Paul van Yperen's Blog, page 274

Finds at the International Collector's Fair, Part 2

Last Sunday, we visited the International Collector's Fair in the city of Utrecht. Twice each year, Ivo and I go hunting in the huge halls of the Fair for new, interesting film star postcards. And once again, we found some rarities and curiosities, which we like to share with you. Last Tuesday, my choice of finds was on show at EFSP, and today follows a post with Ivo's selection of his new treasures.


Belgian postcard by Société Gama-Film, Brussels. Photo: Richard Oswald Film. Publicity still for Lady Hamilton (Richard Oswald, 1921).

German director Richard Oswald made this silent film version of the dramatic story of Lady Emma Hamilton's rise and fall in European society during the 1700s and early 1800s, including her romantic love story with the British Admiral Lord Nelson. Liane Haid starred as Lady Hamilton, Conrad Veidt played Lord Nelson, and Werner Krauss Lord William Hamilton. The film was based on two novels by Heinrich Vollrath Schumacher.


Italian postcard by Danese, Roma, no. 5. Photo: Vere Films. Publicity still for I cento giorni di Napoleone/The Hundred Days of Napoleon (Roberto Danesi, Archita Valente, 1914).

'The Hundred Days' marked the period between Napoleon Bonaparte's return from exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 110 days). Napoleon returned to Paris with the intention of reversing the fate of the conflict against the Russian-Anglo-Prussian coalitioned powers that had defeated him in Leipzig. On 22 June 1815, defeated again in Waterloo, he abdicated definitively. Napoleon died in exile on the isolated Atlantic island of St. Helena, on 5 May 1821.


Belgian postcard by Anvers Palace. Photo:  Rina De Liguoro  in Messalina (Enrico Guazzoni, 1924).

Rina De Liguoro (1892-1966) had her breakthrough with the epic Messalina (1924). It was the start of a prolific career in Italian silent cinema in the 1920s with Quo vadis? (1924) and Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeii (1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag / W.J. Mörlins, Berlin, no. 437/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Karl Schenker. Publicity still for a stage production of the opera Die Gezeichneten with Josef Mann as Aviano.

Die Gezeichneten (The Branded or The Stigmatized) was an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker with a German-language libretto by the composer. Josef Mann (1883-1921) was an Austrian tenor. During his short life, he was seen as one of the greatest opera stars of his era.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 328. Photo: Zimler.

Albanian-Austrian Alexander Moissi (1879-1935) was one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century. The attractive and charismatic women's idol also appeared in several silent and early sound films.


Brigitte Helm . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6032/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.


Willy Fritsch . German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9172/3, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Amphitryon/Amphitryon - Happiness from the Clouds (Reinhold Schünzel, 1935).


Marlene Dietrich . British postcard in Art Photo, no. 34. Photo: Paramount Pictures.


Michèle Morgan . French postcard by Editions P.I., La Garenne-Colombes, no. 133. Photo: GIBE.


Suzy Carrier . French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 140. Photo: Ch. Vandamme / Les Mirages.


Belgian postcard by Best, Antwerp. Photo: Humo. Publicity still for the TV series Wij, heren van Zichem/We, Gentlemen of Zichem (Maurits Balfoort, 1969-1972) with Fons Exelmans as Lewie.

Wij, heren van Zichem/We, Gentlemen of Zichem (Maurits Balfoort, 1969-1972) was a hugely popular Flemish TV drama series, a soap avant-la-lettre. The series was produced by the BRT (nowadays the VRT), and elaborates on the adventures of the blond rascal Lewie (a Dutch derivative of Louis), played by Fons Exelmans.


British postcard by Brent Walker Film Distributors LTD. Poster for What's Up Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi, 1966).

In Woody Allen's directorial debut, he re-edited the Japanese spy film Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi/International Secret Police: Key of Keys (Senkichi Taniguchi, 1965), the fourth installment of five films in the Kokusai himitsu keisatsu series, and completely changed the tone of the film into a comedy about the search for the world's best egg salad recipe.

Source: Verzamelaarsjaarbeurs.

Nikita Mikhalkov

Russian actor and director Nikita Mikhalkov (1945) is the younger brother of Andrey Konchalovsk(i)y and one of the most famous Soviet/Russian filmmakers. ‘The Russian Spielberg’ won an impressive amount of awards, including the Oscar for the Best Foreign Film with Utomlyonnye solntsem/Burnt by the Sun (1994). As an actor he appeared in more than 40 films.


Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 4896, 1967. This postcard was printed in an edition of 100.000 cards. Retail price: 8 Kop.


Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 1565. This postcard was printed in an edition of 210.000 cards. Retail price: 8 Kop.

One of the Most Promising Russian Directors
Nikita Sergeyevich Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky was born in Moscow in 1945 into the distinguished, artistic Mikhalkov family. His great grandfather was the imperial governor of Yaroslavl, whose mother was a Galitzine princess. Nikita's father, Sergei Mikhalkov, was best known as a writer of children's books, although he also provided the lyrics for the Russian anthem.

Nikita's mother, the poet Natalia Konchalovskaya, was the daughter of the avant-garde artist Pyotr Konchalovsky and granddaughter of another outstanding painter, Vasily Surikov. Nikita's older brother is the filmmaker Andrey Konchalovsk(i)y, primarily known for his collaboration with Andrei Tarkovsky and his own Hollywood action films, such as Runaway Train (Andrey Konchalovsky, 1985) with Jon Voight, and Tango & Cash (Andrey Konchalovsky, 1989) starring Sylvester Stallone.

Mikhalkov studied acting at the children's studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and later at the Shchukin School of the Vakhtangov Theatre. While still a student, he appeared in the romantic comedy Ya shagayu po Moskve/I Step Through Moscow (Georgi Daneliya, 1964). It was nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

He was soon on his way to becoming a star of the Soviet stage and cinema. He had a supporting part in Krasnaya Palatka/The Red Tent (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1969) starring Sean Connery and Claudia Cardinale . His brother directed him in Dvoryanskoe gnezdo/Home of the Gentry (Andrei Konchalovsky, 1970).

While continuing to pursue his acting career, Mikhalkov entered VGIK, the state film school in Moscow, where he studied directing under filmmaker Mikhail Romm, teacher to his brother and Andrei Tarkovsky. He directed his first short film in 1967, Devochka i veshchi/The Girl and Things (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1967), and another for his graduation, Spokoynyy den v kontse voyny/A Quiet Day at the End of the War (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1970).

His first feature was Svoy sredi chuzhikh, chuzhoy sredi svoikh/At Home Among Strangers, Stranger at Home (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1974), with Yuri Bogatyryov. It was an Ostern (East-European Western, or 'Eastern') set just after the 1920s civil war in Russia.

He established himself as one of the most promising Russian directors with a vision of his own with his second feature, Raba lyubvi/A Slave of Love (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1976), starring Yelena Solovey and  Rodion Nahapetov . Set in 1917, it followed the efforts of a film crew to make a silent melodrama in a resort town while the Revolution rages around them. The film, based upon the last days of Vera Kholodnaya , was highly acclaimed upon its release in the U.S.

Mikhalkov's next film was Neokonchennaya pyesa dlya mekhanicheskogo pianino/An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1977) with Aleksandr Kalyagin and Yelena Solovey. It was adapted by Mikhalkov from Anton Chekhov's early play, Platonov, and won the first prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

In 1978, while starring in his brother's epic film Siberiada/Siberiade (Andrey Konchalovskiy, 1978), Mikhalkov made Pyat vecherov/Five Evenings (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1979), a love story about a couple (played by Lyudmila Gurchenko and Stanislav Lyubshin) separated by World War II, who meet again after eighteen years.

Mikhalkov's next film, Neskolko dney iz zhizni I.I. Oblomova/A Few Days from the Life of I. I. Oblomov (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1980), with Oleg Tabakov in the title role, is based on Ivan Goncharov's classic novel Oblomow about a lazy young nobleman who refuses to leave his bed.

Rodnya/Family Relations (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1982) is a comedy about a provincial woman in Moscow dealing with the tangled relationships of her relatives. Bez svideteley/Without Witnesses (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1983) tracks a long night's conversation between a woman (Irina Kupchenko) and her ex-husband (Mikhail Ulyanov) when they are accidentally locked in a room.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 53 029.


Russian postcard by Izdanije Byuro Propogandy Sovietskogo Kinoiskusstva, no. 4910, 1977. This postcard was printed in an edition of 300.000 cards. Retail price: 5 Kop.

Stalin's Great Terror
In the early 1980s, Nikita Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, appearing in the immensely popular romance Vokzal dlya dvoikh/Station for Two (Eldar Ryazanov, 1982) and Zhestokiy romans/A Cruel Romance (Eldar Ryazanov, 1984). At that period, he also played Henry Baskerville in the Soviet screen version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Priklyucheniya Sherloka Kholmsa i doktora Vatsona: Sobaka Baskerviley (Igor Maslennikov, 1981). He also starred in many of his own films.

Incorporating several short stories by Anton Chekhov, Oci Ciornie/Dark Eyes (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1987) stars Marcello Mastroianni as an old man who tells the story of a romance he had when he was younger, a woman he has never been able to forget. The film was highly praised, and Mastroianni received the Best Actor Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for his performance.

Mikhalkov's next film, Urga/Close to Eden (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1992), set in the little known world of the Mongols, received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Mikhalkov's Anna ot 6 do 18/Anna: 6-18 (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1993) documents his daughter Anna Mikhalkova as she grows from childhood to maturity. He documents the history of Russia from 1980 to 1991 by annually asking Anna such questions as "What do you love the most?", "What scares you the most?", "What do you want above anything?" and "What do you hate the most?".

Mikhalkov's most famous production to date, Utomlyonnye solntsem/Burnt by the Sun (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1994), was steeped in the paranoid atmosphere of Joseph Stalin's Great Terror. The film received the Grand Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, among many other honours. Mikhalkov was the third Russian director to receive Oscar after Sergei Bondarchuk (in 1961) and Vladimir Menshov (in 1980). To date, Burnt by the Sun remains the highest grossing film to come out of the former Soviet Union.

Mikhalkov used the critical and financial triumph of Burnt by the Sun to raise $25,000,000 for his most epic venture to date, Sibirskiy tsiryulnik/The Barber of Siberia (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1998). The film, which was screened out of competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, was designed as a grandiose, big budget romance set in the 19th century Russia. It featured Julia Ormond and Oleg Menshikov, who regularly appears in Mikhalkov's films, in the leading roles. The director himself appeared as Tsar Alexander III of Russia. The film received the Russia State Prize and became a runaway box office success.

There were rumours about Mikhalkov's presidential ambitions. The director, however, chose to administer the Russian cinema industry. Despite much opposition from rival directors, he was elected the President of the Russian Society of Cinematographers and has managed the Moscow Film Festival since 2000. He also set the Russian Academy Golden Eagle Award in opposition to the traditional Nika Award. According to Wikipedia , his style of leadership of the union has been criticised by many Russian filmmakers and critics as autocratic, and encouraged members to leave and form a rival union in April 2010.

In 2005, Mikhalkov resumed his acting career, starring in three films - Statskiy sovetnik/The Councilor of State (Filipp Yankovsky, 2005) - a Fandorin mystery film which was a Russian box-office hit, Zhmurki/Dead man’s Bluff (Aleksey Balabanov, 2005) - a noir-drenched comedy about the Russian Mafia, and Krzysztof Zanussi's Persona non grata (2005).

In 2007, Mikhalkov’s film 12 (Nikita Mikhalkov, 2007), a loose remake of Sidney Lumet's court drama 12 Angry Men (1957), received a special Golden Lion for the ‘consistent brilliance’ of its work and was praised by critics at the Venice Film Festival. 12 was also named as a nominee for the 2008 Academy Awards. He took on a role of the executive producer of an epic film 1612.

Nikita Mikhalkov's first wife was the renowned Russian actress Anastasiya Vertinskaya , whom he married in, 1967. They have a son, Stepan Mikhalkov, born in 1966. With his second wife, former model Tatyana Mikhalkova, he has a son, Artem (1975), and two daughters, Anna (1974) and Nadya (1987).

Nikita Mikhalkov is actively involved in Russian politics. He is known for his at times extreme Russian nationalist and Slavophile views, and has been a strong supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin. In October 2007, Mikhalkov, who produced a television program for Putin's 55th birthday, co-signed an open letter asking Putin not to step down after the expiry of his term in office. Since 2015 Mikhalkov is banned from entering Ukraine because of his support for the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.

In 2010 he returned as a director with Utomlyonnye solntsem 2: Predstoyanie/Burnt by the Sun 2 (Nikita Mikhalkov, 2010), in which he also starred The film consists of two parts: Exodus and Citadel. It is the sequel to Burnt by the Sun (1994), set in the Eastern Front of World War II. Burnt by the Sun 2 had the largest production budget ever seen in Russian cinema ($55 mln), but it turned out to be Russia's biggest box office flop, and received negative reviews from critics both in Russia and abroad.

His most recent film is Solnechnyy udar/Sunstroke (Nikita Mikhalkov, 2014). It is set in Russia during the Red Terror in 1920 and in 1907, and is loosely based on the story Sunstroke and the book Cursed Days by Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer Ivan Bunin. The film was selected as the Russian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.


Scene from Anna ot 6 do 18/Anna: 6-18 (1993). Source: HP 1067 (YouTube).


Trailer Utomlyonnye solntsem/Burnt by the Sun (1994). Source: Video Detective (YouTube).


Trailer 12 (2007). Source: Tevolution (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and .

Bromofoto

After the Second World War and the end of the fascist era, new publishing firms started to produce postcards in Italy. One of these firms was Bromofoto in Milano (Milan). Bromofoto started with topographic subjects, but soon discovered the blossoming Italian cinema. They produced a postcard series of the sensational box office hit Riso amaro/Bitter Rice (1949) with Silvana Mangano in hot pants. Throughout the 1950s, the Milanese publisher continued to make postcards with stills of film scenes and international star portraits, all in glamorous black and white.


Mamie van Doren . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano (Milan). Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1958.


Raymond Pellegrin and Gina Lollobrigida . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano. Photo: Minerva Film. Publicity still for La romana/ Woman of Rome (Luigi Zampa, 1954).


Nadia Gray . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 135. Photo: Dear Film. Publicity still for Puccini (Carmine Gallone, 1953).


Walter Chiari . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 136.


Shelley Winters . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 316. Photo: Universal International.


Barbara Payton . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 348. Photo: Warner Bros.


Marcello Mastroianni. Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 460. Photo: Atlantis Film. Publicity still for Febbre di vivere/Eager to Live (Claudio Gora, 1953).


Peggy Cummins . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 563. Photo: publicity still for Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949).


Mara Lane . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 968. Photo: ENIC.


Maria Felix . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1068. Photo: ENIC. Publicity still for Les héros sont fatigués/Heroes and Sinners (Yves Ciampi, 1955).


Franco Interlenghi and Antonella Lualdi . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1234. Photo: Italy's News Photos.


Anita Ekberg . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano., no. 1603. Photo: Dear Film.


Nino Manfredi . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1710. Photo: Euro International Films. Publicity still for Carmela è una bambola/Carmela is a doll (Gianni Puccini, 1958).


Mario Girotti . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1807. Photo: Titanus. Publicity still for Lazarella (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1957).


Myriam Bru . Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1826. Photo: Dear Film. Publicity still for Il padrone sono me/The master is me (Franco Brusati, 1955).

Jacques Pills

French artist Jacques Pills (1906-1970) was an agreeable light singer and crooner. Before the war, he formed a successful duo with Georges Tabet. In 1959, Pills was the Monegasque entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 with the song Mon ami Pierrot. He also appeared in several films, but Pills's main claim to fame are his marriages to two illustrious singers, Lucienne Boyer and Édith Piaf.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 260. Photo: Carlet ainé, Paris.

American jazz and Hawaiian style songs
Jacques Pills was born René Jacques Ducos in 1906 in Tulle, France.

After studying medicine, he turned to the music hall by participating in shows at the Casino de Paris, alongside Mistinguett .

He started a duo with the pianist Pierre Courmontagnes, under the name of Pills and Ward. When the latter left, Georges Tabet replaced him at the Casino de Paris. In 1931, they performed American jazz at Boeuf sur le Toit.

In 1932, Pills et Tabet reached success with the song Couchés dans le foin, written by Mireille and Jean Nohain. Several hits followed. Pills and Tabet separated in 1939. That same year, Pills married French singer Lucienne Boyer.

Jacques Pills started a solo career while Tabet became a screenwriter for the cinema. Pills recorded songs of Bruno Coquatrix, his impresario: Mon Ange (1940) and Dans un coin de mon pays (1940). He also had a huge success with a song in Hawaiian style, Avec son ukulele.

Like many other singing stars, Pills made films, including a few alongside Tabet, nearly always in the role of a singer. In 1932 he made his film debut in the sports film Chouchou poids plume/A Gentleman of the Ring (Robert Bibal, 1932), starring Geo Laby.

His films like the comedy Toi, c'est moi/You, it's me (René Guissart, 1936) and Prends la route/Take the road (Jean Boyer, 1936) were no masterpieces, mainly musicals designed to entertain undemanding fans. They cheered up enthusiastic crowds, but are forgotten today.


Jacques Pills and Georges Tabet. French postcard by PC, Paris, no. 78. Photo: G. Marant.


Pills et Tabet. French postcard by EC, no. 70. Photo: Studio Paz.

A welcome dark spot
From the 1940s on, Jacques Pills continued to appear in a string of light comedies.

The only exception in the unexpected thriller, Seul dans la nuit/Alone in the Night (Christian Stengel, 1945) starring Bernard Blier . In the film a singer (Pills)'s hit Seul dans la nuit is heard whenever a woman is murdered by a lady-killer. Worse, this beloved singer might be the serial killer himself… Guy Bellinger at IMDb : “A welcome dark spot in too sunny an output.”

Jacques Pills and Lucienne Boyer divorced in 1951. The following year, he married singer Édith Piaf . However, in 1957, this marriage also ended in a divorce.

In 1953 he played the lead in the film Boum sur Paris (Maurice de Canonge, 1953). The film was built around the popular radio program La Kermesse aux Étoiles, hosted by Jean Nohain, mixing lottery games and performances of various artists. In the film the show is disturbed by a man (Pills) and his bride ( Danielle Godet ) seeking to retrieve a dangerous perfume bottle (explosive) which was inadvertently mixed with prizes. Among the performing stars were Gary Cooper, Édith Piaf , Juliette Gréco , Gilbert Bécaud and Gregory Peck as themselves.

In 1959, Pills was the Monegasque entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 with the song Mon ami Pierrot. The song ended last, in eleventh place and got only one point. Pills was the father of Jacqueline Boyer, who won the 1960 Eurovision contest the year after her father's participation for France singing Tom Pillibi.

Jacques Pills died in 1970 in Paris. He was 64. In the  Édith Piaf  biopic La môme/The passionate life of Edith Piaf (Olivier Dahan, 2007), his character is interpreted by Laurent Olmedo.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 253. Photo: Harcourt, Paris.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 186. Photo: Carlet ainé, Paris.


Jacques Pills sings Seul dans la nuit. Source: holdabaum (YouTube).

Sources: (IMDb), Le Hall de la Chanson (French), Wikipedia, and .

Ahasver (1917)

Carl de Vogt played the leading role in the German silent drama Ahasver (Robert Reinert, 1917), a three-part film on the story of the Wandering Jew, a mythical immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming. The exact nature of the wanderer's indiscretion varies in different versions of the tale. In this early film version Ahasver is condemned to bring misfortune.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3057. Photo: Deutsche Bioscop-Gesellschaft. Publicity still of  Carl de Vogt  in Ahasver (Robert Reinert, 1917).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, no 3142. Photo: Deutsche Bioscop-Gesellschaft (DBG).  Carl de Vogt  in Ahasver (Robert Reinert, 1917).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3143. Publicity still of  Carl de Vogt  in Ahasver (Robert Reinert, 1917).

The eternal Jew
In the first part of the trilogy, Ahasver, 1. Teil (1917), Ahasver reaches the gates of a castle on a journey through time in the year 1400 during a stormy night, but he is initially rejected by the farmers. While the storm rages outside, they take pity on him and bring Ahasver into the sheltered rooms.

There he begins to tell his story and why he is condemned to eternal restlessness. He describes how he is said to have cold-heartedly rejected the collapsing Jesus Christ in front of his home in Jerusalem. Ahasver later marries the daughter of the tenant, but brings, because of the curse on him, from now on only great misfortune about this family. And so he has to continue to move restlessly.

In the second part, Ahasver, 2. Teil - Die Tragödie der Eifersucht/The Tragedy of Jealousy (1917), Ahasver learns to know Count Gotheberg on his endless wanderings. Gotheberg is sentenced to death and and will be executed by means of a guillotine. Ahasver can save him from this bloody fate, but he develops erotic desires towards the count's beloved Eleonore. It comes as it has to come: the two men are in controversy over the coveted woman and in the fight the count dies.

In he third part, Ahasver, 3. Teil - Das Gespenst der Vergangenheit/The Spectre of the Past (1917), Ahasver becomes the director of a mine. He discovers a pretty young girl named Johanna in the ghetto, takes her with him and gives her to a junk dealer. Johanna grows up and falls in love with Ahasver's mining engineer Baumann. But Ahasver falls into the same sin: he desires the other one's woman. He seduces Johanna and ensures that his competitor Baumann dies.

Director-writer Robert Reinert shot Ahasver from May to June 1917 in the Bioscop studios of Neubabelsberg. The film sets were designed by Robert A. Dietrich and executed by Artur Günther. Hanns Lippmann was production manager.

The film was received well by the German critics. German film magazine Neue Kino-Rundschau: "All the advantages that we emphasised at the time of the huge film work Homunculus are also valid for this film... The performances are also excellent. Noteworthy is lead actor  Carl de Vogt . Even his gloomy appearance seems to have been created for the role of the eternal Jew. He also knows how to express the terrible anguish of the restless."


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3144. Photo: Deutsche Bioscop-Gesellschaft (DBG).  Carl de Vogt  in Ahasver (Robert Reinert 1917).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3146. Photo: Carl de Vogt and Johannes Riemann in Ahasver (Robert Reinert, 1917).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3147. Photo: Johannes Riemann , Dora Schlüter and Carl de Vogt in Ahasver (Robert Reinert, 1917).

Sources: Neue Kino-Rundschau (German), Filmportal.de (German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Finds at the International Collector's Fair

Last Sunday, we visited the International Collector's Fair in the city of Utrecht. Twice each year, this is the spot for an amazing assortment of antiques, bric-a-brac and second-hand trinkets. The postcard section is not as big as it used to be, but still, we met interesting people, bought dozens of postcards and other memorabilia, and had a lot of fun. And we did find some rarities and curiosities (for us anyway), which we like to share with you today and next Sunday.


Vintage postcard. In 1932, Walt Disney received an honorary Academy Award for creating Mickey Mouse.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 462. Photo: publicity still for Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927) with Max Maxudian as Barras.


Adolphe Engers . Dutch postcard, no. 47759. Photo: Hilde Meyer-Kupfer.


Adolphe Engers . Dutch postcard, no. 949. Photo: publicity still for the stage production of A jó tündér/Die Fee/The Good Fairy by Ferenc Molnar, written in 1930.


Left: Heinz Rühmann and Gustl Starck-Gstettenbaur in Strich durch die Rechnung/The Upset Plan (Alfred Zeisler, 1932). Dutch quartet play card, no. VII, 3. Photo: Ufa.
Right: Toni van Eyck and Gustl Starck-Gstettenbaur in Strich durch die Rechnung/The Upset Plan (Alfred Zeisler, 1932). Dutch quartet play card, no. VIII, 4. Photo: Ufa.



Left: Otto Wallburg in Strich durch die Rechnung/The Upset Plan (Alfred Zeisler, 1932). Dutch quartet play card, no. IX, 3. Photo: Ufa.
Right: Otto Wallburg and Adele Sandrock in Das schöne Abenteuer/Beautiful Adventure (Reinhold Schünzel, 1932). Dutch quartet play card, no. IX, 2. Photo: Ufa.


Truus van Aalten and Roland Varno in Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934). Dutch postcard, no. 1.


Truus van Aalten and Roland Varno in Het Meisje met de Blauwe Hoed/The girl with the blue hat (Rudolf Meinert, 1934). Dutch postcard, no. 8.


The young Omar Sharif. Left: Egyptian collectors card, no. 7. Right: Egyptian collectors card, no. 29.


Giulietta Masina in Le notti di Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957). Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3380. Photo: N.V. Standaardfilms.


Louis Armstrong. Vintage postcard, no. 111.





Rutger Hauer in the TV series Floris (Paul Verhoeven, 1969). Photos: Gerard Soeteman. Top - down: Dutch collectors card, no. 21, no. 28, no. 44, no. 65, all 1970.


Left: Johnny Hallyday . Right: Jacques Dutronc . Belgian collectors cards by Clark, Brussels. Illustrations: Tibet.


Peter Sellers . Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 284.

Source: Verzamelaarsjaarbeurs.

Robinne

Comédie Française actress Robinne (1886-1980) was one of the first French film stars. The peak of her film career was in the 1910s when she starred in mundane and romantic dramas by Pathé. With her blond hair, passionate eyes and elegant posture, she was the perfect ‘femme du monde’.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1342. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by SIP, no. 1385. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard, no. 0489. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard, no. 3341/1. Photo: Reutlinger.


Robinne and Alexandre. French postcard by FA, no. 2:1. Photo: Reutlinger. Caption: Comédie Française.

Passionate Eyes
Robinne was born Gabrielle Anna Charlotte Robinne in Montluçon, France in 1886.

She was a pupil of Maurice de Féraudy at the Paris Conservatory and won the first prize at her exams. She entered the company of Sarah Bernhardt in 1904 and for a year she joined the Theatre Michel in St. Petersburg.

Robinne entered he Comédie Française in 1907. She became a ‘societaire’ in 1924, and stayed there until 1938. In addition to her beauty her versatility made her one of the most active and popular actresses on the French stage and screen.

She was in fact one of the first film actresses in France, already performing in the Pathé Frères short Le troubadour/The Troubadour (Segundo de Chomón, 1906). Better remembered is that she played marchioness de Noirmontier, the mistress of the Duke ( Charles LeBargy ), in L’Assassinat du Duc de Guise/The Assassination of the Duke de Guise (André Calmettes, 1908).

While her roles until 1912 in short films by directors such as Albert Capellani, Georges Monca and Jean Kemm and produced by SCAGL, were still few, her film performances greatly intensified in 1912. That year Robinne married the handsome actor René Alexandre . They formed a golden couple and played for years in countless films directed by René Leprince and Ferdinand Zecca, all Pathé productions, and often with Gabriel Signoret as antagonist.

Examples are Le roi de bagne/King of the penal colony (1913) with Stacia Napierkowska, La comtesse noire/The Black Countess (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1913), La reine de Saba/The Queen of Saba (Henri Andréani, 1914), La jolie Bretonne/The Constancy of Jeanne (1914) and La lutte pour la vie/Struggle for Life (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).

Robinne showed her artistic capacities best in mundane and romantic dramas, often situated in well constructed pasts. With her blond hair, her fine traits, her slender body, passionate eyes and her elegant posture, she was the perfect embodiment of the ‘femme du monde’, to whom audiences flocked in cinemas and theatres. The Robinne-Alexandre films were so popular, that Comédie Française administrator Albert Carré tried to bar his performers from playing in films – of course he didn’t manage.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 865/17. Sent by mail in 1904. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard, no. 181/10. Sent by mail in 1903. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard by FA, no. 58. Photo: Félix, Paris. Caption: Comédie Française.


French postcard by F.C. & Cie, no. 244. Photo: Paul Boyer, Paris. Publicity still for the stage play Le Passant by François Coppée (1869). Robinne played the role of Zanetto in travesty.


French postcard, no. 1261. Photo: Reutlinger.

Grand Old Lady
In 1915, René Leprince was traded for Georges Monca as Robinne’s regular director. Between 1915 and 1917 Monca shot many films with Robinne – without Alexandre, but instead with actors like Jean Kemm and Georges Tréville. Examples are Le mot d’énigme/The key to the mystery (Georges Monca, 1915) and Blessure d’amour/Wound of Love (Georges Monca, 1916).

Between 1917 and 1919 Robinne performed in films by various directors, such as the mystery Le dédale/The Labyrinth (Jean Kemm, 1917) and L'expiation/The expiation (Camille de Morlhon, 1919) with Jean Angelo .

In the 1920s, she hardly played in films and focused on her stage work. Still she had occasional leads such as in Destinée/Fate (Gaston Mouru de Lacotte, Armand Plessy, 1922), Fleur du mal/Flower of evil (Gaston Mouru de Lacotte, 1923) and Molière, sa vie et son œuvre/Molière, his life and his work (Jacques de Féraudy, 1922). In the latter two films Robinne was reunited with Alexandre. She also played a smaller part in Lucile (Georges Monca, 1927), but then disappeared from the screen for years.

It was only in the mid-1930's that Robinne returned in a short film directed by Léonce Perret, apply titled Un soir à la Comédie Française/A Night at the Comédie Française (1934). In the late 1930s, when she left the Comédie Française, Robinne played the tsarina-mother in the costume drama La tragédie impériale/The Imperial Tragedy (Marcel L'Herbier, 1938), about the Siberian monk Gregory Rasputin ( Harry Baur ) and the hold he exerted over the court of the last Russian czar, Nicholas II (Jean Worms).

Again for Marcel L'Herbier, she played Duclos opposite Yvonne Printemps in the title role of Adrienne Lecouvreur (Marcel L'Herbier, 1939) based on the play by Ernest Legouve and Eugène Scribe. She also played in G.W. Pabst’s Jeunes filles en détresse/Girls in Distress (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1939) featuring Micheline Presle .

In the immediate postwar years Robinne had small parts in Le capitan/The Captain (Robert Vernay, 1946), Rendez-vous à Paris/Rendezvous in Paris (Gilles Grangier, 1947) with Annie Ducaux , and Hymenée/Marriage (Emile Couzinet, 1947) with Gaby Morlay .

Robinne’s last film performances were in La prostitution/Prostitution (Maurice Boutel, 1962) starring Etchika Choureau , and Le journal d’un suicide/Diary of a Suicide (Stanislas Stanojevic, 1973) with Delphine Seyrig.

Gabrielle Robinne was decorated Officier (officer) in the Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honor). In October 1980, a restored version of L’Assassinat du Duc de Guise (1908) was shown in the old auditorium of the Palais des Arts, accompanied with the original music by Saint-Saëns. ‘Tout Paris’ was present, a crowd of film directors, actors, and critics.

A few moments before the light went out an announcement was made that 'Madame Robinne, de la Comédie Française' was present as well. A standing ovation was given to the grand old lady. Leaning on a stick but with a proud look, she was clearly moved.

The 94-years old Gabrielle Robinne had come to see her (almost) first film in which she had played 72 years before. A few days later, she died in Saint-Cloud. In her natal village Montluçon the local theatre was named after her in 2006. The theatre had been opened in 1914, with Robinne present.


French postcard.


French postcard by S.I.P. no. 185/2. Photo: Reutlinger. Sent by mail in 1905.


French postcard, no. 1261. Sent by mail in 1905. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1282. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1348. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard by S.I.P., no. 1623. Sent by mail in 1908. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard by K.E. Editeurs d'Art, Paris, Serie 2132. Sent by mail in 1906. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard by SW, no. 0423. Sent by mail in 1907. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard. Photo Félix.


French postcard. Photo Félix.


French postcard. Photo Félix.


French postcard, no. 515. Photo Paul Méjat, Paris.


French postcard by Edition Cinémagazine, no. 32. Photo: Studio Pathé.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the series Les Vedettes du Cinéma, no. 13. Photo: Reutlinger.


French postcard in the Nos Artistes dans leur loge series, no. 161. Photo: Comoedia.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio - Italian), Wikipedia (French and German), and .

Happy 80, Claudia Cardinale!

CC was born on 15 April 1938, today 80 years ago. At 20, she made her film debut in the French-Tunisian film Goha (Jacques Baratier, 1958). Five years later, she made three classics in one year: Luchino Visconti's epic Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (1963), Federico Fellini's Otto e Mezzo/8½ (1963), and the American comedy The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963).  Last year, she was seen in three new feature films, a short film and a mini-series and a new project is announced. And in between she made so many other wonderful films for which we salute her!


German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. H 72.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/164. Photo: Georg Michalke / UFA.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 183. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 229. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 230. Photo: Sam Lévin.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/47.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., nr. 243, offered by Les carbones Korès Carboplane. Photo: Sam Lévin.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/132. Photo: Sam Levin / Ufa.


German postcard by ISV, no. H 126. Sent by mail in 1967.


German postcard by Krüger / Ufa. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1967. Photo: Fried Agency.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 316. Photo: Sam Lévin.

A quote from a 2011 interview with La Cardinale in The Guardian: "When I was young, I wanted to go everywhere and be everyone, and with this work, I have. The interesting thing for an actress is not to do what she wants to do, but to be somebody else. I was blonde, I was brunette, I was a princess, I was a whore. I was everything. You are not yourself in front of the camera. You can live many lives, instead of one. I think I've been lucky."

Tanti auguri, sig.a Cardinale.

Sources: Steve Rose (The Guardian) and .

Collecting Garbo

The last post of EFSP's Greta Garbo week is about a series of small tobacco or cigarette cards we once found on a 'trödelmarkt'. They were produced in the early 1930s by Ross Verlag for forgotten cigarette brands like Mercedes and Manoli Gold by different factories in Germany. The cards (6,5 x 4,5 cm) were made shortly after the introduction of sound film in Germany and were meant to be pasted into special albums called Aus Tönenden Filmen or Tonfilmserie (sound film series). However, the first card in this post was made for a silent Garbo film. The Single Standard (1929).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the Tonfilmserie, no. 374, by A. Batschari Cigarettenfabrik, Baden-Baden. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Single Standard (John S. Robertson, 1929), with Nils Asther .


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for Filmalbum 4, 'Aus Tönenden Filmen', Serie 4, no. 637, by A. Batschari Cigarettenfabrik, Baden-Baden. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930) with Lewis Stone.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the Tonfilmserie, no. 360, by Manoli A.G., Berlin. Photo: George Hurrell / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the Tonfilmserie, no. 369, by A. Batschari Cigarettenfabrik, Baden-Baden. Photo: George Hurrell / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the Tonfilmserie, no. 371, by A. Batschari Cigarettenfabrik, Baden-Baden. Photo: George Hurrell / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the Tonfilmserie, no. 372, by Manoli A.G., Berlin. Photo: George Hurrell / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930).


Small collectors card. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930).

Sources: Mark Goffee (Ross Verlag) and Garbo Forever.

Greta Garbo: Ivo Blom's Choice

Yesterday, it was 28 years ago that Greta Garbo (1905-1990) passed away. This week we salute her and will post only her postcards. For today's post, film historian Ivo Blom selected twelve favourite Garbo postcards from his won collection.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2077/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin. Binder probably took this photo during the shooting of Die Freudlose Gasse/The Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3542/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 81. Photo: publicity still for Anna Christie (Clarence Brown, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3756/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928).


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3616. Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Camille (George Cukor, 1936).


Italian postcard, no. 76. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Flesh and the Devil (Clarence Brown, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4256/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Wild Orchids (Sidney Franklin, 1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6521/1, 1931-1932. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Mata Hari (George Fitzmaurice, 1931).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6215/1, 1931-1932. Photo: George Hurrell / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in an over-the-top dress by Adrian in Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930). Set by Cedric Gibbons.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8435/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933).


British postcard in the Picturegoer series, no. 283P. Photo: Garbo wears the dress from her lesser known film Inspiration (Clarence Brown, 1931).


French postcard by Europe, no. 941. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Garbo in her gown and hairdo from the film Inspiration (Clarence Brown, 1931).