Celia Johnson

English actress, Dame Celia Johnson (1908-1982) became an icon of the British cinema with her role opposite Trevor Howard in the romantic drama Brief Encounter (1945). She generally played a genteel or repressed Englishwoman in films, though she also proved to be a talented comedian.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 215. Photo: Cineguild.

Established West End Star

Celia Elizabeth Johnson was born in Richmond, England, in 1908 and was the second daughter of Robert Johnson and Ethel Griffiths.

She was educated at St Paul's Girls School in London. Celia acted in school productions, but had no other acting experience, when she was accepted to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She later spent a term in Paris, studying under Pierre Fresnay at the Comédie-Française.

Her stage début was in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara at the Theatre Royal in Huddersfield in 1928. Celia went to London the following year to appear in A Hundred Years Old at the Lyric Theatre.

In 1930 she became an established West End star, when she played in Cynara with Sir Gerald Du Maurier and Gladys Cooper. She was part of the new generation of actors, more naturalistic and working under directors, rather than the older actor-managers.

By 1931, she was starring on Broadway as Ophelia in a New York production of Hamlet. In 1935, she married Peter Fleming, an explorer and travel writer who was a brother of James Bond author Ian Fleming.

Johnson made relatively few films, beginning with a role as a mother in the Oscar nominated short A Letter from Home (Carol Reed, 1941).

During the Second World War followed three collaborations with writer Noel Coward and director David Lean. The first film was In Which We Serve (1942) about a bombed WW II destroyer starring Coward and Michael Wilding.

Their second collaboration was This Happy Breed (1944) in which she is the stoical lower-middle class housewife and mother, unbearably moving as she comes to terms with the defection - and return - of her rebellious younger daughter (Kay Walsh).

Brief Encounter (1945) is by far the best known. This is the definitive Johnson role: she makes utterly real all the constraints (and comforts) of the life of a decent middle-class wife who falls in love with a doctor.

With Brief Encounter she acquired iconic status in British cinema. As Brian McFarlane observes in The Encyclopedia of British Film: “It is probably the eyes, as she acknowledged: she stares at the audience and breaks its heart as she sees her would-be lover, Trevor Howard, head off to catch his train out of her life."

For this role, Johnson was awarded the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.


Trevor Howard. Dutch postcard. Photo: Eagle Lion.


Dutch postcard By WSB, no. 1047. Photo: Eagle Lion.

Cherishable Performances

After the war, Celia Johnson concentrated on her family life, which included a son (1939) and two daughters born in 1946 and 1947. Her occasional acting work was secondary for the following decade.

As the self-sacrificing daughter of a benignly selfish vicar (Ralph Richardson) in The Holly and the Ivy (George More O'Ferrall, 1952) and as a conscientious probation officer in I Believe in You (Basil Dearden, Michael Relph, 1952), she made goodness interesting and touching.

That she could also do comedy is seen in The Captain's Paradise (Anthony Kimmins, 1953), parodying her usual image. In the film, Alec Guinness has two wives, one (Yvonne De Carlo) in a Mediterranean port, where he takes her out and parties every night, and Celia in Gibraltar, to whom he returns for rest in front of the fire in his slippers. Celia was spoofing her own image, and the twist in the film comes when his foreign wife wants to settle down, while Celia longs to be taken out dancing.

Johnson returned to the theatre in 1957, with Ralph Richardson in The Flowering Cherry. As a member of the National Theatre Company, she appeared in the plays The Master Builder (1964) and Hay Fever (1965), and later reprised her roles in the television productions.

Her films were few and far between, but among them are cherishable performances. She received the BAFTA Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role as headmistress Miss McKay in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Ronald Neame, 1969) featuring Maggie Smith.

Johnson won a second BAFTA for the BBC television play Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1973) and gave another magnificent TV performance in Staying On (1980).

She was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1958, and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1981. One of their daughters is the actress Lucy Fleming.

Celia Johnson died at home in Nettlebed, England, following a stroke at the age of 73. Lucy Fleming published in 1991 a memoir of her mother, Celia Johnson.

Final scene of Brief Encounter (1945). Source: BassClef707 (YouTube).


Scene from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). Source: Lochness11 (YouTube).

Sources: Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Film), Ed Daley (Find A Grave), Nikolas Lloyd (Lloydian Aspects), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Raimund Harmstorf

Athletic German actor Raimund Harmstorf (1939-1998) became famous as the protagonist of the German TV miniseries Der Seewolf/The Sea Wolf (1971), based on Jack London's novel. During the 1970s, he starred in more Jack London adaptations, in several Spaghetti Westerns and in another successful TV series, Michael Strogoff (1975), based on Jules Verne's adventure novel.


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg, no. 5340. Photo: Lisa / Constantin / Reiter. Publicity still for Der Schrei der schwarzen Wölfe/Cry of the Black Wolves (Harald Reinl, 1972).

Jack London and Jules Verne

Raimund Harmstorf was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1939. He was the son of a doctor.

Harmstorf started a sports career and specialized in the decathlon. He then studied medicine, and later studied  music and performing arts at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Hamburg.

From the mid-1960s on, he performed in small parts in TV productions. One of his first films was Siegfried und das sagenhafte Liebesleben der Nibelungen/Maidenhead (Adrian Hoven, David F. Friedman, 1971), an ‘adults only’ retelling of the legend of Siegfried in which he was credited as Lance Boyle.

He had his breakthrough as the evil-minded Captain Larsen in the TV series Der Seewolf/The Sea Wolf (Wolfgang Staudte, a.o., 1971), based on Jack London's novel. The series made him very popular among TV audiences, especially with the ladies.

He then acted in two more Jack London adaptations,  Ruf der Wildnis/The Call of the Wild (Ken Annakin, 1972) with Charlton Heston and Der Schrei der schwarzen Wölfe/Cry of the Black Wolves (Harald Reinl, 1972) with Ron Ely.

In Italy he appeared in the adventure film Zanna Bianca/White Fang (Lucio Fulci, 1973), starring Franco Nero. It was another telling of Jack London's tale of a prospector and his loyal sled dog as they battle avaricious villains during their search for gold.

The film gained a great commercial success and generated the official sequel Il ritorno di Zanna Bianca/Challenge to White Fang (Lucio Fulci, 1973) with the same cast, and several non-official sequels.

Later Harmstorf co-starred with Terence Hill and Miou-Miou in the comic Spaghetti-Western Un genio, due compari, un pollo/A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (Damiano Damiani, 1975). The opening scene was directed by Sergio Leone, who also produced the film. It was the last Western that Leone worked on. He was disappointed in the final outcome and chose to remain uncredited. Thanks to the popularity of Terence Hill, the film was quite successful at the European box office. However, it was very negatively received by critics, and has not gained a higher reputation over time.

Harmstorf then starred in another very popular TV series, Michael Strogoff: Der Kurier des Zaren/Michel Strogoff (Jean-Pierre Decourt, 1975), based on Jules Verne's classic adventure novel. He was unforgettable as the handsome hero with a secret mission in an old Russia threatened by Kozaks and frozen rivers, wearing woolly hats and serious faces.

Harmstorf returned to Italy to co-star with Giuliano Gemma in another Spaghetti Western, California Addio/California (Michele Lupo, 1977) which was generally well received by critics and a success at the Italian box office.

The following year, he had a supporting part in the WWII action Quel maledetto treno blindato/The Inglorious Bastards (Enzo G. Castellari, 1978), starring Fred Williamson and Bo Svenson, which was remade by Quentin Tarantino in 2009.

Harmstorf co-starred with Bud Spencer in the action comedy Lo chiamavano Bulldozer/They Call Him Bulldozer (Michele Lupo, 1978). He followed it with another Bud Spencer vehicle, Uno sceriffo extraterrestre - poco extra e molto terrestre/The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid (Michele Lupo, 1979).


Vintage postcard. Photo: publicity still for Michel Strogoff/Michael Strogoff (Jean-Pierre Decourt, 1975).

Suicide and Media Scandal

In the 1980’s, the film career of Raimund Harmstorf halted.

He appeared in the French film L'empreinte des géants/The Imprint of Giants  (Robert Enrico, 1980) with Serge Reggiani.

In 1983, he co-starred in the French-German spy-film S.A.S. à San Salvador (Raul Coutard, 1983) based on one of the 175 popular spy novels by Gérard de Villiers. Former Tarzan Miles O'Keeffe starred as Malko, am Austrian count in need of cash on a CIA mission. The film failed at the box office. 

In Germany, Harmstorf often appeared in TV series, like the Krimi Der Alte/The Old Fox (1982-1983). He also appeared in some minor German and Italian features, like the crime drama Thunder (Fabrizio De Angelis, 1983) with Bo Svenson.

South Africa was the location for the Canadian TV series African Skies (1991–1994), in which he co-starred with Catherine Bach and Robert Mitchum.

For one of his last films, The Wolves (Steve Carver, 1995), he returned to the Alaskan wilderness, once again playing the bad guy.

The end of Harmstorf’s life was full of tragedies. His fish restaurant Zum Seewolf  in Bad Durkheim went bankrupt, he was affected by Parkinson's disease and he became weakened by a regimen of heavy medication.

His illness and vulnerability were exploited by the tabloids. In 1998 he committed suicide by hanging himself in his home in Marktoberdorf, Germany.

His death caused a scandal and German tabloids were investigated. German police consequently stated that Harmstorf's suicide had been substantially promoted by certain articles. In particular Bild was blamed because it had already published Harmstorf's suicide on its main page before his actual death.

Raimund Harmstorf was 58.


German trailer for Der Seewolf/The Sea Wolf (Wolfgang Staudte, a.o., 1971). Source: HHMaster92 (YouTube).


Trailer California Addio/California (Michele Lupo, 1977). Source: The Spaghetti Western Database (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie d’Heil (Steffie-line) (German), Tom B. (Westerns All’Italiana), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Cifesa

Some years ago, I found at a flea market in Southern Spain collectors cards from the 1930s and 1940s. I liked the hand-coloured or painted images of the American, French, and German stars of the era, but especially the ones of the Spanish actors, who were mostly unknown to me. These thin cards were all printed by the firm of I.G. Vilado in Barcelona and most of them also contain a large sign, Cifesa. I did a little research in this terra incognita.

Cifesa was the most important Spanish film production company and film distributor of the Franco era, and the only one that attempted to function as a traditional Hollywood studio. Among the stars of the studio were Luis Pena, Sara Montiel, Fernando Rey, Jorge Mistral, and the immensely popular Imperio Argentina. Cifesa sponsored lavish public premieres for selected films and created these star cards.


Sara Montiel. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Alida Valli. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Florencia Becquer. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Luisa Ferida. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Maria Mercader. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.

The Torch of Hits

Cifesa, anacronym for Compania Industrial Film Espanola, was founded by Vicente Trenor in Valencia in 1932.

Soon it was soon taken over by an olive oil industrialist, Vicente Casanova, whose son had shown interest in the cinema. From 1933, the company turned out a series of well-crafted, expensive costume pictures and musicals directed by established figures like Benito Perojo and Florián Rey, and acquired a solid reputation among audiences.

Cifesa's motto was ‘The torch of hits’; creating a logo and a house style, as well as nurturing a compact group of stars, was an important lesson Casanova learned from Hollywood.

Ideologically, the Casanova family were conservative Republicans, but after the Civil War, the company pledged allegiance to the Franco regime. This was a perfect collaboration, as the studio was used for propaganda purposes and benefited from a series of privileges.

From 1942 on, against a background of absolute poverty in a country that would take two decades to recover from the conflict, Casanova was back in business producing a series of war films, melodramas, and comedies that created their own version of reality and refused to engage with social issues.

The studio-like aspects of the company were reinforced: soundstages and a company of actors (for instance Amparo Rivelles, Alfredo Mayo, and, later, Aurora Bautista) and technicians, and a certain consistency in tone and approaches due to the presence of strong directors (like Juan de Orduña and José Luis Sáenz de Heredia) who undertook their projects following general programs and guidelines and the firm grip of the head of the production Luis Lucia.

The general production standards were as high as the times allowed, but the emphasis was on high turnout rather than expensive individual films.


David Niven. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Amedeo Nazzari. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Rossano Brazzi. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Willi Forst. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Vittorio De Sica. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.

Holding up the regime's conservative values

The end of World War II was a blow to the Franco government, which was plunged into a situation of complete isolation as the last remnant in Europe of Fascist ideologies. But rather than compromise and benefit from the reconstruction measures introduced by the Allies, the regime decided to strengthen conservatism.

The crisis this led to was reflected in the film business. The government redesigned the system of funding cultural expression - as long as it was the 'right' one. An important aspect was the introduction of a category of special support to those films that could uphold the regime's conservative values.

Casanova responded with a series of lavish historical epics. The company's strategy shifted now to focus on a small number of expensive pictures every year, which would not only be awarded 'special interest' funding but could also turn good profits at the box office.

In the beginning, the strategy seemed to work, with Locura de amor/Mad for Love (Juan De Orduña, 1948) and, later, Agustina de Aragón (Juan de Orduña, 1950), quickly becoming box-office hits.

But investment in each picture was so high that disappointing box-office takings could easily have an impact on the company's finances. This is exactly what happened with La leona de castilla/Lioness of Castille (Juan de Orduña, 1951).

When one of Cifesa's most expensive production efforts, an epic about Christopher Columbus' first expedition titled Alba de América/Dawn of America (Juan de Orduña, 1951), failed to get special interest funding because politicians decided to support José Antonio Nieves Conde's realistic Surcos/Burrows (1951) instead; and when the film only did average business, the company was back in the red, and this time it was unable to regain its previous prowess.

By 1952, the financial crisis deepened, and after a run of poor films, Cifesa disappeared as a film production company in 1956. As a distributor, Cifesa remained active till 1964.


Jean Harlow. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. Was Cifesa perhaps the distributor?


Fernando Rey. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Paola Barbara. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Hilde Krahl. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Luis Peña. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Carla Candiani. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Viviane Romance. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Fosco Giachetti. Spanish collectors card by V. Mari, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.


Francesca Bertini. Spanish collectors card by I.G. Viladot, Barcelona. Image: Cifesa.

Sources: Alberto Mira (Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema), A Companion to Spanish Cinema, Spanish popular cinema, 100 Years of Spanish Cinema, Wikipedia (Spanish and English) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 28 May 2020.

David Niven

British Academy Award-winning actor David Niven (1910-1983) impersonated the archetypal English gentleman, witty, naturally charming, immaculate in dress and behaviour, but he also had a dash of light-hearted sexual roguishness. He is probably best known for his role as the punctuality-obsessed adventurer Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days (1956).


Spanish collector's card by Cifesa / I.G. Viladot, Barcelona.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. PC 211. Photo: R.K.O. Radio. Publicity still for Bachelor Mother (Garson Kanin, 1939) with Ginger Rogers.

Whisky Sales and Horse Rodeo Promotion

James David Graham Niven was born in London, England. He was the son of British Army captain William Edward Graham Niven and the French/British Henrietta Julia de Gacher. He was named David for his birth on St. David's Day.

His father was killed during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915 and his mother remarried a politician, Sir Thomas Comyn-Platt. David was shipped off to a succession of boarding schools by his stepfather, who didn't care much for the boy. Young Niven hated the experience and was a poor student.

He trained at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, which gave him the officer and gentleman bearing that was to be his trademark. Niven relocated to New York, where he began an unsuccessful career in whisky sales and horse rodeo promotion in Atlantic City.

After subsequent detours to Bermuda and Cuba, he finally arrived in Hollywood. His first work was as an extra. He then found himself an agent, Bill Hawks, and was signed up for a non-speaking part in Mutiny On The Bounty (Frank Lloyd, 1935).

He accepted a contract with independent film producer Samuel Goldwyn. After several secondary roles for Goldwyn, he was loaned out for a lead role as Bertie Wooster in the 20th Century Fox feature Thank You, Jeeves (Arthur Greville Collins, 1936).

Niven joined what became known as the Hollywood Raj, a group of British actors in Hollywood. Other members of the group included Boris Karloff, Stan Laurel, Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and C. Aubrey Smith.

One of his first major roles was in The Charge of the Light Brigade (Michael Curtiz, 1936) starring Errol Flynn, with whom he briefly lived. A year later he starred as Capt. Fritz von Tarlenheim in The Prisoner of Zenda (John Cromwell, William S. Van Dyke, 1937).

Not wanting to be typecast as a 'swashbuckler' as Flynn had been, Niven made films such as the comedies Dinner at the Ritz (Harold Schuster, 1937) which was filmed in London, and Bachelor Mother (Garson Kanin, 1939) with Ginger Rogers.

Niven’s first major success was The Dawn Patrol (Edmund Goulding, 1938) with Errol Flynn. He also appeared in the very successful Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939) starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier.

After suspension by Samuel Goldwyn over a salary dispute, David was back to star in the Western The Real Glory (Henry Hathaway, 1939) with Gary Cooper, and as a gentleman thief in Raffles (Sam Wood, William Wyler, 1940), a remake of the Ronald Colman original.


Dutch postcard by ´t Sticht, Utrecht, no. 3085. Photo R.K.O. Radio Films.


Dutch postcard by HEMO. Photo: Eagle Lion.


British card in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1376. Photo: Samuel Goldwyn.

A Matter of Life and Death

After the United Kingdom declared war in 1939, David Niven returned to England and joined the British Army. Niven would take part in the Normandy landings, arriving several days after D-Day. He was given leave to appear in the propaganda films The First of the Few (Leslie Howard, 1942) and The Way Ahead (Carol Reed, 1944).

On his discharge as a colonel he played the poet-airman caught between life and death in A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1946), one of his most effective roles.

On his return to Hollywood after the war, he was made a Legionnaire of the Legion of Merit, the highest American order that can be earned by a foreigner.

Niven found that he still wasn't getting any important roles; despite ten years experience, he was considered too 'lightweight' to be a major name. His films included The Perfect Marriage (Lewis Allen, 1946) with Loretta Young, Magnificent Doll (Frank Borzage, 1946) opposite Ginger Rogers, and The Bishop's Wife (Henry Koster, 1947) with Cary Grant.

After his Goldwyn contract ended in 1949, Niven marked time with inconsequential films including the British production The Elusive Pimpernel (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1950).

In 1952 he joined Dick Powell, Charles Boyer, and Ida Lupino to form Four Star, a television production company. Niven was finally able to choose strong dramatic roles for himself, becoming one of TV's first and most prolific stars, although his public still preferred him as a light comedian.

The actor's film career also took an upswing in the 1950s with starring performances in the controversial The Moon Is Blue (Otto Preminger, 1953) - a harmless concoction which was denied a Production Code seal because the word 'virgin' was bandied about; and the mammoth Around the World in 80 Days (Michael Anderson, 1956), in which Niven played his most famous role, erudite 19th century globetrotter Phileas Fogg.

He won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as the fraudulent major in Separate Tables (Delbert Mann, 1958), in which he co-starred with Deborah Kerr and Rita Hayworth.

During the 1960s he appeared as a compassionate explosives expert in the blockbuster The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961), and the sophisticated thief Sir Charles Litton opposite Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963).

Ian Fleming recommended him for the role of James Bond for Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962), but producer Albert R. Broccoli thought that Niven was too old.

In 1967, Niven finally starred as Sir James Bond in the satire Casino Royale (John Huston a.o., 1967). He also starred in the French comedy Le Cerveau/The Brain (Gerard Oury, 1969).


British postcard in the People series by Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. P 1057. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation Ltd. Publicity still for Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939).


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin, no. FK 4248. Retail price: 0,25 Pfg. Photo: Columbia Film. Publicity still for Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958).


Postcard. Photo: Alberto Sordi and David Niven in The Best of Enemies (Guy Hamilton, 1961). Collection: Pierre sur le Ciel.

Lou Gehrig's Disease

David Niven was married twice. First to Primula Susan Rollo, the aristocratic daughter of a British lawyer. In 1946, she died at age 28 of injuries from an accidental fall in the home of Tyrone Power. While playing hide and seek, she walked through a door believing it led to a closet. Instead, it led to a stone staircase to the basement. Niven later claimed to have been so grief stricken that he thought for a while that he'd gone mad.

In 1948, Niven met Hjördis Paulina Tersmeden, a divorced Swedish fashion model and frustrated actress. They married six weeks later. The actor's rebound second marriage was as unhappy as his previous marriage had been happy. He was the father, with Primula Rollo, of David Niven Jr. and Jamie Niven; and the father, with Hjordis, of two adopted daughters, Kristina (adopted 1960) and Fiona (adopted 1962).

Late in life, he gained critical acclaim for his memoirs of his boyhood and acting career, The Moon's a Balloon (1971) and Bring On the Empty Horses (1975).

The 1970s saw Niven appear in two very different star-studded ensemble murder mysteries; the blackly comical Murder by Death (Robert Moore, 1976) and the Agatha Christie adaptation Death on the Nile (John Guillermin, 1978).

In 1980, Niven began experiencing fatigue, muscle weakness, and a warble in his voice. A 1981 TV talkshow interview alarmed family and friends; viewers wondered if Niven had either been drinking or suffered a stroke. He received the diagnosis of motor neurone disease (Lou Gehrig's Disease) later that year.

His hosting duties of the American Film Institute tribute to Fred Astaire marked his final appearance in Hollywood. He shot two cameos as Sir Charles Litton for his final films, Trail of the Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1983) - his voice by this time was so weak, he was dubbed by Rich Little.

David Niven died at home in Château-d'Oex, Switzerland in 1983 at age 73.


Scene from A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Source: Mutikonka (YouTube).


Trailer Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Source: Old School Trailers (YouTube).


Original trailer of The Pink Panther (1963). Source: gocha 07 (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, Britmovie, and IMDb.

Victor Sjöström

Victor Sjöström (1879-1960) was one of the most important Swedish film actors and directors, famous for his poetic and touching narratives, such as Ingeborg Holm (1913), Terje Vigen/A Man There Was (1916) - by then the most expensive Swedish film made - and Körkarlen/The Phantom Carriage (1920), considered as one of the best Swedish silent films. From 1923 he worked in Hollywood under the name of Victor Seastrom, directing such films as He Who Gets Slapped (1924), featuring Lon Chaney, and The Wind (1928), starring Lilian Gish. He returned to Sweden at the advent of sound cinema, and continued working there. Memorable is his last acting part in Smultronstället/Wild Strawberries (1957) by Ingmar Bergman.


Swedish postcard. Victor Sjöström in Ingmarssönerna/Sons of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström, 1919), based on Selma Lagerlöf's novel. Young Ingmar at Heaven's Gate. The caption translates: "I would like to meet Old Ingmar to ask for his advice in an awkward matter."

A Breach of Respectability

Victor David Sjöström was born in Silbodal, in the Värmland region of Sweden, in 1879. He was only a year old when his father, business man Olof Adolf Sjöström, moved the family to Brooklyn, New York in 1880.

As a boy, Sjöström was close to his mother, actress Sofia Elisabeth Hartman, who died in New Tork during childbirth  in 1886. Victor was seven years old then. Sjöström returned to Sweden where he lived with relatives in Stockholm. His uncle was a leading actor at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm during the latter part of the 19th century: Victor Hartman.

The teen-aged Sjöström loved the theatre, but after his education, he turned to business, becoming a donuts salesman. Fortunately for the future of Swedish cinema, he was a flop as a salesman, and turned to the theatre, becoming an actor and then director.

The Swedish film production company Svenska Bio hired him and fellow stage director Mauritz Stiller to helm motion pictures. His debut was the silent film Ett hemligt giftermål/A Ruined Life (Victor Sjöström, 1912) with Hilda Borgström and John Ekman.

That year, he also made the silent drama Trädgårdsmästaren/The Gardener (Victor Sjöström, 1912), the first film to ever be banned by the Swedish censor system. Sjöström himself played a brutal gardener who rapes a young, innocent woman (Lili Beck) in his employ in a lovely greenhouse. In the final scene, the girl is found dead the next morning on the floor of the greenhouse, with red roses around her. The official comments of the censors were: "A breach of respectability. The association of death and beauty poses a threat to public order." The film was long thought to have been lost, but in 1979 a copy was found in an archive in the United States.

Between 1912 and 1915, Victor Sjöström directed 31 films of which only three still survive. In 1913, he directed Ingeborg Holm (1913), which is considered the first classic of Swedish cinema. His films of the 1910's are marked by subtle character portrayal, fine storytelling and evocative settings in which the Swedish landscape often plays a key psychological role. The naturalistic quality of his films was enhanced by his (then revolutionary) preference for on-location filming, especially in rural and village settings.

Sjöström's other surviving films include Ingmarssönerna/Sons of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström, 1919), the sequel Karin Ingmarsdotter/Karin, Daughter of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström, 1920) and Körkarlen/The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921), all based on stories by the Nobel-prize winning novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

Released on New Year's Day 1921, Körkarlen/The Phantom Carriage starred Victor Sjöström himself, alongside Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg and Astrid Holm. The film is notable for its special effects, its advanced (for the time) narrative structure with flashbacks within flashbacks, and for having been a major influence on Ingmar Bergman.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 146.


Greta Garbo. Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5930. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Name the Man

In the 1920s, Victor Sjöström accepted an offer from the Goldwyn Studio to work in the United States. In Sweden, he had acted in his own films as well as in those for others but in Hollywood, he devoted himself solely to directing. Using an anglicised name, Victor Seastrom, he made Name the Man (1924), a dramatic film based on the Hall Caine novel.

His first M.G.M. production was the melodrama He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Seastrom, 1924) starring Lon Chaney and Norma Shearer. It was not only a critical success but a huge hit, getting the new studio off onto a sound footing. According to Jon C. Hopwood at IMDb: "He was highly respected by studio boss Louis B. Mayer and by production head Irving Thalberg, who shared Sjöström's concerns with art that did not exclude profit."

Sjöström went on to direct great stars of the day such as Lillian Gish in The Scarlet Letter (Victor Seastrom, 1926) and The Wind (Victor Seastrom, 1928), Greta Garbo in The Divine Woman (Victor Seastrom, 1928), and John Gilbert in The Masks of the Devil (Victor Seastrom, 1928) .

He finished his Hollywood career after his first talkie, A Lady to Love (Victor Seastrom, 1930), starring Vilma Bánky and Edward G. Robinson.

Uncomfortable with the modifications needed to direct talking films, Victor Sjöström returned to Sweden where he directed two more films, a Swedish and a German version of the drama Markurells i Wadköping/Väter und Söhne/Father and Son (Victor Sjöström, 1931).

His final directing effort was an English language drama filmed in the United Kingdom, the swashbuckler Under the Red Robe (Victor Seastrom, 1937), starring Conrad Veidt and Annabella.

Over the following fifteen years, Sjöström returned to acting in the theatre, performed a variety of leading roles in more than a dozen films and worked as director of the Svensk Film Industri company.

At age 78 he gave his final acting performance, probably his best remembered, as the elderly professor in Ingmar Bergman's film Smultronstället/Wild Strawberries (1957), for which he won the National Board of Review's Best Actor Award.

In 1960, Victor Sjöström died in Stockholm at the age of eighty and was interred there in the Norra begravningsplatsen.

He married three times, to Alexandra Stjagoff (1900–1912), actress Lili Beck (1913–1916) and actress Edith Erastoff (1922–1945). He and Erastoff had two daughters: actress Guje Lagerwall (1918) and Caje Bjerke (1918).


Trädgårdsmästaren/The Gardener (Victor Sjöström, 1912). Source: forgottenmovie (YouTube).


Körkarlen/The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921). Source: William Thomas Sherman (YouTube).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

France Dhélia

France Dhélia (1894-1964) was a French actress of the silent cinema. She performed in many films by Gaston Roudès. One of her best-known roles was the Queen of Sheba in the biblical film Le berceau de dieu/The Cradle of God ( 1926).


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 62. Photo: Novion.


French postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

The sultan of love

France Dhélia was born Franceline Benoit in 1894, in a village near Blois, thus raised in the area of the famous French royal castles along the Loire River.

She made her film début under the name of Mado Floréal in L’Ambitieuse (Camille de Morlhon, 1912) with Gabriel Signoret. Afterwards, she played in various comedies with the character Fred, directed by René Hervil, who also played Fred himself.

During the First World War, she took the name of France Dhélia. She made her first film with director René Le Somptier and appeared in her first feature-length film: L’instinct est maitre/The Instinct is the Ruler (Jacques Feyder, 1917).

She rose to stardom when she played Sultane Daoulah in La sultane d’amour/The Sultan of Love (René Le Somptier, Charles Burguet, 1918). It was the first film shot at the new Victorine studios in Nice. The film had sets designed by Marco de Gastyne.

This film was followed by Malencontre/Inopportune (Germaine Dulac, 1920), La montée vers l’Acropole/The Climb to the Acropolis (René Le Somptier, 1920), Le coeur magnifique/The Magnificent Heart (Séverin-Mars, Jean Legrand, 1921), La bête traquée/The Trapped Beast (René Le Somptier, Michel Carré, 1922) with Edmond Van Daële, the comedy Petite hôtel à louer/Little Hotel for Rent (Pierre Colombier, 1923) with Gaston Modot, the title role in La garçonne/The Flapper (Armand du Plessy, 1923), and Néné (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1924).


French postcard in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma by Editions Filma, no. 4. Photo: Films Aubert.

The Queen of Sheba

Between 1923 and 1925 France Dhélia performed in many films by Gaston Roudès, her favourite director.

These films included La guitare et le jazz band/The Guitar and the Jazz band (1923), L’ombre du bonheur (1924) with Constant Rémy, Pulcinella (1925), La maternelle/The Nursery School (1925) with Lucien Dalsace, Le chemin de la gloire/The Road of Glory (1926), Cousine de France/Cousin of France (1927) with Jean-Louis Allibert, and La maison au soleil/House in the Sun (1928).

In those years, Dhélia was often paired with actor Lucien Dalsace, as in La maternelle, Oiseaux de passage and Les petits. Around 1925 she was at the peak of her success. When sound film set in, Dhélia continued to play mostly in films by Roudès, though she did not always play the lead.

An exception was the part of the Queen of Sheba in the biblical film Le berceau de dieu/The Cradle of God (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1926). Other exceptions were the main female character, Blanche, in Jean Epstein’s late silent crime drama Sa tête/Her Head (1929), and a minor part in the early sound film Méphisto (Henri Delbain, Georges Vinter, 1930) opposite a young Jean Gabin.

Her sound films include Le gamin de Paris/Paris Urchin (1932) with Alice Tissot, Roger la Honte (1933) with Constant Rémy, Flofloche (1934), and Le chante de l’amour/The Song of Love (1935). Her last film, was Une main a frappé/A Hand Hit (1939). At age 45, France Dhélia quit cinema, and a quarter of a century later she died quietly in Paris in 1964.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 177.


French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 122.

Sources: Caroline Hanotte (CineArtistes), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 4 January 2024.

Rotophot

How did the culture of film star postcards start? There is probably not just one answer to that question, but the history of the German company Rotophot GmbH, where Heinrich Ross started his career, is exemplary. During the First World War, the internationally orientated Rotophot could only work for the German market and it began publishing ‘Film-Sterne karten’, as part of one of the first major film promotion actions.


Gudrun Hildebrandt. German postcard by Rotophot, no. 1381/82. Sent by mail in 1909.


Ellen Richter. German postcard by Rotophot., no. 1651. Photo: Willinger.


Hedda Vernon. German postcard in the Fim Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 68/5. Photo: Eiko-Film.


Henny Porten. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 114/1. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin.


Fern Andra. German postcard by Rotophot, Berlin, no. 128/3, in the Film Sterne Series. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.

Mass Production

The origins of the popular Ross Verlag cards go back to the Rotophot artist postcards. The ´Rotophot-Gesellschaft für photographische Industrie´ was located at the Alexandrinenstraße 110 in Berlin.

The company was founded by Hans Kraemer on 8 January 1900 with the purpose of ‘mass production of photographic reproductions’. Kraemer, born in 1870 in Mannheim, came from a family of industrialists. He studied natural sciences, philosophy, history and cultural history in Berlin and Heidelberg.

The possibilities of photography, their distribution and reproduction on books and postcards, tied Kraemer’s attention. He decided to produce Bromsilberpostkarten in large numbers.

The period around 1900 was considered a ´golden era´ for the publication of technically high quality postcards. Celebrities from many fields offered the motives: nobles, opera singers, actors, vaudeville and circus stars. Daring erotic images also corresponded to the public taste. Especially these postcards from Rotophot were liked by the public.

Within a short time, Rotophot became a serious competitor of the NPG, the Neuen Photographischen Gesellschaft (New Photographic Society). The NPG had begun in 1895 with ‘kilometer-Photography’, an industrial-scale production of postcards.

Parallel to the NPG, Rotophot expanded internationally. In 1902 Rotophot closed a contract with Giesen Bros. & Co. in London. Photos of English artists, produced by Rotophot in Berlin, came through Giesen Bros & Co in the UK.


Hella Moja. German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, no. 501/2. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Das Mädel von nebenan (Otto Rippert, 1917).


Fern Andra. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 514/4. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier. Publicity still with (in the back) Alfred Abel in Ein Blatt im Sturm... doch das Schicksal hat es verweht (Fern Andra, 1917).


Mia May. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 528/5. Photo:May Film. Publicity still for Fünf Minuten zu spät/Five Minutes Too Late (Uwe Jens Krafft, 1918).


Ressel Orla. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 548/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Decla. Publicity still for Das Glück der Frau Beate/The luck of the Mrs. Beate (Alwin Neuß, Otto Rippert, 1918).


Hedda Vernon. German postcard in the Film Sterne Series by Rotophot, no. 560/2. Photo: Eiko Film. Publicity still for Wo ein Wille, ist ein Weg (Hubert Moest, 1918) with right back Ernst Hofmann.

One of the first major German film promotion actions

In 1904 a subsidiary company was established, the Bromsilber-Bild-Vertriebs-Gesellschaft with offices in Vienna and Budapest. Head of this division was Heinrich Ross, who had recently joined the company.

From 1905 on, all Rotophot cards wore the letters RPH as a logo, with a serial number for re-orders. In 1910, Rotophot founded subsidiaries in Vienna and Budapest. There were also sales offices in Hamburg, Cologne, Nuremberg, Wroclaw, Poznan, Warsaw, Riga, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Bucharest, Odessa and Buenos Aires.

The start of the First World War in August 1914 meant for the export-oriented Rotophot a serious loss initially. After some difficulty it found a balance again by using new motifs, such as fighters who were now in demand instead of opera stars.

At that time, cinema only existed for 20 years and film was still a relatively new phenomenon. The German military administration tried to distract people from their worries with entertainment films. In 1916, the state gave the young film industry large amounts of money for major projects.

The postcard publishers NPG and Rotophot were involved in this operation. In 1916 Heinrich Ross started the Film Sterne series, which presented postcards with new film scenes and portraits of the previously unknown film actors. The Film Sterne series is thus one of the first major German film promotion actions.


Friedrich Zelnik. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 126/3. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.


Paul Hartmann. German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 161/3. Photo: Nicole Perscheid, Berlin.


Bernd Aldor. German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot., no. 164/2. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


Bruno Kastner. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 190/1, 1916-1919. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


Bruno Decarli. German postcard.by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 217/1. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.

The first of the fan and autograph postcard series

Occasionally, there had been film postcards published in Europe previously. However, the Film-Sterne series can be regarded as the first of the fan and autograph postcard series that followed in the next decades.

There were three separate series of Rotophot artist postcards: stage star cards, running from no. 1 to 30, film star postcards, running from no. 61-224 (why the series started with no. 61 is unknown), and film and scenes cards, running from no. 500 to about 600. Rotophot also produced film posters, such as for Homunculus (1916), designed by Hans Zoozmann.

The Rotophot Symbol RPH was part of the Film-Sterne logo. Some of the very early film star cards had only ‘film’ on the logo.
Other early Rotophot cards have as part of their logo the drawing of a horse, ‘Ross’ translates as horse.

From 1919 Heinrich Ross marketed the Film-Sterne series by his own publishing company. Each card was now wearing the name Ross Verlag.


Wanda Treumann. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 87/4. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin/Messter Film.


Maria Carmi. German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 90/5. Photo: Karl Schenker.


Lotte Neumann. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-sterne series, no. 94/2. Photo: NBFMB / Karl Schenker.


Hella Moja. German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 78/6. Photo: Decla / Karl Schenker, Berlin.


Lisa Weise. German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 104/1.

Sources: Mark Goffee (Rosscards.com), Postkarten-Archiv.de (German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

Vladimír Borský

Vladimir Borsky (1904-1962) started as a film actor in Czech silent cinema. He then became a popular film comedy star of the 1930s and later expanded to be an actor-writer-director.


Czech postcard, no. 147. Photo: Foto Ströminger, Praha (Prague).

Counts, doctors or other respectable characters

Vladimír Borský (also written as Wladimir Borsky) was born Vladimir Fuks in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) in 1904.

He made his first film appearance in the silent comedy Prach a broky/Tarnation (Premysl Prazský, 1926).

He had his breakthrough in the sound film era with comedies like To neznáte Hadimrsku/Business Under Distress (Martin Fric, Carl Lamac, 1931) and Kariéra Pavla Camrdy/The Career of Pavel Camdra (Miroslav Josef Krnanský, 1931) opposite Hugo Haas and the beautiful Lída Baarová, who later would become a star of the German cinema during the Nazi era.

He made with the same co-stars the comedies Zapadlí vlastenci/Forgotten Patriots (Miroslav Josef Krnanský, 1932), Madla z cihelny/Madla from the Brickworks (Vladimír Slavínský, 1932) and the Ufa production Její lékar/Her Doctor (Vladimír Slavínský, 1933). In these films, Borský often played counts, doctors or other respectable characters.

The following year he appeared in Poslední muz/The Last Man (Martin Fric, 1934), again starring Hugo Haas. Haas was a celebrated comedy star in Czechoslovakia. The Nazi invasion forced him to leave his beloved country and he went to the United States. After the war, he worked there as a character actor and also as a director of independent B-films.


Czech postcard, no. 217. Photo: Foto Ströminger, Praha (Prague).

Volga in flames

Vladimir Borský continued acting in Czech films during the 1930s and 1940s. He had a small role in the French-Czech co-production Volga en flammes/Volga in Flames (Victor Tourjansky, 1934) starring Albert Préjean and Danielle Darrieux.

The comedy Anita v ráji/Anita in Paradise (Jan Sviták, 1934) was an alternative language version of the German production Annette im Paradies (Max Obal, 1934).

Other films were Vdavky Nanynky Kulichovy/Nanynka Kulichova's Wedding (Vladimír Slavínský, 1935), Tri muzi ve snehu/Three Men in the Snow (Vladimír Slavínský, 1936), based on the novel by Erich Kästner, and Svadlenka/The Seamstress (Martin Fric, 1936) again starring Lída Baarová and Hugo Haas.

Another Czech star of the 1930s and 1940s with whom Borsky co-starred was Adina Mandlová. They appeared together in the drama Porucik Alexander Rjepkin/Lieutenant Alexander Rjepkin (Václav Binovec, 1937) and the musical drama Druhe mládi/Second Youth (Václav Binovec, 1938).

He also frequently appeared opposite Hana Vítová, such as in Bláhové devce/A Foolish Girl (Václav Binovec, 1938) and the drama Písen lásky/Love Song (Václav Binovec, 1940).


Danielle Darrieux. French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 20.

Master of orphans

During the war years, Vladimir Borský only appeared incidentally in films. He played a supporting role in the comedy Host do domu/The Guest House (Zdenek Gina Hasler, 1942).

In 1936 he started a second career as a film director. His first film was the drama Vojnarka (1936). Other films were Jan Výrava (1938), the romantic comedy Cekanky/Chicory (1940), Palicova dcera/The Incendiary's Daughter (1941) with Lída Baarová, and the war drama Jan Rohac z Dube/Warriors of Faith (1947).

Jan Rohac z Dube was the first colour film in Czechoslovakia. The main hero Jan Rohac of Duba was a 15th Century Bohemian Hussite marshal who originated from the Bohemian gentry. Following the death of Jan Zizka, he became Master of Orphans, a radical Hussite sect. He survived the Battle of Lipany and, in 1437, he moved with his last remaining disciples to the castle Sion. There he was besieged and later assaulted by Hungarian troops. He was hanged three days later in Prague. Borský had also written the screenplay for this film.

Among Borsky's later films were Kudy kam/Whence and Where to? (1956) and a documentary about the actor Stanislav Neuman, Herec Stanislav Neuman/Actor Stanislav Neuman (1961). Borský’s last film role was a supporting part in Slecna od vody/The Young Lady from the Riverside (Borivoj Zeman, 1959).

Vladimír Borský died in 1962 in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic).


Albert Préjean. French postcard by Pathé Consortium, no. 44. Photo: Roger Karan.

Source: IMDb.

This post was last updated on 14 July 2023.

Jean-Claude Drouot

Belgian actor Jean-Claude Drouot (1938) started his acting career with a boom in the French TV series Thierry La Fronde (1963-1966) and with Agnès Varda’s controversial masterpiece Le Bonheur (1965). Although he went on to appear in many film, TV and stage roles he would never completely lose the image of Thierry la Fronde, the French Robin Hood.


French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 983bis. Photo: Philips.


French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 969. Photo: Philips / Alibert.


French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 984bis. Photo: Philips.

So passionate about theatre

Jean-Claude Constant Nestor Gustave Drouot was born in Lessines (Lessen), Belgium, in 1938. He studied law and later medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where he also appeared at the Jeune Théâtre (Youth Theatre).

He was so passionate about theatre that he gave up his academic studies. He settled in Paris where he attended acting courses by Charles Dullin.

From 1962 on, he interpreted the classic tragedies classics and the plays by Molière. In 1963 Jean-Claude Drouot also appeared in a short film, L'évasion/The Avoidance (Henri Fishbach, 1963). He was also spotted for television when he appeared in 'Orestes' in 1962.

Between 1963 and 1966, Drouot played the title role in the legendary TV series Thierry La Fronde/Thierry the Sling Man (Pierre Goutas, 1963-1966), created for television by Jean-Claude Deret who also played the traitor Florent in the series. The series, created to compete with the overwhelming British and American TV productions with medieval themes, became one of the most popular programs on French television in the 1960s. Thierry La Fronde is credited with boosting the use of the slingshot in French school playgrounds and turning the relatively rare first name, Thierry, into one of the most popular names for French boys.

On IMDb, Canadian reviewer Animal 8 5 writes: “Thierry was not only an unmatched sling man, but the savvy leader of a band of French rebels during the Hundred Year War. Jean-Claude Drouot portrayed Thierry of Janville, who begins the series as a young lord betrayed out of his title and property by the conniving steward, Florent, played by Jean-Claude Deret. Actress Céline Léger played his love interest, Isabelle. Joined by his friends, Thierry becomes a 'Robin Hood' type of character and fights undercover to end the iron rule of the ruthless Brits. I remember the adventure was top-notch and very watchable.”


French postcard by Éditions d'art Yvon, Arcueil, no. 2. Photo: O.R.T.F. / Télé France Film / Photo Bruguière. Still from Thierry la Fronde (1963-1966).


French postcard by Éditions d'art Yvon, Arcueil. Photo: O.R.T.F. / Télé France Film / Photo Bruguière. Still from Thierry la Fronde (1963-1966).


French postcard by Éditions d'art Yvon, Arcueil, no. 6. Photo: O.R.T.F. / Télé France Film / Photo Bruguière. Still from Thierry la Fronde (1963-1966) with Jean-Claude Drouot and Céline Léger.

An invitation to free love

Jean-Claude Drouot made his feature film debut in Le Bonheur/Happiness (Agnès Varda, 1965) in which he performed with his wife Claire and his children Olivier and Sandrine. Agnès Varda’s third film, and her first colour film, is associated with the French Nouvelle Vague (New Wave).

Le Bonheur/Happiness provoked something of a scandal when it was first released in France, at the height of the sexual revolution in the mid-1960s. What was so shocking about the film was not so much its subject but how Varda approaches it, in a way that suggests a kind of moral equivalence between love in a stable marriage and love in an adulterous relationship. The film can be interpreted as an invitation to free love, even implying that the lives of married couples can only be improved by an extra-marital affair or two.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie writes: “To critics who carped that her choice of hues was not "realistic", she responded that she was choosing the hues that were best suited psychologically to her story. The film's protagonist is a young, married carpenter (Jean-Claude Drouot). He takes a mistress (Marie-France Boyer), assuming that he can be equally in love with both his wife and the new woman in his life. When the wife drowns, the mistress quietly takes her place. This plot twist remains a subject of debate amongst Varda’s admirers.”

At French Films, James Travers adds: “Le Bonheur is actually a far more subtle film than this, and indeed it is one of the most ironic and truthful portrayals of romantic love in French cinema. The film doesn’t celebrate open relationships, as its detractors claimed, but merely observes that marital infidelity is an inevitable fact of life. It also reminds us that there is no so such thing as the perfect love affair.”

Jean-Claude Drouot next played a role in Les ruses du diable/The Devil's Tricks (Paul Vecchiali, 1965) with Michel Piccoli. Later he appeared in British and American films as the Vladimir Nabokov adaptation Laughter in the Dark (Tony Richardson, 1969) starring Nicol Williamson and Anna Karina, the anti-imperialist satirical farce Mr. Freedom (William Klein, 1959) with Delphine Seyrig and John Abbey, the Jules Verne adventure The Lighthouse at the End of the World (Kevin Billington, 1970) with Kirk Douglas, and the historical drama Nicholas and Alexandra (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1971) about the rise and fall of the last of the Russian Romanovs.


French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 970. Photo: Laurent Camil / Philips.


French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 983. Photo: Philips.


French postcard by Publistar, Marseille, no. 968. Photo: Philips / Alibert.

Jules Verne adventure

In France, director Claude Chabrol madeJean-Claude Drouot a mentally ill addict in the thriller La Rupture/The Breach (1970) starring Stéphane Audran, and he appeared in L'histoire très bonne et très joyeuse de Colinot Trousse-Chemise/The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot (Nina Companéez, 1973) with Francis Huster and Brigitte Bardot in her final role.

On television, Drouot starred in popular series such as Gaston Phoebus (Bernard Borderie, 1978). He founded with some friends La Coopérative théâtrale, a theatre group, where they were both producers and actors. Their plays included 'Cyrano de Bergerac', 'The Three Musketeers' and 'Kean'. From 1984 to 1986, he directed the Centre Dramatique National de Reims (National Dramatic Center of Reims), and from 1985 to 1989, the Théâtre National de Belgique (National Theatre of Belgium). He was a member of the Comédie-Française from 1999 to 2001. He is also the artistic director of the Compagnie Jean-Claude Drouot and director of numerous plays co-produced with the Théâtre régional des Pays de la Loire.

His most recent film is Va, petite!/Go, girl! (Alain Guesnier, 2003). He also appeared in TV series such as Trois femmes... un soir d'été/Three women... A Summer Evening (Alain Guesnier, 2003) and Les Rois maudits/The Cursed Kings (Josée Dayan, 2005) with Philippe Torreton and Jeanne Moreau.

Since then Jean-Claude Drouot has dedicated himself mainly to the stage, but in 2010 he made a new TV film, Les châtaigniers du desert/The Sweet Chestnut Trees of the Desert (Caroline Huppert, 2010), followed by more TV films. In 2012, it was announced that a modern version of Thierry la Fronde was in production. However, IMDb does not mention the production.

In the cinema, he could be seen in a small part in the comedy Les conquérants/The Conquerors (Xabi Molia, 2013), starring Agnès Varda's son Mathieu Demy, and in the adventure film Ni Dieux Ni Maîtres/No Gods No Masters (Eric Cherrière, 2019). More recently, he could be seen in the TV series Capitaine Marleau (2015-2020) starring Corinne Masiero. Since 1960, Jean-Claude Drouot is married to Claire Drouot.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 396. Photo: FIEBIG.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 395. Photo: FIEBIG.


French postcard by E.D.U.G. Photo: FIEBIG.


French postcard by Éditions d'art Yvon, Arcueil, no. 10. Photo: O.R.T.F. / Télé France Film / Photo Bruguière. Jean-Claude Drouot in Thierry la Fronde (1963-1966) with Jean-Claude Drouot.

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

This post was last updated on 30 January 2024.