The use of mirrors has become established in films. It developed as a device in the European silent cinema in the 1910s to distinguish the new medium from theatre and to connect film more with painting. When mirrors are used for visual dialogues between off-screen and on-screen characters and for creating excitement and voyeurism in silent films, the off-screen other often enters the frame, although the central character does not. It then developed both in the regular and in the avant-garde cinema in the 1920s and early 1930s, particularly in Germany in the films by F.W. Murnau, G.W. Pabst, and Fritz Lang, but also in the French avant-garde films, especially in the films by Jean Cocteau. For this post, Ivo Blom selected postcards in which the mirror is an important and intriguing device in the picture. Next week, Marlene Pilaete presents her selection.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2835. Photo: Union. Pola Negri in Die Augen der Mumie Ma/The Eyes of the Mummy (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918). Collection: Didier Hanson.
Polish film actress Pola Negri (1894-1987) achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in silent films between 1910s and 1930s.
German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 537/3. Photo: Amboss-Film, Dworsky Co. Alexander Moissi and Ria Jende in Der Ring der drei Wünsche (Arthur Wellin, 1918).
Albanian-Austrian Alexander Moissi (1879-1935) was one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century. The attractive and charismatic women's idol also appeared in several silent and early sound films. German-Belgian actress Ria Jende (1898-?) was a star and producer of silent German cinema. She appeared in 40 films before she married and retired.
Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 1057. Photo: Zambini, Parma.
Alda Borelli (1879-1964) was an Italian stage and screen actress, who peaked on stage in the 1920s and also acted in a handful of silent films in the 1910s. She was the sister of Italian film diva Lyda Borelli.
German postcard by Verlag Ross, no. 289/1. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.
German postcard by Verlag Ross, no. 289/2. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.
German postcard by Verlag Ross, no. 289/3. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.
'Modern' American actress Fern Andra (1893-1974) became one of the most popular film stars of German cinema in the 1910s and early 1920s. In her films she mastered tight roping, riding a horse without a saddle, driving cars and motorcycles, bobsleighing, and even boxing.
French postcard by Les Cinématographes Méric. Ausonia (Mario Guaita) in the French silent film La course à l'amour (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1924).
Athletic muscleman Mario Guaita aka Ausonia (1881-1956) was an Italian actor, director, producer and scriptwriter in the silent era. He had his international breakthrough with Spartaco (Enrico Vidali 1913) and became a major actor in the Italian Forzuto genre. In the early 1920s, he moved to Marseille, made a few films there and ran a cinema.
Of course, mirrors are often typical elements of film sets. People dress in front of mirrors, check their faces and clothes, comb their hair, shave, and apply or remove makeup.
But mirrors can also be used in narrative and metaphorical ways, such as emphasising a character’s introspection, showing his or her guilt or desire, providing passages to other worlds, and calling ghosts from the past or intimations of the future.
Mirrors embody a filmmaker’s preference for a more synthetic approach with deep staging and lengthy shots instead of analytical editing that fragments scenes and actors into several shots.
They also suggest that the film space does not stop at the frame’s borders, by incorporating off-screen space and off-screen characters. They add a dimension to the filmic space, showing parts that otherwise would remain hidden; they break the stage’s traditional fourth wall.
The woman and her reflection was a favourite motif in many films. These images were disseminated through postcards and illustrations in trade papers and fan magazines. They conveyed a positive, even seductive, image of a self-possessed woman who looks in the mirror or at the viewer, with the mirror often doubling or tripling the view by revealing her face, figure or legs.
Mirrors also emphasized the opulence of the setting as an asset; large mirrors were associated with luxurious decors. Theatrical promotions that placed actors in front of mirrors were also a popular motif.
Thus, in the twenties, the French magazine Comoedia issued a large series of postcards with stage actors photographed in their locker rooms entitled, ‘Nos artistes dans leur loge’. Invariably, the dressing room mirror was used to double the image - but also the status - of the actor or actress.
Luchino Visconti uses mirrors not only to show people confronting their inner selves but also other people. Someone stands onscreen, the other off-screen but appears onscreen through his or her reflection, talking to the on-screen character. Since characters talk to each other without the classical device of analytical editing (in which the camera alternates between characters and shows them in separate, closer shots), this alternative can be considered as a kind of interior editing: the unity of time, place, and action is maintained. We have a synthetic, rather than analytical, structure reminiscent of the theatre.
French postcard in the Nos artistes dans leur loge series, no. 98. Photo: Comoedia.
Camille Bos (born in 1899) was a French ballet dancer. At the age of 10 (other sources say: 8), she entered the ballet school of the Paris Opera. In 1920 she was named 'première danseuse', and in 1925 she was promoted to 'danseuse étoile / star dancer'. Bos participated in numerous performances e.g. 'Siang-Sin' (1927), 'L'écran des jeunes filles' (1929), 'La Grisi' (choreography by Albert d'Aveline, 1935), etc. Her partners were among the famous ones of those decades such as Serge Peretti and Serge Lifar with whom she danced in 'Le Spectre de la Rose' (1931) by Michel Fokine. At the age of 36, she stopped dancing to dedicate herself to teaching. For 12 years she taught at the Opéra de Paris. Her only known film performance was as a dancer in the Zola adaptation Nantas (Donatien, 1925) starring Donatien, Lucienne Legrand, and Maxime Desjardins. In 1935 she was recorded for an early television experiment.
French postcard in the Series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 104. Photo: Comoedia.
Mary-Hett (?-?) was a French actress and operetta singer. Already around 1900, Mary Hett aka Mary-Hett was a popular Parisian café-concert singer and would remain so for decades.
French postcard in the Nos artistes dans leur loge series by Editions La Fayette, Paris, no. 140. Photo: Comoedia.
Max Dearly (1874-1943) was a French actor, famous for his parts in 1930s French sound film but also for his previous career in Parisian vaudeville.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1361/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.
Elegant German actress Claire Rommer (1904-1996) appeared in about 50 German film productions during the 1920s and the early 1930s. Her successful career suddenly ended with the seizure of power by the Nazis.
Latvian postcard by IRA, Riga, no. 2354. Rolf Wanka is misspelled as 'Ralf Wanka'. The lady in the reflection seems Martha Eggerth, so this could be for the film Die ganze Welt dreht sich um Liebe (Viktor Tourjansky, 1935), in which both starred.
Austrian actor Rolf Wanka (1901-1982) was a handsome, suave star of the European cinema of the 1930s and the 1950s. He often played supporting parts as well-dressed, dignified gentlemen, and appeared in more than 100 films and television shows between 1931 and 1976.
Publicity still used in Germany, distributed by Rank, a mark of the German censor FSK. Thomas Milian & Romy Schneider in Luchino Visconti's episode Il Lavoro in the episode film Boccaccio 70 (1962).
Milian plays a bored aristocrat, caught in a scandal with callgirls. Schneider plays his rich and equally bored Austrian wife, who tries to seduce her husband and make him pay for love just like he did with his callgirls. It works but leaves the woman with bitterness. The set of the film was terribly costly because of all the authentic, valuable objects present.
Via Saraceno, Ferrare, Italy. Photo: Paul van Yperen.
In this street, scenes of Luchino Visconti's film debut Ossessione (1942) were filmed.
German postcard by Salz und Silber Verlag. Photo: Simon Annand. Caption: Orlando Bloom, Duke of York's Theatre, Celebration, 2007.
English actor Orlando Bloom (1977) made his breakthrough as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings film series and rose to fame as Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He established himself as a leading man in Hollywood with roles such as Paris in Troy (2004) and Balian de Ibelin in Kingdom of Heaven (2005). He later reprised his role as Legolas in The Hobbit film series and starred in the series Carnival Row (2019).
Source: Ivo Blom, Reframing Luchino Visconti: Film and Art (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2018).
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2835. Photo: Union. Pola Negri in Die Augen der Mumie Ma/The Eyes of the Mummy (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918). Collection: Didier Hanson.
Polish film actress Pola Negri (1894-1987) achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in silent films between 1910s and 1930s.
German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 537/3. Photo: Amboss-Film, Dworsky Co. Alexander Moissi and Ria Jende in Der Ring der drei Wünsche (Arthur Wellin, 1918).
Albanian-Austrian Alexander Moissi (1879-1935) was one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century. The attractive and charismatic women's idol also appeared in several silent and early sound films. German-Belgian actress Ria Jende (1898-?) was a star and producer of silent German cinema. She appeared in 40 films before she married and retired.
Italian postcard by Vettori, Bologna, no. 1057. Photo: Zambini, Parma.
Alda Borelli (1879-1964) was an Italian stage and screen actress, who peaked on stage in the 1920s and also acted in a handful of silent films in the 1910s. She was the sister of Italian film diva Lyda Borelli.
German postcard by Verlag Ross, no. 289/1. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.
German postcard by Verlag Ross, no. 289/2. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.
German postcard by Verlag Ross, no. 289/3. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.
'Modern' American actress Fern Andra (1893-1974) became one of the most popular film stars of German cinema in the 1910s and early 1920s. In her films she mastered tight roping, riding a horse without a saddle, driving cars and motorcycles, bobsleighing, and even boxing.
French postcard by Les Cinématographes Méric. Ausonia (Mario Guaita) in the French silent film La course à l'amour (Paul Barlatier, Charles Keppens, 1924).
Athletic muscleman Mario Guaita aka Ausonia (1881-1956) was an Italian actor, director, producer and scriptwriter in the silent era. He had his international breakthrough with Spartaco (Enrico Vidali 1913) and became a major actor in the Italian Forzuto genre. In the early 1920s, he moved to Marseille, made a few films there and ran a cinema.
The woman and her reflection
Of course, mirrors are often typical elements of film sets. People dress in front of mirrors, check their faces and clothes, comb their hair, shave, and apply or remove makeup.
But mirrors can also be used in narrative and metaphorical ways, such as emphasising a character’s introspection, showing his or her guilt or desire, providing passages to other worlds, and calling ghosts from the past or intimations of the future.
Mirrors embody a filmmaker’s preference for a more synthetic approach with deep staging and lengthy shots instead of analytical editing that fragments scenes and actors into several shots.
They also suggest that the film space does not stop at the frame’s borders, by incorporating off-screen space and off-screen characters. They add a dimension to the filmic space, showing parts that otherwise would remain hidden; they break the stage’s traditional fourth wall.
The woman and her reflection was a favourite motif in many films. These images were disseminated through postcards and illustrations in trade papers and fan magazines. They conveyed a positive, even seductive, image of a self-possessed woman who looks in the mirror or at the viewer, with the mirror often doubling or tripling the view by revealing her face, figure or legs.
Mirrors also emphasized the opulence of the setting as an asset; large mirrors were associated with luxurious decors. Theatrical promotions that placed actors in front of mirrors were also a popular motif.
Thus, in the twenties, the French magazine Comoedia issued a large series of postcards with stage actors photographed in their locker rooms entitled, ‘Nos artistes dans leur loge’. Invariably, the dressing room mirror was used to double the image - but also the status - of the actor or actress.
Luchino Visconti uses mirrors not only to show people confronting their inner selves but also other people. Someone stands onscreen, the other off-screen but appears onscreen through his or her reflection, talking to the on-screen character. Since characters talk to each other without the classical device of analytical editing (in which the camera alternates between characters and shows them in separate, closer shots), this alternative can be considered as a kind of interior editing: the unity of time, place, and action is maintained. We have a synthetic, rather than analytical, structure reminiscent of the theatre.
French postcard in the Nos artistes dans leur loge series, no. 98. Photo: Comoedia.
Camille Bos (born in 1899) was a French ballet dancer. At the age of 10 (other sources say: 8), she entered the ballet school of the Paris Opera. In 1920 she was named 'première danseuse', and in 1925 she was promoted to 'danseuse étoile / star dancer'. Bos participated in numerous performances e.g. 'Siang-Sin' (1927), 'L'écran des jeunes filles' (1929), 'La Grisi' (choreography by Albert d'Aveline, 1935), etc. Her partners were among the famous ones of those decades such as Serge Peretti and Serge Lifar with whom she danced in 'Le Spectre de la Rose' (1931) by Michel Fokine. At the age of 36, she stopped dancing to dedicate herself to teaching. For 12 years she taught at the Opéra de Paris. Her only known film performance was as a dancer in the Zola adaptation Nantas (Donatien, 1925) starring Donatien, Lucienne Legrand, and Maxime Desjardins. In 1935 she was recorded for an early television experiment.
French postcard in the Series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 104. Photo: Comoedia.
Mary-Hett (?-?) was a French actress and operetta singer. Already around 1900, Mary Hett aka Mary-Hett was a popular Parisian café-concert singer and would remain so for decades.
French postcard in the Nos artistes dans leur loge series by Editions La Fayette, Paris, no. 140. Photo: Comoedia.
Max Dearly (1874-1943) was a French actor, famous for his parts in 1930s French sound film but also for his previous career in Parisian vaudeville.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1361/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.
Elegant German actress Claire Rommer (1904-1996) appeared in about 50 German film productions during the 1920s and the early 1930s. Her successful career suddenly ended with the seizure of power by the Nazis.
Latvian postcard by IRA, Riga, no. 2354. Rolf Wanka is misspelled as 'Ralf Wanka'. The lady in the reflection seems Martha Eggerth, so this could be for the film Die ganze Welt dreht sich um Liebe (Viktor Tourjansky, 1935), in which both starred.
Austrian actor Rolf Wanka (1901-1982) was a handsome, suave star of the European cinema of the 1930s and the 1950s. He often played supporting parts as well-dressed, dignified gentlemen, and appeared in more than 100 films and television shows between 1931 and 1976.
Publicity still used in Germany, distributed by Rank, a mark of the German censor FSK. Thomas Milian & Romy Schneider in Luchino Visconti's episode Il Lavoro in the episode film Boccaccio 70 (1962).
Milian plays a bored aristocrat, caught in a scandal with callgirls. Schneider plays his rich and equally bored Austrian wife, who tries to seduce her husband and make him pay for love just like he did with his callgirls. It works but leaves the woman with bitterness. The set of the film was terribly costly because of all the authentic, valuable objects present.
Via Saraceno, Ferrare, Italy. Photo: Paul van Yperen.
In this street, scenes of Luchino Visconti's film debut Ossessione (1942) were filmed.
German postcard by Salz und Silber Verlag. Photo: Simon Annand. Caption: Orlando Bloom, Duke of York's Theatre, Celebration, 2007.
English actor Orlando Bloom (1977) made his breakthrough as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings film series and rose to fame as Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He established himself as a leading man in Hollywood with roles such as Paris in Troy (2004) and Balian de Ibelin in Kingdom of Heaven (2005). He later reprised his role as Legolas in The Hobbit film series and starred in the series Carnival Row (2019).
Source: Ivo Blom, Reframing Luchino Visconti: Film and Art (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2018).
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