Happy birthday, Jean-Louis Trintignant!

Today is the birthday of Jean-Louis Trintignant (1930), one of the most talented and recognisable French actors of the post-war era. He showed a special talent for troubled characters like murderers or jealous husbands, and won several awards for it. Trintignant starred in more than 100 films and enjoyed international acclaim with films like Et Dieu... créa la femme/And God Created Woman (1956), Un homme et une femme/A Man And A Woman (1966), Z (1969), Il Conformista/The Conformist (1970) and of course with Michael Haneke’s Amour/Love (2012). This year, Amour won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and Jean-Louis Trintignant himself was awarded with the César 2013 for Best Actor. Happy 83, mr. Trintignant!


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 17/71, 1971. Retail price: 0,20 M.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 73/78, 1978. Retail price: 0,20 M. Photo: Progress.

Rumors of an Affair with BB

Jean-Louis Trintignant was born in Piolenc in the southeast of France in 1930. He was born into a wealthy family. His parents were Claire (née Tourtin) and Raoul Trintignant, an industrialist.

His uncle was race car driver, Louis Trintignant, who was killed in 1933 while practicing on the Péronne racetrack in Picardie. Another uncle, Maurice Trintignant, was a Formula One driver who twice won the Monaco Grand Prix as well as the Le Mans.

Jean-Louis studied law in Aix-en-Provence, but at the age of 19, he found a sudden passion for acting, having seen Charles Dullin's stage production of Molière's L'Avare.  The following year, he moved to Paris to study drama at L'IDHEC (Institut des hautes études cinématographiques, now La Fémis). He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and toured in the early 1950s in several theatre productions.

His first film appearance was in La Loi des rues/Law of the Streets (Ralph Habib, 1956) and he was given his first bigger part in Si tous les gars du monde/If All the Guys in the World... (Christian Jaque, 1956), an hymn to brotherhood, solidarity and responsibility.

At the time Trintignant was not regarded as very talented, but everything changed when Roger Vadim discovered him. He gave him the leading man role opposite Brigitte Bardot in Et Dieu... créa la femme/And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956).

Et Dieu... créa la femme gained him instant stardom. When the press stalked him because of a brief affair with Bardot, he fled into the army. His acting was interrupted for several years by mandatory military service. He served in the Algerian War and was profoundly affected by what he experienced during the conflict. After three years of military life, he returned to Paris.

Trintignant had made up his mind to give up acting, but an offer to star as Hamlet in Paris changed his mind. Critical acclaim lead to another  important film role for Vadim in an updated version of Les liaisons dangereuses/Dangerous Liaisons (Roger Vadim, 1959) starring Jeanne Moreau. However, it took some time for another big success in the cinema.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 608. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Spanish postcard by Oscarcolor, no. 293.

Art-house Classic

Raised in and around automobile racing, Jean-Louis Trintignant was the natural choice of film director Claude Lelouch for the starring role of race car driver in his film Un homme et une femme/A Man and A Woman (Claude Lelouch, 1966). And indeed he was perfectly cast as the widowed driver who learns to love again.

Trintignant was – and still is - good friends with actress Anouk Aimée. He recommended her to Lelouch for the female lead in the film. Un homme et une femme won the Palme d’Or and became a huge global success. At the time Un homme et une femme was the most successful French film ever screened in the foreign market, and the film made Trintignant an international star.

In Italy, where he was always dubbed into Italian, he collaborated with renowned Italian directors. In Dino Risi's cult comedy Il sorpasso/The Easy Life (1962), he played a shy law student taken for a for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries by capricious, exuberant Vittorio Gassman in the summer of 1962.

Other major Italian directors he worked with were Valerio Zurlini in Estate violent/Violent Summer (1959) with Eleonora Rossi-Drago, and Il deserto dei tartari/The Desert of the Tartars (1974), Bernardo Bertolucci in Il conformista/The Conformist (1970), and Ettore Scola in La terrazzo/The Terrace (1980) and Passione d'amore/Passion For Love (1981).

In 1968, he won the Silver Bear Best Actor award at the Berlin International Film Festival for L'homme qui ment/The Man Who Lies (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1968).

Other interesting French films of the 1960s were the sexually charged Les Biches/Bad Girls (Claude Chabrol, 1968) with Stéphane Audran, the political thriller Z (Costa-Gravas, 1969) as an idealistic young lawyer opposite Yves Montand, and the Oscar nominated morality tale Ma nuit chez Maud/My Night at Maud’s (Eric Rohmer, 1969) with Francoise Fabian.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 577. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, no. 1129. Photo: J.L. Castelli.

Manslaughter

Jean-Louis Trintignant became particularly associated with the (political) thriller, an increasingly popular genre in France and the kind of film that seemed to fit the actor's cool but sensitive persona perfectly. Teaming up again with Lelouch, Trintignant portrayed a nihilistic but debonair professional thief in Le Voyou/The Crook (Claude Lelouch, 1970), then crossed over to the other side of the law to play a detective in Sans mobile apparent/Without Apparent Motive (Claude Lelouch, 1971).

Next, he was a French fugitive in Canada who gets involved in a kidnap plot in La course du lièvre à travers les champs/…and Hope to Die (René Clément, 1972), and a French assassin in Los Angeles in Un homme est mort/A Man is Dead (Jacques Deray, 1972).

He appeared in sixteen films in just three years between 1975 and 1977, including in Flic Story/Cop Story (Jacques Deray, 1975) as a cold blooded murderer opposite Alain Delon. In 1978, he won acclaim as a bank employee standing up against corruption in the César-winning L’Argent des autres/Dirty Money (Christian de Chalonge, 1978) with Catherine Deneuve.

After several undistinguished features, he made his first English language feature film, Under Fire (Roger Spottiswoode, 1983) starring Nick Nolte. Following this, he starred in François Truffaut's final film, Vivement dimanche!/Confidentially Yours (1983) opposite Fanny Ardant.

In 1994, he appeared in Krzysztof Kieślowski's last film, Trois couleurs: Rouge/Three Colors: Red opposite Irène Jacob. He played a disillusioned retired judge who spies on his neighbours while grappling with his own inner moral dilemmas. He lent his voice to the widely acclaimed La cité des enfants perdus/City of Lost Children (Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1995). This was followed by his role as the older version of Mathieu Kassovitz’s character in the acclaimed Un Héros très discreet/A Self-Made Hero (Jacques Audiard, 1996).

Trintignant has won several awards, including a Silver Bear at the Berlinale for Best Actor for L'Homme qui ment (1968), the Cannes Award for Best Actor for Z (1969) and a special David di Donatello in Italy in 1972. He was nominated for the César five times: in 1987, 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2013.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43 072. Photo: publicity still for Le bon plaisir (Francis Girod, 1984) with Catherine Deneuve.


Swiss postcard by Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne / News Productions, Baulmes. Photo: Laurence Sudre.

Amour

Jean-Louis Trintignant has been married twice. His first wife was actress Stéphane Audran. The marriage was short-lived and the actress left him to marry director Claude Chabrol. His second wife, Nadine Trintignant-Marquand, was also an actress as well as a screenwriter and director. They had three children: Vincent Trintignant, Pauline (who died of crib death in 1969) and Marie Trintignant. The couple later divorced and Trintignant subsequently married the famous racing driver Marianne Hoepfner in 1984.

At the age of 17, his daughter Marie performed in La terrazza alongside her father and later became a successful actress in her own right. In 2003, she was killed by her boyfriend, Bertrand Cantat, the lead rock singer and guitarist of the group Noir Désir, in a hotel room in Vilnius, Lithuania. She was 41.

Apparently the jealous Cantat became outraged when Trintignant received a telephone call from her husband, director/actor Samuel Benchetrit. She suffered a cerebral edema as a result of her skull fractures and died four days after the incident. In 2004, Cantat was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter, which was initially appealed by Marie's family, who wished for a heavier sentence. They later cancelled their appeal and the judgment was final.

Since 1996, Jean-Louis Trintignant essentially focused on his stage work. After a 14 year gap, he returned to the cinema in grand style. In Amour/Love (Michael Haneke, 2012), he played the male lead opposite Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert.

Trintignant had already worked with director Michael Haneke, when he provided the voice of the Narrator (The School Teacher as an Old Man) in the French edition of Das weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (Michael Haneke, 2009).

Haneke had sent Trintignant the script, which had been written specifically for him. Trintignant said that he chooses which films he works in on the basis of the director, and said of Haneke that "he has the most complete mastery of the cinematic discipline, from technical aspects like sound and photography to the way he handles actors". For this role he was awarded with the César 2013 and the European Film Award for Best Actor.

James Travers at French Film Guide: "A quiet and unassuming man by nature, Trintignant remains modest about his achievements and has not actively sought stardom. Few French actors are as universally well-regarded as he is and he is unquestionably one of the most charming and talented actors of his generation."


American trailer for Et Dieu... créa la femme/And God Created Woman (1956). Source: TheCultBox (YouTube).


Beautiful love scene from Estate violent/Violent Summer (1959) with Eleonora Rossi-Drago. Source: Tarlait (YouTube). Italian with French subtitles.


Trailer for Trois couleurs: Rouge/Three Colors: Red (1994). Source: Danios12345 (YouTube).


Trailer for Amour/Love (2012). Source: Otávio Aph (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (French Film Guide), Tom Zoerner (IMDb), New Wave Film.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Django Reinhardt

Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) was one of the first prominent European jazz musicians. His fret hand was severely burned and disfigured and caused his unique style of playing. He performed with such greats as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. He also had his own band, the Quintette du Hot Club de France, which he had cofounded with violinist Stéphane Grappelli. Django has been portrayed in several films, even as a cartoon character, and his music graces the soundtracks of many films, especially those of Woody Allen.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 63. Photo: Ch. Vandamme / Les Mirages.

I Awake

Jean Baptiste Reinhardt was born into a troupe of gypsies in Liberchies, Belgium, in 1910. He was the son of a travelling entertainer and the brother of guitarist Joseph Reinhardt. From the age of 8, he lived with his mother in Romani (Gypsy) settlements close to Paris.

Reinhardt's nickname ‘Django’ is Romani for ‘I awake.’ He started playing the violin and eventually moved on to a banjo-guitar that a neighbour had given him.

From the age of 12, he played professionally at Bal-musette halls in Paris. His first known recordings (in 1928) were of him playing the banjo with accordionist Jean Vaissade for the Ideal Company.

That year, the 18 year old Reinhardt was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Florine ‘Bella’ Mayer, his first wife. The caravan was filled with celluloid flowers his wife had made to sell at the market on the following day. At one o'clock in the morning Django returned from a performance at the club La Java. Upon hearing a mouse among the flowers, he bent down with a candle to look. The wick from the candle fell into the highly flammable celluloid flowers and the caravan was transformed into a raging inferno.

Somehow he and his wife made it across the blazing room to safety outside, but his right leg was paralyzed and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand were badly burned. A doctor intended to amputate his leg, but Reinhardt refused to have the surgery and was bedridden for eighteen months.

His brother Joseph bought Django a new guitar. With rehabilitation and practice he relearned his craft in a completely new way. He created a whole new fingering system built around the two fingers on his left hand that had full mobility.

His fourth and fifth digits of the left hand were permanently curled towards the palm due to the tendons shrinking from the heat of the fire. He could use them on the first two strings of the guitar for chords and octaves but complete extension of these fingers was impossible.

In 1931 the painter Emile Savitry let him hear the records of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, and Django decided to look out for French jazz musicians.


Louise Carletti. French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 92. Photo: Discina.

Hot Club de France

In 1934, Django Reinhardt and Parisian violinist Stéphane Grappelli formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France with Reinhardt's brother Joseph and Roger Chaput on guitar, and Louis Vola on bass. The small  Ultraphone  company recorded their first sides Dinah, Tiger Rag, Oh Lady be Good, and I Saw Stars. These first records caused a sensation.

The group went on to record hundreds of sides and had a following on both sides of the ocean. The quintet was one of the few well-known jazz ensembles composed only of string instruments. At the time, the great majority of recordings featured a wide variety of horns, often in multiples, piano, etc.

In the years before World War II the group gained considerable renown, and Reinhardt became an international celebrity. He appeared throughout Europe and recorded with many important American jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and did a jam-session and radio performance with Louis Armstrong.

Reinhardt could neither read nor write music, and was barely literate, but Stéphane took the band's downtime to teach him. When World War II broke out, the original quintet was on tour in the United Kingdom. Reinhardt returned to Paris at once, leaving his estranged wife Florine behind. In 1929, she had given birth to their son named Henri ‘Lousson’ Reinhardt. Grappelli remained in the United Kingdom for the duration of the war.

Reinhardt reformed the quintet, with Hubert Rostaing on clarinet replacing Grappelli's violin. In 1943, Django married Sophie Ziegler in Salbris, with whom he had a son, Babik Reinhardt, who became a respected guitarist in his own right.

Reinhardt survived the war unscathed, unlike the many Romanis who perished in the Porajmos, the Nazi regime's systematic murder of several hundred thousand European Romanis. He apparently enjoyed the protection of the Luftwaffe officer Dietrich Schulz-Köhn, nicknamed ‘Doktor Jazz’, who deeply admired his music.


Philippe Lemaire. French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 140. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Unrivalled Beauty and Pathos

After the war, Django Reinhardt rejoined Stéphane Grappelli in the UK, and then, in the fall of 1946, he went on tour in the United States as a special guest soloist with Duke Ellington and His Orchestra, playing two nights at Carnegie Hall.

He also became interested in composition and, with Andre Hodeir, arranged the music for the film Le Village de la Colère/The Village of Wrath (Raoul André, 1947) with Louise Carletti.

After returning to France, Reinhardt spent the remainder of his days re-immersed in Romani life, having found it difficult to adjust to the modern world. He would sometimes show up for concerts without a guitar or amp, or wander off to the park or beach, and on a few occasions he refused even to get out of bed.

Reinhardt was known by his band, fans, and managers to be extremely unpredictable. He would often skip sold-out concerts to simply "walk to the beach" or "smell the dew". However, he did continue to compose and is still regarded as one of the most advanced jazz guitarists to ever play the instrument.

Although his experience in the US left him influenced greatly by American jazz, making him a different player from the man Grappelli had known, on this recording Reinhardt switched back to his old roots, once again playing the acoustic Selmer-Maccaferri.

In 1951, he retired to Samois-sur-Seine, near Fontainebleau, where he lived until his death. He continued to play in Paris jazz clubs and finally came to terms with the electric guitar. His final recordings made in the last few months of his life show him moving in a new musical direction and are perhaps the most profound he or any other jazz guitarist ever made.

He had assimilated the vocabulary of bebop and fused it with his own melodic genius. His last recording of Nuages from these sessions is his greatest and from the same session in Manoir de mes Reves’ he distills in a couple of minutes an unrivaled beauty and pathos.

In 1953, he was also seen in the cinemas in the film Saluti e baci/The Road to Happiness (Maurice Labro, Giorgio Simonelli, 1953) with Philippe Lemaire.

That year Django Reinhardt suddenly collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage. It took a full day for a doctor to arrive and Reinhardt was declared dead on arrival at the hospital in Fontainebleau. He was only 43.

After his death, the documentary Django Reinhardt (Paul Paviot, 1957) was made which includes an introduction by Jean Cocteau and features music performed by Grappelli, Rostaing, and Joseph Reinhardt.

Since then Django has been portrayed in several films. His legacy dominates Sweet and Lowdown (Woody Allen, 1999). This spoof biopic focuses on fictional American guitarist Emmet Ray's (Sean Penn) obsession with Reinhardt.

Django returned as a cartoon in the opening sequence of the animation film Les Triplettes de Belleville/The Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003). The third and fourth fingers of the cartoon Reinhardt are considerably smaller than the fingers used to play the guitar.

Reinhardt's music has been used in the soundtrack of many films, including Lacombe Lucien (Louis Malle, 1974), Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1993), The Matrix (Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, 1999) and The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, 2004).


Django Reinhardt's film debut was the comedy Clair de Lune/Moonlight (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1932) with Claude Dauphin. The music is Django's but he can also be seen playing the guitar. Source: Jerome Diamant (YouTube).


The Dutch Polygoon Journal filmed a performance of the Quintette du Hot Club de France in Den Haag (The Hague) in 1937. Source: Jan Klompstra (YouTube).


Film clip from the film Le Route de Bonheur (1945). Django plays Nuits de Saint Germain de Près on his guitar in a train. Source: Teddy Dupont (YouTube).

Sources: Joseph Dinkins (Red Hot Jazz), Kevin Whitehead (Jazz), Find A Grave, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Hannelore Schroth

German actress Hannelore Schroth (1922-1987) made her film debut at the age of nine and a long and successful career in both theatre and cinema followed. She starred in Unter den Brücken (1945), one of the most beautiful love-stories of the German cinema – without any trace of propaganda.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 155, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3455/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 104, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.

Wonderfully Natural

Hanne Lore Emilie Käte Grete Schroth was born in Berlin in 1922 as the daughter of actor Heinrich Schroth and actress Käthe Haack. Her half-brother Carl-Heinz Schroth would also become a well-known actor.

Hannelore already made her film debut at the age of nine in the short comedy Dann schon lieber Lebertran/I'd Rather Have Cod Liver Oil (Max Ophüls, 1931) opposite her mother, Käthe Haack.
At sixteen, she attended a drama school in Lausanne.

To her early successes belong the love story Spiel im Sommerwind/Play in the Summer Breezes (Roger von Norman, 1938) with Rolf Möbius, and Kitty und die Weltkonferenz/Kitty and the World Conference (Helmut Käutner, 1939).

During the wartime, she continued her career with leading parts in Friedrich Schiller (Herbert Maisch, 1940) about the 18th-century German playwright and blank-verse poet, the romantic comedy Sophienlund (Heinz Rühmann, 1944) and Unter den Brücken/Under the Bridge (Helmut Käutner, 1945), a classic love triangle with Carl Raddatz and Gustav Knuth.

IMDb reviewer Christian Wasser calls the latter "one of the most beautiful love-stories of the German cinema. The acting of Hannelore Schroth is wonderfully natural even today".

Unter den Brücken was one of the last films to be made in Nazi Germany - it passed the censorship in March 1945, but didn't make it to the cinemas as the street battles were about to commence in Berlin in a few weeks. In 1950, the film was finally shown in the cinemas.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3776/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Foto Haenchen / Bavaria Filmkunst.


German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3359/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3606/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Haenchen / Bavaria Filmkunst.

Emiiiil

After the war Hannelore Schroth gained a foothold at the theater and also continued her film career with such hits as Taxi-Kitty (Kurt Hoffmann, 1950) and Kommen Sie am Ersten/Come at the First (Erich Engel, 1951).

Later well-known films are the classic comedy Der Hauptmann von Köpenick/The Captain from Köpenick (Helmut Käutner, 1956), the romantic drama Wie einst Lili Marleen/Like Once Lili Marleen (Paul Verhoeven, 1956) with the wartime song hit Lili Marlene woven into its plotline, and the comedy Der Mann, der nicht nein sagen konnte/The Man Who Could Not say No (Kurt Früh, 1958) with Heinz Rühmann.

She also became a popular voice actor and dubbed such Hollywood stars as Shirley MacLaine and Elizabeth Taylor.

From the 1950s on, regular engagements for TV followed. She became well-known for a younger audience when she impersonated the role of Mrs. Petrell in the successful Swedish film- and TV-series Emil (Olle Hellbom, 1971-1976). The three feature films and the TV series were based on the novels by Astrid Lindgren about the 5 year-old prankster Emil, who lives with his family on a farm in the district of Lönneberga in Sweden, at the start of the 20th century.

To Hannelore Schroth's last films belong the comedy Bomber & Paganini (Nicos Perakis, 1976) starring Mario Adorf, and Zwischengleis/Yesterday's Tomorrow (Wolfgang Staudte, 1978) with Pola Kinski.

In 1980, Schroth was awarded the Filmband in Gold for her achievements in the German cinema.

Hannelore Schroth died in 1987 in München (Munich). She had been married with the actor Carl Raddatz , her co-star of Unter den Brücken, and from 1945 till 1950 with the Austrian deep sea diver Hans Hass. Her son from that marriage, Hans Hass Jr., was an actor and singer. From her third marriage with a lawyer and film producer also comes a son, Christopher Köster.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3845/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2857/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 231, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Bavaria.


With Carl Raddatz. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 3954/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.


German postcard. Photo: Baumann / Terra.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3492. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Arca-NF-Film.

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

Gianni Morandi

Italian pop singer and entertainer Gianni Morandi (1944) reportedly sold more than 30 million recordings and appeared in 18 films. In 1970, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with Occhi di ragazza. His career went into a decline in the late 1970s but underwent a revival in the 1980s. He won the San Remo Festival in 1987, placed second in 1995 and third in 2000. Having enjoyed four decades of unmatched success, Gianni Morandi is among Italy's greatest performers of all time.


Italian postcard by Edizione Diese, Monticielli.


Italian postcard. Photo: RCA

The Italian Paul Anka

Gian Luigi Morandi was born in the village of Monghidoro on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines in 1944. His father, Renato Morandi, was active within the Italian Communist Party and Gianni used to help him sell the party newspapers.

To make ends meet Gianni worked at an early age as a shoe-shiner, a cobbler and as a soda and candy vendor in the village's only cinema.

He made his performance debut at age 12, singing in the public square on New Year's Day of 1956. His vocal abilities led him to a number of small gigs, some of which were during the Communist Party’s activities. His parents moved him from traditional schooling to a school in Bologna, where he studied song and performance with master vocalist Alda Scaglioni.

Morandi made his official debut in 1958 in Alfonsine, Ravenna. His film debut followed in the comedy Totò ciak/Totò Clapper Loader (Daniele D'Anza, 1960) starring the popular comedian Totò.

Morandi formed a band, and was soon referred to as 'the Italian Paul Anka'. In 1962, Morandi won a small talent competition where he met and impressed boxing and entertainment promoter Paul Lionetti, who arranged an audience with executives of RCA Victor. He was signed by RCA Italia and his premier 45 record was Andavo a Cento All'ora (I Went to 100 per Hour).


Yugoslavian collectors card.


Yugoslavian postcard.

Italy’s Darling

Gianni Morandi achieved national stardom with his third 45, Fatti mandare dalla mamma (Let Your Mother Send You).

Some of his songs took momentum through soundtracks of such films as I maniaci/The Maniacs (Lucio Fulci, 1964) starring Walter Chiari, and 008: Operation pace/008: Operation Peace (Tullio Piacentini, 1965).

Morandi also starred in several musicarelli, typical Italian musicals with a flimsy plot, shot and edited in no time after a song had become a hit. During the production of the first of these films, In ginocchio da te/On My Knees For You (Ettore Maria Fizzarotti, 1964), Morandi met Laura Efrikian.

Efrikian was the daughter of a famous conductor of Armenian origin and was already an established actress. They married secretly in 1966 and when Laura became pregnant Morandi’s military service was temporarily postponed.

Later, on leave from military service, Gianni worked on the film Per amore… per magia/For Love…For Magic (Duccio Tessari, 1967), an ambitious cross between a musical and the story of Aladdin. The film was a flop at the box office.

Throughout the 1960s Gianni remained Italy’s darling. His songs Non son degno di te (I Am Not Worthy of You) and Scende la pioggia (The Rain Comes Down) were certified as having each sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs.

He won a number of Italian popular song festivals, including the Canzonissima festival in 1965 with Non son degno di te, in 1968 with Scende la pioggia and in 1969 with Ma chi se ne importa (But Who Cares?).


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscar Color S.A., Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 302. Photo: RCA Victor.


Italian postcard by Silvercart, Milano, no. 532/2.

Eurovision Song Contest

In 1970, Gianni Morandi represented Italy in Amsterdam at the Eurovision Song Contest with Occhi di Ragazza (Eyes of a Girl). He finished eighth out of eleven.

During the late 1970s, he experienced a period of slight decline, but he regained popularity during the 1980s. He won the San Remo Festival in 1987 with Si può dare di più (One Can Give More) together with Enrico Ruggeri and Umberto Tozzi.

With Barbara Cola he became 2nd in 1995 with In amore (In Love) and he became 3rd in 2000 with Innamorato (Being In Love), written by Eros Ramazotti.

At a performance for War Child in 1999 he sang Maria, Marí together with Luciano Pavarotti. It is estimated that Morandi has sold 30 million recordings.

He has written a number of autobiographical books and appeared in 18 films. His later feature films included Il provincial/The Provincial (Luciano Salce, 1971), La cosa buffa/The Funny Thing (Aldo Lado, 1972), the comedy F.F.S.S. cioè che mi hai portato a fare sopra a Posillipo se non mi vuoi più bene?/The National railways, Or Why Did You Bring Me All the Way to Posillipo if You Don’t Love Me Anymore? (Renzo Arbore, 1983) and Panni sporchi/Dirty Linen (Mario Monicelli, 1999) with Mariangela Melato and Ornella Muti.

Morandi also was the host in popular Italian television shows and was an actor in several TV series, a.o. as Claude Jade's husband Davide in Voglia di volare/Wanting to Fly (Pier Giuseppe Murgia, 1984).

Gianni Morandi has three children: Marco Morandi and Marianna Morandi from his first wife, Laura Efrikian (they divorced in 1979), and Pietro from his second wife, Anna Dan, whom he married in 2005.


Gianni sings Ritornero In ginocchio da te in the film In ginocchio da te (1964). Source: divergoulart (YouTube).


Gianni Morandi sings Dammi la mano per ricominciàr (Give Me Your Hands to Start Again) in Per amore… per magia/For Love…For Magic (1967). Source: Natalie Cernega (YouTube).


Gianni Morandi sings Questa vita cambierà in Per amore… per magia/For Love…For Magic (1967). Source: Natalie Cernega (YouTube).


Gianni Morandi sings Stringimi le mani in 2007. Source: Castellina (YouTube).

Sources: Evan C. Gutierrez (AllMusic), Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.

L'empereur des pauvres (1921)

The French silent film serial L'empereur des pauvres/The Emperor of the poor (René Leprince, 1921) was produced by Pathé Frères Consortium. It was an adaptation of the epic novel by Felicien Champsaur.


Gina Relly in L'empereur des pauvres (1921). French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma.

Vagabond

In L'empereur des pauvres, director René Leprince tells the epic story of a rich young man, Marc Anavan (Léon Mathot).

Marc leads a profligate life but when he understands his fortune is about to evaporate he decides to change his life.

He becomes a vagabond and wants to do good around him.

The task is not easy but his faith in his mission and the love of the pure Silvette (Gina Relly) help Marc to overcome all the hardships on his way.


Gina Relly in L'empereur des pauvres (1921). French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma.


Gina Relly and Léon Mathot in L'empereur des pauvres (1921). French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma.

Epic Novel

L'empereur des pauvres was written by French novelist and journalist Félicien Champsaur in 1920.

Director René LePrince created a silent film epic in six episodes: 1. Le Pauvre (The Poor); 2. Les Millions (The Millions); 3. Les Flambeaux (The Torches); 4. Les Crassiers (The Slag); 5. L'orage (The Storm) and 6. Floreal.

On demand of exhibitors, these six episodes were re-edited into twelve parts of 900 metres each, which were shown over six weeks in France. In The Netherlands the 12 parts were shown in three or two weeks. 

Besides Léon Mathot and Gina Relly in the lead roles, the cast of L'empereur des pauvres includes several well-known actors of the French silent cinema.

Henry Krauss played Jean Sarrias, the uncle of Silvette, Gilbert Dalleu was Cyprien Cadal, the mayor of Saint Saturnin du Var, Andrée Pascal appeared as Clémence Sarrias and Lily Damita was Riquette, credited as Lily Deslys.

In supporting parts well known faces as Charles Lamy, André Luguet, Charles de Rochefort and Maurice Schutz were cast.

The elaborate camera work was done by Julien Ringel and Paul Gaillard. Director René Leprince was a well-known film maker of the silent era, who had worked several times with comedian Max Linder and went on to make Fanfan La Tulipe (1925) with Aimé Simon-Girard. In 1929, Leprince died at the age of 53, at the end of the silent era.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Publicity still for L'empereur des pauvres/The Emperor of the poor (René Leprince, 1921). Standing in the middle, actor Léon Mathot.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Publicity still for L'empereur des pauvres/The Emperor of the poor (René Leprince, 1921). In the middle, Gina Relly as Sylvette, and right, Henry Krauss, as her uncle Jean Sarrias, revolting against society. Left could be Andrée Pascal as Clémence Sarrias.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Publicity still for L'empereur des pauvres/The Emperor of the poor (René Leprince, 1921). The vagabond could be Léon Mathot.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Publicity still for L'empereur des pauvres/The Emperor of the poor (René Leprince, 1921). Standing front, Léon Mathot.

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Ciné Ressources, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Lyda Borelli

Today, it's Postcard Friendship Friday on the net. A weekly event in which postcard blogs present themselves. Start at Beth's blog with the great title The Best Hearts Are Crunchy, and enjoy some rare vintage postcards that are preserved on the net by bloggers like me.

For this Postcard Friendship Friday, I have chosen postcards of the first Italian film diva: Lyda Borelli (1887-1959). La Borelli was already an acclaimed stage actress before she became a star of the Italian silent cinema. The fascinating diva caused a craze among female fans, which was called 'Borellismo'.


Italian postcard by Neg. Trevisani, Bologna, no. 459.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 9439.


Italian postcard by N. Riccardi, Milano, Serie 7458 - F. Lyda Borelli written as Lidia Borelli. Ca. 1910.


Italian postcard, Ufficio Censura Torino, 9-10-1915, no. 6184. Photo: Lyda Borelli in the Italian silent film Marcia nuziale (Carmine Gallone, 1915), one of the few lost films of her career.

D'Annunzio

Lyda Borelli was the daughter of the stage actor Napoleone Borelli, and the sister of actress Alda Borelli.

Lyda made her stage debut in 1902 with the Pasta-Reiter company. She switched to the company of Virgina Talli, and at the age of 18 she already played leads, as in Gabriele d'Annunzio's La figlia di Jorio (1904).

In 1909 she started her own company with Ruggero Ruggeri, performing both in light comedies and in such serious dramas as Salome by Oscar Wilde, which would be her major stage play.

In 1909 Ruggeri and Borelli did a tour through Latin-America visiting a.o. Argentine, Uruguay, Brazil, Cuba, and Mexico. In 1914 she would return to Latin America for another tour.


Italian postcard. Photo: Varischi & Artico, Milano.


Spanish chocolate card by Imperial. Photo: publicity still of Lyda Borelli in Il dramma di una note/The Drama of a Night (Mario Caserini, 1918).


Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 3276. Photo: Film Cines. Lyda Borelli in the silent film Madame Tallien (Mario Caserini, Enrico Guazzoni, 1916) based on the play by Victorien Sardou. The caption goes: "Desfieux, Tallien's Head of Police, runs to Therese's house, discovers the hideout of Jean Guery and has all arrested".


Italian postcard. Photo: Lyda Borelli and Amleto Novelli in the silent film Malombra (Carmine Gallone, 1917).


Spanish postcard. Photo: dressed as Salome, Alba d'Oltrevita (Lyda Borelli) repents the suicide of Sergio because of her in Rapsodia satanica (Nino Oxilia, 1915-1917).


Italian postcard by A.G.F. Photo: Cine.

Worldwide Success

In 1913 the film Ma l'amor mio non muore/Love Everlasting (Mario Caserini, 1913) was designed to launch Lydia Borelli in the cinema.

The film tells the story of a singer who falls tragically in love with a prince, played by Mario Bonnard. Lyda was like a decadent version of the Pre-Raphaelite beauty - thin, with wavy blond hair and strange but picturesque poses.

The worldwide success of the film resulted in thirteen more films. She portrayed characters who were doomed and otherworldly, often bordering on the supernatural.

A compelling film is her Rapsodia Satanica (Nino Oxilia, 1915) that tells the tale of an old woman who makes a pact with the Devil for eternal youth.

To her best films belong also Fior di male/Flower of Evil (1915), and Malombra (1917), both directed by Carmine Gallone.


Italian postcard, no. 477. Photo: Attilio Badodi. Signed: Lyda Borelli. Attilio Badodi (1880-1967), born in Reggio Emilia, became a famous Milanese portrait photographer of the Belle Epoque. In 1922 he participated in the First International Exhibition on Photography in Turin and he was a reporter for Illustrazione Italiana, but he is best remembered for his portraits.


Italian postcard, no. 319. Photo: Attilio Badodi, Milano (Milan).


Italian postcard, no. 256. Photo: Attilio Badodi, Milano (Milan).


Italian postcard, no. 418. Photo: Attilio Badodi, Milano (Milan).

Ecstatic and Aristocratic Performance

Lyda Borelli was the first diva of the Italian cinema and one of the first European film stars, together with Asta Nielsen.

Her ecstatic and aristocratic performance, mixing grand gesture with delicate small details, her elegant attire and her long blond hair caused a craze. In the 1910's girls dyed their hair, went on diets and strove to imitate her twisted postures. This phenomenon was described in Italy as Borellismo.

In 1918 Lyda Borelli's stage and film career ended suddenly, when she married the Venetian count and businessman Vittorio Cini.

Their son Giorgio Cini Jr. would die in a plane crash while going to meet his fiancee, the actress Merle Oberon.

More recently Lyda Borelli was one of the divas featured in the compilation film Diva Dolorosa (Peter Delpeut, 1999). An extended sequence from Fior de Male appears in Peter Delpeut's earlier film Lyrisch Nitraat/Lyrical Nitrate (Peter Delpeut, 1991).


Italian postcard by R. Rota & Co., Milano. Photo: cav. G. Artico, Milano.


Italian postcard, no. 623. Photo Sciutto. Could have been for the stage play La figlia di Jorio by Gabriele D'Annunzio.


Italian postcard. Photo: Varischi & Artico, Milano.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 323. Photo: Fontana.


Italian postcard, no. 118. Photo Bettini, Roma


Italian postcard, no. 894, Uff. Rev. Stampa, 25-5-1917. Lyda Borelli painted by Tito Corbella.


Italian postcard. Lyda Borelli, caricature by C. Calderara. Looking at the outfit and the headgear, the drawing seems to refer to Borelli's first film Ma l'amor mio non muore/ Love Everlasting (1913).


Statue of Lyda Borelli in the Casa di Riposo 'Lyda Borelli', Bologna, Italy. Photo: Jan.


Casa di Riposo 'Lyda Borelli', Bologna, Italy. Photo: Jan.

Sources: Biblioteca e Raccolta Teatrale del Burcardo, Greta De Groat (Unsung Divas), and IMDb.