Directed by André Delvaux

100 years ago, Belgian director André Delvaux (1936-2002) was born. Adapting works by writers such as Johan Daisne, Julien Gracq and Marguerite Yourcenar, he received international attention for his magic realist films. Delvaux is regarded as the founder of the Belgian national cinema. EFSP salutes him.


Belgian postcard by Ed. Cinematek, Brussels. Senne Rouffaer in the Belgian film De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen / The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (André Delvaux, 1967), based on the novel by Johan Daisne.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 291. Yves Montand and Anouk Aimée in Un soir un train / One Night... a Train (André Delvaux, 1968). Collection: Alina Deaconu.

The founder of the Belgian national cinema

André Albert Auguste Baron Delvaux was born in Oud-Heverlee, Belgium, on 21 March 1926, a hundred years ago. Delvaux studied German language and literature and law and obtained a degree in both from the Université libre de Bruxelles. He also studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. A regular at the Royal Belgian Film Archive, he provided piano accompaniment for silent films from 1952 to 1958 at L'Écran du séminaire des arts, the predecessor of the Brussels Film Museum.

He became a teacher of Dutch language and literature at the Fernand Blum secondary school in Schaerbeek, where he founded a film class. Delvaux directed several short documentary films for Belgian television between 1956 and 1962, notably on French director Jean Rouch and a four-part series about Federico Fellini. He also co-directed a short fiction film with Jean Brismée, La Planète fauve (1959). In 1962, he co-founded the film school INSAS and became the director of its directing department. From that point, cinema was his primary occupation. Many regard him as the founder of the Belgian national cinema. According to director Jaco Van Dormael: “It was he who opened the door to Belgian cinema, through which we rushed”.

Delvaux made his debut as a feature film director with De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen / The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short, starring Senne Rouffaer and the Polish actress Beata Tyszkiewicz. He based it on the 1947 novel of the same name by the Flemish author Johan Daisne, written in the style of magical realism. The film was intended as a Belgian television film and was also broadcast by the BRT in 1965. After being re-edited, it became a feature-length film which premiered in Paris. There and at screenings in London and several international film festivals, the film received critical acclaim. It received the British Film Institute's Sutherland Trophy in 1966 for being "the most original and imaginative film premiered at the National Film Theatre during the year". In 1967, De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen / The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short was finally also released in cinemas in Belgium.

Yves Montand and Anouk Aimée were the stars of his next film, the French-Belgian drama Un soir, un train / One Night... a Train (André Delvaux, 1968). His first colour film shares several elements with the previous film: an uncomfortable teacher, a tragic ending and a confrontation between love and death. Delvaux based the screenplay on another novel by Johan Daisne, 'De trein der traagheid' (1950). The film forms part of Delvaux's cycle of ‘magical realism’. According to the filmmaker, the magical realism he employs is above all an aesthetic, spiritual and philosophical exercise, coupled with a metaphysical and ontological inquiry. Nevertheless, his films remain rooted in an everyday reality, perceived as mysterious and irrational. The boundary between the real and the imaginary is thus dissolved around the themes of death and desire. A disturbing and strange atmosphere arises as much from the story as from the landscapes.

Anna Karina played the leading role in the French-Belgian-German drama Rendez-vous à Bray (André Delvaux, 1971). The screenplay is based on the novella 'Le Roi Cophetua' (1970) by the French author Julien Gracq. The film, set during World War I, places great emphasis on atmosphere. It revealed a more intimate tone in his work and earned him the Prix Louis-Delluc in 1971. The film, which also stars Mathieu Carrière, Roger Van Hool and Bulle Ogier, became a turning point in Delvaux's career, because its critical success allowed him to choose his subjects more freely. His Belgian-French drama Belle (André Delvaux, 1973) with Jean-Luc Bideau and Danièle Delorme, is about an affair with a mistress who may or may not be imaginary.


Belgian postcard by Ed. Cinematek, Brussels. Anna Karina in Rendez-vous à Bray (André Delvaux, 1971) adapted from the novella 'Le Roi Cophetua' (1970) by Julien Gracq.


Belgian postcard by Ed. Cinematek, Brussels. Marie-Christine Barrault in Een vrouw tussen hond en wolf / Woman between Wolf and Dog (André Delvaux, 1979), adapted from the novel by Ivo Michiels.

International attention for his magic realist films

André Delvaux's Een vrouw tussen hond en wolf / Woman between Wolf and Dog (André Delvaux, 1979) is a French-Belgian drama situated during the Second World War. Marie Christine Barrault plays Lieve, a girl from Antwerp, who falls in love with a French-speaking resistance fighter (Roger van Hool), whilst her Flemish nationalist husband (Rutger Hauer) is fighting as a volunteer on the Eastern Front. Delvaux received the André Cavens Award from the Belgian Film Critics Association for the film.

Benvenuta (André Delvaux, 1983) was a co-production with Italy, starring Fanny Ardant and Vittorio Gassman. Delvaux adapted for the film the novel 'La Confession anonyme' (1960) by the Belgian author Suzanne Lilar. It is the story of a young screenwriter who, for the purposes of a film, sets out to meet a novelist (Françoise Fabian) who experiences each of her love affairs as a mystical experience.

Opera star José van Dam played the lead in the Belgian drama Babel Opéra (André Delvaux, 1985). Rehearsals are underway at the National Opera for Mozart’s 'Don Giovanni'. Moving amongst the singers, actors and orchestra are more or less real, yet strange characters who fit well with the opera’s story. They are also present at the premiere.

Delvaux's last feature film was his largest project. L'Oeuvre au noir / The Abyss (André Delvaux, 1988) was based on the 1968 novel of the same name by the French author Marguerite Yourcenar. Gian Maria Volonté stars as the Flemish alchemist and surgeon Zénon, who roams throughout Europe in the 16th century. He is persecuted by the Inquisition because of his dissident writings and his diabolical practices. The cast included several actors who had worked with him before: Anna Karina, Marie-Christine Barrault, Mathieu Carrière, Jean Bouise, Senne Rouffaer and Roger van Hool. Delvaux received his second André Cavens Award for the film. Delvaux's final short film, 1001 films, was shown as a special screening at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

For his magic realist films, André Delvaux received international attention. His films were screened once at the Berlin Film Festival and three times at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1975 and 1980, he was also a member of the jury at Cannes. Two important collaborators were the cinematographer Ghislain Cloquet, who worked on Delvaux's first four feature films, and the composer Frédéric Devreese, who provided original music throughout his career. In 1996, King Albert II of Belgium conferred upon Delvaux the title of baron. André Delvaux died of a heart attack in 2002 in the Spanish city of Valencia, where he was attending the second edition of the Valencia World Arts Festival. He was 76. His daughter, Catherine Delvaux, has been engaged in making his films available on home media. The Académie André Delvaux was created in 2010 with his daughter's involvement. It works to promote French-language Belgian cinema and is responsible for the Magritte Awards. In 2011, Delvaux posthumously received the first Honorary Magritte Award.


French poster postcard by Eds. F. Nugeron, E 487. Gian Maria Volonté in L'Oeuvre au noir / The Abyss (André Delvaux, 1988), adapted from the novel by Marguerite Yourcenar.


Belgian postcard by Ed. Cinematek, Brussels. Gian Maria Volonté in L'Oeuvre au noir / The Abyss (André Delvaux, 1988), adapted from the novel by Marguerite Yourcenar.

Sources: Wikipedia (English, French and Dutch), and IMDb.

Moscow Art Theatre, Part 3: on tour in Germany, France and the USA

This is the final post in the series on the Moscow Art Theatre, the stage company that hugely influenced the acting world and the development of modern American drama, theatre and cinema. MAT was founded in 1898 by two Russian theatre legends, Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. In the early 20th century, MAT’s productions gained international acclaim. When the Civil War broke out in Russia, a group of MAT actors, led by Vasily Kachalov, fled the country and toured through Europe and the United States. They disseminated Stanislavski's acting system worldwide and appeared in films. In France and Germany, special postcard series were published of the actors in their most famous roles for the Moscow Art Theatre.


German postcard. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Vasili Kachalov as Baron in 'The Lower Depths' by Maxim Gorky.

Russian film and stage actor Vasily Kachalov (1875-1948) was one of Konstantin Stanislavski's best-known performers. He led the so-called Kachalov Group within the Moscow Art Theatre. He also appeared in four films.


German postcard. Maria Germanova as Olga in 'Three Sisters' by Anton Chekhov. Caption: Guest performances by the Moscow Art Theatre (in Germany, 1920s).

Maria Germanova (1884–1940) was a Russian stage and screen actress. In 1901, she enrolled in the just-opened Moscow Art Theatre Drama School and a year later joined the Moscow Art Theatre. She debuted in Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' in 1903, and received positive reviews in Maxim Gorky's 'Children of the Sun' (1905), in Griboyedov's 'Woe from Wit' (1906) and in Henrik Ibsen's 'Brand' (1906). In 1914-1924, Germanova starred in five Russian silent films, starting with Anna Karenina in 1914, directed by Vladimir Gardin and produced by Paul-Ernst Timan for Thiemann & Reinhardt. In 1919, she joined the Kachalov Troupe and toured outside Soviet Russia from 1919 to 1922. In Germany, she acted in the classic German Expressionist film Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923), based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel 'Crime and Punishment', and in Conrad Wiene's Die Macht der Finsternis (1924), based on Tolstoy's play. In 1922, along with several of her colleagues, Germanova refused to return to Moscow. She co-founded and became the director of what soon came to be known as the Prague Moscow Art Theatre Troupe. In 1929, she went to the US and succeeded Richard Boleslawski as the head of the American Laboratory Theatre, where she produced Chekhov's 'Three Sisters'. The Lab disbanded in 1933, but proved to be an important link between Stanislavski and the Group Theatre in New York.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 937/2, 1925-1926. Vladimir Gajdarov and Olga Gzovskaya in 'Schuld und Sühne', an adaptation of Dostojevski's 'Crime and Punishment' (Raskolnikov). Unclear is which stage production this is.

Olga Gzovskaya (1883-1962) became a pupil of Konstantin Stanislavski in 1907. She joined the Moscow Art Theatre in 1910, where she played Ophelia in 'Hamlet'(1911-1912), and also met her husband, Vladimir Gajdarov. From 1915, Gzovskaya also acted in films, first in Mara Kramskaya (V. Izouroudov-Garlitski, 1915) in which Gajdarov had his first bit part in film. Later, she played leads in seven films by Yakov Protazanov, including Zhenshchina s kinzhalom / The Dagger Woman (1916), co-starring Ivan Mozzhukhin and Yeyo zhertva / Her Sacrifice (Cheslav Sabinsky 1917) costarring Vladimir Gajdarov. During the Civil War, they left Russia and wandered around through the Baltic states to Germany, where they acted in many German films.


French postcard, no. 5 C. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Konstantin Stanislavski as Gaiev in 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov. Collection: Didier Hanson.

On the cultural map for Western Europe

The Moscow Art Theatre production of 'Hamlet' (1911–1912), produced by Konstantin Stanislavski and Edward Gordon Craig, received hostile reviews from the Russian press. The overall opinion of the Russian critics was that Craig's modern concept distracted from the play itself. While Olga Knipper (Gertrude), Nikolai Massalitinov (Claudius) and Olga Gzovskaia (Ophelia) received poor reviews in the Russian press, Vasili Kachalov's performance as Hamlet was praised as a genuine achievement. The international public thought otherwise. The production attracted enthusiastic and unprecedented worldwide attention for the theatre, with reviews in Britain's The Times and in the French press that praised its unqualified success. Rumours spread very quickly through Western Europe of the great triumph of Craig's vision, despite the production in actuality being a complete failure in Moscow. The production became one of the most famous and passionately discussed productions in the history of the modern stage and placed the Moscow Art Theatre on the cultural map for Western Europe.

Stanislavski kept seeking new paths as a director. He sought contact with avant-garde painters and entrusted Alexandre Benois, the leading stage and costume designer of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, with the direction of the set design. In 1916, however, he parted ways with Benois because he feared that the theatre's work could suffer from an ‘overemphasis on the decorative’. Immediately after the October Revolution of 1917, the ensemble embarked on an extensive tour abroad. The guest performances of the Moscow Art Theatre had a significant impact on the development of European drama and theatre at the beginning of the 20th century. Already in 1906, Stanislavski's ensemble gave a three-week guest performance in Berlin. The highlight of the guest performance was Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya'. Audiences and critics alike were delighted. The intensity of the performance and the direction, which brought together all the elements of theatre, amazed and delighted Berliners. The guest performance was a first-class social event, attended not only by German directors, actors, playwrights, academics and critics, but even by the Kaiser. The playwright Gerhart Hauptmann said of 'Uncle Vanya': ‘This is the most powerful of my theatrical impressions. It is not people who are acting, but artistic gods.’ Hauptmann stated that he had always wanted this style of performance for his plays.

After their return, Stanislavski worked primarily as an opera director. The MAT was elevated to the status of an academic state theatre (Московский художественный академический театр – MChAT), thus placing it on a par with the former imperial theatres. It continued to thrive with an extensive repertoire of leading Russian and Western playwrights. Although several revolutionary groups saw it as an irrelevant marker of pre-revolutionary culture, the theatre was initially granted support by Vladimir Lenin, a frequent patron of the Art Theatre himself. Mikhail Bulgakov wrote several plays for the MAT and satirised the organisation mercilessly in his 'Theatrical Novel'. Isaac Babel's 'Sunset' was also performed there during the 1920s. A significant number of Moscow Art Theatre's actors were awarded the prestigious title of People's Artist of the USSR. Many actors became nationally known and admired thanks to their film roles. However, the Civil War saw many of the theatre's actors being cut off from Moscow, and the support it received from the government diminished under Lenin's New Economic Policy. The subsidies it had come to rely on were withdrawn, and the theatre was forced to survive on its own profits.

In the wake of the temporary withdrawal of the state subsidy to the MAT that came with the New Economic Policy in 1921, Stanislavski and Nemirovich planned a tour to Europe and the US to augment the company's finances. The tour began in Berlin, where Stanislavski arrived on 18 September 1922, and proceeded to Prague, Zagreb, and Paris, where he was welcomed at the station by Jacques Hébertot, Aurélien Lugné-Poë, and Jacques Copeau. In Paris, he also met André Antoine, Louis Jouvet, Isadora Duncan, Firmin Gémier, and Harley Granville-Barker. He discussed with Copeau the possibility of establishing an international theatre studio and attended performances by Ermete Zacconi, whose control of his performance, economic expressivity, and ability both to 'experience' and 'represent' the role impressed him.


French postcard, no. 2 C. Photo: A. Gubtschewsky / Moscow Art Theatre. Alla Tarassova as Anya in 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov.

From 1916, Alla Tarassova (1898-1973) played in performances of the Moscow Art Theatre. That year, she already made a mark as a Boyar woman in 'Tsar Fedor Ioannovich' by Alexander Tolstoy. During the Civil War, she toured from 1919 to 1922 with the Kachalov Group. It was here she broke through as Anya in 'The Cherry Orchard'.


French postcard, no. 6 C. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Leonid Leonidov as Lopakhin in 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov.

Leonid Leonidov (1873-1941) worked at the Moscow Art Theatre from 1903. His roles included Dmitri Karamazov, Othello, Cassius in 'Julius Caesar', and Lopakhin in 'The Cherry Orchard'. In the late 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, Leonidov also appeared in several films. He started in the propaganda film Khleb / Bread (Richard Boleslawski, Boris Sushkevich, 1918) with Olga Baclanova and Boleslawski himself, followed by Zheleznaya pyata / The Iron Heel (Vladimir Gardin, 1919) based on a Jack London novel, and Pyotr i Alexei (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1919) in which he had the lead as Tsar Peter the Great.


French postcard, no. 8 C. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Vladimir Gribunin as Simeonov-Pishchik in 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov.

Vladimir Fyodorovich Gribunin (1873-1933) joined the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898 and stayed until his death in 1933. Critically lauded were his performances as Nikita in Leo Tolstoy's 'Power of Darkness', Simeonov-Pishchik in 'The Cherry Orchard' and Kuroslepov in the 1926 production of Alexander Ostrovsky's 'An Ardent Heart', the high point of his career. He was cast in three early Soviet films: Алёши'на дудка / Alyosha's Pipe (Vladimir Kasyanov, 1919), Трое / Threesome (Michael Narokov, 1919) and Хромой барин / Limping Landlord (Vladimir Kasyanov, 1920).


French postcard, no. 9 C. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Ivan Moskvin as Yepikhodov in 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov.

The career of Ivan Moskvin (1874-1946) is closely identified with the Moscow Art Theatre, of which he became director in 1943. In 1898, he was invited by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko to join the newly formed Moscow Art Theatre, and he appeared opposite Olga Knipper in the title role of the theatre’s first production, 'Czar Fyodor Ioannovich' (1898), by Aleksey Tolstoy. He went on to create the role of Luka in Maxim Gorky’s 'The Lower Depths' (1902) and Epikhodoff in Anton Chekhov’s 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904). The international acclaim Moskvin won when touring Europe and the United States (1919–1924) was reinforced in later years by his work in Soviet motion pictures that were distributed worldwide.


French postcard, no. 7 N. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Vasily Kachalov as The Baron 'The Lower Depths' by Maxim Gorky. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard, no 9 N. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Ivan Moskvin as Luka in 'The Lower Depths' by Maxim Gorky.


French postcard, no. 12 N. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Alexander Leonid Vishnevsky as A Tartar in 'The Lower Depths' by Maxim Gorky.

Aleksandr Vishnevsky (1861-1943) was one of the founding members of the Moscow Art Theatre. On the opening night of the MAT, Vishnevsky played the part of Boris Godunov in the play 'Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich' by Alexei Tolstoy. In 1899, he played Godunov again in Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan the Terrible'. Vishnevsky was the first to play the title role in Chekhov's play 'Uncle Vanya' at the MAT. Vishnevsky acted in three films: Cagliostro (Wladyslaw Starewicz, 1918), Pobeda zhenshchiny (Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, 1927), and the comedy Prazdnik svyatogo / Holiday of St. Jorgen Yorgena (Yakov Protazanov, Porfiri Podobed, 1930)


French postcard, no. 16 N. Photo: A. Gubtschewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Olga Knipper-Chekhova as Nastia in 'The Lower Depths' by Maxim Gorky.

Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova (1868-1959) was among the 39 original members of the Moscow Art Theatre when it was formed by Konstantin Stanislavski in 1898. She played Arkadina in 'The Seagull' (1898), played Elena in the Moscow premiere of 'Uncle Vanya' (1899), and was the first to play Masha in 'Three Sisters' (1901) and Madame Ranevskaya in 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904). She married Anton Chekhov, the author of these plays, in 1901, but her husband already died in 1904 of tuberculosis. Olga Knipper-Chekhova worked with the Moscow Art Theatre for the remainder of her life. Her niece was the film actress Olga Tschechowa.


French postcard, no. 19 N. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Barbara Bulgakova as Natasha in 'The Lower Depths' by Maxim Gorky.

Barbara Bulgakova (c. 1898-1977) was the wife of actor, stage and film director Leo Bulgakov. Both were regulars from the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) from an early date. As Varvara Bulgakova, she had her first film part in Polikushka (1922), starring Moscow Art Theatre actor Ivan Moskvin. The Bulgakovs were part of the MAT troupe that officially toured Europe and the United States in the early 1920s. When the troupe returned to Russia, Bulgakov and his wife remained in the US and started to act in shows on Broadway, which Leo Bulgakov partly also produced himself, including classic Russian plays such as 'The Seagull' and 'The Lower Depths'. Barbara acted with her husband in Song of Russia (Gregory Ratoff, Laslo Benedek, 1944).


French postcard, no. 9 S. Photo: A. Gubtschewsky / Moscow Art Theatre. Konstantin Stanislavsky as Verchinine in 'Three Sisters' by Anton Chekhov. Collection: Didier Hanson.

On tour in the USA

The Moscow Art Theatre company sailed to New York City and arrived on 4 January 1923. When reporters asked about their repertoire, Konstantin Stanislavski explained that "America wants to see what Europe already knows." David Belasco, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Feodor Chaliapin attended the opening night performance. Thanks in part to a vigorous publicity campaign that the American producer, Morris Gest, orchestrated, the tour garnered substantial critical praise, although it was not a financial success.

As actors, among whom was the young Lee Strasberg, flocked to the performances to learn from the company, the tour made a substantial contribution to the development of American acting. Richard Boleslawski presented a series of lectures on Stanislavski's system (which were eventually published as 'Acting: The First Six Lessons' (1933). A performance of 'Three Sisters' on 31 March 1923 concluded the season in New York, after which the company travelled to Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston.

At the request of an American publisher, Stanislavski reluctantly agreed to write his autobiography, 'My Life in Art', since his proposals for an account of the system or a history of the MAT and its approach had been rejected. He returned to Europe during the summer, where he worked on the book and, in September, began rehearsals for a second tour. The company returned to New York on 7 November and went on to perform in Philadelphia, Boston, New Haven, Hartford, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, Newark, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Detroit. On 20 March 1924, Stanislavski met President Calvin Coolidge at the White House. They were introduced by a translator, Elizabeth Hapgood, with whom he would later collaborate on 'An Actor Prepares', his manual for actors written in the form of a fictional student's diary. The company left the United States on 17 May 1924.

On their American tour, the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) also presented their very first production, 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy, which was first performed by MAT in 1898. The production was directed by Konstantin Stanislavski, with Ivan Moskvin in the lead role and Vsevolod Meyerhold as Prince Vasiliy Shuisky. 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' (1868) is the second part of a trilogy that begins with 'The Death of Ivan the Terrible' and concludes with 'Tsar Boris'. All three plays were banned by the censor. Tsar Fyodor is written in blank verse and was influenced by the work of William Shakespeare, Casimir Delavigne, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It dramatises the story of Feodor I of Russia, whom the play portrays as a good man who is a weak, ineffectual ruler. The trilogy formed the core of Tolstoy's reputation as a writer in the Russia of his day and as a dramatist to this day. It has been considered Tolstoy's masterpiece. Already in 1906, MAT performed the play in Berlin. In 1922, it was performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. Between 1920 and 1930, MAT performed all over Europe, including Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Bulgaria. In New York, 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' was first performed by MAT at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre, in January-February 1923. It returned there the next year, after which it was performed at the Imperial Theatre.

Several members of the company decided to remain in America after the tour and went on to teach the Stanislavski method to actors such as Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. Both took acting lessons at the American Laboratory Theatre of Richard Boleslawski and Maria Ouspenskaya where they learened the serious, emotionally grounded, ensemble style of the Moscow Art Theatre, later known as 'The Method'. In 1931, Strasberg was one of the founders of the New York Group Theatre, for which he directed several plays. In 1949, he began a long career at the Actors Studio in New York. Some of Strasberg's students there included Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Fonda, James Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Steve McQueen. Stella Adler founded her Conservatory of Theatre in 1949. In the following years, she taught Marlon Brando, Dolores del Río, Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen, Harvey Keitel, Melanie Griffith, Benicio del Toro, and Warren Beatty the principles of characterisation and script analysis. The Moscow Art Theatre still exists today. In 1992, it was renamed the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre. Since 1943, it has had a renowned theatre school, which gained a foothold in the United States in 1992 with the Stanislavsky Summer School in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts.


French postcard, no. 3 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Nikolai Alexandrov as Krassilnov in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.

Nikolai Alexandrov (1870-1930) joined the Stanislavski troupe in 1898 and for the rest of his life worked at the Moscow Art Theatre. He was the first performer of Yasha in 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904), Pig in 'The Blue Bird (1908), Korobkin in 'Revizor' (1908) and Artemyev in 'The Living Corpse' (1911). In 1913, Alexandrov became a co-founder with Nikolai Massalitinov and Nikolai Podgorny of the private Drama School, also known as 'the School of the Three Nikolais', which in 1916 was reformed into the MAT Second Studio.


French postcard, no. 7 L. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Ivan Gudkov as the Streletz in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Alexej Tolstoy.


French postcard, no. 8 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Olga Knipper-Chekhova as the Tsarina in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.




French postcard, no. 9 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Alexander Vishnevsky as Boris Godunov in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.


French postcard, no. 11 L. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Faina Shevchenko as A Boyar Woman in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.

Faina Vasilyevna Shevchenko (1893-1971) debuted in 1914 at the Moscow Art Theatre and stayed until 1959. Shevchenko excelled in Russian drama classics and was best remembered for her roles in the plays by Alexander Ostrovsky, including 'Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man' (1920) and 'An Ardent Heart' (1926), and by Maxim Gorky, like 'The Lower Depths' (1916). Shevchenko was cast in seven sound films, including the Georgian spoken David Guramishvili (Nikoloz Sanishvili, Joseb Tumanishvili, 1946), where she played the Russian Empress, The Composer Glinka (Grigoriy Aleksandrov, 1952), where she was Mme Ivanovich, and The Lower Depths (Andrey Frolov, 1952). Shevchenko was said to be the artist Boris Kustodiev's favourite model and, as a 21-year-old, sat nude for his The Beauty sessions. This daring venture caused scandal and almost cost Shevchenko her place in the troupe.


French postcard, no. 12 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Vladimir Gribunin as Konziukov in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.


French postcard, no. 14 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Boris Dobronravov as Goloub in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.

Boris Dobronravov (1896-1949) wasassociated with the Moscow Art Theatre and is best remembered for his parts in 'An Ardent Heart' and 'The Storm' by Alexander Ostrovsky (as Narkis, Tikhon respectively), and 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov. Dobronravov, who always said his idea of a perfect death was the death on stage, died of heart failure after the curtain fell at the end of the second act of 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich', his 166th performance of the leading role, on the day of MAT's 51st anniversary.


French postcard, no. 16 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Maria Nikolaieva as a boyar woman in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.


French postcard, no. 19 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Ivan Moskvin as Tsar Fyodor in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.


French postcard, no. 23 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Lydia Koreneva as the princess Mstislavski (Mstislavskaia) in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.

Lydia Koreneva (1885-1982) joined in 1907 the Stanislavski-led troupe. She had her first roles in 'Boris Godunov' (1907), 'The Blue Bird' and 'Revizor' (both 1908). Her breakthrough came in 1909 when Turgenev's 'A Month in the Country' premiered, and Koreneva's performance as Verochka was lauded. The part of Lise in 'The Karamazov Brothers' endorsed Koreneva as the star of the Moscow theatre. In 1915-1917, Koreneva was cast in five Russian films, including Yevgeni Bauer's films Zhizn za zhizn / Her Sister's Rival (1916), starring Vera Kholodnaya, and Korol Parizha / The King of Paris (1917).


French postcard, no. 26 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Rindi in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.


French postcard, no. 28 L. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Leonid Leonidov as Prince Mstislavsky in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.



French postcard. Photo: A. Gubtchewsky, Berlin / Moscow Art Theatre. Nikolai Podgorny as Andrei Schouisky in 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Aleksey Tolstoy.

Nikolai Afanasyevich Podgorny (1879-1947) was a Moscow-born Russian, Soviet actor and later reader in drama, associated with the Moscow Art Theatre.

Sources: IBDB, Wikipedia (English, German and Dutch) and IMDb.

Cullen Landis

Handsome Cullen Landis (1896-1975) was an American silent film star who was the hero of romantic melodramas, action films, and serials. He also worked as a director.


American Arcade postcard. Photo: Witzel, L.A.


Spanish minicard (collector card) in the Series Intimidades cinematograficas, series I, card 20 of 20. Caption: A rain of pearls! On the set of the silent Hollywood film Empire Builders, produced by Goldwyn. The leading actor, Cullen Landis, and director E. Mason Hopper closely inspect a huge collection of original pearls, worth millions of dollars (according to the card).


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 359.

Silent romantic melodramas, action films, and serials

James Cullen Landis was born in 1896 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. He was the son of Lulan Landis, a stockbroker, and Margaret née Cullen Landis, and the brother of future actress Margaret Landis.

As a boy, train enthusiast Cullen aspired to become a railway engineer. Cullen began working in the fledgling film industry at the age of 18, around the time his older sister, Margaret Landis, made her film debut.

Landis started as a film director. He turned to acting after his lead player broke a leg, and it was discovered that the actor’s costumes fit him. He co-starred with Harry Carey in John Ford's Western The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1919).

He became the hero of many silent romantic melodramas, action films, and serials. Landis is well remembered as 'Davy Crockett' in Davy Crockett at the Fall of the Alamo (Robert North Bradbury, 1926), and Jimmy Crestmore in Broadway After Midnight (Fred Windemere, 1927).

His other films included Easy Money (Albert S. Rogell, 1925), Perils of the Coast Guard (Oscar Apfel, 1926), and The Dixie Flyer (Charles J. Hunt, 1926). Landis appeared in a hundred films over 14 years.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 77.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 77a.

No song and dance man

In 1928, Cullen Landis starred in the first ‘all talking’ motion picture, Lights of New York (Bryan Foy, 1928) with Helene Costello and Mary Carr. He told a friend that talkies were perfect for musicals and that he was no "song and dance man".

In 1930, he left Hollywood for Detroit to produce and direct industrial films for automobile companies. He joined the directorial staff of the Jam Handy Picture Service, where he would finish his professional career.

During World War II, he made training films for the military as a captain with the US Army Signal Corps in the South Pacific. By the war’s end, he was twice decorated and promoted to major.

After the war, Cullen Landis made documentaries in the Far East for the U.S. State Department.

Cullen Landis died in 1975 at a nursing home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA. He was 79. He was married to Mignon Le Brun (1918-1927; divorced) and to Jane Grenier (1931-1975). He had two children with LeBrun.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 77b.


Spanish postcard by Kursaal.

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie - Now defunct), Find A Grave, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Gale Storm

Gale Storm (1922-2009) was an American actress and singer. After a film career from 1940 to 1952, she starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show. Six of her songs were top ten hits. Storm's greatest recording success was a cover of 'I Hear You Knockin',' which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1955.


Dutch postcard by HEMO.

Monogram star

Gale Storm was born Josephine Owaissa in 1922 in Bloomington, Texas. Her middle name, Owaissa, means 'Bluebird' in the native American language. The youngest of five children, she had two brothers and two sisters. Her father, William Walter Cottle, died after a year-long illness when she was only 17 months old. The family moved from Bloomington to McDade between Austin and Houston, where her mother, Minnie Corina Cottle, struggled to make ends meet as a seamstress and milliner.

The family eventually settled in Houston, where Gale took dance and ice skating lessons. Storm attended Holy Rosary School in what is now Midtown, Houston. She performed in the drama club at both Albert Sidney Johnston Junior High School and San Jacinto High School. When Storm was 17, two of her teachers urged her to enter a local radio talent contest called Jesse L. Lasky's 'Gateway to Hollywood' in 1939. This took her and her mother to Hollywood, where she captured the national contest title.

She was immediately given the stage name Gale Storm and was soon put under contract to RKO Pictures. Her performing partner and future husband, Lee Bonnell from South Bend, Indiana, became known as Terry Belmont. Storm had a role in the radio version of 'Big Town'. Her first film was Tom Brown's School Days (Robert Stevenson, 1940), playing opposite Jimmy Lydon and Freddie Bartholomew. Although she was dropped by RKO after only six months, she had established herself enough to find work elsewhere, including at Monogram and Universal.

In 1941, she sang in several soundies, three-minute musicals produced for movie jukeboxes. She acted and sang in Monogram Pictures' Frankie Darro series, and played ingénue roles in other Monogram features with the East Side Kids, Edgar Kennedy, and the Three Stooges, most notably in the film Swing Parade of 1946 (Phil Karlson, 1946). Monogram had always relied on established actors with reputations, but in Gale Storm, the studio finally had a star of its own. She played the lead in the studio's most elaborate productions, both musical and dramatic. She shared top billing in Monogram's Cosmo Jones in the Crime Smasher (James Tinling, 1943), opposite Edgar Kennedy, Richard Cromwell, and Frank Graham in the role of Jones, a character derived from network radio.

Gale Storm starred in several films, including the romantic comedies G.I. Honeymoon (Phil Karlson, 1945) and It Happened on Fifth Avenue (Roy Del Ruth, 1947), the Western Stampede (Lesley Selander, 1949), and the Film Noirs The Underworld Story (Cy Endfield, 195) starring Dan Duryea and Between Midnight and Dawn (Gordon Douglas, 1950) starring Mark Stevens. U.S. audiences warmed to Storm, and her fan mail increased. She performed in more than three dozen motion pictures for Monogram, an experience which made her successful in other media.


Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, no. 3096.


Dutch postcard by Foto archief Film en Toneel, no. AX 193. Photo: Universal International.

The women who made television funny

In 1950, Gale Storm made her television debut in Hollywood Premiere Theatre on ABC. She also made singing appearances on such television variety programs as The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Her very first TV series, My Little Margie (1952), which was only supposed to be a summer replacement series for I Love Lucy (1951), became one of the most-watched sitcoms in the early 1950s while showing up in syndicated reruns for decades. Co-starring the popular film star Charles Farrell as her amiable dad, Gale's warmth and ingratiating style suited TV to a tee, making her one of the most popular light comediennes of the time."

Her popularity was capitalised on when she served as hostess of the NBC Comedy Hour in the winter of 1956. In 1956, Storm starred in a situation comedy, The Gale Storm Show (Oh! Susanna), featuring another silent movie star, ZaSu Pitts. The show ran for 143 episodes on CBS and ABC between 1956 and 1960. Storm appeared regularly on other television programs in the 1950s and 1960s. In Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1954, a 10-year-old girl, Linda Wood, was watching Storm on a Sunday night television variety show, singing one of the popular songs of the day. Linda's father asked her who was singing, and she told him it was Gale Storm from My Little Margie. Linda's father, Randy Wood, was president of Dot Records, and he called Storm to sign her before the end of the television show.

Her first record, 'I Hear You Knockin'', a cover of a rhythm and blues hit by Smiley Lewis, sold over a million copies. The follow-up was a two-sided hit, with Storm covering Dean Martin's 'Memories Are Made of This' backed with her cover of Gloria Mann's 'Teen Age Prayer'. That was followed by a hit cover of Frankie Lymon's 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love'. Storm's subsequent record sales began to slide, but soon rebounded with a cover of fellow Dot Records recording artist Bonnie Guitar's haunting ballad 'Dark Moon' (1957), which went to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1957, she was both a panellist and a 'mystery guest' on CBS's What's My Line? Storm and Billy Vaughn wrote 'You're My Baby Doll' and performed it on Storm's television show in 1958. Storm had several other hits, headlined in Las Vegas and appeared in numerous stage plays. Storm recorded for five years with Dot Records, then gave up recording because her husband was concerned with the time she had to devote to that career.

Gale Storm's film career took a sharp decline following the demise of her second series in 1960. Most of her focus was placed modestly on the summer stock or dinner theatre circuit, doing a revolving door of tailor-made comedies and musicals. On television, she appeared on two episodes of Burke's Law, 1964 and 1965. In 1978, Storm performed as a guest artist in the stage production of 'Cactus Flower' at Glendale Community College, outside Phoenix, Arizona. As reported in the campus newspaper El Tiempo Pasando, Storm surprised the cast of students by unexpectedly showing up for three days of rehearsal before it was scheduled. Storm made occasional television appearances from 1979 to 1989, such as The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.

In 1981, she published her autobiography, 'I Ain't Down Yet', which described her battle with alcoholism. She was also interviewed by author David C. Tucker for 'The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s Sitcoms', published in 2007 by McFarland and Company. Storm was married and widowed twice. In 1941, while still a teenager, she married Lee Bonnell (1918–1986), then an actor and later a businessman. They had four children: Peter, Phillip, Paul, and Susanna. In 1988, two years after she was widowed, she married Paul Masterson, who also predeceased her. After the death of her second husband in 1996, Storm lived alone in Monarch Beach, California, near two of her sons and their families, until failing health forced her into a convalescent home in Danville, California. She died there in 2009, at the age of 87.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 226.


Spanish postcard, no. 144. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.

Peter Carsten

Peter Carsten (1928-2012) was a prominent German actor and film producer, who appeared in 90 films between 1953 and 1999. He was instantly recognisable for his imposing stature and screen presence. Carsten was frequently cast as authoritative figures, tough soldiers, and chilling villains in a career spanning over four decades.


West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 2019. Photo: Boyer / Divina / Gloria-Film. Peter Carsten in 08-15 - In der Heimat / 08-15 - At Home (Paul May, 1955).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1083. Photo: Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA), Berlin-Tempelhof. Peter Carsten in Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958).


West German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg, no. FK 3009. Photo: MGM. Peter Carsten in The Mercenaries (Jack Cardiff, 1968). The German title was Katanga.

Typecast as Nazi officers or German soldiers

Peter Carsten was born Peter Ramsenthaler in the Bavarian town of Weißenburg in 1928. Carsten initially embarked on a sensible career path in banking, a world far removed from the dramatic arts. However, the allure of the stage proved stronger than financial ledgers, leading him to abandon banking for acting.

He made his professional stage debut with the Youth Theatre of Hanover in 1948. Carsten's transition to the cinema began with his debut in Der unsterbliche Vagabund / The Immortal Vagabond (Hans Deppe, 1953).

His breakthrough, and perhaps his most defining early role, came with the 08/15 trilogy, based on the popular novels by Hans Hellmut Kirst. In these films, 08/15 (Paul May, 1954), 08/15 - Zweiter Teil / 08/15 Part 2 (Paul May, 1955), and 08-15 - In der Heimat / 08-15 - At Home (Paul May, 1955), Carsten portrayed the tough and overbearing Staff Sergeant Kowalski. This role established his niche playing German military figures.

This typecasting as Nazi officers or German soldiers would follow him throughout much of his career, particularly in war films and international co-productions. Beyond German cinema, Carsten's imposing presence and his fluency in German, English, and French made him a sought-after character actor in a vast array of European films. He demonstrated his versatility across genres, from war dramas and crime thrillers to adventure films and even lighthearted comedies.

One of his notable performances in British cinema came in the Hammer Films production A Study in Terror (James Hill, 1965), a Sherlock Holmes mystery where he played the character Max Steiner. He also appeared in the Michael Caine Spy thriller The Quiller Memorandum (Michael Anderson, 1966) as Hengel, showcasing his ease in British productions.


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H, Minden-Westf, no. 1592. Photo: Divina / Gloria- Film / Bayer. Peter Carsten in 08/15 - Zweiter Teil / 08/15 Part 2 (Paul May, 1955).


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. I 444. Photo: Boyer / Divina / Gloria-Film. Peter Carsten in 08-15 - In der Heimat / 08-15 - At Home (Paul May, 1955).


West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3009. Photo: Bayer / Divina / Gloria Film. Peter Carsten in Weil du arm bist, mußt du früher sterben / Because You Are Poor, You Die Sooner (Paul May, 1956).

A formidable on-screen villain

In the late 1960s, Peter Carsten delivered some of his most memorable evil performances, cementing his reputation as a formidable on-screen villain. His role as Captain Henlein in the brutal action-adventure film The Mercenaries (Jack Cardiff, 1968), alongside Rod Taylor, was one of his best and most ruthless portrayals. He followed this with another strong supporting role in the prisoner-of-war comedy Hannibal Brooks (Michael Winner, 1969) starring Oliver Reed.

Carsten's career continued to flourish in the 1970s with significant roles in films like the Spaghetti Western E Dio disse a Caino... / And God Said to Cain...? (Antonio Margheriti, 1971) opposite Klaus Kinski, the atmospheric Horror film Nella stretta morsa del ragno / Web of the Spider (Antonio Margheriti, 1971) and the high-flying wartime epic Zeppelin (Étienne Périer, 1971) starring Michael York.

In the 1970s, Carsten relocated to Yugoslavia, where he frequently appeared in large-scale War films and various international co-productions filmed in the region. Films from this period include Partizani / Hell River (Stole Jankovic, 1974) starring Rod Taylor and Adam West, Devojački most / Maiden Bridge (Miomir Stamenković, 1976), and the aviation mini-series Partizanska eskadrila / The Battle of the Eagles (Hajrudin Krvavac, 1979) with Bekim Fehmiu.

His final screen appearance came in the Croatian film Kad mrtvi zapjevaju / When the Dead Start Singing (Krsto Papić, 1998). In addition to his acting work, Carsten also ventured into film production, with credits on films such as Die Zeit der Schuldlosen / Time of the Innocent (Thomas Fantl, 1964) and E Dio disse a Caino... / And God Said to Cain...? (Antonio Margheriti, 1971) starring Klaus Kinski.

Peter Carsten died in Lucija, Slovenia, in 2012, just shy of his 84th birthday. He left behind a legacy as one of Germany's most prolific character actors, a familiar face in the diverse landscape of European mid-century and late 20th-century cinema.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1111. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Peter Carsten in Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1112. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Peter Carsten in Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1958).


West German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 595. Photo: Divina / Gloria-Film / Boyer. Peter Carsten in Heimat - Deine Lieder / Home - Your songs (Paul May, 1959).

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.