Blanche Montel (1902-1998) was a French actress who had a long career in French silent and sound cinema between the 1910s to the 1940s.
French postcard. Photo: Film Gaumont.
French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 11. Photo: Gerschell, Paris.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 269. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.
Rose Blanche Jeanne Montel was born in Tours, France in 1902. When she was only 11, she was already engaged by filmmaker Alfred Machin to play a young Dutch girl, Kaatje, in La fille de Delft/A Tragedy in the Clouds (Alfred Machin, 1914). The film was shot at the Belgium Pathé studio of Chateau Karreveld at Molenbeek-Saint-Jean near Brussels.
Montel then worked in scenography until she met Gaumont film director Louis Feuillade, who was impressed by her sensibility, her seductiveness and her freshness. He directed her in various short films but also in long running serials like Barrabas (1919) with Édouard Mathé, Les deux gamines/The Two Girls (1921), and L'orpheline/The orphan (1921), often starring Sandra Milowanoff.
From the early 1920s on, Montel had leading parts in La fille des chiffoniers/The Girl of the Dust Bin (Henri Desfontaines, 1922), Son altesse/Her Highness (Henri Desfontaines, 1923), and Une vieille marquise très riche/An old very rich marchioness (Emilien Champetier, 1923).
It was followed by L'éveilleur d'instincts/The awakening of instincts(Emilien Champetier, 1925) with Armand Bernard, La vocation d'André Carel/The Vocation of André Carel (Jean Choux, 1925) with Michel Simon, Le roi de la pédale/King of the pedal (Maurice Champreux, 1925), and her last silent film La ronde infernale/The infernal round (Luitz-Morat, 1928) starring Jean Angelo.
Montel's first sound film was L'Arlésienne (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1930) and she remained quite active in the early 1930s in films such as the comedy Flagrant délit/Flagrante delicto (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931), Clair de lune/Moonlight (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1932) with Henri Garat, and the drama L'enfant du miracle/The Miracle Child (D.B. Maurice, 1932).
Then followed parts in Miquette et sa mère/Miquette and Her Mother (Diamant-Berger, 1933) with Montel as Miquette, Les bleus du ciel/The Blue Ones of the Sky (Henri Decoin, 1933) with Albert Préjean, and La maison du mystère/The house of the mystery (Gaston Roudès, 1933).
In Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1933, she played Constance opposite Aimé Simon-Girard as D'Artagnan. Other films were L'aventurier/The Adventurer (Marcel L'Herbier, 1934) starring Victor Francen, and Durand bijoutier/Durand Jeweller (Jean Stelli, 1938). In addition to these films, Montel played smaller roles in various French films of the 1920s and 1930s. In those two decades she was also an acclaimed stage actress.
Belgian postcard by Nels / Ern. Thill, Bruxelles / Alliance Cinematographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931). Flagrant Délit was an alternate-language version of Einbrecher/Burglars (Hanns Schwarz, 1930) with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch.
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Blanche Montel and Henri Garat in Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Blanche Montel and Henri Garat in Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).
A highlight among her silent films was La belle Nivernaise/The Beauty from Nivernais (Jean Epstein, 1924).
In the documentary series Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995), Kevin Brownlow and David Gill interviewed Blanche Montel. She tells ironically how surprised she was, that after she was asked to play the female lead in La belle Nivernaise, she found out that the Nivernaise was not a beautiful young girl but a very old and ugly boat.
This quite naturalist film on life aboard a barge precedes Jean Vigo's better known L' Atalante.
Between 1927 and 1934 Montel was married to film director Henri Decoin, but she did not play in many of his films.
In the early 1930s she played more often in films by Henri Diamant-Berger. Montel and Decoin had one son, Jacques (1928-1998). After she had divorced Henri Decoin she had an affair with Jean-Pierre Aumont, until 1940 when Aumont fled to the United States.
Blanche Montel's last performance was that of Madame Brown in a film by her ex-husband, L'Homme de Londres/The London Man (Henri Decoin, 1943), a Georges Siménon adaptation. In 1946 she started a new career as an impresario for artists.
After her son Jacques died in 1998, Blanche Montel soon also passed away in 1999 in Luzarches, at the high age of 95.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes de Cinéma, no. 56.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 2. Photo: Studio Pour Vous.
French postcard, no. 75.
French postcard, no. 76.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 1075. Photo: Studio Piaz.
Sources: Wikipedia (French), Cinememorial, CinéArtistes and IMDb.
French postcard. Photo: Film Gaumont.
French postcard by Cinémagazine, no. 11. Photo: Gerschell, Paris.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 269. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.
Sensibility, Seductiveness and Freshness
Rose Blanche Jeanne Montel was born in Tours, France in 1902. When she was only 11, she was already engaged by filmmaker Alfred Machin to play a young Dutch girl, Kaatje, in La fille de Delft/A Tragedy in the Clouds (Alfred Machin, 1914). The film was shot at the Belgium Pathé studio of Chateau Karreveld at Molenbeek-Saint-Jean near Brussels.
Montel then worked in scenography until she met Gaumont film director Louis Feuillade, who was impressed by her sensibility, her seductiveness and her freshness. He directed her in various short films but also in long running serials like Barrabas (1919) with Édouard Mathé, Les deux gamines/The Two Girls (1921), and L'orpheline/The orphan (1921), often starring Sandra Milowanoff.
From the early 1920s on, Montel had leading parts in La fille des chiffoniers/The Girl of the Dust Bin (Henri Desfontaines, 1922), Son altesse/Her Highness (Henri Desfontaines, 1923), and Une vieille marquise très riche/An old very rich marchioness (Emilien Champetier, 1923).
It was followed by L'éveilleur d'instincts/The awakening of instincts(Emilien Champetier, 1925) with Armand Bernard, La vocation d'André Carel/The Vocation of André Carel (Jean Choux, 1925) with Michel Simon, Le roi de la pédale/King of the pedal (Maurice Champreux, 1925), and her last silent film La ronde infernale/The infernal round (Luitz-Morat, 1928) starring Jean Angelo.
Montel's first sound film was L'Arlésienne (Jacques de Baroncelli, 1930) and she remained quite active in the early 1930s in films such as the comedy Flagrant délit/Flagrante delicto (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931), Clair de lune/Moonlight (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1932) with Henri Garat, and the drama L'enfant du miracle/The Miracle Child (D.B. Maurice, 1932).
Then followed parts in Miquette et sa mère/Miquette and Her Mother (Diamant-Berger, 1933) with Montel as Miquette, Les bleus du ciel/The Blue Ones of the Sky (Henri Decoin, 1933) with Albert Préjean, and La maison du mystère/The house of the mystery (Gaston Roudès, 1933).
In Les trois mousquetaires/The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1933, she played Constance opposite Aimé Simon-Girard as D'Artagnan. Other films were L'aventurier/The Adventurer (Marcel L'Herbier, 1934) starring Victor Francen, and Durand bijoutier/Durand Jeweller (Jean Stelli, 1938). In addition to these films, Montel played smaller roles in various French films of the 1920s and 1930s. In those two decades she was also an acclaimed stage actress.
Belgian postcard by Nels / Ern. Thill, Bruxelles / Alliance Cinematographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931). Flagrant Délit was an alternate-language version of Einbrecher/Burglars (Hanns Schwarz, 1930) with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch.
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Blanche Montel and Henri Garat in Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).
French postcard by Nels / Alliance Cinématographiques Européenne. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Blanche Montel and Henri Garat in Flagrant Délit (Hanns Schwarz, Georges Tréville, 1931).
The Beautiful Nivernaise
A highlight among her silent films was La belle Nivernaise/The Beauty from Nivernais (Jean Epstein, 1924).
In the documentary series Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1995), Kevin Brownlow and David Gill interviewed Blanche Montel. She tells ironically how surprised she was, that after she was asked to play the female lead in La belle Nivernaise, she found out that the Nivernaise was not a beautiful young girl but a very old and ugly boat.
This quite naturalist film on life aboard a barge precedes Jean Vigo's better known L' Atalante.
Between 1927 and 1934 Montel was married to film director Henri Decoin, but she did not play in many of his films.
In the early 1930s she played more often in films by Henri Diamant-Berger. Montel and Decoin had one son, Jacques (1928-1998). After she had divorced Henri Decoin she had an affair with Jean-Pierre Aumont, until 1940 when Aumont fled to the United States.
Blanche Montel's last performance was that of Madame Brown in a film by her ex-husband, L'Homme de Londres/The London Man (Henri Decoin, 1943), a Georges Siménon adaptation. In 1946 she started a new career as an impresario for artists.
After her son Jacques died in 1998, Blanche Montel soon also passed away in 1999 in Luzarches, at the high age of 95.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes de Cinéma, no. 56.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 2. Photo: Studio Pour Vous.
French postcard, no. 75.
French postcard, no. 76.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 1075. Photo: Studio Piaz.
Sources: Wikipedia (French), Cinememorial, CinéArtistes and IMDb.
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