Nymphomaniac (2013)

Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (2013) is a two-part film directed by Lars von Trier, originally intended as one film but divided into two parts by von Trier due to its length. Nymphomaniac Parts I and II comprise the third act of Von Trier's 'Depression Trilogy', the other two films being Melancholia (2011) and Antichrist (2009).


Dutch postcard by Four Corners. Photo: Wild Bunch. Charlotte Gainsbourg in Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (Lars von Trier, 2013). Caption: Forget about love.


Chinese postcard. Charlotte Gainsbourg in Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (Lars von Trier, 2013).

A brilliantly constructed, modern Scheherazade tale

Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (2013) takes place on a cold winter night. An old, charming bachelor named Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) finds a fainted, wounded woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg), slumped in an alley. He brings her to his flat.

As he tends to her wounds, she tells him that her name is Joe and that she is a nymphomaniac. While she recounts her life and sexual experiences with hundreds of men since she was a young teenager, the asexual Seligman tells about his hobbies, such as fly fishing, reading about Fibonacci numbers or listening to organ music.

Lars Von Trier brilliantly constructed a modern Scheherazade tale. The chapters in which Joe's life is told are separated by the intermezzos with dialogues between the erudite, shy Seligman and the intelligent Joe, whose life is overshadowed by all-pervasive guilt feelings.

Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac was the third part of Von Trier's 'Depression Trilogy', which came about as a result of his own experience with a major depressive episode and the psychological insights he gained of the depressed psyche.

Nymphomania (or excessive sexual drive) is a legitimate psychological disorder that is recognised by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) of the World Health Organisation. Sufferers are often apathetic, their behaviour is reckless and impetuous, with little regard for consequences. Von Trier plays in his film with religion, with the concepts of purity and sin and confronts us with our obsession with sex and human bodies. He also makes fun of the hypocrites who reject his film.


Dutch postcard by Four Corners. Photo: Wild Bunch. Shia Labeouf in Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (Lars von Trier, 2013). Caption: Forget about love.


Dutch postcard by Four Corners. Photo: Wild Bunch. Christian Slater in Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (Lars von Trier, 2013). Caption: Forget about love.

Porn actors were used for the explicit sex scenes

Lars von Trier featured many of his regular actors in Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (2013). It was his third consecutive collaboration with Charlotte Gainsbourg after Antichrist (2009) and Melancholia (2011), as well as with Willem Dafoe, his fifth with Stellan Skarsgård, his seventh with Jean-Marc Barr and his eighth with Udo Kier.

On the other hand, several actors are taking part in a Lars von Trier film for the first time, including Shia LaBeouf and Jamie Bell. Porn actors were used for the explicit sex scenes, after which their bodies were digitally placed on the film actors.

The graphic film created a scandal and was cut in 2013, also because of its length. The uncut version of ‘Volume I’ premiered in 2014 at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the uncut version of ‘Volume II’ premiered that year at the Venice Film Festival.

The complete 5.5-hour Director's Cut version had its world premiere in 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Charlotte Gainsbourg won the Danish Bodil for Best Actress in a Leading Role for both films in 2014. Several nominations for the European Film Awards followed in the same year (Best Film, Best Actress - Charlotte Gainsbourg, Best Actor - Stellan Skarsgård, Audience Award).

The director's cut version was honoured at the 2015 Danish Film Awards Robert in eight categories, including Best Danish Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.


Dutch postcard by Four Corners. Photo: Wild Bunch. Uma Thurman in Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (Lars von Trier, 2013). Caption: Forget about love.


Dutch postcard by Four Corners. Photo: Wild Bunch. Willem Dafoe in Nymphomaniac / Nymph()maniac (Lars von Trier, 2013). Caption: Forget about love.


French postcard by Cartcom. Photo: Derek Hudson / Télérama. Lars von Trier.

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

Gloria Jean

American actress and singer Gloria Jean (1926-2018) starred in 26 feature films from 1939 to 1959 and made numerous radio, television, stage and nightclub appearances. She was 12 when she was taken to an audition by Universal director Joe Pasternak. He was looking for a new child singer to replace studio icon Deanna Durbin. Her first film, The Under-Pup (1939), made her an instant hit with filmgoers. A Little Bit of Heaven (1940) was probably her best film, but Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) with W.C. Fields remains her most-seen film. By then, she had outgrown her Little Miss Fixit roles. She later appeared mostly in B-films and on stage.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1312. Photo: Universal.


Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: N.V. Holl.-Am. F.B.O. Robert Stack, Gloria Jean and Nan Grey in A Little Bit of Heaven (Andrew Marton, 1940).

Little Miss Fixit roles and Hepcat musicals

Gloria Jean Schoonover was born in 1926 in Buffalo, New York. She and her family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, shortly afterwards. Her father, Ferman Schoonover, owned a music store. Her mother, Eleanor Schoonover, had been a circus bareback rider and took care of Gloria and her three sisters: Sally, Lois and Bonnie. Gloria's singing ability was discovered when she was little. She was three years old when she first sang on the radio under the name of Baby Skylark.

Her family was involved in her later career. Lois served as a stand-in for Gloria Jean, and their father managed her career. By 5, she was singing in the Scranton area and sang with Paul Whiteman's orchestra on radio broadcasts. At 12, she became the youngest member of an American opera troupe when she joined a small New York opera company. In 1938, Gloria was being trained as a coloratura soprano when her voice teacher, Leah Russel, took her to an audition held by Universal Pictures producer Joe Pasternak.

Pasternak was looking for a new child singer to replace studio icon Deanna Durbin, who was being steered into ingenue and young-adult roles. Although hundreds of Shirley-Temple-perfect girls competed, natural-looking Gloria was chosen, and she and her mother headed to Hollywood. Gloria made her first film, The Under-Pup (Richard Wallace, 1939), with Robert Cummings and Nan Grey. It made her an instant hit with filmgoers. Happy with their young coloratura soprano, Universal cast her in If I Had My Way (David Butler, 1940), which co-starred Bing Crosby and Charles Winninger. Next came A Little Bit of Heaven (Andrew Marton, 1940) with Robert Stack, which some consider her best film. Then followed a co-starring role with W.C. Fields in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Edward F. Cline, 1941), which became her most-seen film.

At this point in 1941, Gloria Jean was at the pinnacle of her career, yet her star wasn't soaring. She had outgrown her Little Miss Fixit roles, as Deanna Durbin had a few years earlier. Durbin was in command of the older-girl roles for the better pictures. Unsure what to do with Jean, Universal moved her to the 'Hepcat' movies in which she often co-starred with Donald O'Connor. These 'hipster' musicals were geared to teenagers to introduce new young talent and included What's Cooking (Edward F. Cline, 1942) with The Andrews Sisters, Get Hep to Love (Charles Lamont, 1942), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (Charles Lamont, 1942), and It Comes Up Love (Charles Lamont, 1942). The next year, Mr Big (Charles Lamont, 1943) and Moonlight in Vermont (Edward C. Lilley, 1943) followed.

All these 'Hepcat' musicals were stock B-films. Like many Universal stars, Gloria had a few seconds onscreen in the war effort picture Follow the Boys (A. Edward Sutherland, John Rawlins, 1944). After that came the rather good Pardon My Rhythm (Felix E. Feist, 1944) with Mel Torme, who became a close friend. In Ghost Catchers (Edward F. Cline, 1944), she was teamed with popular comedians Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. The forgettable Reckless Age (Felix E. Feist, 1944) was next, and its main distinction was as the first in which Gloria played a more mature role.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series. Photo: Universal, London, no. 1312a.


Spanish postcard in the Hollywood (California) series by Archivo Bermejo, Barcelona, no. 3239.

Hostess at a Tahitian restaurant

In January 1944, Universal announced plans to launch Gloria Jean as a more adult star, and she turned 18 in April. Gloria was to star as a blind girl in one of four episodes of Julien Duvivier's Flesh and Fantasy, alongside such stars as Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, and Barbara Stanwyck. But the film was found to be too long, and Gloria's segment was cut out. Some additional footage was added, and the result was the Film Noir Destiny (Reginald Le Borg, Julien Duvivier, 1944). Gloria's first dramatic performance won rave reviews, but the actual film met with only modest success.

Gloria followed this with three more Universal films: I'll Remember April (Harold Young, 1945), the Film Noir River Gang (Charles David, 1945) with Keefe Brasselle, and the musical Easy to Look At (Ford Beebe, 1945) with Kirby Grant. On bad advice from her agent, Gloria Jean decided to go on tour instead of renewing her Universal contract. The tour underperformed, and she returned to Hollywood in 1947. Gloria Jean's family lawyer had vanished with her earnings, and she found great difficulty in securing film roles.

Groucho Marx gave her a minor role in his film Copacabana (Alfred E. Green, 1947) with Carmen Miranda. This appearance ultimately landed her four more: I Surrender Dear (Arthur Dreifuss, 1948), Manhattan Angel (Arthur Dreifuss, 1948), An Old-Fashioned Girl (Arthur Dreifuss, 1949), and There's a Girl in My Heart (Arthur Dreifuss, 1949). As the 1950s began, Gloria made six Snader Telescriptions, three-minute musicals that aired during television's early days. Other than that and a few guest appearances on TV series, her acting career was virtually finished.

She appeared in the forgettable Air Strike (Cy Roth, 1955) and a couple of films that were never released. In 1961, Jerry Lewis read about her working as a hostess at a Tahitian restaurant and gave her a part in his film The Ladies' Man (Jerry Lewis, 1963). This was meant to relaunch her career, but her scenes didn't make the final cut. Gloria Jean's final television appearances occurred in episodes of The Dick Powell Theatre, Lockup and Saints and Sinners. Shortly after, she was briefly married to Italian actor Franco Cellini (1962-1966) and had a son, Angelo. At that point, she virtually retired from the screen and went to work for the cosmetics firm Redken until 1993, when she retired.

Gloria was reintroduced to a limelight of sorts by the magic of eBay, where her films were being sold. With her sister Bonnie's help, who handled the computer, she sold copies of her films on eBay, as well as signed photographs of herself. Spurred by the popularity of these, she published her autobiography, 'Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven' (2005). After her sister Bonnie's death in 2007, Gloria moved to Hawaii to live with her son and his family. Her son died in 2017, and very late in life, she suffered health problems. Until she died from heart failure and pneumonia in 2018, Gloria Jean lived in Mountain View, HI, with her family. She is buried in Hawaii's Mountain View Community Cemetery. She had four grandchildren.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 245, offered by Victoria, Brussels, no. 639. Photo: Universal.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 668. Photo: Associated British Pathé.

Sources: Tom Barrister (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

15 New cards from G.D.I.: German, Austrian, American and Swedish female stars of the silent era

In EFSP's monthly series about the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute postcard collection, this is the second post about a small brown album. It is from the estate of the late Dutch film historians Tjitte de Vries and Atie Mul. I selected 14 postcards for today's post with portraits of German, Austrian, American and Swedish female stars of the silent era. As an extra, I added a card of TV star Dorothy Provine, who became very popular as a Charleston-dancing flapper in the TV series The Roaring '20s (1960-1962).


German postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5899. Photo: Philipp & Co / Allianz.

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.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 3052.

Erna Morena (1885-1962) had an enormous career in German silent cinema in the 1910s and 1920s, and until the mid-1930s, she was regularly performing in German sound films.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 4415. Photo: Atelier Eberth, Berlin-W.

Hilde Wörner (1895-1963) was a German stage and film actress who also worked as a filmmaker. She appeared mainly in silent films, had her own series, and her most notable film was Ernst Lubitsch’s Die Flamme (1922).

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 6821. Photo: Atelier Riess, Berlin W.

German, but Dutch-born film actress Lil Dagover (1887-1980) was an exotic, dark beauty who featured prominently during the golden age of German silent cinema. She had her breakthrough as the prey of Dr. Caligari's monster in the classic expressionist film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920), but gradually her fine and evanescent beauty changed, and she turned into a ´Salondame´, a lady of the screen. Her career would span nearly six decades.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 6827. Photo: Atelier Riess, Berlin W.



German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 262/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder / Decla.

Carola Toelle (1893-1958) was a German actress, particularly in German silent cinema of the late 1910s and early 1920s.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 551/2. Photo: Richard Oswald Film Ges., Berlin. Mechtildis Thein as the title character and Leo Connard as her father, Salomon Gebert, in Henriette Jacoby (Richard Oswald, 1918) or Jettchen Geberts Geschichte / Jettchen Gebert's Story (Richard Oswald, 1918).

Set in mid-19th-century Berlin, the plot of Jettchen Geberts Geschichte/Jettchen Gebert's Story (Richard Oswald, 1918) deals with the daughter of a well-to-do Jewish merchant's family, who falls in love with a delicate but penniless writer. Her family will not accept him and forces her to marry another merchant. Georg Hermann and director Richard Oswald were the writers of the story. The film was made in two parts. The first episode was called Jettchen Gebert, and the second was called Henriette Jacoby. The film is considered lost.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3104. Photo: Alex Binder.

Manja Tzatschewa (1897-1966) was a Bulgarian actress who worked in the German silent cinema of the late 1910s and early 1920s. After her film debut in 1917, she played leading roles in films by Lupu Pick and her husband Manfred Noa. Often, she performed as a temperamental Oriental young woman.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 505/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Kosel, Wien, 1922 / Micco Film.

Prima ballerina, dancer, singer and actress Liane Haid (1895-2000) was the first film star of Austria. She was the epitome of the 'Süßes Wiener Mädel' (Sweet Viennese Girl), and from the mid-1910s on, she made close to a hundred films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5893/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1016. Photo: Nordisk Films Kompagni, Copenhagen.

Elisabeth Frederiksen (1899-1963) was a Swedish actress and operetta singer who acted in a few Danish silent films.


French postcard by J.R.P.R., Paris, no. 465. Photo: First National.

Stunningly beautiful and highly photogenic, Billie Dove (1903-1997) was one of the most popular Hollywood actresses of the 1920s. She was dubbed The American Beauty, after the title of one of her films.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 358-1. Photo: Paramount-Film.

Norwegian-American Greta Nissen (1906–1988) was a blonde bombshell who appeared in more than 30 films in Denmark, the United States and England. Unfortunately, she is now most famous for a role which was re-shot with another actress.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 793. Photo: Fanamet-Film.

American silent film actress Constance Talmadge (1898-1973) was one of the biggest stars of the 1920s, together with her sister Norma. She had her breakthrough in a double role in D.W. Griffith's classic Intolerance (1916). 'Connie' Talmadge appeared in 83 films, mostly romantic comedies, for which Anita Loos wrote several scripts.


Vintage postcard, no. SP210. Dorothy Provine in the TV series The Roaring '20s (1960-1962).

American actress Dorothy Provine (1935-2010) was a flashy, leggy, bouffant blonde in late 1950s and early 1960s TV series. She is best remembered as Pinky Pinkham, the Charleston-dancing flapper in the adventure series The Roaring '20s (1960-1962). Her film roles included It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Great Race (1965) and That Darn Cat! (1965).

All postcards: Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Richard Harris

Irish actor and singer Richard Harris (1930-2002) rose to prominence as an icon of the British New Wave when he received an Oscar nomination for his 'angry young man' role in This Sporting Life (1963). 27 years later, Harris scored rave reviews and another Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an old Irish patriarch in The Field (1990). He played other notable roles in The Guns of Navarone (1961), Michelangelo Antonioni's Il deserto rosso / Red Desert (1964), A Man Called Horse (1970), Unforgiven (1992), and Gladiator (2000). Harris earned cross-generational acclaim for his Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). The latter was his final film role.


Vintage postcard. Richard Harris in A Man Called Horse (Elliot Silverstein, 1970).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Richard Harris and Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001).

The quintessential angry young man

Richard St John Francis Harris was born in 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family. He was the fifth of eight (or nine - the sources differ) children of Mildred (Harty) and Ivan Harris. He was educated by the Jesuits at Crescent College and was an excellent rugby player, with a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout of tuberculosis as a teenager ended his aspirations for a rugby career. He became fascinated with the theatre and skipped a local dance one night to attend a performance of 'Henry IV'. He was hooked and went on to learn his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

While still a student, he rented the tiny 'off-West End' Irving Theatre in London and directed his own production of Clifford Odets' 'Winter Journey (The Country Girl)'. The critics approved, but the production used up all his savings. After completing his studies at the academy, he joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. He began getting roles in West End theatre productions, starting with 'The Quare Fellow' in 1956, a transfer from the Theatre Workshop. He spent nearly a decade in obscurity, learning his profession on stages throughout the UK.

He debuted on screen in the British comedy Alive and Kicking (Cyril Frankel, 1959), starring Sybil Thorndike, followed by a small part in Shake Hands with the Devil (Michael Anderson, 1959), starring screen legend James Cagney. Harris quickly scored regular work in films, including The Wreck of the Mary Deare (Michael Anderson, 1959) with Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston, and A Terrible Beauty (Tay Garnett, 1960) opposite Robert Mitchum. He played a good role as a frustrated Australian bomber pilot in the all-star war epic The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961). In his youth, he had been a fan of Marlon Brando, but he did not get along with the American star while filming Mutiny on the Bounty (Lewis Milestone, Carol Reed, George Seaton, 1962). He blamed Brando's on-set behaviour for the film going over budget and over schedule.

Harris's breakthrough performance was as the quintessential 'angry young man' in the sensational drama This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963). His part as a bitter young coal miner, Frank Machin, who becomes an acclaimed rugby league football player, earned him an Oscar nomination. Also acclaimed was the Italian psychological drama Il deserto rosso / Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) with Monica Vitti. Set in Northern Italy, the story follows a troubled woman who is unable to adapt to her environment after an automobile accident. Red Desert was awarded the Golden Lion at the 25th Venice International Film Festival in 1964. Harris then co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the WWII commando tale The Heroes of Telemark (Anthony Mann, 1965) and with Charlton Heston in the Western Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965).

He next showed up in the musical Hawaii (George Roy Hill, Arthur Hiller, 1966) starring Julie Andrews, and played King Arthur in Camelot (Joshua Logan, 1967), a lacklustre adaptation of Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe's hit musical. He hated making the Spy spoof comedy Caprice (Frank Tashlin, 1967) with Doris Day so much that he never watched the film. Harris was the very first person to record Jimmy Webb's song 'MacArthur Park' and scored a number-one singing hit in Australia, Jamaica and Canada, and a top-ten hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States, in 1968.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 322. Photo: Monica Vitti and Richard Harris in Il deserto rosso / Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964).


Vintage postcard. Richard Harris in A Man Called Horse (Elliot Silverstein, 1970).

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore

At the height of his stardom in the 1960s and early 1970s, Richard Harris was almost as well known for his hellraiser lifestyle and heavy drinking as he was for his acting career. He played a fine role as a reluctant police informer in The Molly Maguires (Martin Ritt, 1970) alongside Sir Sean Connery. He took the lead role in the violent Western A Man Called Horse (Elliot Silverstein, 1970), which became a cult film and spawned two sequels. He portrayed Oliver Cromwell in the film Cromwell (Ken Hughes, 1970) opposite Alec Guinness as King Charles I of England. He directed himself as an ageing soccer player in Bloomfield (Richard Harris, Uri Zohar, 1970) with Romy Schneider. That year, British exhibitors voted him the 9th-most popular star at the UK box office.

Harris received an Emmy Award for his role in the British television drama The Snow Goose (Patrick Garland, 1971). As the 1970s progressed, Harris continued to appear regularly on screen, but the quality of the scripts varied from above average to woeful. His credits during this period included the Spaghetti Western The Deadly Trackers (Barry Shear, Samuel Fuller, 1973), the big-budget disaster film Juggernaut (Richard Lester, 1974) and the strangely-titled crime film 99 and 44/100% Dead! (John Frankenheimer, 1974). Sean Connery and Harris reunited in Robin and Marian (Richard Lester, 1976), also starring Audrey Hepburn. Harris had a cameo as Richard the Lionheart. He starred in the dated animated fantasy Gulliver's Travels (Peter R. Hunt, 1977) and in the Jaws rip-off Orca: The Killer Whale (Michael Anderson, 1977).

Richard Harris played an ill-fated mercenary with Richard Burton and Roger Moore in the action film The Wild Geese (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1978). He was a vocal supporter of the Provisional Irish Republican Army from 1973 to 1984. He was replaced by Donald Sutherland as IRA terrorist Liam Devlin in The Eagle Has Landed (John Sturges, 1976) after it was discovered that he had attended a fundraiser for the Provisional IRA in the US. He discontinued his support after the 1983 Harrods bombing and later became active in persuading Americans of Irish descent not to give money to terrorist groups. The 1980s kicked off with Harris appearing in the silly Bo Derek production Tarzan the Ape Man (John Derek, 1981). That year, Harris nearly died from alcoholism, and a Roman Catholic priest was called to give him the last rites. Harris went into semi-retirement on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas, where he kicked his drinking habit and embraced a healthier lifestyle. He gave up drinking completely, but returned to drinking Guinness a decade later. He later also said that he gave up drugs after almost overdosing on cocaine in 1978. In 1985, Harris became a born-again Catholic after his brother Dermot Harris died from alcoholism. In the mid-1980s, he was a guest professor at the University of Scranton, teaching Theatre Arts courses, but the remainder of the 1980s had him appearing in such forgettable productions as the American drama Martin's Day (Alan Gibson, 1985), Strike Commando 2 (Bruno Mattei, Claudio Fragasso, 1988), and King of the Wind (Peter Duffell, 1990).

Harris made a triumphant comeback when director Jim Sheridan cast him in the lead role in The Field (Jim Sheridan, 1990), written by the esteemed Irish playwright John B. Keane. The role of 'Bull' McCabe was originally to be played by Ray McAnally, but when McAnally suddenly died, Harris was offered the role. The Field was released in 1990 and earned Harris his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He then locked horns with Harrison Ford as an IRA sympathiser in the political thriller Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce, 1992) and got one of his best roles as gunfighter English Bob in the Western Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992). Harris was firmly back in vogue. He gave wonderful performances in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (Randa Haines, 1993) opposite Robert Duvall and Shirley MacLaine, Cry, the Beloved Country (Darrell Roodt, 1995) opposite James Earl Jones, the TV Movie The Great Kandinsky (Terry Winsor, 1995), and This Is the Sea (Mary McGuckian, 1997) starring Samantha Morton. Further fortune came his way with a strong performance as the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the blockbuster Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000) starring Russell Crowe.

Then he became known to an entirely new generation of film fans as Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the mega-successful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Chris Columbus, 2002). Harris hesitated to take the role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) owing to the multi-film commitment and his declining health. He ultimately accepted because, according to his account of the story, his 11-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he did not take it. His final screen role was as Lucius Sulla in the TV Mini-series Julius Caesar (Uli Edel, 2002) with Christopher Walken as Cato and Jeremy Sisto as Julius Caesar. Richard Harris died of Hodgkin's disease, also known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, in London in 2002, aged 72. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at his home in the Bahamas. In 1957, Harris married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, and they had three sons: director Damian Harris, as well as actors Jared Harris and Jamie Harris. Harris and Rees-Williams divorced in 1969, after which Harris married American actress Ann Turkel in 1974. They divorced in 1982. He spent the last 12 years of his life living in Room 758 at the world-famous Savoy Hotel in London.


French postcard by Service Postal. Photo: Warner Bros. Richard Harris in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Richard Harris in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chris Columbus, 2001).

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

Jean Richard

Jean Richard (1921-2001) was a French actor, comedian, and circus entrepreneur. He appeared in more than 80 films, but he is best remembered for his role as Georges Simenon's pipe-smoking detective Maigret in the French television series. He played the role for more than twenty years.


French postcard by JPB. Photo: Disques Philips.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1099. Photo: Ektochrome Studeco. Georges Guétary and Jean Richard in the stage production of the operetta 'La Polka des lampions' (1961) by Marcel Achard at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, where it played 534 times.


French postcard by Monachrome, Beausoleil, no. 203. Caption: ZOO Jean Richard, Ermenonville (Oise). From left to right: Gertrude (gorilla), Jean Richard (man), Faston (chimpanzee), Kiki (chimpanzee), Roger Pierre (man).

A menagerie quickly reached impressive proportions

Jean François Henri Richard was born in Bessines, Deux-Sèvres, in the southwest of France in 1921. He was born on a farm named La Ménagerie. His father was Pierre Richard, a horse dealer, and his mother a homemaker, née Suzanne Boinot. His early encounters with circus performers (particularly Martha-la-Corse, a cat trainer) triggered his enduring passion for animals, especially big cats. Richard, who had a gift for drawing, began his working life as a caricaturist for local newspapers. After World War II, Richard organised German tours for French theatrical companies.

He began to make a name for himself performing in a famous postwar Parisian cabaret, L'Amiral. There, he developed a successful comic character, that of a jovial and naive peasant from the small imaginary village of Champignol. After attending the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique in 1947, Jean Richard worked in the circus, cabaret, cinema and television.

His first film was the drama Six heures à perdre / Six Hours to Lose (Alex Joffé, Jean Le Vitte, 1947), starring André Luguet. His first major cinema success was Belle Mentalité / Wonderful Mentality (André Berthomieu, 1953), in which he played a valet with an extremely logical mind, who is unable to tell a lie. Jean Renoir offered him one of his best roles in Elena et les Hommes / Elena and the Men (Jean Renoir, 1955), starring Ingrid Bergman.

During his long career, he appeared in about eighty films. These included such hits as the comedies La guerre des boutons / War of the Buttons (Yves Robert, 1962), Bébert et l'omnibus / Bebert and the Train (Yves Robert, 1963) and Le viager / The Annuity (Pierre Tchernia, 1972), starring Michel Serrault and Michel Galabru.

His ever-growing popularity allowed him to purchase a vast property in Ermenonville, north of Paris, where he began to gather all sorts of wild animals. His menagerie quickly reached impressive proportions. In order to continue maintaining it, he had to open it to the public in 1956. His private zoological collection, the Zoo d'Ermenonville, became the most important in the country. In 1957, he created the Jean Richard Circus and in 1963, the La Mer de Sable theme park, northeast of Paris. Both are still owned by his family.


French promotion postcard by A. Leconte, Editeur, Paris, for Disques Ducretet-Thomson. Illustration: Lalande. Caption: Jean Richard recorded his best sketches, “Un soirée au Cabaret AMIRAL” (An Evening at the AMIRAL Cabaret), on LP no. 360 V 007.


French postcard. Photo: Jentille / Philips.


French postcard by Zoo Jean Richard, Ermenonville, Oise. Caption: Having a good friend!...

The grumbling but tender-hearted detective

Jean Richard continued to appear as a comic actor in films and on stage in successful musicals. Richard is remembered for his TV role as Commissaire Maigret, the famous detective created by Georges Simenon. Richard soon became synonymous with the grumbling but tender-hearted detective. With his trademarks, a pipe and a hat, he appeared on TV screens in 92 episodes of Les enquêtes du commissaire Maigret (1967-1990).

In 1972, he bought the Cirque Pinder, the ultimate and largest French circus. The greatest artists of the time performed under his big tops, and Richard found himself at the helm of the most important circus enterprise in France. Richard shuttled continually from TV studio to theatre boards, from his corporate offices to his circuses on the road.

To those who asked him how he could do so many things at the same time, he replied: "But I am on a vacation, since I do only things I love!" In May 1973, the machine jammed. A terrible car accident left Jean Richard on the brink of death for three weeks. After that, Richard was obliged to delegate. The company continued to expand, but became a giant with feet of clay.

After a reorganisation in 1978, the company filed for bankruptcy in 1983. The circuses Pinder and Jean Richard were bought by a former associate, Gilbert Edelstein. Jean Richard retired as an actor in 1990. He died in 2001 in Senlis, at the age of 80, after a battle with cancer. He was married to Annick Tanguy and Anne-Marie Lejard, and had two children.

Pierre Fenouillet at Circopedia: "Jean Richard died on December 12, 2001, orphaning an entire generation of circus enthusiasts to whom he soon became a cult figure. Some of these enthusiasts stand today at the helm of major French circuses. In 2021, they celebrated the hundredth anniversary of his birth with a series of manifestations and dedications in Bessines, Jean Richard's birthplace, and Ermenonville, where he lived."


French postcard by Monachrome, Cap-d'Ail, no. 150. Caption: ZOO Jean Richard, Ermenonville (Oise), Monsieur Maouzi (Léopard).


French postcard by Monachrome, Cap-d'Ail, no. 151. Caption: ZOO Jean Richard, Ermenonville (Oise), Monsieur Maouzi (Léopard).


French postcard by Carterie artistique et cinématographique, Pont du Casse in the Encyclopédie du Cinéma / A.D.A.G.P, Paris, no. EDC 1859. Poster illustration: Raymond Savignac. Poster for La guerre des boutons / The War of the Buttons (Yves Robert, 1962).


French postcard by Carterie artistique et cinématographique, Pont du Casse in the Encyclopédie du Cinéma / A.D.A.G.P, Paris, no. EDC 3177. Poster illustration: Raymond Savignac. Poster for La guerre des boutons/The War of the Buttons (Yves Robert, 1962).

Sources: Pierre Fenouillet (Circopedia), BBC, Wikipedia (English, Dutch and French) and IMDb.

L'eclisse (1962)

Along with L’avventura, La notte, and Deserto rosso, L'eclisse is part of Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘Great Tetralogy’, in which setting and environment are very important. In L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962), Monica Vitti lives in EUR, a modernistic suburb of Rome. She meets Alain Delon, who plays a confident stockbroker in the old city centre. His materialistic nature eventually undermines their relationship. For the newest edition of the magazine Roma Aeterna, Ivo Blom wrote an article about the locations of L'eclisse. We updated our old post on Antonioni's masterpiece with pictures we took in 2010 when we followed his old footsteps in EUR.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmulu Acin. C.P.C.S. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962).


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 322. Photo: Radio Film. Alain Delon in L'eclisse / The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962).


Dutch postcard by De Muinck en Co, Amsterdam, no. 809. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962).

As long as their love will endure

By Michelangelo Antonioni’s own account, his ideas for films are born of visual epiphanies, fleeting but revealing glimpses of the world around him. Modern architecture is symptomatic of the problems facing modern Western man, and the locations play a significant role in L'eclisse.

Monica Vitti plays a young translator, Vittoria, who leaves her lover, the writer Riccardo (Francisco Rabal), and terminates their 4-year relationship. Following several sleepless nights, Vittoria visits her estranged mother (Lila Brignone) at the stock exchange. There, the dynamic young stockbroker Piero (Alain Delon) casts his romantic gaze in Vittoria's direction. Although they have little in common, Vittoria visits Piero in his office, and they make plans to meet again that night and every night thereafter - for as long as their love will endure.

L'eclisse caps off Michelangelo Antonioni's previous two films, L'avventura (1960) and La Notte (1961), in much the same style. A characteristic of Antonioni's films is the long, significant periods of silence. The people in his film just cannot seem to communicate with each other. Eleanor Mannikka at AllMovie: "There is much to appreciate in this man who is not overly intellectual and is blessedly free of complications, and the same can be said of Vittoria. Yet their innermost fears play upon both of them in ways that go against an honest expression of their love - and against a lasting relationship."

Antonioni’s Rome works as a mirror to the characters. EUR, the quarter where most of L'eclisse evolves, was then – and still is – a zone for the well-to-do, but for the modern ones; not the conservative rich who cling to the historic centre with its century-old palazzi and antiques. At the start of the film, Vittoria is suffocated by the heat and by her relationship and looks outside, but instead of nature, she sees a giant water tower. The tower, nicknamed ‘mushroom'(fungo), resembles the atomic bomb. When the film was shot, in 1961, the atomic arms race was a fact. We also notice the enormous Palazzo dello Sport, built by the architects Piero Nervi and Marcello Piacentini. Piacentini was the master architect of the whole quarter in the fascist era, when EUR was destined for the World Expo of 1942 or E42 (which never took place, of course), hence EUR (Esposizione Universale di Roma). The Sports Palace was built for the 1960 Olympic Games, like so many modern buildings in Rome.

Piero works at the Old Stock Exchange in the so-called Temple of Hadrian in Piazza di Pietra. The contrast with EUR cannot be bigger: the enormous noise of buyers and sellers at the stock exchange floor, the hysteria of Vittoria’s mother fixated on money, and the speedy Piero. Vittoria and Piero regularly meet in Vittoria’s quarter, at a crossroad near the Olympic Hippodrome. While they are there, Antonioni cherishes all the details of this location, such as trees, sprinklers, a nurse with a pram, a bus passing by, water running from a tree to a sewer, streetlamps, etc. This makes it their personal location and monumentalises it. All these details come back in the final scene. The place is rather disturbing. And still it is Vittoria’s place.


Rome, EUR, 2010.


The most representative building of the 'Fascist' style at EUR is Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (1938-1943), an iconic project which has since become known as the 'Colosseo Quadrato (Square Colosseum).


Rome, EUR, Fungo (water tower).


San Pietro e San Paolo church, Via Ostiense, EUR, Rome, Italy. Architect: Arnoldo Foschini. This church is directly inspired by (the other) Michelangelo’s plan for St. Peter’s, which was based on a Greek cross shape. It was built from 1935 to 1955.


Rome, EUR, 2010.

A form of poetry

With her wild blond hair, Monica Vitti is perfect as the confused Vittoria. She displays just enough emotion to realise the character, but is malleable enough for Antonioni to illustrate his theme through her. Alain Delon never looked more handsome than in L'eclisse. He conveys emotions easily with just the flick of an eyebrow. Delon portrays the materialistic, spiritually empty stockbroker quite effectively.

L'eclisse rejects action in favour of contemplation. Images and design are more important than character and story. The long takes and elegant compositions, filmed by Gianni De Venanzo, and the elongated views on a building or a streetlight, manage to create a form of poetry.

Antonioni shows us a very different Rome in L’eclisse than the one we are used to. The empty, new EUR, a sleekly designed neighbourhood, then still without patina, contrasts with the chaos, noise and traffic of the city centre, where a trade fair is housed in an antique Roman building.

In another Roman classic, Roman Holiday (1953), director William Wyler imagined Rome as a compressed city where monuments are emphasised, and everyone seems to know each other. Michelangelo Antonioni emphasises the suburbs, the new housing estate, a very different kind of Rome than we are used to. Antonioni's Rome is a city where people struggle to maintain relationships and are mainly preoccupied with themselves or materialistic matters. Antonioni seems to say to Vittoria: 'Living here has got to make you unhappy, the city seems as empty as your heart. But if you take enough time to look around you, listen and pay attention to meaningful details, there is much to discover even in an empty new housing estate like this.'

L'eclisse won the Special Jury Award at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Although the film won several more awards, L'eclisse was never a commercial success, and many people seem to find the film boring. It is not. Go and watch it closely and let yourself be hypnotised by Antonioni.



Small Romanian collector card by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962).

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: Alain Delon in L'eclisse / The Eclypse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962).


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 7643. Photo: Radio Film. Alain Delon in L'eclisse / The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962).


French poster postcard by Éditions Zreik, Paris, in the Collection Télérama, la mémoire du cinéma, no. 74. French affiche for L'eclipse / L'eclisse / The Eclipse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962) starring Monica Vitti and Alain Delon.


Original trailer for L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962) with the title song by Mina. Source: xx999xx999 (YouTube).


Trailer L'eclisse / The Eclipse (1962). Source: moviolamagics (YouTube).

Sources: Ivo Blom (Cinematic City: L'Eclisse and Rome), Eleanor Mannikka (AllMovie - page now defunct), TCM (page now defunct), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And please check out Roma Aeterna.