Alberto Pasquali (1882–1929) was an Italian stage and screen actor, famous for his religious characters.
Italian postcard, no. 557. Photo: ICSA. Alberto Pasquali in Frate Francesco / Santo Francesco (Giulio Antamoro, 1927), a biopic on the life of St. Francis.
French postcard by J. Mayer, graveur, Paris and Films Primior, Paris. Photo: Cines company of Rome. Alberto Pasquali as Christ, agonising in the gardens of Getsemane in Christus (Giulio Antamoro, Enrico Guazzoni, 1916). Caption: My soul is mortally saddened, so stay here and stay awake with me.
French postcard by Les Films Primior, Paris. Graveur (engraving): J. Meyer, Paris. Photo: Cines. Alberto Pasquali as Jesus and Augusti Mastripietri as Judas in Christus / Christ (Giulio Antamoro, Enrico Guazzoni, Cines 1916). Caption: My friend, you betray the Son of Man by a kiss?
Italian postcard, no. 563. Photo: ICSA. Alberto Pasquali in Frate Francesco / Santo Francesco (Giulio Antamoro, 1927). Caption: Francis renounces all his earthly goods and dedicates himself to God.
Italian postcard by FotoEbany, no. 213. Sent by mail in 1928.
Filming in Egypt amidst the ruins
Alberto Pasquali was born in Turin in 1882. His mother acted in Venetian dialect plays, and Alberto approached the stage at an early age.
Pasquali managed to obtain major parts at the most important stage companies, including those of Ferruccio Garavaglia, Emma Gramatica and Di Lorenzo-Falconi.
He made his film debut in Christus / Christ (1916), directed by Giulio Antamoro but finished by Enrico Guazzoni. Pasquali played the title role. Antamoro went to Egypt to shoot several scenes amidst the ruins, adding even scenes not mentioned in the Bible, in which Christ wanders among the ruins of Luxor, deploring the decay of the world.
Christus / Christ (1916) presents the life of Christ, from the Annunciation to the Transfiguration through a succession of cinematographic tableaux vivants based on famous works, such as the 'Annunciation' by Fra Angelico, 'La Natività' by Correggio, 'The Last Supper' by Leonardo da Vinci, 'The Pieta' by Michelangelo and 'The Transfiguration' by Raphael.
After the success of this film, Pasquali often played Christ and acted in various religious films and plays, like the film Redenzione / Redemption (Carmine Gallone, 1919) starring Diana Karenne as Mary Magdalene. In the USA, he appeared in The Twice Born Woman (Malcolm Strauss, 1921), with Deyha Loti as Mary Magdalene. Moreover, Pasquali played St Frances of Assisi in the biopic Frate Francesco / The Passion of St. Francis (1927), again directed by Giulio Antamoro.
French postcard by Films Primior, Paris / J. Meyer, Paris. Photo: Cines. Alberto Pasquali in Christus/Christ (Giulio Antamoro and, uncredited, Enrico Guazzoni, 1916). Caption: The Flagellation. Bowing to the demands of the people, Pilate flogged Jesus.
French postcard by Les Films Primior, Paris. Graveur (engraving): J. Meyer, Paris. Photo: Cines. Alberto Pasquali in Christus / Christ (Giulio Antamoro, Enrico Guazzoni, 1916). Caption: Let the little children come to me. If you don't resemble these children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Spanish cromo by Chocolat Imperiale, Barcelona, no. 3 of 6 cards. Photo: Dist. Verdaguer / Tiber Film. Diana Karenne and Alberto Pasquali in La peccatrice casta (Diana Karenne, Gennaro Righelli, 1919).
Spanish cromo by Chocolat Imperiale, Barcelona, no. 4 of 6 cards. Photo: Dist. Verdaguer / Tiber Film. Diana Karenne and Alberto Pasquali in La peccatrice casta (Diana Karenne, Gennaro Righelli, 1919).
Spanish cromo by Chocolat Imperiale, Barcelona, no. 5 of 6 cards. Photo: Dist. Verdaguer / Tiber Film. Diana Karenne and Alberto Pasquali in La peccatrice casta (Diana Karenne, Gennaro Righelli, 1919).
He also appeared in period piece dramas like Leonardo Da Vinci (Giulia Cassini-Rizzotto, Mario Corsi), Il fornaretto di Venezia / The Baker Boy of Venice (Mario Almirante, 1923), an adaptation of the novel 'Il Fornaretto' (1846) by Francesco Dall'Ongaro, and I due Foscari / The Two Foscari (Mario Almirante, 1923).
Pasquali also starred in adventure films like Kiff Tebbi (Mario Camerini, 1928). The film portrayed the Italo-Turkish War and promoted the Italian Fascist regime's imperial policies in Libya and in wider Africa. While privately funded (although the government supported its production), the film foreshadowed future collaborations between the film industry and the Italian state.
Until 1929, Pasquali acted in some 30 films. His last was the German film Anschluß um Mitternacht / Call at Midnight (1929), directed byMario Bonnard and starring Marcella Albani.
After this role, Alberto Pasquali returned to Italy, where he suddenly died in Milan at the age of 46, on 14 February 1929.
Italian postcard by G.B. Salci, Milano, no. 257. Probably Nini Dinelli as Clemenza Barbo (or Lia Miari as her servant Annella) and Alberto Pasquali as Alvise Guoro, secret lover of the married Clemenza Barbo, in Il fornaretto di Venezia / The Baker Boy of Venice (Mario Almirante, 1923). Caption: Nightly gatherings.
Italian postcard, no. 565. Photo: ICSA. Alberto Pasquali in Frate Francesco / Santo Francesco (Giulio Antamoro, 1927), a biopic on the life of St. Francis. Caption: Frances and a poor man.
Italian postcard, no. 563. Photo: ICSA. Alberto Pasquali and Alfredo Robert in Frate Francesco / Santo Francesco (Giulio Antamoro, 1927), a biopic on the life of St. Francis. Caption: Pietro di Bernardone (Robert) reproaches Frances (Pasquali) for his dissolute life.
Italian postcard, no. 574. Photo: ICSA. Alberto Pasquali in Frate Francesco / Santo Francesco (Giulio Antamoro, 1927). Caption: The Death of God's Little Poor Man.
Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) was the notorious director of Triumph des Willens (1935), a fascinating propaganda documentary about Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, commissioned by the Nazi government. Before she started directing films, she worked as a dancer and actress. She became a star in the mountain films, directed by Arnold Fanck.
German postcard from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' by Taschen, Köln, 2000. Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl as the pilot Ellen Lawrence in S.O.S. Iceberg (Tay Garnett, 1933).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1626/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa / Parufamet. Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4660/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Kiesel. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4803/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5679/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Aafa-Film. Publicity still for Stürme über dem Mont Blanc / Storm Over Mont Blanc (Arnold Fanck, 1930) with Sepp Rist.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3162/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Riefenstahlfilm / Tobis. Franz Eichberger in Tiefland / Lowlands (Leni Riefenstahl, 1940-1954).
The perfect German female
Helene Bertha Amalie 'Leni' Riefenstahl was born in Berlin, German Empire, in 1902. Her family was Lutheran Protestant, and she had a brother, Heinz, who was killed on the Eastern Front in World War II. Her father, Alfred Theodor Paul Riefenstahl, owned a successful heating and ventilation company and wanted his daughter to follow him into the business world. Leni was athletic. At the age of twelve, she joined a gymnastics and swim club. Without her father's knowledge, she enrolled in dance and ballet classes at the Grimm-Reiter Dance School in Berlin in 1918, where she quickly became a star pupil.
Riefenstahl began to suffer foot injuries that led to knee surgery, which threatened her dance career. A poster for the mountain film Der Berg des Schicksals / The Mountain of Destiny (Arnold Fanck, 1924) inspired her to move into film acting. She got in touch with director Arnold Fanck, who was the pioneer of the mountain film genre. Riefenstahl persuaded Fanck to feature her in his next film, Der heilige Berg / The Holy Mountain (Arnold Fanck, 1926) with Luis Trenker and Frieda Richard. The film cost 1.5 million Reichsmarks to produce, and was released during the 1926 Christmas season. Der heilige Berg / The Holy Mountain was popular in Berlin, where sold-out performances extended its premiere run for five weeks. The film was also screened in Britain, France and the US and was the first international success of its director
Between 1926 and 1931, Leni Riefenstahl starred in five successful films. First she made Der Große Sprung / The Great Leap (Arnold Fanck, 1927) and Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg / Fate of the House of Habsburg (Rolf Raffé, 1928). The film that brought Riefenstahl into the limelight was Fanck's Die Weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Piz Palü (Arnold Fanck, G. W. Pabst, 1929) with Gustav Diessl. Her fame spread to countries outside Germany. Her next two films were Stürme über dem Mont Blanc / Storm Over Mont Blanc (Arnold Fanck, 1930) with Sepp Rist, and Der Weisse Rausch / The White Ecstasy (Arnold Fanck, 1931).
From Arnold Fanck, she had learned acting but also film editing techniques. His use of cinematic technique - filters, special film stock, slow motion - to endow magnificent natural scenery with dramatic stature provided her with key elements of her towering visual style and fostered her technical skill. Leni Riefenstahl decided to try to produce and direct her own film. It was called Das Blaue Licht / The Blue Light (1932), co-written by Carl Mayer and Béla Balázs. In the film, Riefenstahl played an innocent peasant girl in the Tyrolean mountains who is hated and cast out by the villagers because they think she is diabolic. She is protected by a secret cave of blue crystals. With the blue light, she lures young men to their deaths. The film attracted the attention of Adolf Hitler, who saw talent in Riefenstahl. He believed Riefenstahl epitomised the perfect German female.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 24/5. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit / Ways to Strength and Beauty (Nicholas Kaufmann, Wilhelm Prager, 1925). Pictured are members of the Tanzgruppe Mary Wigman performing 'Die Wanderung' (The Hike). Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard. Photo: Karl Schenker. Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1814/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Karl Schenker. Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3168/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Didier Hanson.
German collector card by Ross Verlag in the series 'Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film', picture no. 130, group 40. Photo: Ufa. Leni Riefenstahl in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Piz Palü (Arnold Fanck, G. W. Pabst, 1929).
German collector card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Aafa. Leni Riefenstahl and Sepp Rist in Stürme über dem Mont Blanc / Storm Over Mont Blanc (Arnold Fanck, 1930).
German collector card by Ross Verlag in the series 'Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Tonfilm', album no. 11, picture no. 98. Photo: Aafa. Leni Riefenstahl in Das blaue Licht / The Blue Light (Leni Riefenstahl, 1932).
German collector card in the series 'Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Tonfilm', album no. 11, picture no. 43, group 44. Photo: Ufa / Ross Verlag. Leni Riefenstahl and Gustav Diessl in S.O.S. Eisberg / S.O.S. Iceberg (Arnold Fanck, 1933).
A friendly relationship with Hitler
In 1933, Leni Riefenstahl appeared in the American-German co-productions SOS Eisberg (Arnold Fanck, 1933; German version) and SOS Iceberg (Tay Garnett, 1933; US version). The two versions were filmed simultaneously in English and German and produced and distributed by Universal Studios. Riefenstahl co-starred with Gustav Diessl and Ernst Udet in S.O.S. Eisberg, and with Gibson Gowland and Rod La Rocque in S.O.S. Iceberg. Her part in SOS Iceberg would be her only English-language film role.
Riefenstahl heard Nazi Party (NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler speak at the Berlin Sportpalast in 1932 and by her own account, she was 'mesmerised by his talent as a public speaker'. After meeting Hitler, Riefenstahl was offered the opportunity to direct Der Sieg des Glaubens / The Victory of Faith (1933), an hour-long propaganda film about the fifth Nuremberg Rally in 1933. Riefenstahl agreed to direct the film. She and Hitler got on well, forming a friendly relationship. The Propaganda film was funded entirely by the NSDAP.
Impressed with Riefenstahl's work, Hitler asked her to film Triumph des Willens / Triumph of the Will (1935), a new propaganda film about the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. More than 700,000 Nazi supporters attended the rally. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by Nazi leaders at the Congress, including Adolf Hitler,Rudolf Hess, and Julius Streicher, interspersed with footage of massed Sturmabteilung and Schutzstaffel troops and public reaction. Riefenstahl's techniques — such as moving cameras, aerial photography, the use of long focus lenses to create a distorted perspective, and her revolutionary approach to the use of music and cinematography — made Triumph des Willens / Triumph of the Will a prominent example of propaganda in film history.
Riefenstahl won several awards, not only in Germany but also in the United States, France, Sweden, and other countries. Despite allegedly vowing not to make any more films about the Nazi Party, Riefenstahl made the 28-minute Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht / Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces (1935) about the German Army. Hitler then invited Riefenstahl to film the 1936 Summer Olympics scheduled to be held in Berlin. She visited Greece to take footage of the route of the inaugural torch relay and the games' original site at Olympia, where she was aided by Greek photographer Nelly's. This material became the two-part Olympia (Festival Of Nations / Festival Of Beauty)(1938), a hugely successful film which has since been widely noted for its technical and aesthetic achievements.
Riefenstahl began work on the Opera film Tiefland / Lowlands. On Hitler's direct order, the German government paid her seven million Reichsmarks in compensation. Sinti and Roma people from the Marzahn detention camp near Berlin were compelled to work as extras. Almost to the end of her life, despite overwhelming evidence that the concentration camp occupants had been forced to work on the film unpaid, Riefenstahl continued to maintain all the film extras survived and that she had met several of them after the war. In October 1944, the production of Tiefland moved to Barrandov Studios in Prague for interior filming. Lavish sets made these shots some of the most costly of the film. The film was not edited and released until almost ten years later. Tiefland (1954) would be her last feature film.
German postcard from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' by Taschen, Köln, 2000. Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Dance 'Study after a Cavotte' (1923).
German postcard by Taschen, from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' (2000). Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl as the dancer Diotima in Der heilige Berg / The Holy Mountain (Arnold Fanck, 1926).
German postcard by Taschen, from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl five lives' (2000). Leni Riefenstahl and Luis Trenker in Der heilige Berg / The Holy Mountain (Arnold Fanck, Leni Riefenstahl, 1926). Caption: The Ice Cathedral.
German postcard by Taschen, from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl five lives' (2000). Photo: Ufa. Leni Riefenstahl as Maria Majoni in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Piz Palü (Arnold Fanck, G. W. Pabst, 1929).
German postcard by Taschen, from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl five lives' (2000). Photo: Ufa. Leni Riefenstahl as Maria Majoni and Ernst Petersen as Hans Brandt in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Piz Palü (Arnold Fanck, G. W. Pabst, 1929).
German postcard from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' by Taschen, Köln, 2000. Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl as Junta in Das blaue Licht / The Blue Light (Leni Riefenstahl, 1932).
German postcard by Taschen, from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' (2000). Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl as Junta in the crystal grotto in Das blaue Licht / The Blue Light (Leni Riefenstahl, 1932).
German postcard from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' by Taschen, Köln, 2000. Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl as the pilot Ellen Lawrence in S.O.S. Iceberg (Tay Garnett, 1933).
Fellow traveller
In 1945, after the war, Leni Riefenstahl was arrested by US soldiers at her chalet in Kitzbühel in the Tyrol. Throughout 1945 to 1948, she was held in various Allied-controlled prison camps across Germany. She was also under house arrest for a period of time. She had never been a Nazi party member and was cleared of active involvement by a de-Nazification tribunal. She was declared a Mitläufer or fellow traveller, which disbarred her from ever seeking public office.
During the 1950s and 1960s, she tried many times to make more films, but was met with resistance, public protests and sharp criticism. Triumph des Willens and her other work for the Nazis had significantly damaged her career and reputation. Despite her protests to the contrary, Riefenstahl was considered an intricate part of the Third Reich's propaganda machine.
In the 1960s, Riefenstahl discovered Africa and reinvented herself as a still photographer. She published two photo books on the Nuba tribes, 'The Nuba' and 'The Nuba of Kau'. In 1968, she began a lifelong companionship with her cameraman Horst Kettner. She was 60, and he was 20. He assisted her with her photographs. She also photographed the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. In 1978, Riefenstahl published a book of her sub-aquatic photographs called 'Korallengärten' (Coral Gardens), followed by the 1990 book 'Wunder unter Wasser' (Wonder under Water). Riefenstahl also released the autobiography A Memoir (1995). Leni Riefenstahl died of cancer in 2003 in Pöcking, Germany, at the age of 101. She was buried at the Waldfriedhof in Munich.
Leni Riefenstahl was married twice. From 1944 till 1947, she was married to Peter Jacob. Shortly before her death, she married her longtime companion Horst Kettner. After Kettner died in 2016, Riefenstahl's former secretary Gisela Jahn became the sole heir of Riefenstahl's estate. In 2018, Jahn bequeathed the Berlin-based Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) photos, films, manuscripts and letters that had belonged to Riefenstahl. The donation contained more than 700 boxes.
In 1993, Ray Müller made the documentary Die Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl / The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, for which he won an International Emmy Award. Müller lets the spirited, then 92-year-old woman speak without interrupting her too much. He observes and makes it clear that she has not the slightest regret about her collaboration with Hitler, but she does regret the fact that it so severely hampered her postwar career. In 2024, Andres Veiel made the documentary Riefenstahl, which does not pass explicit judgment either, but it does tear Riefenstahl’s own victim narrative to shreds.
German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Unsere Bunten Filmbilder series for Constantin Cigarettenfabrik, Dresden, no. 271. Photo: Binder. Leni Riefenstahl during the filming of Triumph des Willens / Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1935).
German postcard from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' by Taschen, Köln, 2000. Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Director Leni Riefenstahl and cameraman Walter Frentz during the filming of Olympia (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938).
German postcard from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' by Taschen, Köln, 2000. Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Still for Olympia (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938).
German postcard from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' by Taschen, Köln, 2000. Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl as director during the filming, 1940. Preparations for Tiefland (Leni Riefenstahl, 1940-1954).
German postcard by Taschen, from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' (2000). Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl as the Gypsy Martha, dancing in an inn in Tiefland / Lowlands (Leni Riefenstahl, 1940-1954).
German postcard by Taschen, from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' (2000). Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Franz Eichberger as Pedro, a herdsman in the Pyrenees in Tiefland / Lowlands (Leni Riefenstahl, 1940-1954).
German postcard from the book 'Leni Riefenstahl Five Lives' by Taschen, Köln, 2000. Photo: Leni Riefenstahl. Caption: Leni Riefenstahl as a diver, c. 1980.
German autograph card.
German trailer for Der Weisse Rausch / The White Ecstasy (1931). Source: FREERIDE FILMFESTIVAL (YouTube).
Clip from Tiefland / Lowlands (1954). Source: Канал пользователя samoslav01 (YouTube).
Shortly after the First World War, French publishing house Les Éditions Filma created the well-known postcard series 'Les Vedettes du Cinéma' (The Stars of the Cinema). The sepia postcards contained portraits of French 'vedettes' of the silent cinema, but also of Hollywood stars like William S. Hart and Mary Pickford. Around the time this series stopped, in the early 1920s, Filma started another film star postcard series, 'Les Vedettes de l'Écran' (The Stars of the Screen). The numbers of this new set followed the numbers of the first series. During the late 1920s, another Paris-based publisher, André Noyer (A.N.), presented the 'Les Vedettes de Cinéma' series. In the past, EFSP had posts on all three series. Interestingly, Filma also published film books and other film postcards. Today we present 18 postcards by Les Éditions Filma, which were not part of the two Vedettes series and were published around 1923.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 6. Lillian Gish in The White Sister (Henry King, 1923).
American actress Lillian Gish (1893–1993) was 'The First Lady of the Silent Screen'. During the 1910s, she was one of director D.W. Griffith's greatest stars. She appeared in films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Broken Blossoms (1919), and Orphans of the Storm (1921). After 13 years with Griffith, she moved to MGM, where her first picture was La Bohème (King Vidor, 1926). In the 1940s, after a long interval, she returned to the screen in a handful of films and received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as Laura Belle McCanles in Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946). Again, a decade later, she was marvellous in the classic Film Noir The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955). Her last film was The Whales of August (Lindsay Anderson, 1987) in which she shared the lead with Bette Davis.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 50. Photo: Pathé.
Romuald Joubé (1876–1949) was an actor of French silent cinema who became famous for his part in Abel Gance’s J’accuse (1918). He also acted in various naturalistic features by André Antoine.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 84. Photo: Abel.
Sessue Hayakawa (1889–1973) was a Japanese Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. He was the first Asian actor to find stardom in the United States and Europe. His 'broodingly handsome' good looks and typecasting as a sinister villain with sexual dominance made him a heartthrob among American women. Several years before Rudolph Valentino, he was Hollywood's first male sex symbol. During those early years, Hayakawa was as well known and as popular as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, although today his name is largely unknown to the public.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 100. Photo: [Ruben] Sobol.
Géneviève Félix (1901–?) was a French actress of the silent cinema. After being a regular actress of Georges Champavert and Jean Kemm, she starred in the Victor Hugo adaptation La dame de Monsoreau (1925).
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 107. Photo: F. Bixio.
Rolla Norman (1889–1971) was a French actor in silent and sound cinema. 'The Man with Many Faces’ was also a war hero.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 109. Photo: Wyndham.
French film actress Suzanne Bianchetti (1889–1936) was one of France's most loved and respected actresses of her time. She played Marie Antoinette in Abel Gance's epic Napoléon (1927) and worked with many other great names of the silent cinema. After her death, the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti was created in her memory, an annual French award given to the most promising young actress.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 121. Photo: Aubert.
French actor Edmond van Daële, aka Van Daele (1884–1960), is best known as the evil Robespierre in Abel Gance's masterpiece Napoleon (1927). Van Daele also appeared in films by Léon Poirier, Louis Delluc and Jean Epstein. He easily transferred to sound film and played in about fifty films until 1950.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 125. Photo: G. Fontaine.
Sandra Milowanoff (1892–1957), also written as Milovanoff, was a Russian actress who became a French citizen. She was a star of the French silent cinema in the 1920s, acting with directors such as Feuillade, De Baroncelli, Fescourt and Vanel.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 126. Photo: Fox Film.
William Russell (1884–1929) was an American popular actor of the silent screen. First at Biograph, Thanhouser. Mutual, American, and afterwards at Fox and Warner/ First National. He died already at age 44 in 1929.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 130.
Jane Rollette (1891–1994) was a French film actress who peaked in Louis Feuillade's serial films of the late 1910s and early 1920s.
French postcard by 'Éditions Filma, no. 133. Photo: Gaumont.
French silent film actress Marguérite Madys, aka Madys (1899–1986), started in 1919 at the Gaumont company. She starred in several films by Léon Poirier, Jean Kemm and Pierre Colombier. She also appeared in two Franco-German coproductions by Harry Piel. René Clair and Julien Duvivier also directed her before she ended her film career in 1927.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 135. Photo: Films. Ant. Jupiter. Emmy Lynn in Visages voilés... âmes closes / The Sheik's Wife (Henry Roussel, 1921).
Emmy Lynn (1889–1978) was a French stage and screen actress, known for her parts in the French silent films by Abel Gance, Henry Roussel, and Marcel L’Herbier.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 140. Photo: Sartony.
Sweet 'little angel' Régine Dumien (1914–1979) was a popular child star of the French silent cinema of the early 1920s.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 144. Photo: Gaumont. Armand Tallier in Jocelyn (Léon Poirier, 1922).
Armand Tallier (1887–1958) was a stage and screen actor who peaked in the silent era. Inspired by theatre director Jacques Copeau, who had opened the alternative Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, and who had directed Tallier on stage from 1913 for several years, Tallier created with Laurence Myrga the Studio des Ursulines, one of the first Parisian art houses, founded to ensure the diffusion of avant-garde cinema. The first session took place in January 1926. As an homage to him, since 1958, the best book on film is awarded the Prix Armand Tallier, which is since 1977 called Prix littéraire du syndicat français de la critique de cinéma.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 149. Photo: Abel.
Jean Dehelly (1896–1964) was a French film actor who was active in French cinema of the 1920s and early 1930s.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 150. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Kean / Edmund Kean: Prince Among Lovers (Alexandre Volkoff, 1924).
Russian actor Ivan Mozzhukhin(in France, Ivan Mosjoukine) (1889–1939) was a legendary star of the European silent film, who shone in Russia, France, Germany and Austria, but suffered in Hollywood.
French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 151. Photo: P. Apers.
Spanish actress, singer, and diva Raquel Meller (1888–1962) acted mainly in French silent films. She was already a highly popular singer before debuting as a film actress in 1919.
French postcard, probably by Éditions Filma, no. 1002. Photo: Henri Manuel.
Geneviève Félix (1901–?) was a French actress of the silent cinema. After being a regular actress of Georges Champavert and Jean Kemm, she starred in the Victor Hugo adaptation La dame de Monsoreau (1925).
And check out our earlier posts on Les Éditions Filma:
