Emmy Wehlen

German-born actress Emmy Wehlen (1887–1977) was a beautiful and graceful star of both the Edwardian musical comedy stage and American silent cinema, for Metro. Wehlen shone brightly but briefly in the public eye, retiring in her early thirties despite a successful transatlantic career.


German postcard by EAS (E. A. Schwerdtfeger, Berlin), no. 871.


German postcard by EAS (E. A. Schwerdtfeger, Berlin), no. 935.


German postcard by EAS (E. A. Schwerdtfeger, Berlin), no. 1001.

Drawing international attention

Emmy Wehlen was born Emily Wehlen in Mannheim, Germany, in 1887. She received her musical training at the Mannheim Conservatory as a teenager, preparing her for a future in performance.

Her early stage career flourished in German musical theatre, with roles in Stuttgart, Munich, and Berlin with the Thalia-Theater company. Here, she performed alongside the humorist Arnold Rieck. She also recorded the song 'Ohne Männer' (Without Men), a duet from the operetta 'Doktor Klapperstorch', with Rieck.

Her talent soon drew international attention, leading to an invitation to London as a potential successor to the celebrated actress Lily Elsie. In 1909, Wehlen made a significant impact at Daly's Theatre, starring as Sonia in 'The Merry Widow', an English version of Franz Lehár's operetta 'Die lustige Witwe'.

That same year, she played Olga in the hit musical 'The Dollar Princess', an English version of Leo Fall's operetta 'Die Dollarprinzessin', which enjoyed an impressive run of 428 performances. It solidified her status as a notable West End performer.

Her success crossed the Atlantic, and by 1911, she was on Broadway, appearing in shows like 'Marriage a la Carte' and the Ziegfeld production 'A Winsome Widow', alongside Mae West. Critics praised her as "very pretty, very graceful" with a "distinctly pleasant voice" and an "indescribable charm of personality" that endeared her to audiences. Her final Broadway performance came during the 1914/1915 season in 'To-Night's the Night'.


British postcard by Beagles' Postcards, no. 280F. Emmy Wehlen in the operetta 'The Dollar Princess' (Die Dollarprinzessin) by Leo Fall.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 6915 H. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield LTD. Emmy Wehlen as Winifred and George Grossmith as Max Daly in 'The Girl on the Film'. 'The Girl on the Film' is a Musical Farce in Three Acts with a book by James T. Tanner based on the original German musical comedy 'Filmzauber' by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolf Schanzer. It has music by Walter Kollo, Willy Bredschneider and Albert Sirmay and lyrics by Adrian Ross. It opened at the Gaiety Theatre, London, on 5 April 1913, where it ran for 232 performances.

Leading roles in 18 films

Shortly after her last Broadway show, Emmy Wehlen shifted her focus from the stage to the burgeoning world of American silent films, appearing in over twenty films between 1915 and 1920.

She quickly established herself as a leading lady, primarily working for the Metro Pictures Corporation. Her film debut was in When a Woman Loves (Robert G. Vignola, 1915). This was followed by a string of roles in films such as Her Reckoning (Robert G. Vignola, 1915), The Pretenders (George D. Baker, 1916), and Vanity (John B. O'Brien, 1916).

Wehlen remained prolific throughout the late 1910s, with notable appearances in Sowers and Reapers (George D. Baker, 1917) opposite Harry Davenport, The Trail of the Shadow (Donald Crisp, 1917), Miss Robinson Crusoe (Christy Cabanne, 1917), and The Duchess of Doubt (George D. Baker, 1917).

Other significant films included His Bonded Wife (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1918), Sylvia on a Spree (Harry L. Franklin, 1918), alongside Joseph Sweeney and The Amateur Adventuress (Henry S. North, 1919) with Eugene Pallette. Her final film role was as Vania in Lifting Shadows (Léonce Perret, 1920). She had appeared in 18 films, mostly in leading roles.

After her last film, she returned to the operetta stage, but ended her career after a few years. She disappeared from the public eye while still in her early thirties. Emmy Wehlen lived a long life and passed away in 1977. Only three Wehlen films are known to have survived, and none of these have been re-released in any format to the public.


German postcard by NPG, no. 895. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin. German humorist, couplet singer, and actor Arnold Rieck (1876-1924) was a forerunner of the stand-up comedians of today. He was also one of the first stage actors who started to perform in films.


German postcard by NPG, no 896. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Paul Muni

Paul Muni (1895-1967) was an American stage and film actor who was nominated five times for the Academy Awards. He won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The Story of Louis Pasteur (William Dieterle, 1936). During the 1930s, he was considered one of the most prestigious actors at the Warner Bros. studio and was given the rare privilege of choosing which parts he wanted.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 286. Photo: Warner Bros.


Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 45. Photo: United Artists. Paul Muni and Karen Morley in Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932).


Special issue of Film-Bühne, no. III, 6. Paul Muni in Louis Pasteur / The Story of Louis Pasteur (William Dieterle, 1936).


Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam, no. B473. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Luise Rainer and Paul Muni in The Good Earth (Sidney Franklin, 1937). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Romanian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Paul Muni as Émile Zola in The Life of Émile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937). Zola lives in misery in the first years of his career. The Romanian title of the film was Viata lui Emile Zola.

A cruel, explosive gangster

Paul Muni was born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund in 1895 in Lwów, Lemberg, Galicia, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Lviv, Ukraine). His parents were Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, both actors in a travelling Yiddish repertory company. He learned Yiddish as his first language. The family immigrated to America in 1899. The Weisenfreund family settled in Chicago, where Paul grew up. He started his acting career in the Yiddish theatre with his parents. Naturally talented in acting, he wanted to become a professional actor, but this was unacceptable to his father, who wanted his son to become a musician. However, Muni was adamant, and his father reluctantly agreed to let him pursue his passion.

As a teenager, he developed a skill in creating makeup, which enabled him to play much older characters. At the age of 12, he played the stage role of an 80-year-old man. He was quickly recognised by Maurice Schwartz, who signed him up with his Yiddish Art Theatre in New York in 1918. After 4 years, he moved to other Yiddish theatres until 1926. Paul Muni was a very reserved and shy person in real life. In 1921, he married Bella Finkel, an actress in the Yiddish theatre. They remained married until Muni died in 1967. Muni began acting on Broadway in 1926. His first role was that of an elderly Jewish man in the play 'We Americans', written by playwrights Max Siegel and Milton Herbert Gropper. It was the first time that he ever acted in English.

In 1929, Muni was signed by Fox. His name was simplified and anglicised to Paul Muni (he had the nickname 'Moony' when he was young). His acting talents were quickly recognised, and he made his film debut in the drama The Valiant (William K. Howard, 1929) with Marguerite Churchill. For his portrayal of a murderer, he received an Oscar nomination, although the film did poorly at the box office. In his second film, Seven Faces (Berthold Viertel, 1929), he played seven different characters. He was given the nickname "The New Lon Chaney", but the film was again a financial failure. Unhappy with the roles offered to him, he returned to Broadway, where he starred in a major hit play, 'Counselor at Law' (1931-1933).

Paul Muni soon returned to Hollywood to star as the cruel, explosive gangster Antonio 'Tony' Camonte in the original Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932), part of a cycle of gangster films at the time. The film was written by Ben Hecht, who based his screenplay on Armitage Trail's 1929 novel of the same title, which is loosely based on the rise and fall of Al Capone. The plot centres on Camonte, who aggressively and violently moves up the ranks in the Chicago gangland world. A version of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is depicted. A man of 5'9" height (175.3 cm), Muni wore small lifts (adding three or four inches) and padding to appear more hulking and ape-like as Tony. The film was the basis for Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983) starring Al Pacino.

In the crime drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932), he played a wrongfully convicted convict on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. For his role, Muni was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. Audiences in the United States who saw the film began to question the legitimacy of the United States' legal system, and in January 1933, the film's protagonist, Robert Elliott Burns, who was still imprisoned in New Jersey, and several other chain gang prisoners nationwide in the United States, were able to appeal and were released. The acclaim that Paul Muni received as a result of this performance so impressed Warner Bros., they signed him to a long-term contract, publicising him as "the screen's greatest actor".


British postcard in the Film Weekly series, London.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 838. Photo: Warner.


Spanish promotional postcard. Image: Warner Bros. Glenda Farrell and Paul Muni in Hi, Nellie (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


British Real Photograph postcard, no. 108. Photo: Warner Bros. Vitaphone Pictures.


French postcard, no. 601. Photo: Warner Bros.

Louis Pasteur

During the 1930s, Paul Muni became one of the most prestigious actors at Warner Bros. and was given the rare privilege of choosing which parts he wanted. His reputation as a prominent stage actor prevented Hollywood from moulding him into a marketable image or into a typical big-screen leading man. Muni’s film roles were diverse and generally superior to most Hollywood fare. In 1935, Muni starred as a coal miner involved in a union dispute in Black Fury (Michael Curtiz, 1935) with Karen Morley, and for his performance, he earned his third Oscar nomination (as a write-in candidate). Muni persuaded Warner Bros. to take a financial risk by producing the historical biography The Story of Louis Pasteur (William Dieterle, 1935). Muni played the 19th-century chemist who developed major advances in microbiology, which revolutionised agriculture and medicine, to prove that his medical theories would save lives. It was the first of Muni's many biographical roles. The sudden success of Pasteur gave Warner's 'box office gold'. For his performance, Muni won an Oscar and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor from the Venice Film Festival.

Muni played other historical figures, including French author Émile Zola in The Life of Emile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. The film won Best Picture and was interpreted as indirectly attacking the repression of Nazi Germany. He also played the lead role as the Mexican national hero Benito Juárez in Juarez (William Dieterle, 1939) opposite Bette Davis. His acting quality, usually playing a powerful character, was partly a result of his intense preparation for his parts, often immersing himself in the study of the real character's traits and mannerisms. He was also highly skilled in using makeup techniques, a talent he learned from his parents, who were also actors, and from his early years on stage with the Yiddish theatre in Chicago.

In 1937, Muni played a Chinese peasant with a new bride in a film adaptation of Pearl Buck's novel The Good Earth (Sidney Franklin, 1937). It co-starred Luise Rainer as his wife. She won an Academy Award for her part. The film was a recreation of a revolutionary period in China, and included special effects for a locust attack and the overthrow of the government. Dissatisfied with life in Hollywood, Muni chose not to renew his contract. He returned to the screen only occasionally in later years, for such roles as Frédéric Chopin's teacher in A Song to Remember (Charles Vidor, 1945) with Merle Oberon. In 1946, he starred in a rare comic performance, Angel on My Shoulder (Archie Mayo, 1946), playing a gangster whose early death prompts the Devil (played by Claude Rains) to make mischief by putting his soul into the body of a judge. His new identity turns the former criminal into a model citizen.

In 1946, he appeared on Broadway in A Flag is Born, written by Ben Hecht, to help promote the creation of a Jewish state in Israel. This play was directed by Luther Adler and co-starred Marlon Brando. At London's Phoenix Theatre, in 1949, Muni began a run as Willy Loman in the first English production of 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller. He took over from Lee J. Cobb, who had played the principal role in the original Broadway production. Both productions were directed by Elia Kazan. In Italy, he appeared in the drama Imbarco a mezzanotte / Stranger on the Prowl (Joseph Losey, 1952). Muni travelled to Italy to star in the film partly as an act of solidarity and support for blacklisted friends living there in exile. A few years later, during 1955 and 1956, Muni had his biggest stage success in the United States as the crusading lawyer, Henry Drummond (based on Clarence Darrow), in 'Inherit the Wind', winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. In late August 1955, Muni was forced to withdraw from the play due to a serious eye ailment, causing deterioration in his eyesight.

His last film role was as a crusading doctor in The Last Angry Man (Daniel Mann, 1959), and he was again nominated for an Oscar. After that, Muni mostly retired from acting to deal with failing eyesight and other health problems. Over the years, he became increasingly dependent on his wife, Bella, a dependence which increased as his failing eyesight turned to blindness in his final years. He made his final screen appearance on television, in a guest role on the dramatic series Saints and Sinners (1962). Paul Muni died of a heart disorder in Montecito, California, in 1967. He was 71 and had made 22 films and also starred in numerous Broadway plays. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood.


British cigarette card in the Third Film Stars series by John Player & Sons, no. 32. Photo: Warner - First National. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


German collector card by Kino.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 1063. Photo: Warner Bros.


Romanian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.


Romanian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Paul Muni as Émile Zola in The Life of Émile Zola (William Dieterle, 1937). The actress is Erin O'Brien-Moore, who played the prostitute Nana, the inspiration for one of Zola's most famous novels. The Romanian title of the film was Viata lui Emile Zola.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1617/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Warner Bros. / Vitaphone Pictures.


American postcard by John Golden. Paul Muni in 'Counselor-at-law' (1942-1943) by Elmer Rice at the Royale Theatre, New York City.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Biography.com (Page now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.

15 New cards from G.D.I.

For today's post on the collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute, we chose an orange photo box from the two big bags I borrowed. The box contains postcards from the estate of film journalist and collector Tjitte de Vries and doublets from the Collection Donaldson. This was the personal collection of the late film historian Geoffrey Donaldson himself. A major part of the Donaldson collection is now part of the Eye Filmmuseum collection in Amsterdam. Another part, Geoffrey donated to his friend Egbert Barten, founder of GDI. Donaldson was the pioneering historian of the silent Dutch cinema. However, in the box, we did not find pictures of Dutch stars. We selected a mix of Hollywood and European stars, postcards of the late silent era and later decades. Here are 15 great postcards from the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4013/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Defina / First National.

American actress Colleen Moore (1899-1988) was a star of the silent screen who appeared in about 100 films beginning in 1917. During the 1920s, she put her stamp on American social history, creating in dozens of films the image of the wide-eyed, insouciant flapper with her bobbed hair and short skirts.


American postcard in the O.K. Series by American Post Card Co., New York.

American actress Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959) was a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Her career as a stage, screen and radio actress spanned six decades, and she was regarded as 'The First Lady of the American Theatre'. She made 15 silent pictures between 1914 and 1919, most of them for the Metro Pictures studio.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del Cine series, no. 180. Photo: Warner Bros.

Marian Marsh (1913-2006) was one of the early sound era's most attractive young leading ladies. Doll-faced Marsh enjoyed a short yet significant film career as the star of several memorable 1930s melodramas opposite some of the cinema's best, most charismatic lead actors. She had a plum role opposite John Barrymore in Svengali (1931), the tragic tale of an artist's model who becomes a great singing diva under the hypnotic tutelage of the malevolent Svengali.


Dutch postcard by J.S.A., no. 142. Photo: MGM.

Dorothy Sebastian (1903-1957) was a US actress who rose to fame in the last days of silent cinema. She played 'the other woman' opposite Greta Garbo in The Single Standard (1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6812/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Manassé, Wien.

Anny Ondra (1903-1987) was a Polish-Czech-Austrian-German-French singer, film, and stage actress. During the 1920s and 1930s, she was a popular actress in Czech, Austrian and German comedies and she was Alfred Hitchcock’s first ‘Blonde’.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5401. Photo: Excelsior Film / Phoebus.

Pretty Austrian actress Jenny Jugo (1904-2001) had a prolific career in German cinema, from the late silent era well into the war years. She did particularly well as a comedienne and starred between 1931 and 1942 in eleven smart and charming comedies directed by Erich Engel.


Dutch postcard by VanHem.

Helen Forrest (1917-1999) was a celebrated American singer and actress, often dubbed 'the voice of the World War II era'. Her rich, emotive vocals defined the Swing era. Her remarkable career spanned work with three of the era's greatest bandleaders, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Harry James.


Dutch postcard by VanHem.

American actress Dorothy Morris (1921-2011) was one of the girls-next-door of the golden age of Hollywood. Although her career was relatively brief, Morris showcased range and an undeniable screen presence.


American postcard by Ludlow Sales, New York, NY, no. FC-91. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942).

Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) is an icon of Hollywood cinema. His private detectives, Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Phillip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1946), became the models for detectives in other Film-Noirs. Bogart and 19-year-old Lauren Bacall fell in love when they filmed To Have and Have Not (1944), the first of a series of films together. He won the Best Actor Oscar for The African Queen (1951). He was also nominated for Casablanca (1942) and as Captain Queeg in Mutiny on the Caine (1954).

Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) was ‘Sweden's illustrious gift to Hollywood’. In the 1940s, the fresh and naturally beautiful actress won three Oscars, twice an Emmy, and once a Tony Award for Best Actress. Little known is that before she went to Hollywood, she already had a European film career.


Dutch postcard, no. AX 499. Photo: Warner Bros.

In a career of five decades. American actress Ruth Roman (1922–1999) transitioned flawlessly from ingénue to leading lady to character actress. She is memorable as the murderous villain in the classic Film Noir The Window (1949) and as Farley Granger's elegant girlfriend in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Strangers on a Train (1951).


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. AX 608. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Green-eyed beauty Jean Peters (1926-2000) flashed across the screen in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Peters did not want to be turned into a sex symbol. She preferred to play unglamorous, down-to-earth women. After just seven years as a bright star of 20th Century Fox, she joined the reclusive lifestyle of her eccentric billionaire husband, Howard Hughes, and became his second wife.


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. AX 196. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Jane Powell (1929) was the singing and dancing star of MGM musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. She is best known for her role as Milly in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954).


Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, no. 379. Photo: Jane Fonda in The Chapman Report (George Cukor, 1962).

American actress Jane Fonda (1937) is a two-time Academy Award winner for the crime thriller Klute (1971) and the Vietnam drama Coming Home (1978). Roger Vadim's psychedelic Science Fiction spoof Barbarella (1968) made her one of the icons of the European cinema of the 1960s. In 2014, she received the American Film Institute AFI Life Achievement Award.


Spanish postcard by Postales Recuadro Blanco by Vikingo, Barcelona, no. 480.

American singer and actress Nancy Sinatra (1940) is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin''.


Spanish postcard by Productos Compactos S.A.

American actress Meryl Streep (1949) is one of the best actresses of her generation, known for her versatility and accents. She has been nominated for the Oscar an astonishing 21 times, and has won it three times. Among her other accolades, she has received 32 Golden Globe nominations, more than any other person, and won eight.

All postcards in this post are from the collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Gérard Lanvin

Darkly handsome Gérard Lanvin (1950) is a César Award-winning French actor and screenwriter. He appeared in several popular French comedies and gangster films.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron in the series Signes du Zodiaque, no. 15. Caption: Gemeaux (Gemini).

A kind of European sex symbol

Gérard Raymond Lanvain was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, in 1950. He quit his studies when he was 17 to become an actor. Between 1968 and 1970, he attended acting courses by François Florent at the Cours Florent. During the 1970s, he worked in the then fashionable theatre-café, Café de la Gare.

He made his film debut as an extra in the hilarious comedy L'Aile ou la Cuisse / The Wing or the Thigh (Claude Zidi, 1976) with Louis de Funès and Coluche as the editors of an internationally known restaurant guide, who are waging a war against a fast food entrepreneur.

Coluche then asked Lanvin as the white knight for his historical satire Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine / You Won't Have Alsace-Lorraine (Coluche, 1977). Lanvin co-starred with Nathalie Baye in the drama Une semaine de vacances / A Week's Vacation (Bertrand Tavernier, 1980), which was entered into the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

He played a jazz musician in the moody comedy-drama Extérieur, nuit / Exterior Night (Jacques Bral, 1980) with Christine Boisson and André Dussollier. With these romantic films, the darkly handsome Lanvin became a kind of European sex symbol.

In 1982, he received the Prix Jean Gabin for his role as a manipulated advertising executive in Une étrange affaire / Strange Affair (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1981) opposite Michel Piccoli as his new manager. James Travers at French Films: “A strange film indeed. By adopting the style if not the substance of a traditional French thriller, this film explores the competing pressures of family and work in modern society. The story should be familiar to anyone who works for a medium-sized company, where certain employees are prepared, or expected, to ditch their home life to advance their careers. Fortunately, the story is told in such an unusual way, with such complex characters, that it appears anything but anodyne.”


Catherine Deneuve. Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 568.


French postcard by Les Editions GIL in the 'Acteurs Français' series, no. 6.

Seemingly conventional screen lover

Gérard Lanvin then appeared in the crime thriller Le Choix des armes / Choice of Arms (Alain Corneau, 1981), starring Yves Montand, Gérard Dépardieu and Catherine Deneuve.

In 1983, he co-starred again with Michel Piccoli in the French-Yugoslav Science-Fiction thriller Le Prix du Danger/The Price of the Danger (Yves Boisset, 1983) about a popular television game show where everyday men or women volunteer to be hunted by professional killers. James Travers: “Whilst it may lack the coherence and sophistication of many of Yves Boisset’s previous thrillers, Le Prix du danger does achieve an effective and satisfying mix of modern Film Noir thriller and black comedy. The action sequences are pacy and well choreographed, whilst the acerbic humour gets across the film’s dark political subtext with impact, in spite of its blatant lack of subtlety. The film benefits from a strong cast.”

A triumph was the urban comedy Marche à l'ombre / Walking in the Shadow (Michel Blanc, 1984) with more than 6,000,000 spectators. James Travers: “The film’s strength lies in the amazing Blanc-Lanvin double act, the two contrasting actors playing off each other to great effect: Blanc the inept yet surprisingly successful Don Juan, Lanvin the seemingly conventional screen lover who fails to get lucky (despite oozing sex appeal by the bucket load).”

Then followed for Lanvin some years in which he seemed to be looking for the right part. In 1992, he starred in La Belle Histoire / The Beautiful Story (Claude Lelouch, 1992) as a gypsy called Jesus.

Three years later, he won a César Award for Best Actor for his role as a shady hotel manager in Le Fils préféré / The Favourite Son (Nicole Garcia, 1995). That year, he also portrayed a homeless man who gets shelter from a prostitute in the erotic drama Mon Homme / My Man (Bertrand Blier, 1995). It was entered into the 46th Berlin International Film Festival, where his co-star Anouk Grinberg won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.


French postcard by Les Editions Gil in the série Acteurs, no. 3. Publicity still for Les Spécialistes / The Specialists (Patrice Leconte, 1985) with Bernard Giraudeau.


French postcard by Les Editions GIL in the 'Acteurs' series, no. 17.

Wildly successful

During the 2000s, Gérard Lanvin returned to the big screen with popular comedies. In 2001, he received the César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the romantic comedy of manners Le Goût des autres / The Taste of Others (Agnes Jaoui, 2001). Jason Clark at AllMovie: “Debut filmmaker Jaoui (who also plays one of the featured roles) finds the quirks in many of her characters in unusual ways, which sets her work apart from cruder efforts. More than anything, Others tries to find the root of human interaction and its subsequent effects, at times in a manner audiences might not be willing to accept, but mostly in an interesting, entertaining fashion.” The film won the César for Best Film and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Lanvin then starred in such popular comedies as Le Boulet / Dead Weight (Alain Berbérian, Frédéric Forestier, 2002) with Benoît Poelvoorde, Trois Zeros / Three Zeros (Fabien Onteniente, 2002) with Samuel LeBihan, and Camping (Fabien Onteniente, 2006) starring Frank Dubosc.

Lanvin had a supporting part in the gangster biopic L'Instinct de Mort / Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Jean-François Richet, 2007), which starred Vincent Cassel as larger-than-life outlaw Jacques Mesrine, who thrived on his status as French Public Enemy Number 1. It was the premier instalment in a two-part series of features, and Lanvin also appeared as Mesrine’s leftist spokesman in the second feature, L'ennemi Public No. 1 / Mesrine: Public Enemy # 1 (Jean-François Richet, 2008). In France, this saga was wildly successful in the cinemas and has been referred to as the French version of Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983) with Al Pacino.

Also popular were the action-thriller À bout portant / Point Blank (Fred Cavayé, 2010) starring Gilles Lellouche, and Les Lyonnais / A Gang Story (Olivier Marchal, 2011) about a 1970s gang which operated around Lyon. Later films include the crime drama Colt 45 (Fabrice du Welz, 2013), the comedy Pension complète / French Cuisine (Florent Sir, 2015) starring Franck Dubosc and Envole-moi / Fly Me Away (Christophe Barratier, 2021) opposite Victor Belmondo, Jean-Paul's grandson.

Gérard Lanvin is married to Chantal Benoist, a former actress and singer who performed under the name Jennifer. They have two children, singer Manu Lanvin and deejay Léo Lanvin.


French poster postcard by S.E.D.I.I., no. C 24. Poster: A.M.L.F. Gérard Lanvin and Eddy Mitchell in Ronde de Nuit / Night Patrol (Jean-Claude Missaen, 1984).


French poster postcard by Humour a la Carte, Paris, no. A-C 185. Image: Christian Fechner. French affiche of Gérard Lanvin and Jennifer in Moi vouloir toi / I Want You (Patrick Dewolf, 1985).


Trailer for Passionnément / Passionately (Bruno Nuytten, 2000) with Charlotte Gainsbourg. Source: Forever CLG (YouTube).

Sources: James Travers (French Films), Jason Clark (AllMovie - Page now defunct), AlloCiné (French), Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.

Moscow Art Theatre, Part 1: 1899-1908

Moscow Art Theatre was the outstanding Russian theatre company that hugely influenced the acting world and the development of modern American theatre and drama. MAT was founded in 1898 by two teachers of dramatic art, Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. Its purpose was to establish a theatre of naturalism, in contrast to the melodramas that were Russia's dominant form of theatre at the time, with a fresh approach to its function.

Uncle Vanya (1899)

Russian postcard. Vasili Luzhski as Serebryakov in 'Uncle Vanya (Russian: Дядя Ваня – Dyadya Vanya, 1899) by Anton Chekhov, and first performed in 1899 at the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT).

The 1899 Moscow Art Theatre production of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s play, 'Uncle Vanya', was directed by Konstantin Stanislavski, who also played the doctor. To Stanislavski’s consternation, Chekhov declined to explain or expand upon the text of the play, a study of aimlessness and hopelessness. However, as Stanislavski was later to relate, Chekhov’s refusal forced Stanislavski to dig beneath the surface of the text to find psychological truth. The exercise changed Stanislavski’s life and work.

Vasily Luzhski was born in 1869 in Shuya, Vladimir Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ivanovo oblast, Russia). In 1898, he joined Konstantin Stanislavski's original troupe and played Shuisky in the Moscow Art Theatre's very first production, that of 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' by Alexey K. Tolstoy. The same year, he played Sorin in what came to be recognised later as the groundbreaking production of Anton Chekhov's 'The Seagull' and soon became the first Russian performer of the part of Prozorov in 'The Three Sisters'. He was also the first performer of the parts of Serebryakov ('Uncle Vanya' by Anton Chekhov, 1899), Andrey ('The Three Sisters', 1901), Bessemenov ('The Philistines' by Maxim Gorky, 1902), Bubnov ('The Lower Depths' by Gorky, 1902), and Lebedev ('Ivanov', 1904). In all, he had 64 parts in the Moscow Art Theatre and was a co-director of its 23 productions. He died in 1931 in Moscow.


Russian postcard, no. 1000. Collection: Didier Hanson. Photo: Anton Chekhov reading a play to actors; next to him, Konstantin Stanislavski and his wife.

Three Sisters (1901)


Russian postcard. Photo: K. Fisher / Moscow Art Theatre. Vasily Kachalov as Baron Nikolaj Lvovich Tuzenbach and Vera Vsevolodovna Baranovskaya as Irina, the youngest sister in 'Tri sestry' (Three Sisters) by Anton Chekhov. 'Tri sestry' was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Russian postcard. Photo: K.A. Fisher, Moscow / Moscow Art Theatre. Vasily Kachalov as Baron Nikolaj Lvovich Tuzenbach in 'Tri sestry' (Three Sisters) by Anton Chekhov, first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre.


Russian postcard. Photo: K. Fisher / Moscow Art Theatre. Vasily Kachalov as Baron Nikolaj Lvovich Tuzenbach in 'Tri sestry' (Three Sisters) by Anton Chekhov, first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Russian postcard. Photo: Moscow Art Theatre. Konstantin Stanislavski as Lieutenant-colonel Aleksandr Ignatyevich Vershinin in 'Tri sestry' (Three Sisters) by Anton Chekhov, first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hansonn.

High-quality art that was available to the general public

Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko wanted to reform Russian theatre to high-quality art that was available to the general public. Sharing similar theatrical experience and interests, the cofounders met, and it was agreed that Stanislavsky was to have absolute control over stage direction while Nemirovich-Danchenko was assigned the literary and administrative duties. Nemirovich was in charge of the literary decisions, and Stanislavski was in charge of all production decisions.

After some 70 rehearsals, the Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; Russian: Московский Художественный академический театр (МХАТ), Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr (МHАТ)) opened with Aleksey Tolstoy’s 'Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich' in October 1898. The Theatre's first season also included 'The Sunken Bell' by Gerhart Hauptmann and 'The Merchant of Venice' by William Shakespeare, but it wasn't until MAT staged Anton Chekhov's 'The Seagull', with Stanislavski in the role of Trigorin, that the theatre achieved fame.

In its first production, Anton Chekhov’s 'The Seagull' had failed. With its revival of 'The Seagull', the Moscow Art Theatre not only achieved its first major success but also began a long artistic association with one of Russia’s most celebrated playwrights. The MAT productions of his four major plays were among the company's greatest triumphs.

In Chekhov’s artistic realism, the Moscow Art Theatre discovered a writer suited to its aesthetic sensibilities. In 'The Seagull', as in their productions of 'Uncle Vanya' (1899), 'Three Sisters' (1901) and 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904), the MAT emphasised the subtext, the underlying meaning of the playwright’s thought. Chekhov was a literary artist of laconic precision who probed below the surface of life, laying bare the secret motives of his characters.

Artistically, the Moscow Art Theatre tried all that was new. Its repertoire included works of Henrik Ibsen, Maxim Gorky, L.N. Andreyev, Leo Tolstoy, Maurice Maeterlinck, and Gerhart Hauptmann, among others, and it staged works of political and social significance as well as satires, fantasies, and comedies.


Russian postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938) was a wealthy Russian businessman turned stage director. He founded the Moscow Art Theatre and originated the Stanislavski System of acting.|This acting system was spread over the world by his students, including Michael Chekhov, Aleksei Dikij, Stella Adler, Viktor Tourjansky, and Richard Boleslawski.


Russian postcard. Sent by mail in 1904. Collection: Didier Hanson.

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

The Lower Depths (1902)

Russian postcard, no. 8572. Ivan Moskvin as Luka and Vasily Kachalov as the Baron in 'The Lower Depths' (Russian: На дне) by Maxim Gorky, first performed on 18 December 1902, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko at the Moscow Art Theatre. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Russian pre-revolutionary postcard, no. 2568. Ivan Moskvin as Luka in 'The Lower Depths' by Maxim Gorky, first performed in 1902 at the Moscow Art Theatre.


Russian postcard. Alexander Zagarov as Kleshtch in 'The Lower Depths' by Maxim Gorky, first performed in 1902 at the Moscow Art Theatre.


Russian postcard. Policeman Medvedev (actor unknown) in 'The Lower Depths' (Russian: На дне) by Maxim Gorky. Vladimir Gribunin originally played Medvedev in the 1902 version of The Lower Depths by the Moscow Art Theatre. It is not clear whether this card refers to that version.

Fostering community and trust

The original ensemble of the Moscow Art Theatre was made up of amateur actors from the Society of Art and Literature and from the dramatic classes of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, where Konstantin Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko had taught. Influenced by the German Meiningen Company, Stanislavsky began to develop a system of training for actors that would enable them to perform realistically in any sort of role and situation.

Konstantin Stanislavski interviewed all his actors, making sure they were working hard and devoted as well as talented. He made them live together in common housing for months at a time to foster community and trust, which he believed would raise the quality of their performances. Stanislavski's system, in which he trained actors via the acting studios he founded as part of the theatre, became central to every production the theatre put on. The system had a huge influence on the development of method acting.

Stanislavski and Danchenko's initial goal was an 'open theatre', one that anyone could afford to attend. This goal was quickly destroyed when they could neither obtain adequate funding from private investors nor from the Moscow City Council.

After Anton Chekhov died in 1904, the theatre experienced a huge changeover. Chekhov had envisioned fellow playwright and friend Maxim Gorki as his successor as the Theatre's leading dramatist, but Nemirovich and Stanislavski's reaction to his play 'Summerfolk' was unenthusiastic, causing Gorki to leave. He took with him Savva Morozov, one of the theatre's main investors at the time.

Now in dire straits, the Moscow Art Theatre decided to accept invitations to go on an international tour in 1906. The tour started in Berlin and included Dresden, Frankfurt, Prague, and Vienna. It was a huge success, gaining the theatre international acclaim.

Julius Caesar (1903)

Russian postcard. Vasily Kachalov as Julius Caesar and Alexander Vishnevsky as Mark Antony in William Shakespeare's play 'Julius Caesar', directed by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1903 at the Moscow Art Theatre.

Aleksandr Vishnevsky (1861-1943) was a Russian actor and one of the founding members of the Moscow Art Theatre.


Russian postcard. Leonid Leonidov as Cassius in 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare, performed at the Moscow Art Theatre (1903).

Leonid Mironovich Leonidov (1873-1941) was a Russian and Soviet actor and stage director.


Russian postcard. An unknown as a vestal virgin in 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare, performed at the Moscow Art Theatre (1903).


Russian postcard. Unknowns as Romans in 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare, performed at the Moscow Art Theatre (1903).


Russian postcard. 'On the Streets of Rome' in 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare, performed at the Moscow Art Theatre (1903).


Russian postcard. Chadrin or Shadrin as the tavern owner in 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare, performed at the Moscow Art Theatre (1903).


. Russian postcard by Phototypie Scherer, Nabholz & Co., Moscow 1903. 'Roman nobility' in 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare, performed at the Moscow Art Theatre (1903). The flower seller seems to refer to literature like 'The Last Days of Pompeii' and paintings like those by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.


Russian postcard by Phototypie Scherer, Nabholz & Co., Moscow 1903. Leonid Leonidov as Cassius and A.L. Zagarov as Pindarus in 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare, performed at the Moscow Art Theatre (1903).


Russian postcard by Phototypie Scherer, Nabholz & Co., Moscow 1903. Vasily Kachalov as Julius Caesar in 'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare, performed at the Moscow Art Theatre (1903).

The Inspector General (1908)

Russian postcard, no. 47. A.F. (Apollon) Gorev as Kleshtakhov, the presumed General Inspector in 'The Inspector General' (Revizor) by Nikolai Gogol, performed by the Moscow Art Theatre in 1908. From the Art Magazine by I.I. Kornilova & Co., Moscow.

Apollon Gorev (1887-1912) was a Russian stage actor who worked at the Moscow Art Theatre, but he died at a young age. He was the son of the actors F.P. Gorev (1850-1910) and Elizaveta Goreva (1859-1917). As a regular of MAT, he acted in 'The Seagull' (1898), 'Uncle Vanya' (1899), etc., lastly in 1909.

To be continued next week.

Sources: Britannica and Wikipedia (English).