Séverin-Mars
French postcard. Editions Cinémagazine, nr. 59. Film Abel Gance. A postcard for the film La Roue (Abel Gance 1923).
French actor Séverin-Mars had a very short career in film, but played in two masterpieces by Abel Gance: the First World War drama J'accuse! (1919), and the epic and touching drama La Roue (1921-1923). In J'accuse! he is the stubborn brute François Laurin, who maltreats his wife Edith (Maryse Dauvray), while she feels more for the gentle poet Jean Diaz (Romuald Joubé). The threesome seems to explode, when the war breaks out. The men meet again in the trenches, bond and share their love for Edith. Meanwhile she is raped by German soldiers and returns to the village with a child. Mars goes from sadism to jealousy to rage to lucidity to heroism and to sacrifice, displaying intense emotions without any histrionic acting.
Séverin-Mars, originally Armand Jean de Malafayde, was born in 1873 in Bordeaux. In 1910 he debuted in film in Le crime de grand-père, a Gaumont production directed by Léonce Perret and scripted by his future regular director: Abel Gance. After further short films (Le duel du fou, 1913, Macbeth, 1915;Trois familles, 1918, L'habit de Béranger 1918), Severin-Mars had his breakthrough in feature films with Abel Gancé's melodrama La dixième symphonie (directed in 1917 but released in November 1918, just before the end of the war). In this film he played a composer who is unknowing of the adventurous past of his wife (Emmy Lynn), who is blackmailed by her former lover (Jean Toulout) to consent to the marriage between her ex and her daughter. When the composer realizes what is happening, he writes a symphony of pain.
After this followed La nuit du 11 septembre (Dominique Bernard-Deschamps 1919), with Russian actress Vera Karalli, and the film Jacques Landouze (André Hugon 1919), with again Toulout, after which the above mentioned anti-war film J'accuse! by Gance followed. The film was a success because it was the first production to show real footage of the carnage of the war; Gance had been filming in the trenches in 1918, after having served there. After J'accuse! Séverin-Mars played in Haceldama ou Le prix du sang (1919) directed and written by a debuting Julien Duvivier; it was a kind of French western, driven by revenge and lust for money.
In 1921 Séverin-Mars was very active. With Jean Legrand he co-directed his first film, Le coeur magnifique, in which he played the lead, together with France Dhélia and Léon Bernard, and he was also the scriptwriter. It was the story of a marquis who, disgusted by an immoral woman, finds love and peace with the neighbour's daughter. With Gaby Morlay he performed in L'agonie des aigles (1921), co-directed by Duvivier and Bernard-Deschamps. The film, based on the novel by Georges Desparbès, dealt with a man who protects the King of Rome, Napoleon II, the son of the famous French Emperor. The gala premiere of this film was at the Paris Opera and coincided with the birthday of Napoleon; it was a charity night to help war widows and orphans.
Séverin- Mars 'last role was his most famous one: that of the railwayman Sisif in Abel Gance's La Roue (released in 1923). Sisif falls in love with his foster daughter Norma (Ivy Close), saved from a train wreck and raised like his daughter; Sisif's son Elie (Gabriel de Gravone), however, loves Norma too. The epic film originally ran nine hours. Gance explains that his companion Ida Danis was struck by tuberculosis while he was surviving the Spanish flu during the preparation of La Roue in 1920. Her need for recovery brought the crew to constant different places, while Gance adapted the narrative to her needs. Gance's wife eventually died during the editing phase and Gance went away to the States for four months, angering the Pathé company. His discovery of the American fast paced editing made him change La Roue entirely, and after a full year of editing, La Roue was finally shown in 1923 appalling critics and audiences. Despite its 8 hours length it was hailed such a masterpiece that audiences cried for more. Gance: The only thing we could think of was to show the last reel once more.' For the general release in 1924, it was cut back to 130 minutes.
Séverin-Mars was also ill while shooting La Roue. Soon after production, he died of a heart attack in July 1921, at the height of his career, and deplored by his favorite director.
Sources: IMDB.
Séverin-Mars
French postcard. Editions Cinémagazine, nr. 59. Film Abel Gance. A postcard for the film La Roue (Abel Gance 1923).
French actor Séverin-Mars had a very short career in film, but played in two masterpieces by Abel Gance: the First World War drama J'accuse! (1919), and the epic and touching drama La Roue (1921-1923). In J'accuse! he is the stubborn brute François Laurin, who maltreats his wife Edith (Maryse Dauvray), while she feels more for the gentle poet Jean Diaz (Romuald Joubé). The threesome seems to explode, when the war breaks out. The men meet again in the trenches, bond and share their love for Edith. Meanwhile she is raped by German soldiers and returns to the village with a child. Mars goes from sadism to jealousy to rage to lucidity to heroism and to sacrifice, displaying intense emotions without any histrionic acting.
Séverin-Mars, originally Armand Jean de Malafayde, was born in 1873 in Bordeaux. In 1910 he debuted in film in Le crime de grand-père, a Gaumont production directed by Léonce Perret and scripted by his future regular director: Abel Gance. After further short films (Le duel du fou, 1913, Macbeth, 1915;Trois familles, 1918, L'habit de Béranger 1918), Severin-Mars had his breakthrough in feature films with Abel Gancé's melodrama La dixième symphonie (directed in 1917 but released in November 1918, just before the end of the war). In this film he played a composer who is unknowing of the adventurous past of his wife (Emmy Lynn), who is blackmailed by her former lover (Jean Toulout) to consent to the marriage between her ex and her daughter. When the composer realizes what is happening, he writes a symphony of pain.
After this followed La nuit du 11 septembre (Dominique Bernard-Deschamps 1919), with Russian actress Vera Karalli, and the film Jacques Landouze (André Hugon 1919), with again Toulout, after which the above mentioned anti-war film J'accuse! by Gance followed. The film was a success because it was the first production to show real footage of the carnage of the war; Gance had been filming in the trenches in 1918, after having served there. After J'accuse! Séverin-Mars played in Haceldama ou Le prix du sang (1919) directed and written by a debuting Julien Duvivier; it was a kind of French western, driven by revenge and lust for money.
In 1921 Séverin-Mars was very active. With Jean Legrand he co-directed his first film, Le coeur magnifique, in which he played the lead, together with France Dhélia and Léon Bernard, and he was also the scriptwriter. It was the story of a marquis who, disgusted by an immoral woman, finds love and peace with the neighbour's daughter. With Gaby Morlay he performed in L'agonie des aigles (1921), co-directed by Duvivier and Bernard-Deschamps. The film, based on the novel by Georges Desparbès, dealt with a man who protects the King of Rome, Napoleon II, the son of the famous French Emperor. The gala premiere of this film was at the Paris Opera and coincided with the birthday of Napoleon; it was a charity night to help war widows and orphans.
Séverin- Mars 'last role was his most famous one: that of the railwayman Sisif in Abel Gance's La Roue (released in 1923). Sisif falls in love with his foster daughter Norma (Ivy Close), saved from a train wreck and raised like his daughter; Sisif's son Elie (Gabriel de Gravone), however, loves Norma too. The epic film originally ran nine hours. Gance explains that his companion Ida Danis was struck by tuberculosis while he was surviving the Spanish flu during the preparation of La Roue in 1920. Her need for recovery brought the crew to constant different places, while Gance adapted the narrative to her needs. Gance's wife eventually died during the editing phase and Gance went away to the States for four months, angering the Pathé company. His discovery of the American fast paced editing made him change La Roue entirely, and after a full year of editing, La Roue was finally shown in 1923 appalling critics and audiences. Despite its 8 hours length it was hailed such a masterpiece that audiences cried for more. Gance: The only thing we could think of was to show the last reel once more.' For the general release in 1924, it was cut back to 130 minutes.
Séverin-Mars was also ill while shooting La Roue. Soon after production, he died of a heart attack in July 1921, at the height of his career, and deplored by his favorite director.
Sources: IMDB.