|
René Clair
René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He went on to make some of the most innovative early sound films in France, before going abroad to work in the UK and USA for more than a decade. Returning to France after World War II, he continued to make films that were characterised by their elegance and wit, often presenting a nostalgic view of French life in earlier years. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960. Clair's best known films include '' Un chapeau de paille d'Italie'' (''The Italian Straw Hat'', 1928), '' Sous les toits de Paris'' (''Under the Roofs of Paris'', 1930), ''Le Million'' (1931), ''À nous la liberté'' (1931), ''I Married a Witch'' (1942), and ''And Then There Were None'' (1945). Early life René Clair was born and grew up in Paris in the district of Les ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an undistinguished student and obtained no diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabaret in Montmartre, Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his ''Gymnopédies'' and '' Gnossiennes''. He also wrote music for a Rosicrucian sect to which he was briefly attached. After a spell in which he composed little, Satie entered Paris's second music academy, the Schola Cantorum, as a mature student. His studies there were more successful than those at the Conservatoire. From about 1910 he became the focus of successive groups of young composers attracted by his unconventionality and originality. Among them were the group known as Les Six. A meeting with Jean Cocteau in 1915 led to the creation of the ballet '' Par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gab Sorère
Gabrielle Bloch (17 February 1870 – 14 July 1961), known professionally as Gab Sorère, was a French art promoter, set designer, mechanical innovator, filmmaker and choreographer of the Belle Époque. Collaborating with her partner, Loïe Fuller, to explore illusion through luminescence, she produced films and choreographies which moved performance from dancers being lighted to the abstract vision of lights dancing. When Fuller died, Sorère inherited the dance troupe and laboratory of her partner and strove to keep her legacy as a visual effects artist alive. She continued to produce innovative productions utilizing fluorescence and light into the 1950s. Early life Gabrielle Bloch was born in Toul, Lorraine, France on February 17, 1870, and was the privileged daughter of a French banker, Julien Bloch (1843–1930). Her mother, Laura (1847–1925), wrote the book ''Au loin, impressions hindoues'', which was published in 1898. She studied at home, reading Schopenhauer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugène Marin Labiche
Eugène Marin Labiche (6 May 181522 January 1888) was a French dramatist. He remains famous for his contribution to the vaudeville genre and his passionate and domestic pochads. In the 1860s, he reached his peak with a series of successes including Le Voyage de M. Perrichon (1860), La Poudre aux yeux (1861), La Station Champbaudet (1862) and La Cagnotte (1864). He worked with Jacques Offenbach, then director of the Bouffes-Parisiens, to write librettos for operettas and for several comic operas. His 1851 farce '' The Italian Straw Hat'', written with Marc-Michel, has been adapted many times to stage and screen. Early life He was born into a bourgeois family and studied law. At the age of twenty, he contributed a short story to ''Chérubin'' magazine, entitled "Les plus belles sont les plus fausses" ("The most beautiful are the most fake/false"). A few others followed, but failed to catch the attention of the public. Career Labiche tried his hand at dramatic criticism i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two Timid Souls
''Two Timid Souls'' (french: Les Deux Timides) is a 1928 French silent film comedy directed by René Clair, and based on the 1860 play ''Les Deux Timides'' by Eugène Labiche. It was made by the Films Albatros production company.McGerr p.224 The sets were designed by the art director Lazare Meerson. Plot A very shy lawyer, Fremissin, is tasked with defending Garadoux, a man charged rightfully with beating his wife. Fremissin gets nervous at the trial, and ends up demanding the harshest possible sentence for Garadoux, making him spend several months in prison. After a few years, Fremissin has fallen in love with a woman (Cecile Thibaudier). Garadoux sees this and tries to seduce her to get back at Fremissin for getting him sent to prison. Garadoux abuses Fremissin's timid nature, in hilarious acts like posing as a bandit and leaving him disturbing notes telling him not to leave home. After various trials, and meeting his shy counterpart in Cecile's father, Fremissin finally gets ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Prey Of The Wind
''The Prey of the Wind'' (French: ''La proie du vent'') is a 1927 French silent film, silent drama film directed by René Clair and starring Charles Vanel, Sandra Milovanoff and Jean Murat.McGerr p.50 The film's sets were designed by Lazare Meerson. Cast * Charles Vanel as Pierre Vignal * Sandra Milovanoff as La femme folle * Jean Murat as Le mari * Lillian Hall-Davis as La châtelaine * Jim Gérald as Le docteur References Bibliography * Celia McGerr. ''René Clair''. Twayne Publishers, 1980. External links * 1927 films Films directed by René Clair French silent feature films French drama films 1927 drama films French black-and-white films Silent drama films 1920s French films {{1920s-France-film-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Films Albatros
Films Albatros was a French film production company established in 1922. It was formed by a group of White émigré, White Russian exiles who had been forced to flee following the 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War. Initially the firm's personnel consisted mainly of Russian exiles, but over time French actors and directors were employed by the company. Its operations continued until the late 1930s. History Faced with increasingly difficult working conditions in Russia after the revolution of 1917, the film producer Joseph N. Ermolieff, Joseph Ermolieff decided to move his operations to Paris where he had connections with the Pathé company. Arriving in 1920 with a group of close associates, Ermolieff took over a studio in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, Montreuil-sous-Bois in the eastern suburbs of Paris and began making films through his company Ermolieff-Cinéma. His co-founder of the company was Alexandre Kamenka, another Russian exile, and when in 1922 Ermoli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bildmuseet
Bildmuseet ( en, Museum of Visual Arts) is a contemporary art museum in Umeå, northern Sweden. History The museum was founded in 1981 by Umeå University and it exhibits Swedish and international contemporary art, visual culture, design, and architecture, sometimes along with historical art retrospectives. In conjunction with the exhibitions program it also arranges lectures, screenings, concerts, performances, and workshops. The exhibitions include internationally renowned artists, filmmakers, photographers, and designers, such as for example Walid Raad, Zineb Sedira, Tracey Rose, Mario Merz, Dayanita Singh, Agnès Varda, Felice Varini, Joan Jonas, Isaac Julien, Stan Douglas, Leonor Fini, Rafel Lozano-Hemmer, Julio Le Parc, John Akomfrah, Charles och Ray Eames, Jumana Emil Abboud, Ana Mendieta, and Faith Ringgold. In spring 2012, the museum moved into new premises on the Umeå Arts Campus. The new Bildmuseet, hosted in a seven-storey building (Architecture: Henning Lar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entr'acte (film)
''Entr'acte'' is a silent French Dada short film directed by René Clair. It premiered on 4 December 1924 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris as a prologue and entr'acte for the Ballets Suédois production of '' Relâche'', based on a book by Francis Picabia, which had settings by Picabia, was produced by Rolf de Maré, and was choreographed by Jean Börlin. The music for both the ballet and the film was composed by Erik Satie. Summary Prologue On a rooftop, a cannon, via stop motion photography, rolls itself back and forth. In slow motion, two men (Francis Picabia and Eric Satie), jump into the frame and jump up and down. They discuss the cannon and, after smelling a projectile, load it before jumping up and down and jumping out of frame in reverse. The projectile slowly comes out of the cannon toward the camera lens. Entr'acte Images are intercut of Parisian rooftops filmed with the camera tilted at various angles, three dolls with balloons-heads that are inflate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Relâche (ballet)
''Relâche'' is a 1924 ballet by Francis Picabia with music composed by Erik Satie. The title was thought to be a Dadaist practical joke, as ''relâche'' is the French word used on posters to indicate that a show is canceled, or the theater is closed. The first performance was indeed canceled, due to the illness of Jean Börlin, the principal dancer, choreographer, and artistic director of the Ballets Suédois. Picabia commissioned filmmaker René Clair to create a cinematic entr'acte to be shown during the ballet's intermission. The film, simply titled ''Entr'acte (or ', ;Since 1932–35 the French Academy recommends this spelling, with no apostrophe, so historical, ceremonial and traditional uses (such as the 1924 René Clair film title) are still spelled ''Entr'acte''. German: ' and ', Italian: ''inte ...'', consists of a scene shown before the ballet and a longer piece between the acts. The nonsensical film features Picabia, Satie, and other well-known artists as actors.< ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Picabia
Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism. His highly Abstract art, abstract planar compositions were colourful and rich in contrasts. He was one of the early major figures of the Dada movement in the United States and in France. He was later briefly associated with Surrealism, but would soon turn his back on the art establishment. Biography Early life Francis Picabia was born in Paris of a French mother and a Cuban father of Spanish descent. Some sources would have his father as of aristocratic Spanish descent, whereas others consider him of non-aristocratic Spanish descent, from the region of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. His birth year of 1879 coincided with the Spanish-Cuban Little War (Cuba), Little War; and though Picabia was born in Paris, his father was involved in Cuba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris Qui Dort
''Paris Qui Dort'' (literally "Paris which sleeps") is a 1924 French science fiction comedy silent feature film (65 minutes) directed by René Clair. Also released as ''Le rayon de la mort (55 minutes),'' its international English-language titles were ''The Crazy Ray'' and ''Paris Asleep (usually 55 minutes).'' It has also been released in the USA as a 35 minute short subject called ''At 3:25.'' by Red Seal Pictures. Plot summary The film is about a mad doctor who uses a magic ray on citizens which causes them to freeze in strange and often embarrassing positions. People who are unaffected by the ray begin to loot Paris. Cast *Henri Rollan as Albert *Charles Martinelli as The scientist *Louis Pré Fils as the detective *Albert Préjean as The pilot *Madeleine Rodrigue as Hesta, the airline passenger * Myla Seller as The niece / daughter of the scientist * Antoine Stacquet as The rich man *Marcel Vallée as the thief Home media The film is available on the Region 1 Crit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henri Diamant-Berger
Henri Diamant-Berger (9 June 1895 – 7 May 1972) was a French director, producer and screenwriter. In a career that lasted more than 50 years, he directed 48 films between 1913 and 1959, produced 17 between 1925 and 1967 and wrote 21 screenplays between 1916 and 1971. Biography Born in Paris, to a Jewish family, he studied to be a lawyer but was drawn to the motion picture business. He began his career when he co-directed the 1913 silent film short ''De film... en aiguilles'' with André Heuzé. In addition to writing screenplays, during the period from 1916 to 1919, Diamant-Berger also published and edited a film magazine and books about the movies. In 1918, he was hired by Pathé and sent to the United States to help set up the company's film laboratory at Fort Lee, New Jersey. Upon his return to France, Pathé had him set up a laboratory in Vincennes, as well as organize a film studio in Boulogne-Billancourt. In 1921, Diamant-Berger directed the film serial ''Les Trois ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
