We, Ivo Blom and Paul van Yperen, started this blog in 2008 at a time when blogs were in vogue. Interesting and quirky blogs were popping up like mushrooms, purely for the fun of creating in cyberspace. Now, in 2025, European Film Star Postcards is one of the last of its kind. But just like Asterix and his Gaulish village, we are holding our own in an increasingly commercial online world.
We are happy to continue EFSP. And we are lucky we can do this without advertisements, a paywall or a fundraising campaign, and with friends who write amazing guest posts, like our special guest star Marlene 'La Collectionneuse' Pilaete, others who correct our mistakes like Erhanizzet Oncel, or who share their postcard collections with us, like Egbert Barten, founder of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. Thank you! We are also grateful for all the creators of the sources we can (still) use freely and, of course, we salute the publishers, filmmakers, photographers and film stars for their wonderful postcards.
For this special occasion, we selected the 10 most-viewed blog posts since January 2010.
Number 10: Aïché Nana
On 31 January 2014, EFSP posted an I.M. for Lebanese actress and former belly dancer Aïché Nana (1940-2014), two days after her death. In 1958, a 'striptease' by the then 18-year-old Nana at a Roman party caused an international scandal. Subsequently, she became one of the icons of ‘La Dolce Vita’, the liberated era of sex, drugs and rock & roll as documented by Federico Fellini. Aïché Nana appeared in 15 European films between 1956 and 1985. Her post was viewed 8.580 times.
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano (Milan), no. 238.
Number 9: 11 German directors of the silent era
During the 14 years which comprise the Weimar period, the German film industry enjoyed an unprecedented development. Each year, an average of 250 films were produced, and about 230 film companies were active in Berlin alone. This month, we will focus on the men and women who directed these films. The most famous directors in this industry were Fritz Lang, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch, who all later had success in Hollywood and about whom we posted before. On 8 May 2024, EFSP presented 11 directors who were less famous but who all made several interesting silent films during the 1910s and 1920s. The first director in the post was Fern Andra (1893-1974). She became one of the most popular film stars of German cinema in the 1910s and early 1920s. In 1913, aged 19, she appeared in her first German film, Das Ave Maria / The Ave Maria (Charles Decroix, 1913). Soon, she started her own company, even directing her own films. Georg Glen was the manager of her studio, Fern Andra Atelier. The company produced more than 80 films during World War I. This post was viewed 8.820 times.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 288/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier. Caption: Fern Andra in ihrem Heim (Fern Andra at her home).
Number 8: Claudia Cardinale (1938-2025) - Part 1
One of Europe's iconic and most versatile film stars was Italian actress Claudia Cardinale (1938-2025). The combination of her beauty, dark, flashing eyes, explosive sexuality and genuine acting talent virtually guaranteed her stardom. Her most notable films include the classics 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963), Il Gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, 1963), and Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968). One post was not enough to commemorate La CC, and Part 2 followed the next day. We updated the post for her death earlier this year, but the original version was published on 1 July 2010 and had 9,960 page views.
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 316. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Number 7: Bud Spencer
An I.M. for Bud Spencer (1929-2016) on 10 July 2016 had 10,704 page views. The huge Italian actor with his trademark black beard was the popular star of many Spaghetti Westerns and low-budget action films of the late 1960s and 1970s. In 18 films, he co-starred with his long-time film partner Terence Hill. In his youth, Spencer (then: Carlo Pedersoli) was the first Italian to swim 100 metres in less than a minute. He also had a law degree, and he registered several patents.
German autograph card by BRAVO.
Number 6: Lupu Pick
Lupu Pick (1886-1931) was a Romanian-German actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter of the silent era. His style as a director differed substantially from the macabre, expressionist fantasies prevalent in German cinema at the time. Together with screenwriter Carl Mayer, he introduced Kammerspielfilme (chamber drama films), intimate psychological dramas about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. In the mid-1920s, he briefly returned to acting and then made several films in England and France. Our post on 28 November 2024 was viewed 10.800 times.
German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 199. Photo: Alex Binder, 1916.
Number 5: Marina Vlady
Sensual and alluring French star Marina Vlady (1938) had the makings of just another blonde bombshell, but in 1963, she stunned everybody with her performance in L’Ape Regine / The Conjugal Bed. At the Cannes Film Festival, the feline beauty won that year the Golden Palm for Best Actress. The post on 7 July 2012 counted 13,600 page views.
French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 74. Photo: Sam Levin.
Number 4: Martine Carol
One of the French cinema's most beautiful women was Martine Carol (1920-1967). During the early 1950s, the French sex symbol was a top box office draw as an elegant blonde seductress in many films and was often compared to Marilyn Monroe. Her private life was filled with turmoil, including a suicide attempt, drug abuse, a kidnapping, and her mysterious death at only 46. Her post, last updated on 21 February 2022, is a continuing success and has 16,200 page views.
French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 132. Photo: Sam Lévin.
Number 3: Italian postcards by Cines-Pittaluga
In 2019, Ivo Blom acquired a great series of Italian postcards from the early 1930s at the Il Cinema Ritrovato Book Fair in Bologna. All the postcards were published by the film company Cines-Pittaluga to promote their own films. The head of this company, Stefano Pittaluga (1887-1932), helped revive Italian film production in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1926, he acquired the pioneering film studio Cines from the conglomerate Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Cines produced the first Italian sound film, La canzone dell'amore / The Song of Love (1930), and became the dominant force of the early sound era. Under Pittaluga, the company specialised in musicals and comedies, of which many were later branded 'Telefoni Bianchi' (White Telephone films).
Italian postcard by Cines-Pittaluga, no. 3. Photo: Cines-Pittaluga. Dria Paola in Vele ammainate / Lowered Sails (Anton Giulio Bragaglia, 1931).
Number 2: Sepia postcards by Cinémagazine
This 'New acquisitions' post on 14 Sept 2019 was viewed 24.600 times since then. In 2019, Ivo Blom bought a series of sepia postcards of silent film stars published by Editions Cinémagazine in Paris. Cinémagazine-Edition, or just CE, was the publisher of the film magazine of the same name, which was popular all over Europe. It was a weekly magazine that existed between 1921 and 1935. Charles Ray (1891-1943) was an American actor, scriptwriter, and director of the silent screen, who knew a parable from rags to riches and back again, working for e.g. Paramount, his own company, United Artists and MGM. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, he was a very popular actor and one of Hollywood's best-paid stars.
French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 79. Photo: not indicated but could be made by Evans.
Number 1: Alain Delon (1935-2024)
On 18 August 2024, French film star Alain Delon (1935) died at the age of 88. A day later, we had updated a post about this breathtakingly good-looking 'James Dean of European cinema' in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He proved in such films as Plein soleil / Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960) Rocco e i suoi fratelli / Rocco and his brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) and L'eclisse/The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) that he was also a magnificent actor. Delon later starred in a series of popular gangster films by directors like Henri Verneuil, Jacques Deray and Jean-Pierre Melville.
East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, 1967. Retail price: 0,20 MDN. Photo: Alain Delon in Rocco e i suoi fratelli / Rocco and his brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960).
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