Richard Harris

Irish actor and singer Richard Harris (1930-2002) rose to prominence as an icon of the British New Wave when he received an Oscar nomination for his 'angry young man' role in This Sporting Life (1963). 27 years later, Harris scored rave reviews and another Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an old Irish patriarch in The Field (1990). He played other notable roles in The Guns of Navarone (1961), Michelangelo Antonioni's Il deserto rosso / Red Desert (1964), A Man Called Horse (1970), Unforgiven (1992), and Gladiator (2000). Harris earned cross-generational acclaim for his Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). The latter was his final film role.


Vintage postcard. Richard Harris in A Man Called Horse (Elliot Silverstein, 1970).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Richard Harris and Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001).

The quintessential angry young man

Richard St John Francis Harris was born in 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family. He was the fifth of eight (or nine - the sources differ) children of Mildred (Harty) and Ivan Harris. He was educated by the Jesuits at Crescent College and was an excellent rugby player, with a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout of tuberculosis as a teenager ended his aspirations for a rugby career. He became fascinated with the theatre and skipped a local dance one night to attend a performance of 'Henry IV'. He was hooked and went on to learn his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

While still a student, he rented the tiny 'off-West End' Irving Theatre in London and directed his own production of Clifford Odets' 'Winter Journey (The Country Girl)'. The critics approved, but the production used up all his savings. After completing his studies at the academy, he joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. He began getting roles in West End theatre productions, starting with 'The Quare Fellow' in 1956, a transfer from the Theatre Workshop. He spent nearly a decade in obscurity, learning his profession on stages throughout the UK.

He debuted on screen in the British comedy Alive and Kicking (Cyril Frankel, 1959), starring Sybil Thorndike, followed by a small part in Shake Hands with the Devil (Michael Anderson, 1959), starring screen legend James Cagney. Harris quickly scored regular work in films, including The Wreck of the Mary Deare (Michael Anderson, 1959) with Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston, and A Terrible Beauty (Tay Garnett, 1960) opposite Robert Mitchum. He played a good role as a frustrated Australian bomber pilot in the all-star war epic The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961). In his youth, he had been a fan of Marlon Brando, but he did not get along with the American star while filming Mutiny on the Bounty (Lewis Milestone, Carol Reed, George Seaton, 1962). He blamed Brando's on-set behaviour for the film going over budget and over schedule.

Harris's breakthrough performance was as the quintessential 'angry young man' in the sensational drama This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963). His part as a bitter young coal miner, Frank Machin, who becomes an acclaimed rugby league football player, earned him an Oscar nomination. Also acclaimed was the Italian psychological drama Il deserto rosso / Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) with Monica Vitti. Set in Northern Italy, the story follows a troubled woman who is unable to adapt to her environment after an automobile accident. Red Desert was awarded the Golden Lion at the 25th Venice International Film Festival in 1964. Harris then co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the WWII commando tale The Heroes of Telemark (Anthony Mann, 1965) and with Charlton Heston in the Western Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965).

He next showed up in the musical Hawaii (George Roy Hill, Arthur Hiller, 1966) starring Julie Andrews, and played King Arthur in Camelot (Joshua Logan, 1967), a lacklustre adaptation of Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe's hit musical. He hated making the Spy spoof comedy Caprice (Frank Tashlin, 1967) with Doris Day so much that he never watched the film. Harris was the very first person to record Jimmy Webb's song 'MacArthur Park' and scored a number-one singing hit in Australia, Jamaica and Canada, and a top-ten hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States, in 1968.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 322. Photo: Monica Vitti and Richard Harris in Il deserto rosso / Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964).


Vintage postcard. Richard Harris in A Man Called Horse (Elliot Silverstein, 1970).

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore

At the height of his stardom in the 1960s and early 1970s, Richard Harris was almost as well known for his hellraiser lifestyle and heavy drinking as he was for his acting career. He played a fine role as a reluctant police informer in The Molly Maguires (Martin Ritt, 1970) alongside Sir Sean Connery. He took the lead role in the violent Western A Man Called Horse (Elliot Silverstein, 1970), which became a cult film and spawned two sequels. He portrayed Oliver Cromwell in the film Cromwell (Ken Hughes, 1970) opposite Alec Guinness as King Charles I of England. He directed himself as an ageing soccer player in Bloomfield (Richard Harris, Uri Zohar, 1970) with Romy Schneider. That year, British exhibitors voted him the 9th-most popular star at the UK box office.

Harris received an Emmy Award for his role in the British television drama The Snow Goose (Patrick Garland, 1971). As the 1970s progressed, Harris continued to appear regularly on screen, but the quality of the scripts varied from above average to woeful. His credits during this period included the Spaghetti Western The Deadly Trackers (Barry Shear, Samuel Fuller, 1973), the big-budget disaster film Juggernaut (Richard Lester, 1974) and the strangely-titled crime film 99 and 44/100% Dead! (John Frankenheimer, 1974). Sean Connery and Harris reunited in Robin and Marian (Richard Lester, 1976), also starring Audrey Hepburn. Harris had a cameo as Richard the Lionheart. He starred in the dated animated fantasy Gulliver's Travels (Peter R. Hunt, 1977) and in the Jaws rip-off Orca: The Killer Whale (Michael Anderson, 1977).

Richard Harris played an ill-fated mercenary with Richard Burton and Roger Moore in the action film The Wild Geese (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1978). He was a vocal supporter of the Provisional Irish Republican Army from 1973 to 1984. He was replaced by Donald Sutherland as IRA terrorist Liam Devlin in The Eagle Has Landed (John Sturges, 1976) after it was discovered that he had attended a fundraiser for the Provisional IRA in the US. He discontinued his support after the 1983 Harrods bombing and later became active in persuading Americans of Irish descent not to give money to terrorist groups. The 1980s kicked off with Harris appearing in the silly Bo Derek production Tarzan the Ape Man (John Derek, 1981). That year, Harris nearly died from alcoholism, and a Roman Catholic priest was called to give him the last rites. Harris went into semi-retirement on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas, where he kicked his drinking habit and embraced a healthier lifestyle. He gave up drinking completely, but returned to drinking Guinness a decade later. He later also said that he gave up drugs after almost overdosing on cocaine in 1978. In 1985, Harris became a born-again Catholic after his brother Dermot Harris died from alcoholism. In the mid-1980s, he was a guest professor at the University of Scranton, teaching Theatre Arts courses, but the remainder of the 1980s had him appearing in such forgettable productions as the American drama Martin's Day (Alan Gibson, 1985), Strike Commando 2 (Bruno Mattei, Claudio Fragasso, 1988), and King of the Wind (Peter Duffell, 1990).

Harris made a triumphant comeback when director Jim Sheridan cast him in the lead role in The Field (Jim Sheridan, 1990), written by the esteemed Irish playwright John B. Keane. The role of 'Bull' McCabe was originally to be played by Ray McAnally, but when McAnally suddenly died, Harris was offered the role. The Field was released in 1990 and earned Harris his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He then locked horns with Harrison Ford as an IRA sympathiser in the political thriller Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce, 1992) and got one of his best roles as gunfighter English Bob in the Western Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992). Harris was firmly back in vogue. He gave wonderful performances in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (Randa Haines, 1993) opposite Robert Duvall and Shirley MacLaine, Cry, the Beloved Country (Darrell Roodt, 1995) opposite James Earl Jones, the TV Movie The Great Kandinsky (Terry Winsor, 1995), and This Is the Sea (Mary McGuckian, 1997) starring Samantha Morton. Further fortune came his way with a strong performance as the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the blockbuster Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000) starring Russell Crowe.

Then he became known to an entirely new generation of film fans as Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the mega-successful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Chris Columbus, 2002). Harris hesitated to take the role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) owing to the multi-film commitment and his declining health. He ultimately accepted because, according to his account of the story, his 11-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he did not take it. His final screen role was as Lucius Sulla in the TV Mini-series Julius Caesar (Uli Edel, 2002) with Christopher Walken as Cato and Jeremy Sisto as Julius Caesar. Richard Harris died of Hodgkin's disease, also known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, in London in 2002, aged 72. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at his home in the Bahamas. In 1957, Harris married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, and they had three sons: director Damian Harris, as well as actors Jared Harris and Jamie Harris. Harris and Rees-Williams divorced in 1969, after which Harris married American actress Ann Turkel in 1974. They divorced in 1982. He spent the last 12 years of his life living in Room 758 at the world-famous Savoy Hotel in London.


French postcard by Service Postal. Photo: Warner Bros. Richard Harris in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Richard Harris in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001).

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

Jean Richard

Jean Richard (1921-2001) was a French actor, comedian, and circus entrepreneur. He appeared in more than 80 films, but he is best remembered for his role as Georges Simenon's pipe-smoking detective Maigret in the French television series. He played the role for more than twenty years.


French postcard by JPB. Photo: Disques Philips.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1099. Photo: Ektochrome Studeco. Georges Guétary and Jean Richard in the stage production of the operetta 'La Polka des lampions' (1961) by Marcel Achard at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, where it played 534 times.


French postcard by Monachrome, Beausoleil, no. 203. Caption: ZOO Jean Richard, Ermenonville (Oise). From left to right: Gertrude (gorilla), Jean Richard (man), Faston (chimpanzee), Kiki (chimpanzee), Roger Pierre (man).

A menagerie quickly reached impressive proportions

Jean François Henri Richard was born in Bessines, Deux-Sèvres, in the southwest of France in 1921. He was born on a farm named La Ménagerie. His father was Pierre Richard, a horse dealer, and his mother a homemaker, née Suzanne Boinot. His early encounters with circus performers (particularly Martha-la-Corse, a cat trainer) triggered his enduring passion for animals, especially big cats. Richard, who had a gift for drawing, began his working life as a caricaturist for local newspapers. After World War II, Richard organised German tours for French theatrical companies.

He began to make a name for himself performing in a famous postwar Parisian cabaret, L'Amiral. There, he developed a successful comic character, that of a jovial and naive peasant from the small imaginary village of Champignol. After attending the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique in 1947, Jean Richard worked in the circus, cabaret, cinema and television.

His first film was the drama Six heures à perdre / Six Hours to Lose (Alex Joffé, Jean Le Vitte, 1947), starring André Luguet. His first major cinema success was Belle Mentalité / Wonderful Mentality (André Berthomieu, 1953), in which he played a valet with an extremely logical mind, who is unable to tell a lie. Jean Renoir offered him one of his best roles in Elena et les Hommes / Elena and the Men (Jean Renoir, 1955), starring Ingrid Bergman.

During his long career, he appeared in about eighty films. These included such hits as the comedies La guerre des boutons / War of the Buttons (Yves Robert, 1962), Bébert et l'omnibus / Bebert and the Train (Yves Robert, 1963) and Le viager / The Annuity (Pierre Tchernia, 1972), starring Michel Serrault and Michel Galabru.

His ever-growing popularity allowed him to purchase a vast property in Ermenonville, north of Paris, where he began to gather all sorts of wild animals. His menagerie quickly reached impressive proportions. In order to continue maintaining it, he had to open it to the public in 1956. His private zoological collection, the Zoo d'Ermenonville, became the most important in the country. In 1957, he created the Jean Richard Circus and in 1963, the La Mer de Sable theme park, northeast of Paris. Both are still owned by his family.


French promotion postcard by A. Leconte, Editeur, Paris, for Disques Ducretet-Thomson. Illustration: Lalande. Caption: Jean Richard recorded his best sketches, “Un soirée au Cabaret AMIRAL” (An Evening at the AMIRAL Cabaret), on LP no. 360 V 007.


French postcard. Photo: Jentille / Philips.


French postcard by Zoo Jean Richard, Ermenonville, Oise. Caption: Having a good friend!...

The grumbling but tender-hearted detective

Jean Richard continued to appear as a comic actor in films and on stage in successful musicals. Richard is remembered for his TV role as Commissaire Maigret, the famous detective created by Georges Simenon. Richard soon became synonymous with the grumbling but tender-hearted detective. With his trademarks, a pipe and a hat, he appeared on TV screens in 92 episodes of Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (1967-1990).

In 1972, he bought the Cirque Pinder, the ultimate and largest French circus. The greatest artists of the time performed under his big tops, and Richard found himself at the helm of the most important circus enterprise in France. Richard shuttled continually from TV studio to theatre boards, from his corporate offices to his circuses on the road.

To those who asked him how he could do so many things at the same time, he replied: "But I am on a vacation, since I do only things I love!" In May 1973, the machine jammed. A terrible car accident left Jean Richard on the brink of death for three weeks. After that, Richard was obliged to delegate. The company continued to expand, but became a giant with feet of clay.

After a reorganisation in 1978, the company filed for bankruptcy in 1983. The circuses Pinder and Jean Richard were bought by a former associate, Gilbert Edelstein. Jean Richard retired as an actor in 1990. He died in 2001 in Senlis, at the age of 80, after a battle with cancer. He was married to Annick Tanguy and Anne-Marie Lejard, and had two children.

Pierre Fenouillet at Circopedia: "Jean Richard died on December 12, 2001, orphaning an entire generation of circus enthusiasts to whom he soon became a cult figure. Some of these enthusiasts stand today at the helm of major French circuses. In 2021, they celebrated the hundredth anniversary of his birth with a series of manifestations and dedications in Bessines, Jean Richard's birthplace, and Ermenonville, where he lived."


French postcard by Monachrome, Cap-d'Ail, no. 150. Caption: ZOO Jean Richard, Ermenonville (Oise), Monsieur Maouzi (Léopard).


French postcard by Monachrome, Cap-d'Ail, no. 151. Caption: ZOO Jean Richard, Ermenonville (Oise), Monsieur Maouzi (Léopard).


French postcard by Carterie artistique et cinématographique, Pont du Casse in the Encyclopédie du Cinéma / A.D.A.G.P, Paris, no. EDC 1859. Poster illustration: Raymond Savignac. Poster for La guerre des boutons / The War of the Buttons (Yves Robert, 1962).


French postcard by Carterie artistique et cinématographique, Pont du Casse in the Encyclopédie du Cinéma / A.D.A.G.P, Paris, no. EDC 3177. Poster illustration: Raymond Savignac. Poster for La guerre des boutons/The War of the Buttons (Yves Robert, 1962).

Sources: Pierre Fenouillet (Circopedia), BBC, Wikipedia (English, Dutch and French) and IMDb.

L'eclisse (1962)

Along with L’avventura, La notte, and Deserto rosso, L'eclisse is part of Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Great Tetralogy’, in which setting and environment are very important. In L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962), Monica Vitti lives in EUR, a modernistic suburb of Rome. She meets Alain Delon, who plays a confident stockbroker in the old city centre. His materialistic nature eventually undermines their relationship. For the newest edition of the magazine Roma Aeterna, Ivo Blom wrote an article about the locations of L'eclisse. We updated our old post on Antonioni's masterpiece with pictures we took in 2010 when we followed his old footsteps in EUR.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmulu Acin. C.P.C.S. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962).


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 322. Photo: Radio Film. Alain Delon in L'eclisse / The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962).


Dutch postcard by De Muinck en Co, Amsterdam, no. 809. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962).

As long as their love will endure

By Michelangelo Antonioni’s own account, his ideas for films are born of visual epiphanies, fleeting but revealing glimpses of the world around him. Modern architecture is symptomatic of the problems facing modern Western man, and the locations play a significant role in L'eclisse.

Monica Vitti plays a young translator, Vittoria, who leaves her lover, the writer Riccardo (Francisco Rabal), and terminates their 4-year relationship. Following several sleepless nights, Vittoria visits her estranged mother (Lila Brignone) at the stock exchange. There, the dynamic young stockbroker Piero (Alain Delon) casts his romantic gaze in Vittoria's direction. Although they have little in common, Vittoria visits Piero in his office, and they make plans to meet again that night and every night thereafter - for as long as their love will endure.

L'eclisse caps off Michelangelo Antonioni's previous two films, L'avventura (1960) and La Notte (1961), in much the same style. A characteristic of Antonioni's films is the long, significant periods of silence. The people in his film just cannot seem to communicate with each other. Eleanor Mannikka at AllMovie: "There is much to appreciate in this man who is not overly intellectual and is blessedly free of complications, and the same can be said of Vittoria. Yet their innermost fears play upon both of them in ways that go against an honest expression of their love - and against a lasting relationship."

Antonioni’s Rome works as a mirror to the characters. EUR, the quarter where most of L'eclisse evolves, was then – and still is – a zone for the well-to-do, but for the modern ones; not the conservative rich who cling to the historic centre with its century-old palazzi and antiques. At the start of the film, Vittoria is suffocated by the heat and by her relationship and looks outside, but instead of nature, she sees a giant water tower. The tower, nicknamed ‘mushroom'(fungo), resembles the atomic bomb. When the film was shot, in 1961, the atomic arms race was a fact. We also notice the enormous Palazzo dello Sport, built by the architects Piero Nervi and Marcello Piacentini. Piacentini was the master architect of the whole quarter in the fascist era, when EUR was destined for the World Expo of 1942 or E42 (which never took place, of course), hence EUR (Esposizione Universale di Roma). The Sports Palace was built for the 1960 Olympic Games, like so many modern buildings in Rome.

Piero works at the Old Stock Exchange in the so-called Temple of Hadrian in Piazza di Pietra. The contrast with EUR cannot be bigger: the enormous noise of buyers and sellers at the stock exchange floor, the hysteria of Vittoria’s mother fixated on money, and the speedy Piero. Vittoria and Piero regularly meet in Vittoria’s quarter, at a crossroad near the Olympic Hippodrome. While they are there, Antonioni cherishes all the details of this location, such as trees, sprinklers, a nurse with a pram, a bus passing by, water running from a tree to a sewer, streetlamps, etc. This makes it their personal location and monumentalises it. All these details come back in the final scene. The place is rather disturbing. And still it is Vittoria’s place.


Rome, EUR, 2010.


The most representative building of the 'Fascist' style at EUR is Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (1938-1943), an iconic project which has since become known as the 'Colosseo Quadrato (Square Colosseum).


Rome, EUR, Fungo (water tower).


San Pietro e San Paolo church, Via Ostiense, EUR, Rome, Italy. Architect: Arnoldo Foschini. This church is directly inspired by (the other) Michelangelo’s plan for St. Peter’s, which was based on a Greek cross shape. It was built from 1935 to 1955.


Rome, EUR, 2010.

A form of poetry

With her wild blond hair, Monica Vitti is perfect as the confused Vittoria. She displays just enough emotion to realise the character, but is malleable enough for Antonioni to illustrate his theme through her. Alain Delon never looked more handsome than in L'eclisse. He conveys emotions easily with just the flick of an eyebrow. Delon portrays the materialistic, spiritually empty stockbroker quite effectively.

L'eclisse rejects action in favour of contemplation. Images and design are more important than character and story. The long takes and elegant compositions, filmed by Gianni De Venanzo, and the elongated views on a building or a streetlight, manage to create a form of poetry.

Antonioni shows us a very different Rome in L’eclisse than the one we are used to. The empty, new EUR, a sleekly designed neighbourhood, then still without patina, contrasts with the chaos, noise and traffic of the city centre, where a trade fair is housed in an antique Roman building.

In another Roman classic, Roman Holiday (1953), director William Wyler imagined Rome as a compressed city where monuments are emphasised, and everyone seems to know each other. Michelangelo Antonioni emphasises the suburbs, the new housing estate, a very different kind of Rome than we are used to. Antonioni's Rome is a city where people struggle to maintain relationships and are mainly preoccupied with themselves or materialistic matters. Antonioni seems to say to Vittoria: 'Living here has got to make you unhappy, the city seems as empty as your heart. But if you take enough time to look around you, listen and pay attention to meaningful details, there is much to discover even in an empty new housing estate like this.'

L'eclisse won the Special Jury Award at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Although the film won several more awards, L'eclisse was never a commercial success, and many people seem to find the film boring. It is not. Go and watch it closely and let yourself be hypnotised by Antonioni.



Small Romanian collector card by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962).

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: Alain Delon in L'eclisse / The Eclypse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962).


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 7643. Photo: Radio Film. Alain Delon in L'eclisse / The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962).


French poster postcard by Éditions Zreik, Paris, in the Collection Télérama, la mémoire du cinéma, no. 74. French affiche for L'eclipse / L'eclisse / The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) starring Monica Vitti and Alain Delon.


Original trailer for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962) with the title song by Mina. Source: xx999xx999 (YouTube).


Trailer L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962). Source: moviolamagics (YouTube).

Sources: Ivo Blom (Cinematic City: L'Eclisse and Rome), Eleanor Mannikka (AllMovie - page now defunct), TCM (page now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And please check out Roma Aeterna.

Triboulet (1923)

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


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio. Giovanni Schettini as Manfred in Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923), 1st and 2nd episode.


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


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


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

Delirium of love

Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923) was based on the novel 'Triboulet'(1910) by Michele Zévaco. Triboulet was a historical figure. His real name was Nicolas Ferrial (1479-1536), and he was a jester of the kings Louis XII and Francis I of France. He appears in Book 3 of François Rabelais' Pantagrueline chronicles.

Triboulet also appears in Victor Hugo's 'Le Roi s'amuse' and its opera version, Giuseppe Verdi's 'Rigoletto', a blend of 'Triboulet' and French rigoler (to laugh), intended to deflect the censorship that Hugo's work had received. Verdi also turned Triboulet more into a tragic figure.

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

Umberto Zanuccoli played Triboulet, the king's jester, but in reality, he is a nobleman called Ferrial. Achille Vitti played King Francesco (or Francis I), who dedicates himself to peace after the defeat of Pavia. However, the king does not disdain his notorious love life. At the age of 50, he is tired of Mme de Ferron ('la belle Ferronière') and gets interested in young Gillette, played by film diva Elena Sangro.

Triboulet is a true melodrama with many secret identities. Triboulet raised Gillette, who loves Manfred (Giovanni Schettini), the king of the Cour des Miracles, the Paris slums. Manfred saves Gillette from the clutches of Francis. Francis is, in true melodrama style, in reality Gilette's father by a former mistress, Margentina (Tina Ceccaci Renaldi), now a mad and visionary woman. Hurt in one of his actions, Manfred is saved and cured by an Italian couple, who travel with their servant Spadacappa. Manfred later discovers that the Italian couple are his parents, who have come to France to find him.


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


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio / Cines / UCI. Achille Vitti as King Francis/ François I of France, Umberto Zanuccoli in the title role, Giovanni Schettini as Manfred, and Elena Sangro as Gillette in Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923), 3rd and 4th episode.


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


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

6 episodes

1. After the defeat of Pavia (1525) and his subsequent imprisonment, the French King Francis I (Achille Vitti) dedicates himself to peace, though not disdaining his notorious love life. At the age of 50, he is tired of Mme de Ferron ('la belle Ferronière'), and gets interested in young Gillette (Elena Sangro), an orphan raised by Triboulet (Umberto Zanuccoli), the king's buffoon, but in reality a nobleman called Ferrial. Mme de Ferron won't stand to have a rival. Gillette instead loves Manfred (Giovanni Schettini), the king of the Cour des Miracles. Manfred fights off all the king's swordsmen but cannot rescue Gillette. Gillette finds refuge at the printer Etienne Dolet (Carlo Gualandri). Francis, in reality is her father by a former mistress, Margentina (Tina Ceccaci Renaldi), now a mad and visionary woman, and asks her to join him at the Louvre. Manfred liberates the locked-up de Ferron, who otherwise would have died, so she is ever so grateful. He himself is then imprisoned, but he manages to escape.

2. Hurt, Manfred is saved and cured by an Italian aristocratic couple, the Count of Ragastens (Totò Majorana) and his wife, who travel with their servant Spadacappa, and are looking for their lost son. Manfred finds Gillette again at the house of the editor Dolet. Instead of the splendour of the Louvre, Gillette selects the modest house of Fleurial, aka Triboulet, the King's buffoon. She thus has two fathers. When she publicly prefers the buffoon, the latter is tortured and imprisoned. Manfred declares his love for Gillette in the King's throne room, causing an enormous sword fight, from which he is rescued at the last moment by Lanthenay (Alfredo Menichelli), his fellow in arms. A huge fire breaks out at the Louvre, caused by Lanthenay and his gang, which Maddalena de Ferron, the scorned ex-mistress of the King, views with mixed feelings, as the King may thus escape her revenge. But the King is still alive.

3. Maddalena de Ferron is set on revenge and has herself become a leper to contaminate the King and his beloved. Having mistaken Gillette for a rival in love, the Duchess of Etampes, royal favourite, hands her over to Margentine, who has descended into madness and almost manages to disfigure her own daughter with acid. Yet, Spadacappa saves Gillette right on time. Manfred is about to be cornered by three cronies from the King, but Maddalena saves him at the last moment. After Manfred has left, Maddalena still swears to avenge herself on the King.

4. Manfred and Lanthenay, both raised in the Paris slums, The Court of Miracles, are the foster sons of Mama Gypsy, who, after her own son was condemned to death by the Provost Monclar (Gino Viotti), stole his son and raised him as a bandit, Lanthenay. Ordered by the King, the provost raids the slums with his army and has Manfred and Lanteney arrested.

5-6. In episodes 5 and 6, other adventures follow, in which Manfred discovers the Italian couple are his parents, who have come to France to find him. Triboulet and Manfred join forces to free Etienne Dolet, accused of having printed heretical works and imprisoned in the Conciergerie, where the executioner awaits him. The trio intends at the same time to defend the Cour des Miracles, whose Grand Provost is preparing to attack it, and to find Gillette, whom the king has taken to Fontainebleau. Through countless twists and turns, Dolet perishes at the stake, Manfred turns out to be the lost son of the Count of Ragastens, and Lanthenay that of the Grand Provost. Margentine regains her sanity and recognises Gillette, with whom Manfred disputes with the king, with his sword. Triboulet sacrifices himself to save Gillette. Broken, François I returns to the Château de Rambouillet and dies there, under the vengeful gaze of Madeleine Ferron, known as the Beautiful Ferronnière.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio. Left, Umberto Zanuccoli as Triboulet in Triboulet (Febo Mari 1923), 5th and 6th episode.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio. Umberto Zanuccoli in the title role of the period piece Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923), 5th and 6th episode.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Photo: Fotominio. Elena Sangro as Gillette in Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923), 5th and 6th episode.


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

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

Georgia Hale

Georgia Hale (1900-1985) was an actress of the silent film era. Hale rose to film stardom in 1925 under the auspices of directors Josef von Sternberg in The Salvation Hunters and Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush. Hale retired from acting in 1931 after appearing in about a dozen silent and sound films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1171/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Paralta / Ifa / United Artists.

A dance-hall girl who wins Charlie's heart

Georgia Theodora Hale was born in 1900 in St. Joseph, Missouri. Her parents were George Washington Hale and Laura Imbrie, and she had two older sisters, Eugenia and Helen. Her father worked as a telephone company operations manager. The family moved to a suburb of Englewood, Illinois, in 1903, where Hale would graduate from high school. In 1918, her yearbook reports that Hale, in performing the role of Ralph Rackstraw in Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera, 'H. M. S. Pinafore', had "made her justly famous" on campus.

An aspiring singer, Hale attended a Chicago musical college in 1920, appearing in the 'Chicago Winter Follies' - her first theatrical engagement. In 1922, she won a beauty contest in Chicago, and despite strong disapproval from her father, she used the award money to go to New York City to break into the film business. Hale performed uncredited supporting roles in a number of features over the next several months.

After a brief visit to her ailing mother in Chicago in 1923, Hale left for Hollywood, California. She immediately found work as a bit player and appeared as a 'bathing beauty' in such films as The Temple of Venus (1923). As a bit player, she also acted in By Divine Right (Roy William Neill, 1924), and she danced in the chorus of Vanity's Price (Roy William Neill, 1924) starring Ann Q. Nilsson.

Josef von Sternberg was an assistant director on both of these films, and he gave Georgia her first break when he cast her for the film that he directed, The Salvation Hunters (Josef von Sternberg, 1925), opposite George K. Arthur. Though not a box office success, The Salvation Hunters was ranked among the top 10 films for 1925 by trade paper Film Mercury.

Then Charles Chaplin hired her to play the dance-hall girl Georgia, who wins Charlie's heart, in The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925). Hale was friends with Chaplin's wife at the time, 16-year-old Lita Grey, who was originally cast in the role. When Lita became pregnant and had to drop out, Hale was handed the lead of The Gold Rush. The very successful film won Georgia instant star status.


Vintage postcard. Georgia Hale and Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925).


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 3085. Photo: United Artists.

Highly personal and professional insights into Hollywood directors Chaplin and von Sternberg

Georgia Hale was signed by Paramount Pictures. Her big film with Paramount was The Great Gatsby (Herbert Brenon, 1926), based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, where she played the role of Myrtle Wilson alongside Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby.

But her career never went anywhere, and her last silent picture would be the film The Last Moment (Pál Fejös, 1928). Deemed unsuitable for talkies, she was one of the first to be released in 1931. Her final film was The Lightning Warrior (Benjamin H. Kline, Armand Schaefer, 1931), a Mascot serial starring Rin Tin Tin, also in his last role.

She found solace in Christian Science. She never married and remained loyal to Chaplin, who had her on his payroll on and off until 1953. She ran a dance school for a while. She also wrote her two versions of her autobiography in the 1960s, but couldn't find a publisher at the time. Hale eventually went into real estate, which made her wealthy.

She also found a companion, who had no idea of her film career, until she gave an interview about Charlie Chaplin in Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's magnificent documentary series Unknown Chaplin (Kevin Brownlow, David Gill, 1983). The documentary revealed that Hale was hired by Chaplin to replace actress Virginia Cherrill as the female lead in the film City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931) during a brief period after he had fired Cherrill, and before he re-hired her. Approximately seven minutes of test footage of Hale in the role survives.

Georgia Hale died in 1985 in Hollywood, at the age of 85. Her companion received most of her estate. Ten years after she died, a second version of her autobiography, which she had written in the 1960s, was more detailed than her first and would finally be published: 'Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Closeups' (1995). According to Wikipedia, it "is one of the few accounts that provide highly personal and professional insights into Hollywood directors Chaplin and von Sternberg."


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 3080. Photo: Paralta L.A. / United Artists.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 3089. Photo: Paralta L.A. / United Artists.

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia (French, German and English), and IMDb.

Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes (1962) is an English actor, film producer, and director. He first achieved success as an interpreter of Shakespeare's works onstage at the Royal National Theatre. His breakthrough in the cinema was as Nazi war criminal Amon Göth in Schindler's List (1993). Another notable success was his portrayal of Count Almásy in The English Patient (1996). Several other notable films and box office hits followed.


Spanish collector card by Accion. Ralph Fiennes in Quiz Show (Robert Redford, 1994).


British postcard by Boomerang Media. Photo: Buena Vista International / Miramax. Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996).

Closely connected to the stage

Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1962. He is the eldest of six children of photographer and illustrator Mark Fiennes and writer Jennifer Lash. The marriage also produced Magnus (composer and music producer), twins Joseph Fiennes (also an actor) and Jacob Mark (forester), as well as daughters Martha Maria (director) and Sophia Victoria (documentary film director).

His artistic talent was noticed at an early age by his mother, who encouraged him and his siblings intensively. After leaving school, Ralph Fiennes initially studied fine art at the Chelsea School of Art, but switched to acting after a year. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1988. Fiennes remains closely connected to the stage to this day. Even after his international breakthrough, he continued to appear on stage on numerous occasions.

In 1995, Fiennes made his Broadway debut playing Prince Hamlet in the revival of 'Hamlet', for which he won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play. In spring 2006, he played Frank Hardy in Brian Friel's 'Faith Healer' at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. The successful production moved to Broadway in New York in the summer. He was Tony-nominated for his role as a travelling faith healer.

In 2011, he played Prospero in William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In 2016, he played the title role in Shakespeare's 'Richard III' at the Almeida Theatre in London, where he had previously played 'Hamlet' (1995), 'Richard II' (2000) and 'Coriolanus' (2010).

Ralph Fiennes met English actress Alex Kingston when they were both studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After a ten-year relationship, they married in 1993 and divorced in 1997, following Fiennes' relationship with actress Francesca Annis. They met in 1995, during the production of 'Hamlet' in which Annis, who is eighteen years his senior, played Hamlet's mother. In 2006, this relationship ended due to Fiennes's affair with the Romanian singer Cornelia Crișan. In 2007, Fiennes had sex with a Qantas flight attendant on a flight from Darwin to Mumbai. After initial denials, it was established that they had sex in the plane's lavatory, and the flight attendant's employment was terminated by Qantas. The incident was referenced in the Australian sketch TV show Comedy Inc. Fiennes has been a national ambassador for UNICEF since 1999.


Dutch postcard by Boomerang School Cards. Photo: UIP / Universal. Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis in Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995).


German postcard by Edgar Medien. Photo: Vox. Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes in The Avengers (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1998). Caption: Uns sendet die Queen.

Harry Potter's arch-enemy, the new M and a flirty and eccentric concierge

Ralph Fiennes made his screen debut in a small role in two episodes of the TV mini-series Prime Suspect (Christopher Menaul, 1991) starring Helen Mirren. Then he starred as T. E. Lawrence in the British television film A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (Christopher Menaul, 1992). Fiennes made his film debut as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (Peter Kosminsky, 1992), opposite Juliette Binoche. He had a major role in Peter Greenaway's historical drama The Baby of Mâcon (1993) with Julia Ormond, which provoked controversy and was poorly received.

He gained international fame for his role as Amon Göth, the commander of the Płaszów concentration camp, in the Holocaust drama Schindler's List (Steven Spielberg, 1993). Fiennes was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and won the BAFTA Award in this category. In 1994, he portrayed the American academic Charles Van Doren in Robert Redford's drama Quiz Show, opposite John Turturro and Paul Scofield. His second Oscar nomination followed in 1997, this time in the Best Actor category, for his role as Count Laszlo Almasy in the World War II epic romance The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996), in which he starred with Kristin Scott Thomas.

In 1998, he played John Steed in the remake of The Avengers (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1998) alongside Sean Connery and Uma Thurman. However, the film was not a success at the box office and was nominated for nine Razzies at the 19th Golden Raspberry Awards. Again, Fiennes did not win the award. From the fourth instalment of the Harry Potter film series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005), onwards, Fiennes took on the role of the evil Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter's arch-enemy, in the Harry Potter films (2005-2011). He played the protagonist in The Reader (Stephen Daldry, 2008), adapted from the novel of the same name, alongside Kate Winslet, and co-starred in The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008), which was his third Best Picture Oscar-winning film.

In 2011, Fiennes made his feature film debut as a director with Coriolanus (2011), a modern interpretation of William Shakespeare's play, in which he also played the title character, opposite Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave. Two years later, he directed his second film, The Invisible Woman (2013), about the affair between Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan, which lasted for thirteen years until he died in 1870. In 2012, Fiennes played former secret agent Gareth Mallory in the James Bond film Skyfall (Sam Mendes, 2012) starring Daniel Craig. In the course of the film, Mallory became the new ‘M’, taking over the position of Judi Dench's character. He reprised the role in Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015) and No Time to Die (Cary Joji Fukunaga, 2021). Fiennes was the narrator in numerous audiobook productions and a voice actor in animated films such as The Prince of Egypt (Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells, 1998) and the stop-motion animated film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Steve Box, Nick Park, 2005).

Ralph Fiennes made quite an impression with his farcical turn as a flirty and eccentric concierge, Monsieur Gustave, in The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014), which won the Silver Bear at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival. He starred as a music producer in Luca Guadagnino's thriller A Bigger Splash (2015) alongside Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts, and played the fictional Laurence Laurentz, an acclaimed European film director, in Joel and Ethan Coen's comedy Hail, Caesar! (2016), which is set in 1950s Hollywood. In 2018, his third directorial effort, Nureyev – The White Crow, was released, based on a biography of the dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Fiennes himself took on the role of ballet master Alexander Pushkin. Fiennes starred alongside Carey Mulligan and Lily James in the British drama The Dig (Simon Stone, 2021), playing the Suffolk archaeologist Basil Brown. The film received positive reviews, with critics praising his performance. Last year, he received his third Oscar nomination for his leading role in the political thriller Conclave (Edward Berger, 2024). He played Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, who organises a conclave to elect the next pope and finds himself investigating secrets and scandals about the major candidates. This year, Ralph Fiennes starred in 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle, 2025), the third film in the series, which is set in a post-apocalyptic Britain.


Chinese postcard. Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes in The Dig (Simon Stone, 2021).


Swiss poster card. Poster: Collection Movie Art. American poster for The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014).

Sources: Gustaf Molin and Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.