Published by Les Éditions Filma

Shortly after the First World War, French publishing house Les Éditions Filma created the well-known postcard series 'Les Vedettes du Cinéma' (The Stars of the Cinema). The sepia postcards contained portraits of French 'vedettes' of the silent cinema, but also of Hollywood stars like William S. Hart and Mary Pickford. Around the time this series stopped, in the early 1920s, Filma started another film star postcard series, 'Les Vedettes de l'Écran' (The Stars of the Screen). The numbers of this new set followed the numbers of the first series. During the late 1920s, another Paris-based publisher, André Noyer (A.N.), presented the 'Les Vedettes de Cinéma' series. In the past, EFSP had posts on all three series. Interestingly, Filma also published film books and other film postcards. Today we present 18 postcards by Les Éditions Filma, which were not part of the two Vedettes series and were published around 1923.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 6. Lillian Gish in The White Sister (Henry King, 1923).

American actress Lillian Gish (1893–1993) was 'The First Lady of the Silent Screen'. During the 1910s, she was one of director D.W. Griffith's greatest stars. She appeared in films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Broken Blossoms (1919), and Orphans of the Storm (1921). After 13 years with Griffith, she moved to MGM, where her first picture was La Bohème (King Vidor, 1926). In the 1940s, after a long interval, she returned to the screen in a handful of films and received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as Laura Belle McCanles in Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946). Again, a decade later, she was marvellous in the classic Film Noir The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955). Her last film was The Whales of August (Lindsay Anderson, 1987) in which she shared the lead with Bette Davis.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 50. Photo: Pathé.

Romuald Joubé (1876–1949) was an actor of French silent cinema who became famous for his part in Abel Gance’s J’accuse (1918). He also acted in various naturalistic features by André Antoine.

French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 84. Photo: Abel.

Sessue Hayakawa (1889–1973) was a Japanese Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. He was the first Asian actor to find stardom in the United States and Europe. His 'broodingly handsome' good looks and typecasting as a sinister villain with sexual dominance made him a heartthrob among American women. Several years before Rudolph Valentino, he was Hollywood's first male sex symbol. During those early years, Hayakawa was as well known and as popular as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, although today his name is largely unknown to the public.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 100. Photo: [Ruben] Sobol.

Géneviève Félix (1901–?) was a French actress of the silent cinema. After being a regular actress of Georges Champavert and Jean Kemm, she starred in the Victor Hugo adaptation La dame de Monsoreau (1925).


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 107. Photo: F. Bixio.

Rolla Norman (1889–1971) was a French actor in silent and sound cinema. 'The Man with Many Faces’ was also a war hero.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 109. Photo: Wyndham.

French film actress Suzanne Bianchetti (1889–1936) was one of France's most loved and respected actresses of her time. She played Marie Antoinette in Abel Gance's epic Napoléon (1927) and worked with many other great names of the silent cinema. After her death, the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti was created in her memory, an annual French award given to the most promising young actress.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 121. Photo: Aubert.

French actor Edmond van Daële, aka Van Daele (1884–1960), is best known as the evil Robespierre in Abel Gance's masterpiece Napoleon (1927). Van Daele also appeared in films by Léon Poirier, Louis Delluc and Jean Epstein. He easily transferred to sound film and played in about fifty films until 1950.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 125. Photo: G. Fontaine.

Sandra Milowanoff (1892–1957), also written as Milovanoff, was a Russian actress who became a French citizen. She was a star of the French silent cinema in the 1920s, acting with directors such as Feuillade, De Baroncelli, Fescourt and Vanel.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 126. Photo: Fox Film.

William Russell (1884–1929) was an American popular actor of the silent screen. First at Biograph, Thanhouser. Mutual, American, and afterwards at Fox and Warner/ First National. He died already at age 44 in 1929.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 130.

Jane Rollette (1891–1994) was a French film actress who peaked in Louis Feuillade's serial films of the late 1910s and early 1920s.


French postcard by 'Éditions Filma, no. 133. Photo: Gaumont.

French silent film actress Marguérite Madys, aka Madys (1899–1986), started in 1919 at the Gaumont company. She starred in several films by Léon Poirier, Jean Kemm and Pierre Colombier. She also appeared in two Franco-German coproductions by Harry Piel. René Clair and Julien Duvivier also directed her before she ended her film career in 1927.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 135. Photo: Films. Ant. Jupiter. Emmy Lynn in Visages voilés... âmes closes / The Sheik's Wife (Henry Roussel, 1921).

Emmy Lynn (1889–1978) was a French stage and screen actress, known for her parts in the French silent films by Abel Gance, Henry Roussel, and Marcel L’Herbier.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 140. Photo: Sartony.

Sweet 'little angel' Régine Dumien (1914–1979) was a popular child star of the French silent cinema of the early 1920s.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 144. Photo: Gaumont. Armand Tallier in Jocelyn (Léon Poirier, 1922).

Armand Tallier (1887–1958) was a stage and screen actor who peaked in the silent era. Inspired by theatre director Jacques Copeau, who had opened the alternative Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, and who had directed Tallier on stage from 1913 for several years, Tallier created with Laurence Myrga the Studio des Ursulines, one of the first Parisian art houses, founded to ensure the diffusion of avant-garde cinema. The first session took place in January 1926. As an homage to him, since 1958, the best book on film is awarded the Prix Armand Tallier, which is since 1977 called Prix littéraire du syndicat français de la critique de cinéma.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 149. Photo: Abel.

Jean Dehelly (1896–1964) was a French film actor who was active in French cinema of the 1920s and early 1930s.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 150. Ivan Mozzhukhin in Kean / Edmund Kean: Prince Among Lovers (Alexandre Volkoff, 1924).

Russian actor Ivan Mozzhukhin (in France, Ivan Mosjoukine) (1889–1939) was a legendary star of the European silent film, who shone in Russia, France, Germany and Austria, but suffered in Hollywood.


French postcard by Éditions Filma, no. 151. Photo: P. Apers.

Spanish actress, singer, and diva Raquel Meller (1888–1962) acted mainly in French silent films. She was already a highly popular singer before debuting as a film actress in 1919.


French postcard, probably by Éditions Filma, no. 1002. Photo: Henri Manuel.

Geneviève Félix (1901–?) was a French actress of the silent cinema. After being a regular actress of Georges Champavert and Jean Kemm, she starred in the Victor Hugo adaptation La dame de Monsoreau (1925).

And check out our earlier posts on Les Éditions Filma:

Les Vedettes du Cinéma, 14 October 2017.
Les Vedettes de l'Écran, 23 October 2017.