Jacques Feyder (; 21 July 1885 – 24 May 1948) was a Belgian film director, screenwriter and actor who worked principally in France, but also in the US, Britain and Germany. He was a director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of

poetic realism Poetic realism was a film movement in France of the 1930s. More a tendency than a movement, poetic realism is not strongly unified like Soviet montage or French Impressionism but were individuals who created this lyrical style. Its leading fi ...

French cinema The cinema of France comprises the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe, with prima ...

. He adopted French nationality in 1928.

Career

Born Jacques Léon Louis Frédérix in

Ixelles (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Pentagon (Brussels), Brusse ...

, Belgium, he was educated at the École régimentaire in Nivelles, and was destined for a military career. At age twenty-five however he moved to Paris where he pursued an interest in acting, first on stage and then in film, adopting the name Jacques Feyder. He joined the

Gaumont Film Company Gaumont SA () is a French film and television production and distribution company headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Founded by the engineer-turned-inventor Léon Gaumont (1864–1946) in 1895, it is the oldest extant film company in ...

and in 1914 he became an assistant director with Gaston Ravel. He started directing films for Gaumont in 1916, but his career was interrupted by service with the

Belgian Army The Land Component (, ), historically and commonly still referred to as the Belgian Army (, ), is the Land warfare, land branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. The King of the Belgians is the commander in chief. The current chief of staff of the Land ...

from 1917 to 1919 during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

After the end of the war, he returned to filmmaking and quickly built a reputation as one of the most innovative directors in French cinema. '' L'Atlantide'' (1921) (based on the novel by Pierre Benoit), and '' Crainquebille'' (1922) (from the novel by

Anatole France (; born ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters.Visages d'enfants'' (filmed in 1923 but not released until 1925) which proved to be one of his most personal and enduring films. Shortly after this, Feyder was offered a post as artistic director of a new film company, Vita Films, in Vienna, along with a contract to make three films. He made '' Das Bildnis'' (''L'Image'') (1923), but the company failed and he returned to Paris. He re-established himself with '' Gribiche'' (1926) and the literary adaptations of ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

'' (1926) and ''

Thérèse Raquin ''Thérèse Raquin'' () is an early novel by French writer Émile Zola. It appeared in serial form from August–October 1867 in the magazine ''L'Artiste'', and was published in book form later that year. Although it was Zola's third novel, it ...

'' (1928). He also contributed screenplays of films for other directors, notably ''Poil de carotte'' (1925) for

Julien Duvivier Julien Duvivier (; 8 October 1896 – 29 October 1967) was a French film director and screenwriter. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930–1960. Amongst his most original films, chiefly notable are ''La Bandera (film), La Bandera'', ...

, and '' Gardiens de phare'' (1929) for

Jean Grémillon Jean Grémillon (; 3 October 1901 – 25 November 1959) was a French film director. Biography Grémillon was born in Bayeux and spent his early years in Cerisy-la-Forêt in Normandy. His father was employed by the Ouest railway company. Durin ...

. His last silent film in France was '' Les Nouveaux Messieurs'', a topical political satire which provoked calls for it to be banned in France for "insulting the dignity of parliament and its ministers". By this time Feyder had accepted an offer from

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

to work in Hollywood, where in 1929 his first project was directing

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's Silent film, silent and early Classical Hollywood cinema, golden eras. Regarded as one of the g ...

in '' The Kiss'', her last silent film. It was in Hollywood that he made the transition to sound films; even before he had worked with sound films, Feyder declared himself to be a firm believer in their future, in contrast with some of his French contemporaries. In 1930, he directed Jetta Goudal in her only French language film made in Hollywood, ''Le Spectre vert''. His subsequent work in the US consisted mainly of directing foreign-language versions of American films, including a German version of ''

Anna Christie ''Anna Christie'' is a Play (theatre), play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway theatre, Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work. According ...

'', again with Garbo. Disillusioned with the Hollywood system, Feyder returned to France in 1933. During the next three years he made three of his most successful films, all of them in collaboration with screenwriter Charles Spaak and featuring Françoise Rosay in a leading role. '' Le Grand Jeu'' (1934) and '' Pension Mimosas'' (1935) were both significant creations in the style of

; '' La Kermesse héroïque'' (1935) (also known as ''Carnival in Flanders'') was a meticulously staged period film which aroused some contemporary political resonances; it earned Feyder several international awards. Feyder went on to direct films in England and Germany prior to the outbreak of World War II, but with diminishing success. Following the Nazi occupation in 1940, which led to the banning of ''La Kermesse héroïque'', he left France for the safety of Switzerland, and directed a last film there, ''Une femme disparaît'' (1942). In 1917, Feyder had married Parisian-born actress Françoise Rosay with whom he had three sons; she acted in many of his films and collaborated with him as writer and assistant director on ''Visages d'enfants''. Jacques Feyder died in 1948 at Prangins, Switzerland, and he was buried in the Cimetière de Sorel Moussel, Eure et Loir, France. A school (lycée) in Épinay-sur-Seine in the north of Paris was named in his honour in 1977; Épinay was the location of the Tobis film studios where Feyder made ''Le Grand Jeu'' and ''Pension Mimosas''.

Reputation

In 1944 Feyder and Françoise Rosay published ''Le Cinéma, notre métier'', an autobiographical memoir of their work together in the cinema, in which Feyder stated that he regarded himself as an artisan, a craftsman of filmmaking. Some critics have been content to take him at his word and to look no further for any underlying vision of the world. He was however insistent upon his creative independence, demonstrated by his willingness to make his films in so many different countries if the conditions of production appeared favourable. Recurrent themes in his work include the reckless love of a mysterious or unknown woman (''L'Atlantide'', ''L'Image'', ''Carmen'', ''Le Grand Jeu''), the gap between reality and the vision that someone has of it (''Crainquebille'', ''Gribiche'', ''Les Nouveaux Messieurs'', ''La Kermesse héroïque''), and maternal love (''Gribiche'', ''Visages d'enfants'', ''Pension Mimosas''). His style was characterised by a classical balance and moderation, composition of images that was beautiful without becoming gratuitous, and a sympathetic rapport with actors. Above all his films achieved an atmosphere of realism, whether through the accumulation of judiciously chosen detail, the use of location shooting, or the use of elaborately designed sets; (he worked closely with

Lazare Meerson Lazare Meerson (1900–1938) was a French cinema art director. After emigrating from Soviet Russia in the early 1920s, he worked on French films of the late silent cinema and the early 1930s, particularly those directed by René Clair and Jacques ...

on several of his films). In this respect, his adherence to a realistic tradition in French cinema was contrasted with the 'impressionist' style of some contemporaries in the 1920s such as

Abel Gance Abel Gance (; born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 188910 November 1981) was a French film director, producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: ''J'ac ...

Marcel L'Herbier Marcel L'Herbier (; 23 April 1888 – 26 November 1979) was a French filmmaker who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued unti ...

, and Jean Epstein, and it pointed the way to the vogue for poetic realism which found its fullest expression in the films of

Marcel Carné Marcel Albert Carné (; 18 August 1906 – 31 October 1996) was a French film director. A key figure in the poetic realism movement, Carné's best known films include ''Port of Shadows'' (1938), ''Le Jour Se Lève'' (1939), ''Les Visiteurs du Soi ...

: Carné worked as assistant director to Feyder in the mid-1930s. Feyder's relatively early death may have contributed to a fading of interest in his films, reinforced by the hostility of some influential critics associated with ''Cahiers du cinéma'' in the 1950s. His younger contemporary

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. H ...

judged in 1970, "Jacques Feyder does not occupy today the place his work and his example should have earned him". Any subsequent reassessment has tended to be hampered by the limited availability of his films in English-speaking countries, with the exception of ''La Kermesse héroïque'' which some reckon to have aged less well than other examples of his work. These factors have contributed to a sometimes ambivalent attitude to his work as a whole.E.g. David Thomson, ''New Biographical Dictionary of Film''; 4th ed. (London: Little, Brown, 2002) p.286. "There was a time when Feyder was claimed as a great realist director, when ''Kermesse héroïque'' was thought of as an important French film. ...Feyder may be unfairly neglected today just as once he was injudiciously acclaimed."

Filmography

Bibliography

* Feyder, Jacques and Rosay, Françoise, ''Le cinéma, notre métier'', (Genève: A. Skira, 1944). n French* Gili, Jean A. & Marie, Michel ds. ''Jacques Feyder'', (Paris: Association française de recherche sur l'histoire du cinéma, 1998. ''1895'', numéro hors série.) n French

References

External links