European Film Star Postcards: Ancient Greece in early cinema

06 October 2026

Ancient Greece in early cinema

Ivo Blom is in Pordenone, Italy, for the Museum of Dreamworlds project. At the Giornate del Cinema Muto, he and his Dreamworlds colleagues will present two programmes with unique prints from the BFI National Archive. Both programmes include early films set either in Ancient Rome and Pompeii, or in Ancient Greece and Greek mythology. For the 'Greek programme', early Italian and French films by Aquila, Gaumont and Itala are selected, but also the rare British film Pygmalion and Galatea (1912) with Ivy Close.

For this occasion, EFSP presents a series of postcards with photos by Reutlinger of well-known as well as little-known French stage actresses and singers who are dressed up in ancient Greek attire. Around 1900, Leopold Reutlinger photographed a large series of known and unknown stage actresses before a set of a large kind of tombstone, inspired by Greek architecture, yet containing both Greek and Roman letters. On top, one reads 'Ellada', referring to Hellas, the ancient name for Greece. The cards were issued by both French and German editors. Some of the outfits in the photos, and sometimes the photo itself of the actress like those of Gabrielle Robinne, were recycled for all kinds of postcards, suggesting a romantic vision of Antiquity, which in the early twentieth century was quite common.

Gabrielle Robinne

French postcard by Ed. WS or SW, no. 0469. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. Mailed in France in 1906. Comédie Française actress Gabrielle Robinne (1886-1980) was one of the first French film stars. The peak of her film career was in the 1910s when she starred in mundane and romantic dramas by Pathé. With her blond hair, passionate eyes and elegant posture, she was the perfect ‘femme du monde’.

French postcard by Ed. WS or SW, no. 0469. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris.

French postcard by KE Editeurs d'art, Paris, series 12.32. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. Reutlinger used this Greek-style set for several photos, edited on (coloured) postcards.

French postcard by Editions S.I.P., no. 1591. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Beauregard and Robinne.

French postcard, no. 1261. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Sent by mail in 1905.

French postcard, no. 1347. Photo: Reutlinger.

Beauregard

French postcard by Eds. S.I.P., no. 1591. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. Little is known about Mlle Beauregard, other than that she was a singer at the Casino of Enghien in the early 1900s.

French postcard by Editions S.I.P., series 66, no. 9. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: Bacchante buvante (Drinking Bacchante). The postcard was mailed in 1903.

French postcard by Editions S.I.P. series 66, no. 10. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. Caption: Bacchante aux cymbales (Bacchante with cymbals).

French postcard by Editions S.I.P., no. 845/2. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. Card mailed in France in 1904.

French postcard by Editions S.I.P., no. 845/3. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. Card mailed in France, year unknown.

German postcard by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft), no. 119/6. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. The postcard was mailed in the Netherlands in 1903.

German postcard by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft), no. 175/6. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. The postcard was mailed in the Netherlands in 1904.

German postcard by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft), no. 175/8. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris.

Louise Myriel

French postcard, series 21.32s. Photo: Leopold Reutlinger, Paris. The postcard was mailed in France in 1907. This card was also released with the title 'Bacchante au thyrse'. Louise Myriel (1873-1943) was a French singer of light opera and operetta.