French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères for Cinéma de la Poste, Neuilly.
French collector card from the album 'Pathé Frères, 1911'. Georges Vinter in Nick Winter et l’affaire du Célébric hôtel (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911). Georges Vinter played the detective Nick Winter, Jacques Normand as the hotel rat, while the hotel manager was played by Jacques Vandenne. Vinter stands right on this card, Vandenne left, Normand in the middle. Plot: Nick Winter has to deal with a notorious hotel rat who remains elusive, despite the many misdeeds that signal his presence. He's staying at the Celebric Hotel and is preparing, with the help of an accomplice, to carry out a successful robbery of an old lady's room, whose purse is stuffed with banknotes. But the tempting bag is a trap for our thieves. The old lady is none other than the astonishing Nick Winter, who triumphs once again in this scene.
French collector card from the album 'Pathé Frères, 1911'. Jacques Normand as Jean in Les victimes de l'alcool (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911), scripted by Bourgeois and Paul Garbagni. On the card, Bourgeois is indicated as 'Mr. B. Gérard'. On the bed, Jean's daughter (La petite Lily), who has died because of his neglect. On the floor, his wife, who in her despair has committed suicide (Marie Berthe).
Pathé's Jesus
Jacques Normand was born Gustave Mulot in 1865 in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. He was the son of brush merchants, and he first worked in the family business. After his parents' death, he decided to work in the theatre and took his mother's second name, Joséphine Normand, as his stage name.
Normand first acted for the Théâtre de la République and Théâtre Antoine and then was a member of the Odéon theatre company for about twenty years.
He played leads as Camille Desmoulins in 'Lucile Desmoulins' (Théâtre de la République, 1895), and the title roles in 'Bajazet' (Odéon, 1905), 'Michel Strogoff' (Chatelet, 1906), and 'Nick Carter' (Théâtre Moncey, 1910).
Normand started acting in film in 1909, and for years, he worked for Pathé Frères. He played in shorts directed by Camille de Morlhon, Daniel Riche, Gérard Bourgeois and Paul Garbagni, such as Cagliostro, aventurier, chimiste et magicien / Cagliostro (Camille de Morlhon, Gaston Velle, 1910), Victimes de l'alcoolisme / In the Grip of Alcohol (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911), Le Roman d'une pauvre fille / The Story of a Poor Girl (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911), Nick Winter et l'affaire du Célébric Hôtel / Nick Winter and the Célébric Hotel Affair (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911), La Rivale de Richelieu / The Musketeer's Love (Gérard Bourgeois, 1912), and La Fièvre de l'or / Gold Fever (Ferdinand Zecca, René Leprince, 1912).
In 1913, he played Jesus in Pathé's La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ / La Passion (Maurice André Maître, 1914). From the late 1910s, he played supporting parts such as Fauvette (Bourgeois, 1918) with Zany Miéris. In 1921, Spencer Gordon Bennett wove a frame story around Pathé's 1913 Passion film with Normand as Jesus, entitled Behold the Man!.
French collector card from the album 'Pathé Frères, 1911'. Jacques Normand as Jean in Les victimes de l'alcool / Victimes de l'alcoolisme / In the Grip of Alcohol (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911), co-written by Bourgeois, indicated on this card as 'Mr. B. Gérard'. The downfall of Jean and his family: they are evicted. Marie Berthe as Jean's wife, Lascombe as little Jacques.
French collector card from the album 'Pathé Frères, 1911'. Léontine Massart in La rivale de Richelieu (Gérard Bourgeois,1911), also with Jacques Normand as the Count de Chalais, Auguste Volny as Richelieu, Philippe Damorès as the Count de Chateauneuf, Jeanne Berangère as the Queen, and Armand Hauterive as Louvigny. Plot: The enemies of Cardinal Richelieu (Auguste Volny), the famous prelate of the seventeenth century, included the beautiful Duchess de Chevreuse (Léontine Massart), who promised Count de Chalais (Jacques Normand), her ardent admirer, that she would marry him if he accomplished the death of the Cardinal. But the Duchess had a bitter enemy as well. He was the Count de Louvigny (Armand Hauterive), and when he learned that de Chalais had agreed to the request of the Duchess, he informed the Cardinal. De Chalais was arrested and condemned to die. The duchess was heartbroken at the failure of her scheme, and when de Louvigny taunts her about her unsuccessfulness, she becomes so enraged that she plunges a dagger into his breast until he expires and then buries the dirk in her own heart. The colouring of this film and the skill with which it is acted make it an absorbing and powerful drama.
French collector card from the album 'Pathé Frères, 1911'. Léontine Massart in La rivale de Richelieu (Gérard Bourgeois,1911), also with Jacques Normand, Auguste Volny and Armand Hauterive.
French collector card from the album 'Pathé Frères, 1911'. Léontine Massart in La rivale de Richelieu (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911), also with Jacques Normand, Auguste Volny and Armand Hauterive.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of the French silent film La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. ELD also issued a postcard series on the other three parts of the films: 1. Naissance de Jésus; 2. L'Enfance de Jésus; 3. Vie publique et miracles de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. A print of this film has been preserved by the Cinémathèque française. Caption: The Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: Jesus chases the Mercenaries from the Temple.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères.This was the fourth part of the French silent film La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: Peter denies the Lord.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of the French silent film La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: Jesus before Pilate: Ecce Homo.
Cyrano de Bergerac
In the 1920s, Jacques Normand was mostly absent from the film sets in the 1920s. He was Cyrano de Bergerac in the fantasy film Les Mystères du Ciel (Louis Forest, 1921) and played Valcour in the episode film La Loupiote (Georges Hatot, 1922) starring Lucien Dalsace.
Jacques Normand returned to the screen in the early 1930s for a handful of sound films. He appeared in Casanova (René Barberis, 1934), a sound remake of the 1927 silent classic about the adventures of the notorious womaniser and Venetian adventurer Chevalier Giacomo Casanova. Casanova was again portrayed by Ivan Mozzhukhin.
His last known presence was a bit part in Feyder's Le Grand Jeu / The Great Game (Jacques Feyder, 1934) starring Marie Bell and Pierre Richard-Willm. When the film was released in May 1934, Normand would have been around 70 years old. At the time, he was living at 17 Rue Lepic in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, where he had lived since his marriage in September 1921 to Marie-Thérèse Dubor, a dramatic artist twenty years his junior. When and where Jacques Normand died is unknown.
In an interview in the journal Mon ciné in 1923, Normand recalled that when shooting Les Victimes de l'alcool, he performed a delirium tremens with so much vigour and imagination that the whole crew was convinced he really had been drunk while acting the scene.
When questioned by the director, Gérard Bourgeois, afterwards, who was annoyed as this was an anti-alcohol film after all, Jacques Normand responded that he had been 'dry' for over a month and only drank Vichy water since.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: The Flagellation.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: The Crown of Thorns.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: Jesus falls under the cross (Miracle of Veronica).
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: Calvary.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: The Crucifixion.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand as Christ. Caption: Death of Jesus.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand as Christ. Caption: In Descent.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand as Christ. Caption: The Grave.
Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of the French silent film La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1914), with Jacques Normand playing Christ. Caption: Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.
Sources: Gallica for Mon ciné (17 May 1923), Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.
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