André Antoine
French postcard by EOK, Paris, no. 385. Photo: H. Manuel. Caption: Antoine, director of the Odéon.
André Antoine (1858-1943) was a French stage actor and director, silent film director and critic. He is considered the father of modern mise en scène in France. Antoine opposed the traditional teachings of the Paris Conservatory, and focused on a more naturalistic style of acting and staging. His films included La terre (1921), Mademoiselle de La Seiglière (1921) and L'Hirondelle et la Mésange (1924).
In 1887 André Antoine (1858-1943) founded the Théâtre Libre in Paris, a workshop theater, where plays were produced whether they would perform at the box office or not. It was also a stage for the new writing whose subject matter or form had been rejected in other theaters. With the help of Émile Zola, Antoine founded this private theater association in order to manage to play socially critical plays by Zola, Henrik Ibsen, Gerhart Hauptmann, etc. and thus avoid censorship. Opposing the traditional stage acting taught by the Conservatoire, Antoine thus paved the way for Naturalism with his work and had a revolutionary effect on French theater. After his theater closed in 1897 due to financial problems, André Antoine continued the same year and in the same building with the Théâtre Antoine (1897-1906), which lasted another eight years. After that, André Antoine directed for years at other theaters in Paris such as the Gymnase and the Odéon, but debt-ridden he quit the Odéon in 1914. During the First World War he started a career as filmmaker, under the auspices of the Société cinématographique des auteurs et gens de lettres. His first film was Les frères corses (1917) based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas sr. and starring Henry Krauss and Romuald Joubé. This was followed by Le Coupable (1917), based on François Coppée's story and starring Joubé and René Rocher; and the fisherman tragedy Les Travailleurs de la mer (1918), shot on location at Finistère, and again with Joubé. In 1919 Antoine shot in Italy the Henri Bernstein adaptation Israël, starring Albert Collo and Vittoria Lepanto. Returned to France, Antoine directed the period drama Mademoiselle de La Seiglière (1921), with Huguette Duflos in the title role, and the French Revolution drama Quatre-vingt-treize (1921), starring Philippe Garnier, Paul Capellani, and Henry Krauss.
André Antoine's most touching and visually appealing drama, however, is Antoine's adaptation of Zola's countryside tragedy La Terre (1921), a cruel unmasking of the countryside as background to the idyll. Here a wandering young man, Jean (René Alexandre), befriends a farmer girl, Françoise (Germaine Rouer). Yet, he is more and more mixed up in a King Lear-like plot set among farmers. Old Fouan (Armand Bour) has decided to give away his possessions to his two sons and daughter before his death, so he can leave in ease. Soon the old man discovers greed, cruelty, jealousy, neglect, and violence, among his own children, leading even to Françoise's death. Disgusted, Jean leaves the area. Antoine's two last films were L'Arlésienne (1922), starring Marthe Fabris and Gabriel de Gravone, and based on Daudet's play, and L'Hirondelle et la Mésange (1923-1924). The latter film, on life aboard barges, with a bargeman (Louis Ravet), his wife and sister-in-law navigating the canals of northern Belgium in their two vessels, the eponymous "L'Hirondelle et la Mésange". The film has a strongly documentary character, extensively showing the sites and landscapes in passing, but also contains a plot about a new assistant (Pierre Alcover), who has sexual desires, tries to rape the sister-in-law, and finds out the bargeman smuggles diamonds. Yet, at the time the film was never theatrically released (there was only one private screening in 1923) because it was considered too documentary-like. It was only in 1982-1983 that Henri Colpi edited the negatives and music was added. The film clearly precurs Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1933), while in 1924 another film on life on barges at the canals had more plot, including a class conflict: La belle Nivernaise by Jean Epstein. André Antoine ended his career as film and theater critic, from 1919 onward. Two volumes of memoirs were published in 1928 and appeared in the journal Théâtre from 1932 to 1933.
Sources: Wikipedia (German, English, and French), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
André Antoine
French postcard by EOK, Paris, no. 385. Photo: H. Manuel. Caption: Antoine, director of the Odéon.
André Antoine (1858-1943) was a French stage actor and director, silent film director and critic. He is considered the father of modern mise en scène in France. Antoine opposed the traditional teachings of the Paris Conservatory, and focused on a more naturalistic style of acting and staging. His films included La terre (1921), Mademoiselle de La Seiglière (1921) and L'Hirondelle et la Mésange (1924).
In 1887 André Antoine (1858-1943) founded the Théâtre Libre in Paris, a workshop theater, where plays were produced whether they would perform at the box office or not. It was also a stage for the new writing whose subject matter or form had been rejected in other theaters. With the help of Émile Zola, Antoine founded this private theater association in order to manage to play socially critical plays by Zola, Henrik Ibsen, Gerhart Hauptmann, etc. and thus avoid censorship. Opposing the traditional stage acting taught by the Conservatoire, Antoine thus paved the way for Naturalism with his work and had a revolutionary effect on French theater. After his theater closed in 1897 due to financial problems, André Antoine continued the same year and in the same building with the Théâtre Antoine (1897-1906), which lasted another eight years. After that, André Antoine directed for years at other theaters in Paris such as the Gymnase and the Odéon, but debt-ridden he quit the Odéon in 1914. During the First World War he started a career as filmmaker, under the auspices of the Société cinématographique des auteurs et gens de lettres. His first film was Les frères corses (1917) based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas sr. and starring Henry Krauss and Romuald Joubé. This was followed by Le Coupable (1917), based on François Coppée's story and starring Joubé and René Rocher; and the fisherman tragedy Les Travailleurs de la mer (1918), shot on location at Finistère, and again with Joubé. In 1919 Antoine shot in Italy the Henri Bernstein adaptation Israël, starring Albert Collo and Vittoria Lepanto. Returned to France, Antoine directed the period drama Mademoiselle de La Seiglière (1921), with Huguette Duflos in the title role, and the French Revolution drama Quatre-vingt-treize (1921), starring Philippe Garnier, Paul Capellani, and Henry Krauss.
André Antoine's most touching and visually appealing drama, however, is Antoine's adaptation of Zola's countryside tragedy La Terre (1921), a cruel unmasking of the countryside as background to the idyll. Here a wandering young man, Jean (René Alexandre), befriends a farmer girl, Françoise (Germaine Rouer). Yet, he is more and more mixed up in a King Lear-like plot set among farmers. Old Fouan (Armand Bour) has decided to give away his possessions to his two sons and daughter before his death, so he can leave in ease. Soon the old man discovers greed, cruelty, jealousy, neglect, and violence, among his own children, leading even to Françoise's death. Disgusted, Jean leaves the area. Antoine's two last films were L'Arlésienne (1922), starring Marthe Fabris and Gabriel de Gravone, and based on Daudet's play, and L'Hirondelle et la Mésange (1923-1924). The latter film, on life aboard barges, with a bargeman (Louis Ravet), his wife and sister-in-law navigating the canals of northern Belgium in their two vessels, the eponymous "L'Hirondelle et la Mésange". The film has a strongly documentary character, extensively showing the sites and landscapes in passing, but also contains a plot about a new assistant (Pierre Alcover), who has sexual desires, tries to rape the sister-in-law, and finds out the bargeman smuggles diamonds. Yet, at the time the film was never theatrically released (there was only one private screening in 1923) because it was considered too documentary-like. It was only in 1982-1983 that Henri Colpi edited the negatives and music was added. The film clearly precurs Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1933), while in 1924 another film on life on barges at the canals had more plot, including a class conflict: La belle Nivernaise by Jean Epstein. André Antoine ended his career as film and theater critic, from 1919 onward. Two volumes of memoirs were published in 1928 and appeared in the journal Théâtre from 1932 to 1933.
Sources: Wikipedia (German, English, and French), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.