.

Sources: U. Pothoff (Sybille Schmitz – Die Unbekannte), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Vivi Gioi

June 11, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Hanna Schygulla

≪ Previous: Sybille Schmitz

Italian actress Vivi Gioi (1917–1975) first excelled in the 'telefoni bianchi' comedies of the 1930s. During the war and the late 1940s, she starred in dramatic films. Her best known role is that in Giuseppe De Santis' neorealist drama Caccia tragica/Tragic Hunt (1947). In the late 1940s she was also a major stage actress under the direction of Luchino Visconti and others.

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Ed. Roma), no. 54. Photo: De Antonis.

Italian postcard by ASER (A. Scaramaglia Ed. Roma), no. 54 (?). Photo: De Antonis.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit, no. 4446-A. Photo: Pesce / E.N.I.C.

Surviving at the Casino

Viviana Trumpy was born in Livorno (Leghorn), Italy in 1919. She was Norwegian on her father’s side.

Blond, slim and tall, she carried her fashion model beauty with nonchalance. Vittorio De Sica discovered her during a charity stage show in the late 1930s.

She first transformed in Vivien Diesca, an anagram of De Sica, later on in Vivi Gioi.

Her film debut was in Mario Camerini’s comedy Ma non è una cosa seria/But It's Nothing Serious (1936), after which a small role in De Sica’s Il signor Max/Mister Max (Vittorio De Sica, 1936) followed, of which most was cut out in the editing phase.

When the affair with De Sica stopped and he married Giuditta Ransone, Gioi supposedly quitted filming and survived by playing at the casino.

Her star definitely rose with the lead of Anita in the comedy of misunderstandings Bionda sotto chiave/The Locked In Blond (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1939), scripted by Cesare Zavattini. Gioi played a secretary who suddenly becomes a cover girl.

The role turned her into the Carole Lombard of Italian cinema. Gioi became a star of the telefoni bianchi comedies, such as Rose scarlatte/Red Roses (Vittorio de Sica, 1940).

These light and merry comedies were fit for the celebration of the actress of the moment, and resulted in ever new stars. So competition was fierce, but Vivi soon managed to rise above the average and played in countless comical films in the early 1940s, directed by experienced comedy filmmakers like Max Neufeld, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia and Dino Falconi.

In Giungla/Jungle (Nunzio Malasomma, 1942) and Bengasi (Augusto Genina, 1942) with Fosco Giachetti, Gioi played her first dramatic roles, with surprising effect. Her career took a new turn.

Often she played foreign characters as in Harlem (Carmine Gallone, 1943). Next to filming, Gioi continued to act on stage and in 1944 she cofounded a theatre company with Nino Besozzi and Vittorio De Sica.

Italian postcard. Photo: Venturini.

Italian postcard by Agfa. With Fosco Giachetti.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3765/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Difu.

Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini (B.F.F. Edit.), Firenze, no. 43280. Photo: ICI / Photo Vaselli.

The Wife of the Dictator

In 1947, Vivi Gioi’s film career reached its peak when she splendidly performed the part of ex-collaborationist Daniela in Caccia tragica/Tragic Hunt (Giuseppe De Santis, 1947).

It won her a Nastro d’Argento as Best Supporting Actress. Despite this award film offers became scarcer, Gioi played less and less in the cinema and focused on the stage, where she worked with such directors as Luchino Visconti and Guido Salvini.

Under Visconti’s direction, Gioi played with Paolo Stoppa and Rina Morelli in A porte chiuse/Huis clos (1945) by Jean-Paul Sartre, with sets by Mario Chiari, and in Il matrimonio di Figaro/Le marriage di Figaro (1946) by Beaumarchais, which co-starred Vittorio De Sica and Nino Besozzi.

In 1948, Gioi played in Come vi piace, Visconti's version of William Shakespeare's As You Like It, with sets and costumes by Salvador Dalí and a year later she played under Visconti’s direction in Tennessee Williams'Un tram che si chiama desiderio/A Streetcar Named Desire, with sets by Franco Zeffirelli, and co-acting by Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio Gassman.

In 1949 Gioi founded a new company, together with Annibale Ninchi and Aroldo Tieri. In 1950 she played under direction of Guido Salvini in Gli straccioni di Annibal Caro, which co-starred Vittorio Gassman and Massimo Girotti.

Gioi also did radio plays for RAI such as Santa Giovanna (1951) by Thierry Maulnier, again directed by Salvini. With Salvini she also acted in Anna per mille giorni/Anne of a Thousand Days by Maxwell Anderson and in Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen.

Only on rare occasions Gioi returned to the set for films like Il processo di Verona/The Verona Trial (Carlo Lizzani, 1963) starring Silvana Mangano. In this drama she played Rachele Mussolini, the wife of the dictator.

In 1975 Vivi Gioi died in Fregene, Italy, hardly 58 years old.

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3173/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Binz, Berlin / Difu.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 4223. Photo: I.C.I. / Pesce.

Italian postcard by Forofirma Albore, Milano, no. 1950. Photo: Pesce.

Scene from the film Tutta la città canta/The Whole City is Singing (Riccardo Freda, 1945) with Natalino Otto, Gorni Kramer, Nino Taranto, and i Tre Bonos. Source: AlbertoRabagliati (YouTube).

Sources: Italian Stardust (Italian), My Movies (Italian), Wikipedia (Italian and English), and IMDb. NB. Italian Wikipedia has mixed up Gioi’s stage plays, attributing the direction to the set designers of the plays.

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Hanna Schygulla

June 12, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Michel Piccoli

≪ Previous: Vivi Gioi

German actress and chanson singer Hanna Schygulla (1943) was the icon of the New German Cinema of the 1970s and early 1980s. Schygulla was Rainer Werner Fassbinder's muse and anti-star, and over 12 years, she appeared in 23 of his films. After his death in 1982, she worked together with several other major European directors.

French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris, no. MC 21. Photo: publicity still for La Nuit de Varennes (Ettore Scola, 1982).

Love is Colder Than Death

Hanna Schygulla was born in Königshütte in Germany (now Chorzów in Poland), in 1943. Her parents were Antonie (née Mzyk) and Joseph Schygulla, a timber merchant by profession. Her father was drafted as an infantryman in the German Army and was captured by American forces in Italy, subsequently being held as a prisoner of war until 1948. In 1945, Schygulla, and her mother, arrived as refugees in Munich following the expulsion of the majority German population of Königshütte by Communist Poland.

In the 1960s, Schygulla studied Roman languages and German studies, while taking acting lessons in Munich during her spare time. She met Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1965 and became a member of his collective theatre troupe, Munich Action Theatre.

This group eventually evolved into Fassbinder’s film group, and Schygulla played the female lead in his first feature film Liebe ist kälter als der Tod/Love is Colder Than Death (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1969). The reception was generally negative, and the film was even booed at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival in 1969. Today, it is seen as a fine example of Fassbinder's early style, with a heavy 'Nouvelle Vague' influence. The cast as an ensemble won an award at the German Film Awards in 1970.

She was again the lead actress in Katzelmacher (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1969). The film centers on an aimless group of friends whose lives are shaken up by the arrival of an immigrant Greek worker, Jorgos (played by Fassbinder himself, in an uncredited role).

Other early Fassbinder films in which she starred were Götter der Pest/Gods of the Plague (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970) with Margaretha von Trotta and Harry Baer, Rio das Mortes (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971), and the Western Whity (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971) with Günther Kaufmann.

The filming of Whity in Spain inspired the Semi-autobiographical drama Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte/Beware of a Holy Whore (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971) featuring Lou Castel, Eddie Constantine, Schygulla and Fassbinder himself. Holed up in a hotel with too much drink, drugs and time, the cast and crew of a film are gradually disintegrating as they await the arrival of their director.

Very interesting was also Händler der vier Jahreszeiten/The Merchant of Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971) featuring Hans Hirschmueller as a fruit-peddler in 1950s West Germany, who is driven over the edge by an uncaring society.

The following year Schygulla played the object of obsession for fashion designer Petra von Kant (Margit Carstensen) in Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant/The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972).

During the making of Effi Briest (1974), an adaptation of a German novel by Theodor Fontane, Fassbinder and Schygulla fell out over divergent interpretations of the character. Another problem for Schygulla was the low pay, and she led a revolt against Fassbinder on this issue during production in 1972. Fassbinder's response was typically blunt: "I can't stand the sight of your face any more. You bust my balls".

After the clash, she did not work with him again for five years.

German card. Photo: Digne Meijer Marcovicz.

The Marriage of Maria Braun

Hanna Schygulla started to work with other film makers. She played the female lead in Falsche Bewegung/The Wrong Move (1975), a road movie directed by one of the other major directors of the New German Cinema, Wim Wenders.

In 1978, she reunited with Fassbinder for one of their greatest successes Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979). Schygulla starred as Maria, whose marriage to the soldier Hermann remained unfulfilled due to World War II and his post-war imprisonment. Maria adapts to the realities of post-war Germany and becomes the wealthy mistress of an industrialist, all the while staying true to her love for Hermann.

Critic Derek Malcolm called it in The Guardian‘a landmark in German cinema’: “Schygulla gives a magnificent performance as a vulnerable young woman who becomes a self-confident, independent and competent survivor yet still comes to a bad end, largely because of the basic corruption of her world”. The film was entered into the 29th Berlin International Film Festival, where Schygulla won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for her performance.

She also appeared opposite Günter Lamprecht in the 14-part television miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), adapted and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder from the Alfred Döblin novel of the same name.

Another success was Lili Marleen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981), based on the autobiographical novel Der Himmel hat viele Farben (Heaven Has Many Colors) by singer Lale Andersen. The film tells about the forbidden love between the German singer Willie (Schygulla) and the Swiss Jewish composer Robert Mendelssohn (a character based on Rolf Liebermann and played by Giancarlo Giannini), who actively seeks to help an underground group of German Jews during the Third Reich. It was to be her last film with Fassbinder, who died in 1982 at the age of 37.

In the following decade, Schygulla acted in French, Italian and American productions. Among her best known films are La Nuit de Varennes/That Night in Varennes (Ettore Scola, 1982), Passion (Jean-Luc Godard, 1982) with Isabelle Huppert,Storia di Piera/The Story of Piera (Marco Ferreri, 1983) with Huppert and Marcello Mastroianni, Eine Liebe in Deutschland/A Love in Germany (Andrzej Wajda, 1983), and the psychological thriller Dead Again (Kenneth Branagh, 1990) starring Branagh and Emma Thompson.

In the 1990s Schygulla also became known and well regarded as a chanson singer. In Juliane Lorenz's documentary film Life, Love and Celluloid (1998), on Fassbinder and related topics, Schygulla performs several songs.

She also continued to make interesting films, like Werckmeister Harmóniák/Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, 2000) and Auf der anderen Seite/The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akın, 2007). In 2010, she received the Honorary Golden Bear from the Berlin Film Festival.

A year later she played in the Russian film Faust (Alexander Sokurov, 2011), a free interpretation of the Faust legend and its literary adaptations by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Thomas Mann. The film won the Golden Lion at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.

At the end of 2013, she published her autobiography, Wach auf und trauma, to mark her 70th birthday. Hanna Schygulla who lived in Paris since 1981, returned to Berlin in 2014.

Trailer Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979). Source: UniverseFlick· (YouTube).

Scenes from Lili Marleen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981). Source: Meloclips (YouTube).

Sources: Derek Malcolm (The Guardian), David Stevens (IMDb), AllMovie, Deutschland.de, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Michel Piccoli

June 13, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Max Landa

≪ Previous: Hanna Schygulla

French actor Michel Piccoli (1925) has appeared in many different roles, from seducer to cop to gangster to Pope in more than 200 films and TV films. Among the directors he worked with are Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Luis Buñuel, and Alfred Hitchcock.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Vintage postcard.

Contempt

Michel Piccoli was born Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli in Paris in 1925 to a musical family. His French mother Marcelle Piccoli was a pianist and his Italian father Henri Piccoli was a violinist.

At boarding school, the introverted teenager Michel developed a profound love for the stage. He later studied drama under Andrée Bauer-Thérond and then trained as an actor at the René Simon drama school in Paris.

In 1945, he began his stage career with the Renaud-Barrault theatre company at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris. He made his film debut in Sortilèges (Christian-Jaque, 1945), but his first proper film role was in Le Point du jour/The Mark of the Day (Louis Daquin, 1949).

Piccoli subsequently lent his talents to Jean Renoir in French Cancan (1954) starring Jean Gabin, and René Clair in Les Grandes Manoeuvres/The great manoeuvres (1955) with Gérard Philipe.

It took six more years to become ‘box office’ as a film actor with the gangster film Le Doulos/The Finger Man (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961), starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.

He then had his international breakthrough with his leading role opposite Brigitte Bardot in Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mépris/Contempt (1963). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Like Hollywood's Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and Gary Cooper, Piccoli was possessed of that rare gift of being able to adapt himself to virtually any kind of material without altering his essential screen persona. And like those aforementioned actors, Piccoli's talents suited the prerequisites of a wide variety of directors.”

He worked with some of the best international film auteurs: Agnès Varda at Les Créatures/The Creatures (1966) opposite Catherine Deneuve, Alain Resnais at La Guerre est finie/The War Is Over (1966), Jacques Demy at Les Demoiselles de Rochefort/The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and Alfred Hitchcock (Topaz, 1969).

French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 795. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

A Symbol of Bourgeois Respectability

Michel Piccoli starred in four of the best-known films of French director Claude Sautet, starting with Choses de la vie/The Little Things in Life (1969) with Romy Schneider. Invariably he was cast as a symbol of bourgeois respectability whose quest for personal fulfilment appears destined to end in failure.

James Travers at French Films.info: “Sautet did more to humanise Piccoli than perhaps any other filmmaker, particularly when the actor was cast alongside Romy Schneider (in Les Choses de la vie and Max et les Ferrailleurs), the actress who became one of Piccoli's dearest friends.”

A darker, more disturbing Piccoli can be seen in the films he made for Luis Buñuel, in particular Le Journal d'une femme de chamber/The Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), Belle de jour/Beauty of the Day (1967) and Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie/The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972).

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Piccoli was one of the most visible faces in the European cinema, with films like Les Noces rouges/Wedding in Blood (Claude Chabrol, 1973), Themroc (Claude Faraldo, 1973), La Grande bouffe/The Big Feast (Marco Ferreri, 1973), Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980), and Salto nel vuoto/A Leap in the Dark (Marco Bellocchio, 1980), for which he won the Best Actor Award at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1982, he won the Silver Bear at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival for his chilling role in Une étrange affaire/Strange Affair (Pierre Granmier-Deferre, 1981).

Both as an actor and as a producer Piccoli supported such young filmmakers as Bertrand Tavernier (Des enfants gates/Spoiled Children, 1977), Jacques Doillon (La Fille prodigue/The Prodigal Daughter, 1981) and Leos Carax (Mauvais sang/Bad Blood, 1986).

In 1976, Piccoli recorded his remarkable career on the page when he co-wrote a semi-autobiography, Dialogue Egoistes (Egoist Dialogues). He has been married three times, first to actress Éléonore Hirt (1954-?), then for eleven years to the singer Juliette Gréco (1966-1977) and finally, from 1980 on to writer and actress Ludivine Clerc. He has one daughter from his first marriage, Anne-Cordélia.

French postcard by La Roue Tourne, Paris.

Swiss postcard by Musée de l'Elysée / News Productions, Baulmes, no. 55603. Photo: Laurence Sudre.

Mr. Cinema

In the 1980s, Michel Piccoli resumed his stage career, starring in Peter Brook's acclaimed Paris productions of Anton Tchekhov's The Cherry Orchard (1981, 1983) and Patrice Chéreau's staging of Marivaux's La Fausse Suivante (1985).

He continued to star in films, such as in Milou en mai/Milou in May (Louis Malle, 1990) for which he was nominated for the César. In 1991, Piccoli again won international acclaim for his portrayal of an artist suffering from a creative block in La belle noiseuse (Jacques Rivette, 1991) with Emmanuelle Béart.

Piccoli turned his hand to film directing, starting with a segment for the Amnesty International film Contre l'oubli (1991). His first feature was Alors viola/So There (1997), followed by La Plage noire/The Black Beach (2001) with Dominique Blanc, and C'est pas tout à fait la vie dont j'avais rêvé (2005).

Not surprisingly, he was chosen to impersonate Mr. Cinema in Agnès Varda's Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma/The One Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema (1995).

He subsequently continued to do steady work in pictures of varying quality, with highlights being the psychological thriller Généalogies d'une Crime (Raul Ruiz, 1997) with Piccoli as a doctor caught up in a murder mystery, and Je rentre à la maison/ I'm Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira, 2001) with Catherine Deneuve.

In 2001 he was the recipient of the Europe Theatre Prize. In 2002, he supported Lionel Jospin's presidential campaign. Piccoli is vocally opposed to the Front National.

In 2012, he won the David di Donatello (the Italian Oscar) for his role as the pope in the comedy-drama Habemus Papam/We Have a Pope (Nanni Moretti, 2012).

Since then he made again several films. James Travers at French Films.info: “There is something utterly seductive about Piccoli's screen portrayals, which comes from the actor's irresistible personal charm and his ability to project, very subtly, the inner neuroses, desires and venality of his characters. No wonder he is so well-loved by critics and audiences, and so eagerly sought after by filmmakers. Indefatigable, talented and generous, Piccoli deserves his reputation as one of the finest actors of his generation.”

Trailer for Le Mépris/Contempt (1963). Source: The Cult Box (YouTube).

Trailer for Habemus Papam/We Have a Pope (2012). Source: Movieclips Trailers (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (French Films.info), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Max Landa

June 14, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Hugh Grant

≪ Previous: Michel Piccoli

Austrian actor Max Landa (1880-1933) with his trademark monocle started his career in silent films opposite Asta Nielsen. Later he starred as the elegant and cosmopolitan gentleman-detective Joe Deebs in the popular silent serial.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne Series, Berlin-Wilm., no. 80/2. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.

German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 80/3. Photo: Olivieri / Karl Schenker.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 8377. Photo: Becker & Maass.

Detective Joe Deebs

Max Landa was born as Max Landau in Vienna, then Austria-Hungary, in 1880 (some sources say in Minsk, Russian Empire in 1873).

He started acting on stage when he was 19, and performed in several theatres in Austria and Germany.

He made his film début film in Die Suffragette/The Suffragette (Urban Gad, 1913) starring Asta Nielsen.

He then played in several films with Nielsen and directed by Urban Gad: Engelein/Little Angel (1913/14), Die weisse Rosen/The White Rose (1914), Das Feuer/The Fire (1914) with Ernst Hofmann, the sequel Engelein’s Hochzeit/Little Angel's Wedding (1916) with Bruno Kastner, Die ewige Nacht/The Eternal Night (1916), and Aschenbrödel/Cinderella (1916).

In 1914 Landa played together with leading man Ernst Reicher in the Stuart Webbs crime serial films Die geheimnisvolle Villa/The Mysterious Villa (Joe May, 1914) and Der Man im Keller/The Man in the Cellar (Joe May, 1914). He then starred in his own serial around the detective character Joe Deebs, from 1915 on.

German postcard by Photochemie, no K. 2298. Photo: Stern-Film. Publicity still for Europa Postlagernd/Europe poste restante (Ewald André Dupont, 1918) with Landa as Joe Deebs.

German postcard by Photochemie, no K. 2292. Photo: Stern-Film. Publicity still for Europa Postlagernd/Europe poste restante (Ewald André Dupont, 1918).

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 2391. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K 2396. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.

Antagonistic and Supporting Roles

After the war Max Landa continued to perform as a detective in a succession of crime and adventure films by Ewald André Dupont, produced by Stern-Film: Europa postlagernd/Europe poste restante (1918), Mitternacht/Midnight (1918), Der Teufel/The Devil (1918), Die Japanerin/The Japanese Woman (1919), Das Geheimnis des Amerika-Docks/The Secret of the America Docks (1919), Die Apachen/The Apaches (1919), Die Maske/The Mask (1919), Die Spione/ The Spies (1919), Das Derby/The Derby (1919), Der Würger der Welt/The Strangler of the World (1919), and Das Grand Hotel Babylon/The Grand Hotel Babylon (1919).

Max Landa then played the tragic Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria in Kaiserin Elisabeth von Österreich/Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Rolf Raffé, 1920).

In 1920 Landa played in a series of crime and detective films with actress Hilde Wörner, who had her own production company.

He also acted once more with Asta Nielsen in Die Geliebte Roswolskys/The Beloved Roswolky's (Felix Basch, 1921), opposite Paul Wegeneras Roswolsky.

In 1921 Landa also founded his own Max-Landa Film company for which he produced five films in 1921-1922: Der Passagier von Nr. 7/The passenger of No. 7 (Willy Zeyn, 1921) with Hanni Weisse,Die schwarze Schachdame/The Black Chess Lady (Heinz Herald, 1922), Die Perlen der Lady Harrison/The Pearls of Lady Harrison (Heinz Herald, 1922), Der politische Teppich/The Political Carpet (Heinz Herald, 1922), and Das Licht um Miternacht/The Light at Midnight (Hans von Wolzogen, 1922).

After that, Landa continued to play in German films, but had to satisfy with antagonistic and supporting roles, as in the two-part adventure film Der Flug um den Erdball/The Flight Around the earth (Willi Wolf, 1924) with Ellen Richter, the Manfred Noa society comedies Soll man heiraten?/Should One Marry? (Manfred Noa, 1925) with Vilma Bánky and Warum sich scheiden lassen/Why Divorce? (Manfred Noa, 1926), Die leichte Isabell/Easy Isabell (Eddy Busch, Arthur Wellin, 1927) with Lee Parry and after the operetta by Jean Gilbert, and Anastasia, die falsche Zarentochter/Anastasia, the False Czar's Daughter (Arthur Bergen, 1928) starring Camilla von Hollay.

After 1928 Max Landa quitted playing in film. In 1933, he died in Bled, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia), only 53 years old (or 60 according to some sources).

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 9554. Caption: Max Landa in seinem heim (Max Landa at home).

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 165. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

German postcard. Photochemie, Berlin, K. 218. Photo A. Binder, Berlin.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 741. Photo: Residenz-Atelier Wien.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de and IMDb.

↧

Hugh Grant

June 15, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Karl Ludwig Diehl

≪ Previous: Max Landa

With his bumbling English charm, Hugh Grant (1960) achieved international stardom in the romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). The handsome Brit with his floppy hair and posh accent delivered more endearing comic performances in hits like Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and About a Boy (2002). Privately, Grant also proved to have enough sense of humour to survive a media frenzy.

Italian postcard by World Collection, no. P.c. 688.

A sexually conflicted Edwardian

Hugh John Mungo Grant was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1960. He was the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean, a schoolteacher, and James Murray Grant, a carpet sales representative. His elder brother, James Grant, is a successful banker.

From 1969 to 1978, Hugh attended the independent Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket and football for the school. In 1979, he won the Galsworthy scholarship to New College, Oxford where he starred in his first film, Privileged (Michael Hoffman, 1982), produced by the Oxford University Film Foundation.

Viewing acting as nothing more than a creative outlet, he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and starred in a successful touring production of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. To obtain his Equity card, he joined the Nottingham Playhouse, a regional theatre.

Bored with small acting parts, he created his own comedy revue called The Jockeys of Norfolk with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor. The group toured London's pub comedy circuit and proved a hit at the Edinburgh Festival. Their sketch on the Nativity, told as an Ealing comedy, gained them a spot on the BBC2 TV show Edinburgh Nights.

During this time, Grant also appeared in theatre productions of plays such as An Inspector Calls, Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, and Shakespeare's Coriolanus.

His first leading film role came as as a sexually conflicted Edwardian in Maurice (James Ivory, 1987), adapted from E. M. Forster's novel. He and co-star James Wilby shared the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival for their portrayals of lovers Clive Durham and Maurice Hall.

Despite such acclaim, Grant's next films were largely forgettable affairs with the exception of The Lair of the White Worm (Ken Russell, 1988). Grant attained some cult status as a lord attempting to foil the murderous charms of a campy, trampy vampire (Amanda Donahoe).

He had supporting parts in the BAFTA Award-nominated White Mischief (Michael Radford, 1987) and in Dawning (Robert Knights, 1988), opposite Anthony Hopkins.

His classic good looks made him a natural for romantic leads. He played Lord Byron in the Spanish production Remando al viento/Rowing with the Wind (Gonzalo Suárez, 1988). During the shooting of this Goya Award-winning film, Grant met model and actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role as Byron's former lover Claire Clairmont. Their subsequent relationship created much media attention.

He portrayed another real life figure, Frédéric Chopin, in Impromptu (James Lapine, 1991) opposite Judy Davis as George Sand. He also played Julie Andrews' gay son in the ABC made-for-television film Our Sons (John Erman, 1991).

In Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon (1992), he portrayed a fastidious and proper British tourist married to Kristin Scott Thomas, who finds himself enticed by the sexual hedonism of a seductive French woman (Emmanuelle Seigner) and her embittered, paraplegic American husband (Peter Coyote). His work in the award-winning Merchant-Ivory drama The Remains of the Day (James Ivory, 1993) went largely unnoticed.

Danish postcard by Forlaget Holger Danske, no. 931.

A bohemian and debonair bachelor

At 32, Hugh Grant became an overnight international star when he played bohemian and debonair bachelor Charles in Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell 1994), opposite Andie MacDowell. The romantic comedy, written by Richard Curtis, became the highest-grossing British film to date with a worldwide box office in excess of $244 million. Among the numerous awards for the film, Grant earned his first and only Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award.

He signed a two-year production deal with Castle Rock Entertainment and became founder and director of the UK-based Simian Films Limited. He appointed Elizabeth Hurley as the head of development to look for prospective projects. Simian Films produced two Grant vehicles in the 1990s but closed its US office in 2002.

Grant was one of the choices to play James Bond in GoldenEye (Martin Campbell, 1995), but eventually lost out to Pierce Brosnan. He did play Emma Thompson's suitor in Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995), the Academy Award-winning film version of Jane Austen's classic 1811 novel, and Grant was a cartographer in 1917 Wales in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (Christopher Monger, 1995). He also performed in the Academy Award-winning Restoration (Michael Hoffman, 1995) with Robert Downey Jr.

On 27 June 1995, Grant was arrested in Los Angeles, California, for lewd conduct after police checking into a ‘suspicious parked car’ found him with Divine Brown, a prostitute, in the front seat. He pleaded no contest and was fined $1,180, placed on two years' summary probation.

The arrest occurred about two weeks before the release of Grant's first major studio film, Nine Months (Chris Columbus, 1995) , which he was scheduled to promote on several American television shows. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno had him booked for the same week. In the much-watched interview, Grant was noted for not making excuses for the incident after Leno asked him, "What the hell were you thinking?" Grant answered, "I think you know in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did a bad thing. And there you have it."

The comedy Nine Months was almost universally panned by critics, but it proved a hit at the box office. Grant made his debut as a film producer with the thriller Extreme Measures (Michael Apted, 1996), a commercial and critical failure.

After a three-year hiatus, he paired with Julia Roberts in Notting Hill (Roger Michell, 1999), made by much of the same team that was responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral. This new Working Title production displaced Four Weddings and a Funeral as the biggest British hit in the history of cinema, with earnings equalling $363 million worldwide. The comedy helped to restore some of Grant’s luster.

He also released his second production output, a fish-out-of-water mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes (Kelly Makin, 1999), that year. More successful was Small Time Crooks (Woody Allen, 2000) in which Grant played an unsympathetic art dealer.

After 13 years together, Grant and Elizabeth Hurley split up in May 2000, but two years later Grant became godfather to Hurley's son Damian (2002).

French postcard by OK Podium. Photo: J-M Graber.

The Bugger, Bugged

Hugh Grant played a charming but womanising book publisher in Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire, 2001). The film, featuring Renée Zellweger and adapted from Helen Fielding's novel, was an international hit, earning $281 million worldwide.

Grant also appeared as another womaniser, Will Freeman, in About a Boy (Paul Weitz, 2002), the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-seller At AllMovie, Michael Hastings notes: “Hugh Grant is one of the few actors since Cary Grant who can remain likeable even as he's committing near-despicable acts of dishonesty.” The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, while the London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best British Actor.

About a Boy also marked a notable change in Grant's boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. Grant was paired with Sandra Bullock in Warner Bros.'s Two Weeks Notice (Marc Lawrence, 2002), which made $199 million internationally but was panned by critics.

It was followed by the ensemble comedy, Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003), headlined by Grant as the British Prime Minister. A Christmas release by Working Title Films, the film was promoted as ‘the ultimate romantic comedy’ and accumulated $246 million at the international box office.

In 2004, Grant reprised his role as Daniel Cleaver for a small part in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Beebon Kidron, 2004), which, like its predecessor, made more than $262 million commercially.

Gone from the screen for two years, Grant then reteamed with Paul Weitz for the black comedy American Dreamz (2006), in which he portrayed the acerbic host of an American Idol-like reality show. American Dreamz failed financially but Grant’s self-loathing performance was generously praised.

In 2007, Grant starred opposite Drew Barrymore in Music and Lyrics (Marc Lawrence, 2007), a parody of pop culture and the music industry. Grant learned to sing, play the piano, dance (a few mannered steps) and studied the mannerisms of prominent musicians to prepare for his role as a has-been pop singer, based loosely on Andrew Ridgeley.

He co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? (Marc Lawrence, 2009), which was a commercial as well as a critical failure.

In April 2011, he published an article in the New Statesman‘The Bugger, Bugged’ about a conversation with Paul McMullan, former journalist and paparazzo for News of the World. In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Grant, McMullan alleged that editors at the Daily Mail and News of the World, had ordered journalists to engage in illegal phone tapping and had done so with the full knowledge of senior British politicians.

Wikipedia describes how “Grant's article attracted considerable interest, due to both the revelatory content of the taped conversation, and the novelty of Grant himself ‘turning the tables’ on a tabloid journalist”. The later revelation that the voicemail of the by then murdered Millie Dowler had been hacked, and evidence for her murder enquiry had been deleted, turned the coverage from media interest to widespread public and eventually political outrage. “Grant became something of a spokesman against Murdoch's News Corporation, culminating in a bravura performance on BBC television's Question Time in July 2011”.

In November 2011, it was announced that Grant had become a father to a baby girl, Tabitha, earlier that autumn. The identity of the mother, with whom Grant had a 'fleeting affair' according to his publicist, was not at first announced; however, it was later revealed to be a Chinese woman, Tinglan Hong. In an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in April 2012, Grant revealed that his daughter's Chinese name is Xiao Xi, meaning ‘happy surprise’. Grant and Hong reportedly briefly reunited in 2012. In February 2013, Hugh Grant announced that they had recently welcomed a son named Felix Chang.

In the cinema Hugh Grant played six evil characters in the epic drama film Cloud Atlas (Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, 2012). Soon, he can be seen in another romantic comedy, The Rewrite (Marc Lawrence, 2014) with Marisa Tomei, and in the action comedy The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Guy Ritchie, 2015), based on the legendary TV series.

Italian postcard by World Collection, no. 541.

Sources: Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie), Steve Shelokhonov (IMDb), Michael Hastings (AllMovie), FilmReference.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

↧

Karl Ludwig Diehl

June 16, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Seymour Hicks

≪ Previous: Hugh Grant

German film actor Karl Ludwig Diehl (1896-1958) appeared in 66 films between 1924 and 1957. Although he is forgotten now, he was one of the of the most prominent German film actors of the 1930s and 1940s.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3739/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Ufa / Binz.

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 2680/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Tobis / Binz.

Gentleman-detective

Karl Ludwig Diehl was born in Halle an der Saale, Germany in 1896 as the son of economist Carl Diehl.

He visited a humanistic Gymnasium in Königsberg and in Freiburg. After graduation, he took acting lessons, but after the start of the First World War he was recruited as a soldier.

In 1919 he was able to continue his training at the Drama School of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and received first engagements in Wiesbaden, at the prestigious Münchner Kammerspiele in Munich and at the Schillertheater in Berlin.

In 1924, he made his film debut with a supporting role in Die Tragödie der Entehrten/The Tragedy of the Dishonoured (Josef Berger, 1924), a production of the Union Film Co. Ltd. in Munich. In the same year he also appeared in his second film, Die Schuld/The Blame (Josef Berger, 1924).

Five years later he went to Berlin. There he played his first starring role in the silent crime film Masken/Masks (Rudolf Meinert, 1929), a remake of a successful film from 1919. Diehl played the hero, gentleman-detective Stuart Webb and his co-stars were Trude Berliner and Italian star Marcella Albani.

That same year, he starred as Lord Chamberlain opposite Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in both the German and the English versions of the Ufa operetta film Liebeswalzer/Waltz of Love (Wilhelm Thiele, 1929), his first sound film.

He appeared in the hit Der Greife/The Snatcher (Richard Eichberg, 1930) starring Hans Albers. The film was shot concurrently in a German and an English language version (Night Birds). This was a fairly common practice in the early days of talking pictures, when it was not yet practical to overdub dialogue soundtracks.

He co-starred with Lissi Arna in Der Zinker/The Squeaker (Martin Frič, Karel Lamač, 1931), based on an Edgar Wallace novel and also shot in a Czech version.

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3344/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Binz.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3344/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Binz.

Unusually serious social comment

Karl Ludwig Diehl continued to work for Ufa and other smaller production companies in Berlin. With his distinguished appearance he often played diplomats, noblemen, officers, attorneys, bankers, engineers or doctors.

He was a count in the historical drama Rasputin, Dämon der Frauen/Rasputin, Demon with Women (Adolf Trotz, 1932) starring Conrad Veidt as Gregory Rasputin who wielded influence over the Russian Royal Family around the time of the First World War.

In 1933, Diehl starred in the British thriller On Secret Service (Arthur B. Woods, 1933) with Greta Nissen. The following year, he starred in the Ufa production Ein Mann will nach Deutschland/A man wants to Germany (Paul Wegener, 1934), one of the first films that were totally paid for by the Nazi regime. He portrayed a patriotic German engineer who operates in South America when the First World War starts. He flouts many resistances and the attraction of a rich local (Brigitte Horney) to return home, so he can register as a war volunteer there.

However, the following year Diehl starred in the Austrian romantic comedy Episode (1935), directed, written and produced by Walter Reisch. It is remarkable because it is the only Austrian film with a Jewish producer that was permitted to be imported and shown in Nazi Germany after 1933 and the ban on Jews working in the film industry. The credits were spoken against a musical background; when Reisch's name was reached, the music in German cinemas swelled to make it inaudible. Episode belongs to the popular Austrian light romantic comedy genre known as the Wiener Film, but also contains, for a film of this genre, unusually serious social comment.

From 1931 on, Diehl appeared again and again as a film lover, although he radiated more integrity and reliability than sensuality.

His romantic films include Zwei in einem Auto/Two in a car (Joe May, 1931) with Magda Schneider, Die Freundin eines großen Mannes/The girlfriend of a great man (Paul Wegener, 1934), with Käthe von Nagy, Liebe geht seltsame Wege/Love goes strange ways (Hans H. Zerlett, 1937), with Olga Tschechova, Die schwedische Nachtigall/The Swedish Nightingale (Peter Paul Btauer, 1941), with Ilse Werner, Nacht ohne Abschied/Night without saying goodbye (Erich Waschneck, 1941-1943) opposite Anna Dammann and Die Hochstaplerin/The imposter (Karl Anton, 1943), with Sybille Schmitz.

Herbert Selpin’s faithful Oscar Wilde adaptation Ein idealer Gatte/An Ideal Husband (1935) was the first in a series of films in which Diehl played husbands who make up for their lack of lover qualities with loyalty and reliability.

Other examples are Es geht um mein Leben/It's My Life (Richard Eichberg, 1936) with Kitty Jantzen, the Effi Briest adaptation Der Schritt vom Wege/The step of the way (Gustaf Gründgens, 1939) and Annelie (Josef von Baky, 1941) with Luise Ullrich.

Likewise, Diehl embodied exemplary fathers in the films Seine Tochter ist der Peter/His daughter is Peter (Heinz Helbig, 1936) with child actress Traudl Stark, and Der grüne Domino/The Green Domino (Herbert Selpin, 1935) with Brigitte Horney.

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, no. A 3137/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Terra / Baumann.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3466/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Ufa / Binz.

State Actor of the Third Reich

In 1939, Karl Ludwig Diehl was appointed state actor by the Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels and subsequently worked in another propaganda film.

He played an Irish baron in the anti-British drama Der Fuchs von Glenarvon/The fox of Glenarvon (Max W. Kimmich, 1940) with Olga Tschechova and Ferdinand Marian. It portrayed the years of the Irish fight for independence during World War I and stands in a long line of anti-British propaganda films that portray the British as oppressors or traitors of minorities.

He also starred in the German sports film Das große Spiel/The Big Game (Robert A. Stemmle, 1942). It featured famous German footballers of the era. National coach Sepp Herberger arranged for many German international footballers to be recalled from fighting in the Second World War, ostensibly to improve the quality of the film, but actually to try to protect them from the horrors of war.

Also remarkable was the German war film Der 5. Juni/5 June (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1942) starring Carl Raddatz. The film depicts the events of 1940 when German forces successfully invaded France. It was shot on location in France and Germany. Constant changes to the film, often at the request of the German military, led to large cost overruns. In November 1942 the film was banned by Joseph Goebbels for unspecified reasons. It has been speculated that Goebbels thought the film was not entertaining enough or wished to avoid offending the Vichy government of France.

After WWII, Diehl had theatre engagements in Konstanz, Göttingen and Munich.

In the 1950s, he returned to the cinema. In Germany he played small parts in films like Mädchenjahre einer Königin/The Story of Vickie (Ernst Marischka, 1954) as prime minister Lord Melbourne opposite Romy Schneider as the young Queen Victoria, Des Teufels General/The Devil's General (Helmut Käutner, 1955) starring Curd Jürgens, and Es geschah am 20. Juli/It Happened on July 20th (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1955), a dramatic reconstruction of the July 1944 attempt by German Army Officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb and to end the war before Germany was totally destroyed.

In Italy he acted in the drama Atto d'accusa/The Accusation (Giacomo Gentilomo, 1951) with Marcello Mastroianni. Diehl starred in 16 more films, but was unable to match his earlier success.

Since 1930, he was married to with Mary von Ruffin, the sister of actor Kurt von Ruffin. They had two daughters. Karl Ludwig Diehl died in his villa Berghof near Penzberg in Bavaria in 1958. He was 61.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 229, 1941-1944. Photo: Terra / Binz.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3466/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Charlott Serda.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3653/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Ufa / Binz.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de (German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

↧

Seymour Hicks

June 17, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Jean-Claude Van Damme

≪ Previous: Karl Ludwig Diehl

Suave Seymour Hicks (1871-1949) was a successful British actor, music hall performer, playwright, screenwriter, actor-manager and producer. He became known, early in his career, for writing, starring in and producing several Edwardian musical comedies, often together with his famous wife, Ellaline Terriss. His most popular role was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. He repeated this role on screen in a silent and a sound version.

British postcard, no. 112.

British postcard in the Philco Series, no. 3201 F.

An Unaccustomed Light-hearted Air

Edward Seymour Hicks was born in St. Hélier on the Isle of Jersey, Great-Britain in 1871. He made his stage début at the age of nine. He appeared as Little Buttercup in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore at his school in Bath. After that, he was determined to be an actor.

Hicks first appeared professionally on stage at the age of sixteen in a production of In the Ranks at the Grand, Islington. In 1889, he joined the theatrical company of Mr. and Mrs. Kendal for an American tour where they presented a repertory of contemporary plays.

Hicks starred as Dr. Watson in a parody of Sherlock Holmes, Under the Clock (1893) at the Royal Court Theatre. It was written by Hicks with Charles Brookfield, who played Holmes, and it was the first musical revue ever staged in London. That same year, he married Ellaline Terriss.

Then he starred in a revival of Little Jack Sheppard at the Gaiety Theatre, London which brought him to the attention of impresario George Edwardes. Edwardes cast Hicks in his next show, The Shop Girl (1894) opposite Ada Reeve. Kurt Gänzl in The Encyclopaedia of Musical Theatre: “The pair, comedy players both, gave an unaccustomed light-hearted air to the show's juvenile roles for, until that time, sentimentality rather than fun had been de rigueur in such parts, and Hicks scored a hit with the first of the many borrowed songs he would perform in shows over the years, Felix McGlennon's Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back.

The emphasis on charming light comedy was increased when Hicks's wife, Ellaline Terriss, took over as 'the shop girl', and together this attractive, bright pair of young performers helped materially to seal the fate of the drooping/sighing, tenor/soprano lovers in London musical plays.” The Shop Girl played for 546 performances, and its success led to his participation in two more of Edwardes's hit ‘girl’ musicals, The Circus Girl (1896) and A Runaway Girl (1898), both starring Terriss.

In 1901, Hicks first played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and eventually played it thousands of times onstage. Hicks, along with his wife, joined the producer Charles Frohman in his theatre company and wrote and starred in a series of extraordinarily successful musicals, including Bluebell in Fairyland (1901), Quality Street (1902), The Earl and the Girl (1903) and The Catch of the Season (1904).

Hicks used his fortune from these shows to commission the building of the Aldwych Theatre in 1905 and the Hicks Theatre in 1906 (renamed as the Globe Theatre in 1909 and since 1994 known as the Gielgud Theatre). He opened the Hicks Theatre with a new hit show, The Beauty of Bath (1906).

Kurt Gänzl: “Hicks and Miss Terriss established themselves, during this period, not only as the town's favourite musical comedy hero and heroine, but also as the theatre's 'ideal couple'. As with most such couples, the ideal was a pretty fictional one, but Miss Terriss tactfully ignored Hicks's repeated trips to the ladies' chorus, and their charming public image lasted happily, to the great good of their popularity.”

Hicks’ stage performances were less successful in later years, and he opted instead to star in music hall tours, including Pebbles on the Beach (1912).

British postcard by Rotary, no. 1277 F. Photo: Foulsham & Bansfield. Publicity still for the play Bluebell in Fairyland (1901) with Ellaline Terriss.

Seymour Hicks, Ellaline Terriss, Baby Betty

With Ellaline Terriss and Baby Betty. British postcard by Rotary, no. 4051 A. Photo: Foulsham & Bansfield.

British postcard by Rotary, no. 1229 C F. With Zena Dare.

A Tour to France

After the outbreak of World War I, Seymour Hicks was the first British actor to bring a tour to France (with Terriss), giving concerts to British troops at the front. Because of this, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre.

He continued to write light comedies, the most popular of which was The Happy Day (1916).

On film, he first appeared in the silent films Scrooge (Leedham Bantock, 1913), David Garrick (Leedham Bantock, 1913) and A Prehistoric Love Story (Leedham Bantock, 1915) with Isobel Elsom.

In 1923, he decided to produce his own films. His first film, in which he also starred, was Always Tell Your Wife (1923), which was based on one of his plays. While making that film, director Hugh Croise fell ill (or walked off the set or was fired; the sources differ) and Hicks hired an unknown young director to make his debut: Alfred Hitchcock.

Hicks directed Sleeping Partners (1930) and Glamour (1931). In addition, over a dozen films were made either from his plays or his scripts, and he starred in about twenty films, many with his wife.

In 1931, he was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour (Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur) for his promotion of French drama on the English stage.

In 1934, he had taken over Daly's Theatre in London, where he produced and appeared in a series of successful plays including Vintage Wine that he and Ashley Dukes adapted from a novel.

In 1935, he played his most famous stage role, Ebenezer Scrooge for a second time on film in Scrooge (Henry Edwards, 1935), produced in England The film has been praised for its vivid atmosphere, but most of the ghosts in the film are not seen onscreen, except for the Ghost of Christmas Present (Oscar Asche). Donald Calthrop portrays Bob Cratchit, and Maurice Evans has a bit part as one of Scrooge's debtors.

Later notable film roles included Sir John Tremayne in The Lambeth Walk (Albert de Courville, 1939) and Bunter in Busman's Honeymoon (Arthur B. Woods, Richard Thorpe, 1940).

Hicks published several autobiographies: Seymour Hicks: 24 Years of an Actor's Life (1910), Between Ourselves (1930), Me and My Missus (1939) etc.

Seymour Hicks continued to appear on stage and in films until a year before his death of influenza in 1949 in Hampshire, England, at the age of 78. He was the father of actress, Betty Hicks.

British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 112 D. Photo: Biograph.

British postcard in the Philco Series, no. 3268 C.

Sources: Kurt Gänzl (The Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theatre), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

↧

Jean-Claude Van Damme

June 19, 2014, 9:13 am

≫ Next: Hans Pos (1958-2014)

≪ Previous: Seymour Hicks

Belgian martial artist and actor Jean-Claude Van Damme (1960) is best known for his Hollywood films of the 1980s and 1990s. His most successful films include Bloodsport (1988), Universal Soldier (1992), and Timecop (1994). But the Belgian crime drama JCVD (2008) gave him his best reviews ever and paved the way for his come-back to the mainstream.

French postcard, no. C 275.

The Muscles from Brussels

Jean-Claude Van Damme (or JCVD) was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in Brussels, Belgium, in 1960. He was the son of Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, who was an accountant.

He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a Shotokan karate school. At the age of 11, Van Damme joined the Centre National De Karaté (National Centre of Karate) under the guidance of Claude Goetz in Belgium.

Van Damme trained for four years and he earned a spot on the Belgian Karate Team. Later he was trained in full-contact karate and kickboxing by Dominique Valera. He eventually earned his black belt in karate.

At the age of 15, Van Damme started his competitive karate career in Belgium. From 1976 to1980, he compiled a record of 44 victories and 4 defeats in tournament and non-tournament semi-contact matches. He started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title and the nickname ‘The Muscles from Brussels’.

At the age of 16, he took up ballet, which he studied for five years. According to Van Damme, ballet is an art, but it's also one of the most difficult sports: "If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport."

Van Damme began his full-contact career in 1977, when Claude Goetz promoted the first ever full-contact karate tournament in Belgium. From 1977 to 1982, Van Damme compiled a record of 18 victories (18 knockouts) and 1 defeat. Van Damme retired from competition in 1982.

French postcard, no. 1018.

French postcard by Underground, no. C 87.

A new sensational action star

In 1982, Jean-Claude Van Damme and childhood friend, Michel Qissi, moved to America in the hope of becoming action stars. He took English classes while working as carpet layer, pizza delivery man, limo driver, and thanks to Chuck Norris he got a job as a bouncer at a club.

He and Qissi were cast as extras in the break dancing film, Breakin' (Joel Silberg, 1984). Van Damme had his first part as a ‘Gay Karate Man’ in the short film Monaco Forever (William A. Levey, 1984).

After a small part in Missing In Action (Joseph Zitto, 1984), Van Damme was next cast in the low-budget martial arts-film No Retreat, No Surrender/Karate Tiger (Corey Yuen, 1986), as the Russian villain Ivan Kraschinsky. Van Damme worked for director John McTiernan for Predator (1987) as the titular alien, before being removed and replaced by Kevin Peter Hall. He also had a non-speaking part as a Secret Service agent who carries a polio-crippled President Franklin Roosevelt (Ralph Bellamy) out of a pool in the TV miniseries War and Remembrance (1988).

His breakout film was Bloodsport (Newt Arnold, 1988), based on the alleged true story of martial arts artist Frank Dux. He performed numerous physical feats such as helicopter-style, jump spinning heel kicks, and a complete split. Shot on a 1.5 million dollar budget, it became a box-office hit grossing more than 11 million dollar in the US and 30 million world-wide. A new sensational action star was born.

He then starred in Cyborg (Albert Pyun, 1989), shot for less than $500,000 and filmed in 24 days. Despite negative reviews, it became another box-office hit.

Then the films followed rapidly. In Kickboxer (Mark DiSalle, 1989), his character fights to avenge his brother who has been paralyzed by a Thai kickboxing champion (Qissi). In Double Impact (Sheldon Lettich, 1991) he played the dual role of Alex and Chad Wagner, estranged twin brothers fighting to avenge the deaths of their parents. This film reunited him with his Bloodsport co-star, Bolo Yeung.

In the science fiction action film Universal Soldier (Roland Emmerich, 1992), he co-starred with Dolph Lundgren as soldiers who kill each other in Vietnam but are reanimated in a secret Army project along with a large group of other previously dead soldiers. While it grossed $36,299,898 in the US, it was an even bigger success in the rest of the world, making over $65 million. With a modest $23 million budget, it was Van Damme's highest grossing film at the time.

British postcard by Santoro Graphics Ltd., South Yorks, no. C 349.

French postcard, no. C 469. Sorry, for the poor technical quality of the card.

French postcard, réf. 698.

Trouble

Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in the action dramas Nowhere To Run (Robert Harmon, 1993) with Rosanna Arquette, and Hard Target (John Woo, 1993). Again, both were financially successful but received mixed reviews.

In his next film, the science fiction action film Timecop (Peter Hyams, 1994),Van Damme played a time travelling cop, who tries to prevent the death of his wife (Mia Sara). With a box office of over $100 million worldwide Timecop remains Van Damme's highest grossing film in a lead role to date and is also generally regarded as one of his better films by critics.

After this huge success, Street Fighter (Steven E. de Souza, 1994) with Raul Julia was universally panned by critics and fans of the video game series alike, but it was another commercial success. Sudden Death (Peter Hyams, 1995) did fairly well and was considered one of his best films to date.

Then Van Damme’s projects started to fail at the box office. The Quest (Jean-Claude Van Damme, 1996) with Roger Moore, Maximum Risk (Ringo Lam, 1996) – again in a double role, Double Team (Tsui Hark, 1997) with basketball star Dennis Rodman, and Knock Off (Tsui Hark, 1998) were all box-office flops.

There was more trouble. The stress led him to develop a cocaine habit, on which he spent up to $10,000 a week, and consuming up to 10 grams per day by 1996. In 1997, Frank Dux, the martial artist whom Van Damme portrayed in Bloodsport, filed a lawsuit against Van Damme for $50,000 for co-writing and consultation work Dux did on The Quest. According to the lawsuit, Dux also accused Van Damme of lying to the public about his martial arts fight record. Van Damme won the court case.

Van Damme’s next film Universal Soldier: The Return (Mic Rodgers, 1999) was again a box-office flop, and his last theatrically released film until 2008. Van Damme was arrested for driving under the influence in 1999. Attempts at drug rehabilitation were unsuccessful, and he resorted to resolve his addiction via quitting cold turkey and exercise.

French postcard, no. C 345.

Italian postcard by World Collection, no. 322. Photo: G. Neri.

French postcard, no. 2089.

The return of the veteran action stars

Jean-Claude Van Damme returned to the mainstream with the Belgian crime drama JCVD (Mabrouk El Mechri, 2008). He played a down and out action star whose family and career are crumbling around him as he is caught in the middle of a post office heist in his hometown of Brussels, Belgium.

The film was screened at various festivals and Time Magazine named Van Damme's performance in the film the second best of the year (after Heath Ledger's The Joker in The Dark Knight). According to Time, he even deserved an Oscar.

Van Damme reprised his role as Luc Deveraux in Universal Soldier: Regeneration (John Hyams (2009), directed by John Hyams, son of Peter Hyams. Sylvester Stallone offered him a lead role in The Expendables (2010), but Van Damme turned it down.

He voiced Master Croc in Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson, 2011), the highest grossing animated feature film of the year. He also appeared in commercials for Coors Light beer, showing him on a snow-covered mountain wearing a sleeveless denim jacket, and for the washing powder Dash.

He returned to the Universal Soldier series with Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams, 2012), again opposite Dolph Lundgren. Then he did participate with Stallone in The Expendables 2 (Simon West, 2012), along with other veteran action stars as Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dolph Lundgren.

That year he was honoured with a life-size statue of himself in his hometown of Brussels. Van Damme has been married five times to four different women. His first two wives were Maria Rodriguez (1980-1984) and Cynthia Derderian (1985-1986). He was married to his third wife, bodybuilder Gladys Portugues, until 1992, when he began an affair with actress Darcy LaPier, whom he married in February 1994. That same year he had an affair with his Street Fighter co-star Kylie Minogue during filming in Thailand, though LaPier, who was pregnant at the time with their son Nicholas, did not become aware of this until Van Damme publicly admitted this in 2012.

After leaving LaPier, Van Damme remarried bodybuilder Portugues, in 1999. They have two children: Kristopher van Varenberg (1987) and Bianca Bree (1990). He appeared with both children in the action film Six Bullets (Ernie Barbarash, 2012).

Van Damme has been planning to make a comeback to fight former boxing Olympic gold-medalist Somluck Kamsing. The fight was a focal point in his ITV reality show Jean Claude Van Damme: Behind Closed Doors. However, the fight has been repeatedly postponed, and critics doubt it will ever occur.

But no worries, the Muscles of Brussels keeps himself busy and three new films with him are scheduled for 2014.

British postcard by Oliver Books, London, no. 52.

British postcard by Heroes Publishing, London, no. SPC 2500.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Hans Pos (1958-2014)

June 19, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Heidemarie Hatheyer

≪ Previous: Jean-Claude Van Damme

On Tuesday 17 June, Dutch producer and director Hans Pos died. In 1987, he founded Shooting Star Filmcompany with Maria Peters, and Dave Schram. They produced several popular family films, like Kruimeltje/Little Crumb (Maria Peters, 1999) and Pietje Bell/Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002) featuring Quinten Schram. Hans Pos was 56.

Dutch postcard by Rubinstein. Photo: publicity still for Pietje Bell/Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002) featuring Quinten Schram.

Dutch postcard by Rubinstein. Photo: publicity still for Pietje Bell/Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002) featuring Quinten Schram.

Dutch postcard by Rubinstein. Photo: publicity still for Pietje Bell/Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002) featuring Stijn Westenend and Arjan Ederveen.

Dutch postcard by Rubinstein. Photo: publicity still for Pietje Bell/Peter Bell (Maria Peters, 2002) featuring Quinten Schram.

Source: IMDb.

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Heidemarie Hatheyer

June 20, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Paul Lukas

≪ Previous: Hans Pos (1958-2014)

Austrian actress Heidemarie Hatheyer (1918-1990) appeared in 43 films between 1938 and 1988. After the war she was forbidden to act in films for some years, because of her work in the Nazi propaganda film Ich klage an/I accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941).

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 101, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

Wally of the Vultures

Heidemarie Hatheyer was born as Heide Marie Pia Nechansky in Villach, Austria, in 1918. She was born from an extramarital liaison between Mary Feucht née Nechansky and Paul Hatheyer. She grew up in Klagenfurt, where her parents were later married for a time.

After finishing high school she started as a journalist but she went to Vienna to play at the cabaret Atelier am Naschmarkt. Hatheyer joined the Theater an der Wien in 1936. Here she played a small role next to Zarah Leander in the operetta Axel an der Himmelstür (Axel at Heaven’s Gate) with music by Ralph Benatzky and lyrics by Paul Morgan and Hans Weigel.

In 1937 she joined the Münchner Kammerspiele, where she had great success as Anushka in Richard Billinger's play Der Gigant (The Giant) and as Joan in George Bernard Shaw's Heiliger Johanna (Saint Joan). In 1942 Gustav Gründgens asked her for the Preußische Staatstheater in Berlin.

She was discovered for the film by mountaineer filmmaker Luis Trenker. He asked her for the mountain-climbing romance Der Berg ruft!/The Mountain Calls (Luis Trenker, 1938), in which she became the leading lady.

She signed a contract with Tobis Films, and appeared in Ein ganzer Kerl/A Regular Fellow (Fritz Peter Buch, 1939) opposite Albert Matterstock.

Her title role as a mountain girl in Die Geierwally/Wally of the Vultures (Hans Steinhoff, 1940) became the greatest success of her career.

Till the end of the war she appeared in such well-known films as Der grosse Schatten/The Big Shadow (Paul Verhoeven, 1942) in the role of a pregnant stage ingénue, and Die Jahre vergehen/The Years pass (Günther Rittau, 1944), but she also acted in the Nazi propaganda film Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941). This film was intended as a preparation and secret promotion for Adolph Hitler's euthanasia program.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3886/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3675/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

Blacklist

In 1945, the Allied Military Government forbade Heidemarie Hatheyer to play in films, because of her work on Ich klage an. They declared her guilty of 'indirect complicity' in the mass exterminations that had taken place during the Third Reich. They allowed her to continue working at the theatre, and she played on stage in Germany, Switzerland and Vienna. She claimed to have been forced to play the hopelessly ill victim in the film by its director, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, and the blacklist was lifted in 1949.

During the following decade, she continued her film career successfully. To her well-known films of the 1950s belong Dr. Holl/Affairs of Dr. Holl (Rolf Hansen, 1951), Das letzte Rezept/Desires (Rolf Hansen, 1952) with O.W. Fischer, Pünktchen und Anton/Punktchen and Anton (Thomas Engel, 1953), Sauerbruch - Das war mein Leben/The Life of Surgeon Sauerbruch (Rolf Hansen, 1954), Die Ratten/The Rats (Robert Siodmak, 1955) with Maria Schell, and Glücksritter/A Modern Story (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1957) with Paul Hubschmid.

She was from 1960 to 1968 a member of the Burgtheater in Vienna. In 1984 she returned here as a guest.

In 1960, she was awarded the prestigious Josef Kainz Medaille, an award named after the turn-of-the-century German stage star. She was awarded the Filmband in Gold twice, first in 1984 for lifetime achievement, and in 1989 for Best Actress in Martha Jellneck (Kai Wessel, 1988). In this film she played a lonely old woman who unmasks an SS officer.

She played her last role in three episodes of the serial Diese Drombuschs/These Drombuschs (Michael Günther, Michael Werlin, 1989).

In 1990 Heidemarie Hatheyer died in Scheuren bei Forch, Switzerland, aged 72. She was first married to director Willfried Feldhütter and from 1952 on she was married with the author Curt Riess. She had two daughters from her first marriage, Veronica Feldhütter and Regine Feldhütter . The latter with whom she often appeared together in films and on TV, has already died. Her granddaughter is also an actress.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3271/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.

Scene from Dr. Holl/Affairs of Dr. Holl (1951) with Maria Schell, Dieter Borsche and Heidemarie Hatheyer. Source: LadyViolet07 (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Rudi Polt (IMDb), H.M. Bock (Filmportal.de - German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

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Paul Lukas

June 21, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Florent Pagny

≪ Previous: Heidemarie Hatheyer

Paul Lukas (1891-1971) was a Hungarian-born American actor. He had a successful stage and film career in Hungary, Germany and Austria, where he worked with Max Reinhardt. In 1927, he arrived in Hollywood. At first, he played elegant, smooth womanizers, but increasingly he became typecast as a villain. In 1943 he won the Oscar for Best Actor in Watch on the Rhine.

British postcard in the Autograph Series, London, no. A 11.

Matinee Idol

Paul Lukas was born Pál Lukács (native form is Lukács Pál) in Budapest, Austria-Hungary in 1891. He was the son of Naria (née Zilahy) and Janos Lukacs, an advertising executive. His family was Jewish.

He graduated from the Hungarian School for Drama, but in 1913, he had to serve in the Hungarian army. In 1915, he was invalided out.

He went to Kosice (Kassa) to be an actor. Soon he became a matinee idol, and in 1917, he made his film debut in Sphynx/Sphinx (Béla Balogh, 1918).

Among his other Hungarian films are Udvari levegö/Song of the Heart (Béla Balogh, 1918) and Masamód/The Milliner (László Márkus, 1920) with Ica von Lenkeffy.

Between 1918 and 1927, he was a member of the Comedy Theatre in Budapest. Legendary stage director Max Reinhardt also had him guest-star in Berlin and Vienna stage productions.

In Austria, he also co-starred in the silent film epic Samson und Delila/Samson and Delilah (Alexander Korda, 1922). This was the first film to be made at the Rosenhügel Film Studios, which were still under construction at the time and was among the first epic films to be made in Austria. Delilah was played by Maria Corda, the director’s wife.

The film was a failure and both the Kordas and Lukas moved to Germany. There they made the silent drama Das unbekannte Morgen/The Unknown Tomorrow (Alexander Korda, 1923) starring Werner Krauss, María Corda and Olga Limburg. Lukas played a minor role. The film was a financial success, and Korda used his share of the profits to buy a stake in the film distribution company FIHAG.

Hungarian postcard by FMSI, no.17. Photo: Korvin / Joe May Film.

Ultra-dutiful Valet

In 1927 Paul Lukas was invited by Hollywood producer Adolph Zukor to come to the US. His American film debut was delayed while he learned English. He made his first American appearance in the silent film Two Lovers (Fred Niblo, 1928).

Next he co-starred with other ex-pats Pola Negri and Olga Baclanova in Three Sinners (Rowland V. Lee, 1928). The film was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on a play Das Zweite Leben (or The Second Life) by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolf Osterreicher.

That year, Lukas also worked again with Korda at the drama The Night Watch (Alexander Korda, 1928), which was set almost entirely on a French warship at the beginning of the First World War. Although largely a silent film. The Night Watch was the first of Korda's films to feature sound effects and music but no dialogue.

Lukas was busy in the early 1930s, appearing in such films as the crime caper Grumpy (George Cukor, Cyril Gardner, 1930), the early film noir City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931) starring Gary Cooper, the suspense film The Kiss Before the Mirror (James Whale, 1933), starring Nancy Carroll, and the box office hit Little Women (George Cukor, 1933) starring Katharine Hepburn.

Another gem was the elegant comedy By Candlelight (James Whale, 1935). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “Though quite miscast, Paul Lukas successfully conveys the role of Josef, ultra-dutiful valet to the libidinous Count Von Bommer (Nils Asther). Falling in love with Marie (Elissa Landi), whom he assumes to be a countess, Josef poses - quite convincingly - as his rakish master. The catch: Marie is herself a poseur, a mere maidservant to Count and Countess Von Rischenheim (Lawrence Grant, Dorothy Revier). Based on a play by Siegfried Geyer,By Candlelight is chock full of delightfully double-entendre pre-Code dialogue and dextrous directorial touches.”

Lukas followed William Powell and Basil Rathbone portraying the series detective Philo Vance once in The Casino Murder Case (Edwin L. Marin, 1935). A success was the drama Dodsworth (William Wyler, 1936).

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 661.

British postcard.

The Sinister Nazi

Paul Lukas became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1937.

In England he appeared at the mysterious and charming Dr. Hartz in Alfred Hitchcock's classic comic thriller The Lady Vanishes (1938) starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave.

In the late 1930s and 1940s Lukas frequently played the sinister Nazi. Another example is Dr. Kassel, the propaganda chief in the patriotic wartime melodrama Confessions of a Nazi Spy (Anatole Litvak, 1939) with Edward G. Robinson and Francis Lederer.

His greatest film role came in Watch on the Rhine (Herman Shumlin, 1943). His portrayal of Kurt Mueller, the German émigré with an American wife (Bette Davis) working against the Nazis was universally lauded by critics. He had originated the role in the Broadway premiere of the play by Lilian Hellman in 1941. He won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for the role.

In the same year, he guest starred as the eponymous character in an episode of the radio program Suspense, Mr. Markham, Antique Dealer. In the 1940s, Lukas was a charter member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a conservative lobbying group opposed to possible Communist influence in Hollywood.

In the 1950s he started appearing on stage more and more, and worked only sporadically for the cinema. Well known is his role as Professor Aronnax in Walt Disney's film version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, 1954). By that time, however, he was, at age 63, suffering from memory problems during the production, apparently leading him to lash out at cast and crew alike.

His film career picked up momentum in the 1960s with six films, including the musical Fun in Acapulco (Richard Thorpe, 1963) with Elvis Presley, and the adventure film Lord Jim (Richard Brooks, 1965) with Peter O'Toole. His final film was The Challenge (1970). Director George McGowan chose to hide his involvement by using the pseudonym Alan Smithee.

Paul Lukas died in 1971 in Tangier, Morocco, reportedly while searching for a place to spend his retirement years. He was 80.

Lukas had been married three times. His first Hungarian wife is unknown. His second wife was Gizella ‘Daisy’ Benes (1927–1962; her death) and his last wife was Annette M. Driesens (1963–1971; his death).

British postcard by Real Photograph, London, no. FS 101. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Ladies in Love (Edward H. Griffith, 1936) with Simone Simon.

British Art Photo postcard, no. 115. Photo: Universal.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Ronald Bowers (Film Reference), Encyclopaedia Britannica, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Florent Pagny

June 22, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: May Britt

≪ Previous: Paul Lukas

French musician Florent Pagny (1961) acted in many French films. He records songs in French, Italian, Spanish and English, and his best known songs include the #1 hits N'importe quoi, Savoir aimer and Ma Liberté de penser.

French postcard, no. 1152.

French postcard, no. C 101.

Controversy and boycot

Florent Pagny was born in Chalon-sur-Saône, France in 1961.

Pagny began his career as an extra in such films as the comedy Les surdoués de la première compagnie/The gifted of the first company (Michel Gérard, 1981), and the romance L'amour nu/The naked love (Yannick Bellon, 1981) with Marlène Jobert.

On TV he appeared in the drama series Les maupas (Jean-François Toussaint, 1982) with Yves Rénier, and Marion (Jean Pignol, 1982) featuring Mylène Demongeot.

He played a boxer in the adventure comedy L'as des as (Gérard Oury, 1982) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo.

He also played supporting roles in other popular films like La Balance (Bob Swaim, 1982) with Nathalie Baye, and the historical war drama Fort Saganne (Alain Corneau, 1984) with Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve.

Pagny had his first lead role in the musical drama Blessure (Michel Gérard, 1985). Interesting is also the Romanian film François Villon - Poetul vagabond/François Villon: The Maverick Poet (Sergiu Nicolaescu, 1987), in which Pagny played the title character.

In 1987, he wrote his first song N'importe quoi. He was discovered by artistic agent Dominique Besnehard, who gave him a record contract.

He continued working as an actor, such as in La fille des collines/The girl from the hills (Robin Davis, 1990).

Pagny's first album, Merci, was released in 1990. The album's songs, mainly written by himself, began to attract controversy, with the press eventually boycotting some of them. This led to a decline in sales, culminating in personal problems.

His follow-up album, Réaliste, was also not successful. He also made headlines because his love affair with singer-actress Vanessa Paradis.

Jean-Jacques Goldman wrote three songs for Pagny under the pseudonym Sam Brewski, and presented to him a new staff.

The album Rester vrai marked the beginning of his career as a performer only. Bienvenue chez moi, a semi-compilation released in 1995, was a smash success. Pagny also covered Caruso, the hit originally performed by Lucio Dalla.

French postcard.

French postcard, no. 519.

A New Life

Florent Pagny decided to go live in Patagonia in order to escape the French tax authorities.

He started a new life with his wife, Argentinian painter Azucena. They had two children, a son Inca and a daughter, Ael. Recently, Pagny said he had enrolled his children in Miami because he didn't want them to speak Arabic while returning from school.

His next album, Savoir aimer, was released in 1997. It was composed by a number of writers, including Jean-Jacques Goldman, Erick Benzi, Jacques Veneruso, Zazie and, Pascal Obispo, who also produced the album. Savoir aimer turned out to be an immediate success.

In 1999, Pagny released an album of cover versions of his old song, Recréation. Pagny then alternated studios and cover albums (at least in part) and regularly changed his look.

In 2000, he released the album Châtelet Les Halles, whose title song was produced by Calogero. He followed that with 2, an album composed of duets released in 2001.

In 2003, he returned with Ailleurs land. Its first single, Ma Liberté de penser, was composed by Pascal Obispo and Lionel Florence and deals with Pagny's problems with the French treasury.

In 2004, Pagny released Baryton, an album composed of opera songs, and in 2007 followed an album of covers of songs originally composed and performed by Jacques Brel entitled Pagny chante Brel. His latest album is Vieillir avec toi (2013). As of 2013, he has sold more than 5 million copies of singles, 10 million copies of albums, becoming the 17th best selling artist in France from 1955 to 2013.

Florent Pagny sings Savoir Aimer. Source: FlorentPagny VEVO (YouTube).

Florent Pagny performs Caruso. Source: FlorentPagny VEVO (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia (English), and IMDb.

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May Britt

June 23, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Jean Rochefort

≪ Previous: Florent Pagny

Blonde, blue-eyed Swedish actress May Britt (1933) had a brief career as a film star in the 1950’s, first in Italy and later in the United States. She retired from the screen after she married Sammy Davis, Jr. in 1960.

French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 943. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/62.

Cinecittà

Maybritt Wilkens was born in 1933 (some sources mention 1934), in the Stockholm suburb of Lidingö, Sweden. Her father, Hugo Brigg-Wilkens, was a postal inspector; her mother was a housewife.

Maybritt was only 18 and working as a photographer's assistant, when she was discovered by two Italian film-makers. Producer Carlo Ponti and director Mario Soldati were in Sweden to cast a young blonde woman for the title role in a new film.

They came to the studio where she worked to view photographs of models. After meeting her, they offered her the part instead. May Britt, as she was renamed professionally, immediately moved to Rome.

She made her film debut as the leading actress in the adventure film Jolanda la figlia del corsaro nero/Jolanda, the Daughter of the Black Corsair (Mario Soldati, 1952) with Renato Salvatori.

In the following years she worked in a dozen Cinecittà productions, including the 3-D opera adaptation Cavalleria rusticana/Fatal Desire (Carmine Gallone, 1953) with Anthony Quinn, Le infedeli/Unfaithful (Mario Monicelli, Steno, 1953) with Gina Lollobrigida, and La lupa/The She-Wolf (Alberto Lattuada, 1953).

She also featured in international productions like the Eddie Constantinevehicle Ça va barder/Give 'em Hell (John Berry, 1955) and the epic Leo Tolstoy adaptation War and Peace (King Vidor, 1956) starring Audrey Hepburn, Mel Ferrer and Henry Fonda.

German postcard by ISV, no. D 1. Photo: Luxardo.

German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 115. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Dial / Unitalia Film.

Lola-Lola

In 1957, May Britt relocated to Hollywood after signing with 20th Century Fox. She starred in a few films, including the World War 2 drama The Young Lions (Edward Dmytryk, 1958) with Marlon Brando and the crime drama Murder, Inc. (Burt Balaban, Stuart Rosenberg, 1960) with Peter Falk.

She also played the lead role in the remake of The Blue Angel (1959, Edward Dmytryk) co-starring Curd Jürgens.

May Britt was first bombarded with adverse criticism for having the ‘audacity’ to step into the foortsteps of Marlene Dietrichbut her performance as Lola-Lola got pretty good reviews. A reviewer at IMDb even writes: “well made production with fine performances from Jurgens and May Britt, who shines as showgirl Lola Lola. Ms. Britt did a wonderful job recreating the old Dietrich role and in my opinion was much better.”

In 1959, after a brief marriage to Edwin Gregson (1958-1959), the 19-year old son of a Southern California real estate millionaire, she met Sammy Davis, Jr., the famous black entertainer. They began dating, and, after a brief engagement, were married in 1960.

As one of the first interracial couples in Hollywood, Sammy and May were the target of nasty jokes, vicious slurs and death threats, but both survived the ordeal thanks to the strong and protective support of industry friends.

20th Century-Fox didn't renew her contract though. The studio refused to say if the action was a result of her plans to marry Davis.

A rumor or myth, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy told Frank Sinatra to tell Sammy not to marry May until after the 1960 Presidential Election. At that time interracial marriage was forbidden by law in 31 U.S. states, and only in 1967 were those laws abolished by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prior to the wedding, Britt converted to Judaism. She and Davis had one daughter and adopted two sons, and May retired to take care of her children. They divorced in 1968 after Davis reportedly had an affair with dancer Lola Falana.

In 1967 May Britt resumed working and did television guest appearances in TV series like Mission: Impossible (1969).

May Britt made a long overdue comeback to the screen in the quirky little thriller Haunts (Herb Freed, 1977). Reviewer Cavett Binion of AllMovie calls it “a surprisingly original murder mystery with some well-executed twists” and “This seedy but fun horror film is buoyed by Britt's enjoyably loony performance”.

Her last appearance was in the Sci-Fi TV series Probe (1988).

May Britt retired and since then she has mainly been involved in painting. In 1993 May Britt married Lennart Ringquist. They live in Los Angeles, California.

German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 2249. Photo: Dial / Unitalia Film.

Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3633. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for The Hunters (Dick Powell, 1958).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Mattias Thuresson (IMDb), Cavett Binion (AllMovie), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia and IMDb.

↧

Jean Rochefort

June 24, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Alfred Gerasch

≪ Previous: May Britt

Jean Rochefort (1930) is a French actor, with a career that has spanned over five decades. He is best known for the comedies Le Grand Blond avec Une Chasseure Noire/The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972), Nous irons tous au paradis/We Will All Meet in Paradise (1977) and Le Mari de la coiffeuse/The Hairdresser's Husband (1990).

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 569.

Passion for horses

Jean Rochefort was born in Paris, France in 1930.

He was educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen. At 19, he entered the Centre d'Art Dramatique de la rue Blanche. Later he joined the Conservatoire National.

After his national service, in 1953, he worked with the Compagnie Grenier Hussenot as a theatre actor for seven years. There he was noticed for his ability to play both drama and comedy. He also worked as director.

In 1956, he made his film debut in the sentimental comedy Rencontre à Paris/Meeting in Paris (Georges Lampin, 1956). He decided to become a television and cinema actor.

Rochefort played supporting roles in the adventure films Le Capitaine Fracasse/Captain Fracasse (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, 1961) with Jean Marais, Cartouche/Swords of Blood (Philippe de Broca, 1962) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Merveilleuse Angélique/Angelique: The Road to Versailles (Bernard Borderie, 1965) featuring Michèle Mercier.

During the shooting of Cartouche, he discovered his passion for horses and equestrianism. He has been a horse breeder since then and now owns Le Haras de Villequoy. His passion led him to become a horse consultant for French television in 2004.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 23/71, 1971. Photo: Unifrance-Film.

Midlife Crisis Comedy

Jean Rochefort played his first big role in Les Feux de la Chandeleur/Hearth Fires (Serge Korber, 1972) with Annie Girardot as his wife and Claude Jade as their daughter. In this drama he starred as a man who leaves his family for ten years and then returns.

That year, he also starred opposite Pierre Richard as Chief of Counter-Espionage Louis Toulouse in the comedy Le Grand Blond avec Une Chasseure Noire/The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (Yves Robert, 1972). The box office hit was remade in English as The Man with One Red Shoe (Stan Dragoti, 1985) with Tom Hanks and Dabney Coleman in the role of Rochefort.

He reprised this role in the sequel Le Retour du Grand Blond/The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (Yves Robert, 1974).

In between he appeared in interesting films like L'Horloger de Saint-Paul/The Clockmaker (Bertrand Tavernier, 1974) and Le fantôme de la liberté/The Phantom of Liberty (Luis Buñuel, 1974).

He was the leading star of the midlife crisis comedy Un éléphant ça trompe énormément An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive (Yves Robert, 1976) as a man who risks his married life with Danièle Delorme for an affair with Anny Duperey.

Thanks to this comedy, Rochefort got a big popularity and he starred also in the sequel, Nous irons tous au paradis/We Will All Meet in Paradise (Yves Robert, 1977).

The next step were such international films as French Postcards (Willard Huyck, 1979).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 12/78, 1978. Retail price: 0,20 DM.

The Hairdresser's Husband

During the 1980s, Jean Rochefort appeared in less prominent films.

An international success was the comedy Le Mari de la coiffeuse/The Hairdresser's Husband (Patrice Laconte, 1990), co-starring Anna Galiena.

Also remarkable was the satirical comedy Prêt-à-Porter/Ready to Wear (Robert Altman, 1994), shot during the Paris Fashion Week with a host of international stars, models and designers.

Another success was the historical film Ridicule (Patrice Leconte, 1996) examines the social injustices of late 18th century France, in showing the corruption and callousness of the aristocrats.

In 1998, he starred as Fernand de Morcerf opposite Gérard Depardieu in the mini-series Le Comte de Monte Cristo/The Count of Monte Christo (Josée Dayan, 1998). He has won two César Awards: in 1976, Best Supporting Actor for Que la fête commence/Let Joy Reign Supreme (Bertrand Tavernier, 1975); and in 1978, Best Actor for his role as a dying French naval frigate captain in Le Crabe-tambour/Drummer-Crab (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1977).

In 1960 he married Alexandra Moscwa, with whom he fathered two children: a girl, Marie (1962), and a boy, Julien (1965). They later divorced and in all he has five children: Marie, Julien, Pierre, Clémence and Louise.

Recent films with Rochefort are Mr. Bean's Holiday (Steve Bendelack, 2007) featuring Rowan Atkinson, L'artiste et son modèle/The Artist and the Model (Fernando Trueba, 2012) and Astérix & Obélix: Au service de Sa Majesté/Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia (Laurent Tirard, 2012).

Original photo.

Sources: Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Alfred Gerasch

June 25, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Jacques Bergerac (1927-2014)

≪ Previous: Jean Rochefort

Alfred Gerasch (1877-1954) was a popular Austrian stage actor who belonged to the exclusive circle of the ‘Königlich-Kaiserlichen Hofschauspielern’ (Royal Court Actors). He also acted in several silent and sound films, often playing historical figures.

Austrian postcard by Postkartenverlag Brüder Kohn, Wien (Vienna). Photo: Setzer, Wien, 1913.

Royal Court Actor

Alfred Gerasch was born in Berlin in 1877. He made his stage debut at the Bellevue Theatre in Szczecin (now Poland). In 1897 he moved to Hamburg, and later to Oldenburg and to Karlsruhe. In 1907, he went to Vienna, where he was an ensemble member of the famous Burgtheater.

He became very popular among the Viennese theatre audiences as the young hero and lover in plays like Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and Don Karlos by Friedrich Schiller.

Many great roles in the classic plays followed and the charismatic Gerasch was named ‘kaiserlich und königlichen Hofschauspieler’ (Royal Court Actor).

In 1919, the then 42-years old actor made his film debut in the role of the son of the main character in the Austrian production Adrian Vanderstraaten (Robert Land, 1919), followed by films like Durch die Quartiere des Elends und Verbrechens/Through the Neighborhoods of Misery and Crime (Robert Land, 1920) and Eine Million Dollar/One Million Dollar (Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck 1921).

He returned to Berlin where he worked both for the stage and for the film industry. During the 1920s he appeared in such silent films as Die Legende von der heiligen Simplicia/The Legend of Holy Simplicity (Joe May, 1920) starring Eva May, Dagfin (Joe May, 1926) with Paul Richter, Eine Dubarry von heute/A Modern Dubarry (Alexander Korda, 1927) featuring María Corda, and Königin Luise, 2. Teil/Queen Luise, part 2 (Karl Grune, 1928) with Mady Christians.

Austrian postcard by Postkartenverlag Brüder Kohn, Wien (Vienna). Photo: Setzer, Wien, 1913. Caption: "Alfred Gerasch als Romeo." (Alfred Gerasch as Romeo). Publicity still for a stage production of the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

Austrian postcard by Postkartenverlag Brüder Kohn, Wien (Vienna), no. 887-1835. Photo: Setzer, Wien, 1913. Caption: K.k. Hofschauspieler Alfred Gerasch als Fiesko. Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua/Fiesco was the second full-length play by Friedrich Schiller. It is a republican tragedy based on the historical conspiracy of Giovanni Luigi Fieschi against Andrea Doria in Genoa in 1547. It premiered in Bonn in 1783 at the Hoftheater.

Historical Figures

After the introduction of sound film, Alfred Gerasch continued to play various supporting roles in films.

He often appeared as historical figures including Czar Alexander I in Napoleon auf St. Helena/Napoleon on St. Helena (Lupu Pick, 1929) with Werner Krauss, the Austrian-Hungarian chief of staff, Baron Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf in 1914, die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand/1914, The Last days Before the World Fire (Richard Oswald, 1931), the Austrian statesman Prince Metternich in Marschall vorwärts/Marshal Forward (Heinz Paul, 1932), Talleyrand - Napoleon’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in Hundert Tage/Hundred Days (Franz Wenzler, 1935), and Field Marshal General Daun in Fridericus (Johannes Meyer, 1937) starring Otto Gebühr.

From 1937 on, Gerasch lived in Vienna, Austria and his only film work from that period were a few guest appearances. He did appear in Zauber der Bohème/The Magic of Bohème (Géza von Bolváry, 1937), a film operetta tailor-made to the dream couple Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth. For this film he also served as co-author.

After 1945 he limited his work even more. His last film part was Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius in the comedy Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt/The World Turns Upside Down (J.A. Hübler-Kahla, 1947) starring Hans Moser. He was 70 at the time.

Alfred Gerasch died in 1954 in Vienna.

Austrian postcard by Postkartenverlag Brüder Kohn, Wien (Vienna). Photo: Setzer, Wien, 1913. Caption: "Prinz in Emilia Galotti." (Prince in Emilia Galotti). Emilia Galotti is a play in five acts by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), which premiered on 8 March 1772 in Braunschweig (Brunswick). The work is a classic example of German 'bürgerliches Trauerspiel' (bourgeois tragedy). Lessing's work comprises an attack against the nobility and its powers. Lessing depicts aristocrats as having unfair powers in society and as ruining the happiness of the emerging middle class.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line.de) (German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

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Jacques Bergerac (1927-2014)

June 26, 2014, 4:05 pm

≫ Next: Charles Chaplin

≪ Previous: Alfred Gerasch

On 15 June, French actor Jacques Bergerac died at his home in Anglet in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques region of southwest France. He made a name for himself in European and Hollywood films such as the classic musical Gigi (1958) and the cult horror film Hypnotic Eye. Bergerac also married two of Hollywood’s most sought-after actresses during the 1950s and 1960s. He was 87.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: Publicity still for Missione speciale Lady Chaplin/Operation Lady Chaplin (Alberto De Martino, Sergio Grieco, 1966) with Daniela Bianchi and Jacques Bergerac.

Beautiful Stranger

Jacques Bergerac was born in Biarritz, France in 1927.

He was a handsome law student, when he met Hollywood star Ginger Rogers on vacation in France. She landed him a screen test, which led to a role in the British film Beautiful Stranger/Twist of Fate (David Miller, 1954) which was shot on location at the French Riviera.

The 26-years-old Bergerac became in 1953 the fourth husband of the Oscar-winning actress, who was 16 years his senior. He left his law studies behind in France and went with Rogers to Hollywood to pursue an acting career.

He played supporting parts in the drama Strange Intruder (Irving Rapper, 1956) and in the French film Marie-Antoinette reine de France/Marie Antoinette Queen of France (Jean Delannoy, 1956) starring Michèle Morgan.

After his divorce from Rogers in 1957, Bergerac courted Academy Award-winning actress Dorothy Malone and they married in 1959 in Hong Kong.

Bergerac received favourable reviews for his work in the musicals Les Girls (George Cukor, 1957) with Gene Kelly, and Gigi (Vincente Minnelli, 1958) starring Leslie Caron. In 1957, he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Newcomer.

In the horror film The Hypnotic Eye (George Blair, 1960) he played a mysterious hypnotist who entrances women to gruesomely disfigure themselves. Mike Barnes at The Hollywood Reporter: "The film introduced 'HypnoMagic', billed as an “amazing new audience thrill that makes YOU part of the show!” The effect had Bergerac’s character, Desmond, looking directly into the camera and performing hypnotic suggestibility tests with the audience."

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: Publicity still for Missione speciale Lady Chaplin/Operation Lady Chaplin (Alberto De Martino, Sergio Grieco, 1966) with Daniela Bianchi.

A Global Affair

Jacques Bergerac gained his US citizenship in 1963. A year later his rocky marriage to Dorothy Malone ended in a divorce and ensuing custody battles often played out in the press.

During the 1960s, he appeared in a slew of international B-films and guest-starred in popular American TV shows.

His films include the American thriller Fear No More (Bernard Wiesen, 1961), the Italian comedy Una domenica d'estate/Always on Sunday (Giulio Petroni, 1962) with Jean-Pierre Aumont, the Peplum L'ira di Achille/Fury of Achilles (Marino Girolami, 1962), the Bob Hope comedy A Global Affair (Jack Arnold. 1964), Ettore Scola's comedy La congiuntura/One Million Dollars (1964) with Vittorio Gassman and Joan Collins, and the Eurospy film Missione speciale Lady Chaplin/Operation Lady Chaplin (Alberto De Martino, Sergio Grieco, 1966) with Daniela Bianchi.

In between he appeared in episodes of such popular TV series as The Dick Van Dyke Show (1963), Perry Mason (1964), The Beverly Hillbillies (1967), The Lucy Show (1967) and Batman (1967-1968).

His last TV appearance was on The Doris Day Show in 1969.

After leaving show business, Bergerac returned to Paris and in 1971, he became an exec with Revlon Cosmetics and Parfums Balmain. His brother Michel later became president and the chairman of the company.

After a brief third marriage in 1968, Bergerac married again in 1975.

He was a sports enthusiast and in 1980-1981, he was director of the Biarritz Olympique rugby club.

Jacques Bergerac is survived by two daughters, Mimi and Diane, with Dorothy Malone.

Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1966) trailer. Source: Dorado Films (YouTube).

Sources: Jordyn Holman (Variety), Mike Barnes (The Hollywood Reporter), Brian J. Walker (Brian's Drive-In Theater), Ouest France (French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

↧

Charles Chaplin

June 26, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Maria Jacobini

≪ Previous: Jacques Bergerac (1927-2014)

Tomorrow the Gates of Heaven will open for cinema lovers: the XXVIII edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival starts at 28 June 2014! Actually, the festival is preceded from 25 till 28 June by The Birth of Tramp Celebration to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Tramp. This iconic character of Charles ‘Charlie’ Chaplin (1889-1977) is one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. The Tramp with his toothbrush moustache, undersized bowler hat and bamboo cane is little man who struggles to survive while keeping his dignity in a world with great social injustice. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and he not only starred in his films, but also directed, wrote and produced them, and composed the music as well. His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the music hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until his last work close to his death at the age of 88.

Vintage postcard. Photo: Triangle.

British postcard in the H. B. Series., 'Entire British Production', London E.C., sent by mail on 30.7.1917. Signature: AEI.

French postcard by Editions Nugeron, no. 76.

Music Hall Tradition

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in 1889, in London, England. His parents were both entertainers in the Music Hall tradition; his father, Charles Spencer Chaplin Sr., was a vocalist and actor and his mother, Hannah Chaplin, a singer and actress with the the stage name Lilly Harley.

They separated before Charlie was three. Charlie lived with his mother and his older half-brother Sydney. Chaplin Sr. was an alcoholic and had little contact with his son, though Charlie and Sydney briefly lived with their father and his mistress, while their mentally ill mother lived at an asylum.

Hannah's first crisis came in 1894 when she was performing at The Canteen, a theatre in Aldershot, mainly frequented by rioters and soldiers. Hannah was injured by the objects the audience threw at her and she was booed off the stage. Backstage, she cried and argued with her manager.

Meanwhile, the five-year old Chaplin went on stage alone and sang a well-known tune at that time, Jack Jones. The young Chaplin brothers forged a close relationship in order to survive. They gravitated to the Music Hall while still very young, and both of them proved to have considerable natural stage talent.

At eight Charlie toured in a musical, The Eight Lancaster Lads. Nearly 11, he appeared in Giddy Ostende at London's Hippodrome. Chaplin's early years of desperate poverty were a great influence on his film characters. His films would later re-visit the scenes of his childhood deprivation in Lambeth.

In 1901, his father died of cirrhosis of the liver when Charlie was twelve. His mother died in 1928 in Hollywood, seven years after having been brought to the US by her sons.

Unknown to Charlie and Sydney until years later, they had a half-brother through their mother. The boy, Wheeler Dryden, was raised abroad by his father but later connected with the rest of the family and went to work for Chaplin at his Hollywood studio.

Vintage postcard. Photo: Chaplin Studios.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard. Photo: Essanay.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard. Photo: Essanay. Publicity still for The Champion (Charles Chaplin, 1915) with Chaplin and Leo White.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard, no. 4. Photo: Essanay.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard, no.6. Photo: Essanay. Publicity still for Work (1915) with Edna Purviance.

Fred Karno's Vaudeville Troupe

From age 17 to 24, Charlie Chaplin joined Fred Karno's English vaudeville troupe. He first toured the United States with the Fred Karno troupe from 1910 to 1912. After five months back in England, he returned to the US for a second tour. In the troupe was also his brother Sydney and Arthur Stanley Jefferson, who later became known as Stan Laurel.

In late 1913, Chaplin's act with the Karno troupe was seen by Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand, Minta Durfee, and Fatty Arbuckle. Sennett hired him for his studio, the Keystone Film Company as a replacement for Ford Sterling.

Chaplin had considerable initial difficulty adjusting to the demands of film acting and his performance suffered for it. After Chaplin's first film appearance, Making a Living (Henry Lehrman, 1914) was filmed, Sennett felt he had made a costly mistake.

Mabel Normand persuaded Sennett to give Chaplin another chance, and she directed and wrote a handful of his earliest films.

He first played The Tramp in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice (Henry Lehrman, 1914). This picture saw him wearing baggy pants borrowed from Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, size 14 shoes belonging to Ford Sterling (and worn upside down to keep them from falling off), a tiny jacket from Keystone Kop Charles Avery, a bowler hat belonging to Arbuckle's father-in-law and some crepe paper belonging to Mack Swain (which became the tramp's mustache). The only item that actually belonged to Charlie was the cane.

Two films Chaplin made in 1915, The Tramp and The Bank, created the characteristics of his screen persona.

Chaplin was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films. Quickly the little tramp became the most popular Keystone star.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard. Photo: Essanay. Publicity still for The Bank (1915).

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard. Photo: Essanay. Publicity still for The Tramp (1915).

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard. Photo: Essanay. Publicity still for The Tramp (1915). Chaplin as the Tramp, Ernest Van Pelt as the Farmerand Paddy McGuire as the Farmhand.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard. Photo: Essanay. Publicity still for A Jitney Elopement (1915) with Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance and Leo White.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard. Photo: Essanay. Chaplin and Billy Armstrong enjoy an ice cream after their fight in By the Sea (1915). The ice cream clerk is 'Snub' Pollard.

British postcard by Red Letter Photocard. Photo: Essanay. Chaplin and Margie Reiger flirt in By the Sea (1915), while Bud Jamison and Billy Armstrong are not too happy about this, and Edna Purviance fears trouble is coming up. The film was shot at Crystal Pear in Los Angeles.

Keystone, Essanay, Mutual, First National, United Artists

From the April 1914 one-reeler Twenty Minutes of Love (Charles Chaplin, Joseph Maddern, 1914) onwards, Charles Chaplin was writing and directing most of his films himself. By 1916 he was producing them, and from 1918 he was also composing the music.

He made 35 films in 1914, moved to Essanay in 1915 and did 14 more, then jumped over to Mutual for 12 two-reelers in 1916 and 1917.

In 1918 he joined First National (later absorbed by Warner Bros.) and in 1919 formed United Artistsalong with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith.

His first full-length film was The Kid (1921) with Jackie Coogan; his first film for United Artists, which he produced and directed himself, was A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923) starring Edna Purviance.

Chaplin continued to play The Tramp through dozens of short films and, later, feature-length productions. In only a handful of films he played different characters.

The Tramp was closely identified with the silent era, and was considered an international character; when the sound era began in the late 1920s, Chaplin refused to make a talkie featuring the character. City Lights (1931) featured no dialogue.

Chaplin officially retired the character in Modern Times (1936), which appropriately ended with the Tramp and his girl (played by Chaplin’s third wife, Paulette Godard) walking down an endless highway towards the horizon. The film was only a partial talkie and is often called the last silent film.

The Tramp remains silent until near the end of the film when, for the first time, his voice is finally heard, albeit only as part of a French/Italian-derived gibberish song. This allowed The Tramp to finally be given a voice but not tarnish his association with the silent era.

Ernst Lubitsch, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 581/4,1919-1924. Photo: B.B.B. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Charlie Chaplin, Ernst Lubitsch, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 581/5, 1919-1924. Photo: B.B.B. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1843/1, 1927-1928. Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 90/3, 1925-1935. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Circus (1928). Collection: Didier Hanson.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 987/1, 1925-1926. Collection: Didier Hanson.

French postcard by Editions Cinematographiques, no. 499. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Circus (1928). Collection: Didier Hanson.

Adulation and Controversy

Charlie Chaplin’s high-profile public and private life encompassed both adulation and controversy.

Chaplin's political ideas ultimately forced him to resettle in Europe during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s. Chaplin's political sympathies always had laid with the left. His silent films made prior to the Great Depression typically did not contain overt political themes or messages, apart from The Tramp's plight in poverty and his run-ins with the law, but his 1930s films were more openly political. Modern Times (1936) depicts workers and poor people in dismal conditions.

In The Great Dictator (1940) Chaplin plays a humorous caricature of Adolf Hitler. Some thought the film was poorly done and in bad taste. However, it grossed over $5 million and earned five Academy Award Nominations. The final dramatic speech in The Great Dictator, which was critical of following patriotic nationalism without question, and his vocal public support for the opening of a second European front in 1942 to assist the Soviet Union in World War II were controversial. Chaplin declined to support the war effort as he had done for the First World War which led to public anger, although his two sons saw service in the army in Europe.

For most of World War II he was fighting serious criminal and civil charges related to his involvement with 22-year old actress Joan Barry. In 1943 he was accused of fathering her child; the papers made much of the scandal, but it was proved in a court trial that he was not the father. The same year he entered his fourth marriage, to Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill.

After the war, his black comedy, Monsieur Verdoux (1947) showed a critical view of capitalism. Chaplin's final American film, Limelight, was less political and more autobiographical in nature. Limelight also featured Claire Bloom and Chaplin’s longtime friend, Buster Keaton.

In 1952, Chaplin left the US for what was intended as a brief trip home to the United Kingdom for the London premiere of Limelight. J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, learned of the trip and negotiated with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to revoke Chaplin's re-entry permit, exiling Chaplin so he could not return for his alleged political leanings.

British postcard by Rotary, no 11675 A. Photo: Witzel.

Spanish postcard by Editorial Photográfica, Barcelona, no. A - 103.

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 1163/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Ifa / United Artists.

German postcard by Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 1165/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Ifa / United Artists.

A fashionable Chaplin on a French postcard from the 1920s.

British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London.

A King in Switzerland

Charles Chaplin made his home in Vevey, Switzerland. His final two films were made in London. A King in New York (1957),(in) which he starred, wrote, directed and produced, satirized the political persecution and paranoia that had forced him to leave the US five years earlier.

His last film, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), which he directed, produced, and wrote, starred Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando. Chaplin made his final on-screen appearance in a brief cameo role as a seasick steward. He also composed the music for both films. The theme song from A Countess From Hong Kong, This is My Song, reached number one in the UK as sung by Petula Clark.

Chaplin also compiled a film The Chaplin Revue (1959) from three First National films A Dog's Life (1918), Shoulder Arms (1918) and The Pilgrim (1923) for which he composed the music and recorded an introductory narration.
As well as directing these final films, Chaplin also wrote My Autobiography, which was published in 1964. He briefly and triumphantly returned to the United States in April 1972, with his wife Oona, to receive an Honorary Oscar, and also to discuss how his films would be re-released and marketed.

Chaplin's last completed work was the score for his film A Woman of Paris (1923), which was completed in 1976, by which time Chaplin was extremely frail, even finding communication difficult. Charles Chaplin died in his sleep in Vevey on Christmas Day 1977. He and Oona had eight children, including film actress Geraldine Chaplin.

From his four marriages he had a total of 11 children. In 1921 Chaplin was decorated by the French government for his outstanding work as a filmmaker, and was elevated to the rank of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1952.

In 1929, at the first Oscar awards, he won a special award "for versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing"The Circus (1928). In 1975 he was named Knight Commander of the British Empire. His bowler and cane were sold for $150,000 in 1987. And in 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin the 10th Greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends list. Author George Bernard Shaw once called Chaplin "the only genius to come out of the movie industry".

French postcard by Hélio-Cachan. Photo: publicity still for The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925).

Dutch postcard. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1948. Photo: publicity still for The Great Dictator (1940).

East-German collectors card, no. III/18/211, 1955. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Limelight (1952).

French postcard by Editions P.I., presented by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 568 Photo: United Artists.

Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Amy Smith (IMDb), Linda Wada (Edna's Place), Wikipedia and IMDb.

↧

Maria Jacobini

June 27, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Zbigniew Cybulski

≪ Previous: Charles Chaplin

At Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna, there is a special presentation of the Italian silent film Addio giovinezza/Good-bye youth (Augusto Genina, 1918). A copy of this film was found in Japan. Star of Addio giovinezza is Maria Jacobini (1892-1944). According to film historian Vittorio Martinelli, she was an island of serenity among the Italian divas. Jacobini was the personification of goodness, of simple love. Her weapon was her sweet and gracious smile. However, in some Italian, and later also in German films, she could as well play the vivacious lady, the femme fatale, the comedienne, the hysterical victim, or the suffering mother or wife.

Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna, no. 346. Sent by mail in 1926. Maria Jacobini in Onestà del Peccato/The Wife He Neglected (Augusto Genina, 1918).

Italian postcard by Milano, Uff. Rev. Stampa, no. 891. Portrait of the actress Maria Jacobini by Tito Corbella.

Italian postcard by Ed. Romeo Biagi, Bologna, no. 649.

Italian postcard by Dist. Ed. SARPIC, Bucarest, Romania, no. 330.

Italian postcard by Ed. Bettini, Roma, no. 145

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3953/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Terra-Film.

Seductive Man-eater

Maria Jacobini was born in Rome, Italy, 1892. She was the sister of actress Diomira Jacobini. Their older sister Bianca had also started out as an actress, but had interrupted her career after four films.

Maria studied at the Accademia di Arte Drammatica di S. Cecilia, where she got lessons from Virginia Marini and Eduardo Boutet. She made her stage debut at the company of Cesare Dondini jr., where she mainly played secondary parts.

She was noticed by Ugo Falena, artistic director of the film company Film d'Arte Italiana. He offered her to work in the silent cinema.

Her first short films were Lucrezia Borgia/Lucretia Borgia (Ugo Falena, 1910) featuring diva Francesca Bertini,and Beatrice Cenci (Ugo Falena, 1910), but her first important role was in Cesare Borgia (Gerolamo Lo Savio, 1912) again starring Bertini.

In 1912, Maria started to work at the Savoia company of Turin, as a seductive man-eater in short films like Pantera/Panther (1912), La zingara/The gypsy (Sandro Camasio, 1912), and L'onta nascosta/The hidden shame (1912).

From 1913 on, she played her more dramatical roles as the lead in Giovanna d'Arco/Joan of Arc (Ubaldo Maria del Colle, 1913) and Ananke (Nino Oxilia, 1915) with Leda Gys and her sister Diomira Jacobini.

Jacobini worked for pioneering film studios like Pasquali and Celio. Maria gave good performances in the melancholic Come le foglie/Like the Leaves (Gennaro Righelli, 1916) based on Giuseppe Giacosa's stage play, and in the touching Addio Giovinezza/Good-bye Youth (Augusto Genina, 1918).

She made a series of films with director Gennaro Righelli such as Il viaggio/The journey (1921), based on a novel by Luigi Pirandello, and Cainà - la figlia dell'isola/Cainà - the daughter of the island (1923), shot in Sardinia.

Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 713.

Italian postcard. Photo: Tiber Film. Publicity still for Come le foglie/Like the Leaves (Gennaro Righelli, 1917), based on the stage play by Giuseppe Giacosa. Father Giovanni (Ignazio Lupi) unites his daughter Nennele (Maria Jacobini) with his cousin Massimo (Guido Guiducci). Translation caption: Nennele: Shall I call him? Massimo! Content of the film: After a life of spendthrifts, the Rosati family is ruined. Father Giovanni (Ignazio Lupi) accepts work from his cousin Massimo (Guido Guiducci). Hitherto neglected as too serious and workaholic, Massimo becomes the head of the family and takes care of the son and daughter of Giovanni, Tommy (Alberto Collo) and Nennele (Jacobini), and their stepmother Giulia (Floriana). Tommy and Giulia remain weak spirits, but after an attempted suicide, Nennele realizes Massimo's force and unites with him.

Maria Jacobini and Alberto Collo in Come le foglie

Italian postcard. Photo: Tiber Film, Roma. Publicity still for Come le foglie/Like the Leaves (Gennaro Righelli, 1917). Maria Jacobini (Nennele) and Alberto Collo (Tommy). Translation caption: Nennele: You don't know what you're saying! Farewell, Tommy, farewell, poor Tommy!

Italian postcard. Photo: Tiber Film, Roma. Publicity still for Come le foglie/Like the Leaves (Gennaro Righelli, 1917). Left Maria Jacobini. The man in the middle could be Guido Guiducci. Translation caption : The portrait slipped from the package and fell to the ground.

Maria Jacobini and Ignazio Lupi in Come le foglie

Italian postcard. Photo: Tiber Film, Roma. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Ignazio Lupi in the Italian silent film Come le foglie/Like the leaves (Gennaro Righelli, 1917), based on the stage play by Giuseppe Giacosa. The caption translates: 'Giovanni: And tomorrow I would have been out in the world, shouting like a madman, searching for my little daughter'.

Dutch postcard by E & B, no. 518. Photo: HAP Film, Den Haag / Bens Film.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 348. Maria Jacobini in the silent film La bocca chiusa (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925).

Berlin

After the First World War, the Italian film industry was in a deep crisis, and director Gennaro Righelli and his star Maria Jacobini decided to move to Germany.

In Berlin, the new center of the European film industry, Jacobini and Righelli were enlisted by producer Jakob Karoll and they founded a separate company called Maria Jacobini GmbH.

Jacobini first starred in Bohème - Künstlerliebe/Bohème - artists love (Gennaro Righelli, 1923), playing the tormented and suffering Mimi. Her film partner was Wilhelm Dieterle, who would later become known as Hollywood director William Dieterle.

She often performed in Righelli's German films but also in films by other directors. She was directed by Jaap Speyer in Bigamie/Bigamy (1927), Robert Dinesenin Ariadne im Hoppegarten (1928) with Alfred Abel, Richard Oswald in Villa Falconieri (1928) opposite Hans Stüwe, and by Fedor Ozep in the German-Russian coproduction Der lebende Leichnam/Zhivoy trup/The Living Corpse (1929), based on the play by Leo Tolstoy.

These productions were shot all over Europe, and Jacobini even filmed in Africa for Die Frauengasse von Algier/The Street of Women of Algiers (Wolfgang Hoffmann-Harnisch, 1927) with Camilla Horn.

Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Addio giovinezza

Italian postcard, no. 430. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in the silent film Addio giovinezza/Good-bye youth (Augusto Genina, 1918), an adaptation of the play by Sandro Camasio and Nino Oxilia.

Italian postcard, no. 431. Photo: Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in the silent film Addio giovinezza/Good-bye youth (Augusto Genina, 1918).

Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli in La preda (1921)

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: publicity still for La preda/The prey (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1921) with Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli

Italian postcard by Ed. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: probably a publicity still for L'articolo IV (Gennaro Righelli, 1918) in which Jacobini and Tullio Carminati were the leading actors. The film is about duchess Jenny who offers her hand to the only man who didn't court her, the count d'Hauteville. She has a condition, though: for a long time the two must first live together as mere friends and if they don't get along they will divorce. Will both keep this promise? The card suggests otherwise...

Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli in La casa di vetro (1920)

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 13. Photo: publicity still for La casa di vetro/The glass house (Gennaro Righelli, 1920) with Jacobini and Amleto Novelli.

Maria Jacobini and Amleto Novelli in La casa di vetro

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: publicity still for La casa di vetro/The glass house (Gennaro Righelli, 1920) with Jacobini and Amleto Novelli.

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 92. Photo: publicity still for Il richiamo/The Call (Gennaro Righelli, 1921).

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 67. Publicity still of Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Il richiamo/The Call (Gennaro Righelli, 1921). A print of this film is in the Komiya Collection at the National Film Center in Tokyo. A restored version was shown at the last edition of the festival Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna (June/July 2012).

Italian postcard. Photo: publicity still for La via del peccato (Amleto Palermi, 1925).

Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Maria Jacobini in La bocca chiusa (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925) with Lido Manetti .

Marginal Roles

In the second half of the 1920s, Maria Jacobini performed also in a few Italian films such as La bocca chiusa/Shut up(Guglielmo Zorzi, 1925) opposite Lido Manetti a.k.a. Arnold Kent and Carmen Boni, Beatrice Cenci (Baldassarre Negroni, 1926), and Il carnevale di Venezia/The carnival of Venice (Mario Almirante, 1928).

In France she did Maman Colibri/Mother Hummingbird (Julien Duvivier, 1929) with Franz Lederer. It was her final silent film.

With the coming of the sound cinema, Jacobini's roles became marginal, though she continued to play in films until her death.

In 1937 she became a teacher in acting at the new Roman film academy Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where she gave lessons to new stars and actresses such as Alida Valli and Clara Calamai.

Her final film was La donna della montagna/The Mountain Woman (Renato Castellani, 1943) with Marina Berti.
Maria Jacobini died a year later, in 1944 in Rome. She was 52.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 569/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Riess, Berlin.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 717. Photo: Sascha Film.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5476. Photo: Derussa-Film / Allianz-Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3635/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Bieber, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3635/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Bieber, Berlin.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3955/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Terra-Film.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 569/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Riess, Berlin.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio), Caterina Cerra (Treccani.it) (Italian), Wikipedia (English and Italian) and IMDb.

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Zbigniew Cybulski

June 28, 2014, 11:00 pm

≫ Next: Gianna Maria Canale

≪ Previous: Maria Jacobini

At the XXVIII edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna, Italy, there is a special section on Polish cinema and Cinemascope. Polish cinema came to international prominence with a cinematic movement that flourished during the 1950s and 1960s, and pressed a fresh and controversial vision of World War II which set in motion a sort of national therapy session. One of the renowned masterpieces is Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie/The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has, 1965) – surrealism on epic scale starring the great Zbigniew Cybulski (1927-1967). With his trademark leather clothes and dark glasses, Cybulski is often referred to as ´the Polish James Dean´. He symbolized the angry feelings of young Poles trying to deal with their tumultuous post-WW II world. During his brief film career, he became one of the best-known and most versatile actors of the East-European cinema.

German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. S 758. Photo: CCC Film. Publicity still for Ósmy dzień tygodnia/The Eighth Day of the Week (Aleksander Ford, 1958).

The Young And Wrathful

In 1927, Zbigniew Hubert Cybulski was born in the small village of Kniaże near Stanisławów, Poland (now Ukraine). After World War II, ´Zbyszek´ joined the Theatre Academy in Kraków, where he graduated in 1953. He also studied journalism.

He moved to Gdańsk, where he made his stage debut in Leon Schiller's Wybrzeże Theatre. With his friend Bogumił Kobiela, Cybulski also founded the famous student theatre Bim-Bom.

In 1960, Cybulski moved to Warsaw, where he joined the Wagabunda experimental theatre. He also appeared on the stage of the Ateneum theatre, one of the most modern Warsaw-based theatres of the epoch. There he also worked as a director.

However, Zbigniew Cybulski is best remembered as a screen actor. He first appeared in Kariera/Career (Jan Koecher, 1954) as one of the extras (a bus passenger).

That year he also appeared as Kostek in Pokolenie/A Generation (Andrzej Wajda, 1955) starring Tadeusz Łomnicki and with the later director Roman Polanski in a supporting part. The film is based on the novel Pokolenie by Bohdan Czeszko, who also wrote the script.

Pokolenie was Wajda's first film and the opening installment of what became his Three War Films trilogy set in the Second World War. On its face, the film is a coming-of-age story of survival and shattering loss, delivering a brutal portrait of the human cost of war. But as with all of Wajda's films, Polish history and the individual's struggle in the face of crushing political circumstances are just below the surface.

In Pokolenie, as later in Popiół i diament/Ashes and Diamonds, the communists and the nationalist Home Army, each representing a diametrically opposed view of Poland's future, are set on a collision course.

Cybulski´s first major roles came in the thriller Wraki/The Wrecks (Ewa Petelska, Czeslaw Petelski, 1957) and Krzyż Walecznych/Cross of Valor (Kazimierz Kutz, 1958).

Then he appeared as Resistance fighter Maciek Chelmicki, one of the main characters in Wajda's Popiół i diament/Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958). This became his internationally most famous film. After the film's release, sales of sunglasses shot up because Cybulski wore them consistently throughout the film.

Ashes and Diamonds is based on the 1948 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski. It completed Wajda's war films trilogy, following Pokolenie/A Generation (1954) and Kanal/Canal (1956). The title comes from a 19th century poem by Cyprian Norwid and references the manner in which diamonds are formed from heat and pressure acting upon coal.

In 1958 Cybulski also played in Aleksander Ford's Ósmy dzień tygodnia/The Eighth Day of the Week (1958) based on a short story by Marek Hłasko. Since then, Cybulski was seen as one of the most notable actors of the Polish Film School and one of the ´young and wrathful´, as his generation of actors were called at the time. His style of acting was revolutionary at the time as was his image with his leather clothes and big sunglasses. Like James Dean, he played nonconformist rebels, and like him he died young.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 2.164, 1964. Photo: Progress.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 1.969, 1964. Photo: Progress.

A Legend Of The Polish Cinema

Zbigniew Cybulski continued to work with Andrzej Wajda and appeared in Niewinni czarodzieje/Innocent Sorcerers (Andrzej Wajda, 1960), with Tadeusz Łomnicki and Roman Polanski.

Twice he worked on Western-European productions. He starred in the French-Italian science fiction film La poupée/He, She or It (Jacques Baratier, 1962), and also appeared in the French-produced omnibus project L'amour à vingt ans/Love at Twenty (1962) by Pierre Roustang, consisting of five segments directed by five directors from five different countries.

Cybulski starred in the fifth segment, directed by Andrzej Wajda and entitled Warszawa/Warsaw, considered as one of the best segments. It depicts a brief intergenerational liaison based upon multiple misunderstandings. The episodes are tied together with still photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson and a Jazz soundtrack by Georges Delerue. La Poupée and L'amour à vingt ans were both entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival.

Cybulski started his successful cooperation with director Wojciech Has with the films Rozstanie/Goodbye to the Past (1961) and Jak być kochaną/How to be Loved (1963).

Their best-known film is Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie/The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has, 1965). The film was a relative success in Poland and other parts of communist eastern Europe upon its release, winning the Golden Wolf at the 1965 Bucharest Film Festival. It later also achieved a level of critical success in the United States, when filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola rediscovered it and encouraged its propagation.

Another critical success was the film drama Salto/Jump (Tadeusz Konwicki, 1965) with Marta Lipinska. The film received an Honorary Diploma at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, 1967.

With Has he worked again on Szyfry/The Codes (Wojciech Has, 1966), about a father searching for his son, who has been missing since WW II.

He also appeared in numerous television plays, including ones based on works by Truman Capote, Anton Chekhov and Jerzy Andrzejewski.

Zbigniew Cybulski died in an accident at a Wrocław Główny railway station on 8 January 1967, on his way from the film set of Yowita/Yovita (Janusz Morgenstern, 1967) with Daniel Olbrychski. As he jumped for the already speeding train (as he had often done), he slipped on the steps, fell under the train, and was run over.

Before the accident he said goodbye to Marlene Dietrich, a personal friend of his, who was a passenger on the train. He was buried in Katowice.

The following year, Wajda made Wszystko na sprzedaz/Everything for Sale as a highly fictionalized tribute to Cybulski. In 1969 the Zbyszek Cybulski Award was introduced for young film actors with astrong individuality.

Cybulski remains a legend of the Polish cinema. In 1996, readers of Film magazine awarded him the title of Best Polish Actor of All Time. The Polish band 2 Plus 1 recorded a tribute album to Cybulski, called Aktor in 1977.

Zbigniew Cybulski was married to assistant director Elzbieta Chwalibóg (1960-1967). Their son Maciek (born in the early 1960s) was never interested in showbusiness and became an architect.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 1.938, 1963. Photo: Progress.

Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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