Paul van Yperen's Blog, page 340

Il romanzo di Maud (1917)

Il romanzo di Maud/Maud's romance (1917) was the second film Diana Karenne directed herself, after Lea (1916). She also played the lead. On the Italian postcards with French (!) and sometimes Italian captions in this post, the Ambrosio production is called Demi vierges, after the title of the French book by Marcel Prevost on which the film is based.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4035. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "Maud, don't play with my passion". For this post we followed the postcard numbers, but the numbering does not seem to follow the narrative.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4037. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "The secret anxieties pass inadvertently without disturbing the party rhythm."


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4038. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "One step further and I throw myself from the window."


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4039. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "But if you will love your husband? No only you, forever!"


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4040. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "Faithful to her promise, she goes to her sweet rendez-vous."

Just a modern woman?
Il romanzo di Maud (Diana Karenne, 1917) is based on Les demi-vierges (1895) by Marcel Prevost. Polish born diva of the silent Italian cinema Diana Karenne plays the free-spirited Maud de Rouvre. Alberto Capozzi plays Maxime and Francesco Cacace acts as Julien.

Maud has an affair with an opportunistic and dubious gentleman, Julien de Suberceaux. When their relationship has an impasse, Maud sees new perspectives in the rich provincial noble Maxime de Chantel. Julien doesn't give up and forces her to see him in secret.

When Maud en Maxime are about to marry, the jealous Julien tells Maxime the truth, but Maud denies all and chases him away. When Julien threatens to kill himself, Maud coldly responds that she doesn't care. Julien shoots himself.

When Maxime forces her to tell, Maud confesses her former affair, but says she only loves Maxime now. Eventually, Maxime, though, cannot forgive Maud and abandons her.

The story is drenched in 19th century bourgeois ideology, i.e. the woman can only succeed in a rat race for a rich marriage with her beauty as only weapon, as the perspective of a working career is considered humiliation. Is the blasé, calculating and flirtatious Parisian Maud in fact just a modern woman?

The film was heavily censored in Italy. The Italian censor not only ordered many cuts, but also forced Ambrosio to change the original title from Les demi-vierges into Il romanzo di Maud. However, after first screenings the film was mostly distributed as Les demi-vierges. Today Il romanzo di Maud is considered lost.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4041. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "And his eyes express the passion that his lips dare not speak."


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4042. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "It is tea time."


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4043. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "I love you Julien... that should be enough for you!"


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4044. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "But the token of love was not collected by Maxime."


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, Terni, no. 4045. Photo: Film Soc. An. Ambrosio, Torino (Turin). Caption: "A gaze, a smile and so love is born."

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1917 - Italian) and IMDb.

Nicole Courcel (1931-2016)

On 25 June, French actress Nicole Courcel (1931-2016) died. She appeared in 43 films between 1947 and 1979. Though Courcel is mostly unknown outside of France, she graced the screen with a number of sensitive performances through the 1950s and 1960s. Courcel was 84.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 809, 1960.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 808, 1958. Retail price: 0,20 DM.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 58A. Offered by Les carbones Korès Carboplane. P.I. was the French licency holder for the UFA. Photo: Unifrance Film / UFA.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 660. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Youth Culture
Nicole Courcel was born Nicole Marie-Anne Andrieux in Saint-Cloud, a western suburb of Paris, in 1931. Her father was a French journalist and her mother came from Monaco. Some of her early childhood was spent in Catholic boarding schools and with her grandmother in the small township of Martel.

While in her mid-teens, Nicole began acting in amateur theatre. She studied acting at the Cours René Simon in Paris, and from 1947, she served as an extra in a few films.

At 18, she won a major role in Rendez-vous de juillet/Appointment with Life (Jacques Becker, 1949), opposite Daniel Gélin and Brigitte Auber . Rendez-vous de juillet has been credited as the first post-war European film to accurately depict the ‘youth culture’. The teenagers in the film shuttle between theatre classes, jazz bars and coffee houses and seem rather ill-equipped for ‘real life’. The film won the critics' award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Nicole adopted the stage name Courcel from her character (Christine Courcel) in Rendez-vous de juillet (1949). Under this name, she worked with neorealist writer-director Marcello Pagliero at the drama Les Amants de Brasmart/The Lovers of Brasmart (1950) in which she played the girl of Franck Villard.

The following years, she had notable parts in such productions as the romantic drama La Marie du port/Marie of the Port (Marcel Carné, 1950) opposite Jean Gabin , Sacha Guitry 's historical spectacle Si Versailles M'Etait Conté/Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954), the Jean-Paul Sartre drama Huis clos/No Exit (Jacqueline Audry, 1954) with Arletty , and La Sorcière/The Blonde Witch (André Michel, 1956) starring Marina Vlady .

I.S. Mowis at IMDb: "An actress of considerable poise, beauty and sensitivity, Courcel reached the peak of her popularity just prior to the beginning of the New Wave movement." A popular success was Papa, Maman, la Bonne et Moi/ Papa, Mama the Maid and I (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1954) with Robert Lamoureux .


French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 151. Photo: Sam Lévin.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1713. Photo: Sam Lévin / Unifrance Film.


German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3897. Photo: Sam Lévin / Unifrance Film.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 99. Photo: Studio Harcourt.

Compassionate But Possessive and Jealous
Nicole Courcel is best known for her complex role in Les Dimanches de Ville d'Avray/Sundays and Cybele (Serge Bourguignon, 1962), based on a novel by Bernard Eschasseriaux. The exquisitely photographed Les Dimanches de Ville d'Avray won the Best Foreign Film Academy Award in 1962.

Hal Erickson at AllMovie : “Her most widely circulated film was also one of the most hauntingly beautiful French productions of the 1960s. In René Clement's Sundays and Cybele, Nicole Courcel played Madeleine, the compassionate but possessive and jealous nurse of mental patient Hardy Kruger .”

Courcel made a few international appearances. She played a French piano teacher in the Heinz Rühmann comedy, Ein Mann geht durch die Wand/The Man Who Walked Through the Wall (Ladislao Vajda, 1959), and a nurse in the cold war drama, Verspätung in Marienborn/Stop Train 349 (Rolf Hädrich, 1963), starring Sean Flynn, son of Errol Flynn and Lily Damita . She also had a small part, as Raymonde, in the psychological thriller The Night of the Generals (Anatole Litvak, 1967) starring Peter O’Toole .

In the following decade Nicole Courcel was seen in the adventure comedy L'aventure, c'est l'aventure/Money Money Money (Claude Lelouch, 1972) and the coming-of-age comedy La Gifle/The Slap (Claude Pinoteau, 1974) with Lino Ventura and Isabelle Adjani . However, she confined her acting from then on more and more to the small screen. She could often be seen in period drama, notably in the title role of the Gustave Flaubert adaptation Madame Bovary (Pierre Cardinal, 1974).

Later in life, she appeared in different TV films, including Credo (Jacques Deray, 1983) with Jean-Louis Trintignant , and Mini-series such as Les Thibault/The Thibaults (Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe, 2003) with Jean Yanne. Her final screen appearance was in the Alexandre Dumas adaptation Milady (Josée Dayan, 2004) as Jeanne De Breuil, the grandmother of the title figure (Arielle Dombasle).

Nicole Courcel died on 25 June 2016 in Paris, France. She was 84. Courcel was the mother of French television personality and food critic Julie Andrieu. In 1980, Courcel published a memoir dedicated to her daughter, Julie tempête.


French postcard by O.P., Paris, no. 93. Photo: Teddy Piaz, Paris.


Yugoslavian postcard by Studio Sombor.


French postcard by Imp. de Marchi Frères, Marseille.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), (IMDb), Thomas Sotinel (Le Monde - French), Culturebox (French), Wikipedia and .

Götz George (1938-2016)

After a short illness, German actor Götz George has passed away in Hamburg, Germany on 19 June 2016. George (1938-2016) was a popular film and theatre star for five decades. He gained international stardom on television in the Krimi TV series Tatort as the maverick police detective Horst Schimanski. George was 77.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 23/6/3264, 1957. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: DEFA / Wenzel. Publicity still for Alter Kahn und Junge Liebe/Old Barge, Young Love (Hans Heinrich, 1957).


German postcard by Rüdel Verlag, no. C 16. Photo: Rialto / Constantin / Vogelmann. Still for Der Schatz im Silbersee/The Treasure of Silver Lake (Harald Reinl, 1962).


German collectors card. Photo: Constantin / Rialto. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964).


Promotion card for Pioneer, Die jeans mit der nummer.

Ufa-Nachwuchsstudio
Götz George was born as Götz Schulz into an actors family in Berlin in 1938. His father Heinrich George was a famous film and theatre star of his era; his mother Berta Drews was a well-known character actress. George is named after his father's favourite character, the Imperial knight Götz von Berlichingen, immortalised by Goethe.

After the war, his father was imprisoned in the former Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen by the Soviets and died, exhausted and starving, in 1946, after a botched appendix operation at the Soviet concentration camp Speziallager Nr. 7 Sachsenhausen.

George grew up in Berlin with his elder brother Jan and his mother. He went to school in Berlin-Lichterfelde and later attended the Lyzeum Alpinum in Zuoz. In 1950 George made his stage debut at the Hebbel-Theater in Berlin, performing a role in William Saroyan's Mein Herz ist im Hochland.

In 1953 he was able to get a small film role next to Romy Schneider in Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht/When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (Hans Deppe, 1953). In the same year he played, as he would often do from then on, next to his mother in William Shakespeare's Richard III on stage.

From 1955 to 1958 he studied at the Berlin Ufa-Nachwuchsstudio (the Ufa drama school). During that period, he starred in the DEFA comedy Alter Kahn und Junge Liebe/Old Barge, Young Love (Hans Heinrich, 1957).

The crucial part of his acting education, he received between 1958 and 1963. Following his mother's advice he occasionally played at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen under the direction of Heinz Hilpert. After Hilpert's death, George would never join a fixed theatre company again, although he did regularly perform on tours and as a guest performer.


German postcard, no. ED 54. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Schatz in Silbersee (Harald Reinl, 1962).


German postcard, no. E 58. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Schatz im Silbersee (Harald Reinl, 1962).


German postcard, no. E 61. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Schatz im Silbersee (Harald Reinl, 1962).

Karl May Westerns
After some supporting parts during the 1950s, Götz George broke through with film audiences and critics in the romance Jacqueline (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1959) with Johanna von Koczian . George was awarded the Bundesfilmpreis (the Gold Ribbon – a major German Film Award) for Best Newcomer and the Preis der Filmkritik (the German Critics Award).

Between 1959 and 1969 he appeared in 26 cinema features. First followed roles in Kirmes/The Fair (Wolfgang Staudte, 1960) playing a desperate Wehrmacht deserter, the thriller Die Fastnachtsbeichte/The Carnival Confession (William Dieterle, 1960), Der Teufel spielt Balaleika/Until Hell Is Frozen (Leopold Lahola, 1961), Mörderspiel/Murder Party (Helmut Ashley, 1961) with Magali Noël , Unser Haus in Kamerun/Our House in Cameroon (Alfred Vohrer, 1961) and the drama Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt/The Girl and the Prosecutor (Jürgen Goslar, 1962) with Elke Sommer .

He became well-known to a broad audience when, during his theatre tour in Göttingen, producer Horst Wendlandt persuaded him to play in the Karl May series of Westerns, which he started in 1962 with the successful Der Schatz im Silbersee/Treasure of Silver Lake (Harald Reinl, 1962). It was originally planned to give George the lead role of the farmer son Fred Engel, but this plan was abandoned when Lex Barker became engaged, playing the role of Old Shatterhand.

In 1962 George received the public Bambi-award as the most popular German actor. The following years he often performed in comedies like Liebe will gelernt sein/Love Has To Be Learned (Kurt Hoffmann, 1963) and action-oriented films as the war film Herrenpartie/Destination Death (Wolfgang Staudte, 1964) which benefited from his physical presence.

George performs all stunts himself, like in his lead role as sheriff in the Euro-western Sie nannten ihn Gringo/Man Called Gringo (Roy Rowland, 1965). Later he appeared in such films as the horror film The Blood of Fu Manchu (Jesus Franco, 1968) with Christopher Lee , and the war film Commandos (Armando Crispino, 1968) with Lee Van Cleef.

He also appeared in the experiment Le vent d'est/East Wind (Groupe Dziga Vertov – a.o Jean Luc Godard, 1970) with Gian Maria Volonté. Filmportal: "Although he enjoyed great popularity, George always looked for new challenges as an actor."


German postcard, no. ED 62. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Schatz in Silbersee (Harald Reinl, 1962).


German postcard, no. ED 65. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Schatz in Silbersee (Harald Reinl, 1962).


German postcard, no. E 76. Photo: Constantin. Still from Der Schatz im Silbersee (Harald Reinl, 1962).

Auschwitz Commander
In the 1970s, Götz George turned primarily to stage roles and to television, including many episodes of Krimis like Der Komissar (1970-1973), Derrick (1978), and Der Alte/The Old Fox (1978-1979). Hansgünther Heyme signed him in 1972 to the Kölner Schauspielhaus, where George played Martin Luther in Dieter Forte's Martin Luther und Thomas Münzer.

It was not until 1977 that he was cast in a prominent film role again. He gave a highly praised performance in Aus einem Deutschen Leben/Death Is My Trade (Theodor Kotulla, 1977) as Franz Lang, a character modeled after Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss.

Notable stage appearances were in Troilos and Cressida, and in Endstation Sehnsucht (A Streetcar Named Desire), as Stanley Kowalski. His most important stage achievement, in his own opinion, was the lead role in Büchner's Dantons Tod during the Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg Festival) in 1981.

In 1986 and 1987 George, together with Eberhard Feik and Helmut Stauss, stage-managed Gogol's Revisor. Performing in Anton Tschechow's Platonov (1990), George went on his hitherto last theatre tour. He later admitted in an interview he feared the glances of the audience on stage.


German postcard by ISV, no. C 11. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Stewart Granger .


German postcard by ISV, no. C 13. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (1964, Alfred Vohrer) with Elke Sommer .


German postcard by ISV, no. C 16. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964).


German postcard by ISV, no. C 20. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964).


German postcard, no. 43. Photo: Constantin / Rialto. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964). Caption: 'Nur allzugern sind die Geier bereit, Martin zu hängen' (All too glad, the vultures are ready to hang Martin (Götz George)).

Schimanski
Götz George had his greatest popular success in the 1980s on television. In Tatort TV films broadcast from 1981 to 1991 by the WDR, he portrayed police officer Horst Schimanski. This rough-hewed, working-class cop from Duisburg eventually became a cult figure. Later, George kept returning to the role, playing Schimanski in 48 episodes of Tatort over the course of 32 years. Aside from their success in Germany, the Schimanski films have introduced George to TV audiences worldwide: 427 million people have watched so far.

The series Schulz & Schulz (1989-1993), dealing with the issue of the German reunification, gave him the opportunity to show his talents as a comedian in a double role, as did the role of a industry consultant in the series Morlock (1993-1994), which was very far away from the roughneck charm of Schimanski.

The films Abwärts/Out of Order (Carl Schenkel, 1984) with Renee Soutendijk, and Zahn um Zahn/A Tooth for a Tooth (Hajo Gies, 1985) which was based on the TV-series Tatort, were both successful at the box office and among critics. In 1985, George received the Charlie-Chaplin-Schuh (German Cinema Award) and the Bundesfilmpreis (Gold Ribbon) as best German film actor.

After starring in another Schimanski-adaption for the cinema, Zabou/The Crack Connection (Hajo Gies, 1987) and the action thriller Die Katze/The Cat (Dominik Graf, 1988) opposite Gudrun Landgrebe, George appeared in the film Der Bruch/The Breach (Frank Beyer, 1988), the first East-West-German co-production. The location of his next film was Argentina, where he starred in Blauäugig/Blue-Eyed (Reinhard Hauff, 1989).


German postcard by Stöckel & Co., Hannover.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 2.002, 1964. Retail price: 0,20 DM.


German postcard by WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Köln). Photo: WDR / Michael Böhme. Publicity still for Tatort (1981-1991).

The Death Angel of Auschwitz
In 1991, Götz George played a lead role in the social satire Schtonk (Helmut Dietl, 1991) about the forged Hitler diaries. It was a big success in Germany among audience and critics, and the official German nomination for the Oscar. For this performance, George again received the Bundesfilmpreis (Gold Ribbon) as best actor.

An impressive role was his TV appearance in Der Sandmann/The Sandman (Nico Hofmann, 1995) in which he portrayed the alleged serial killer and writer Henry Kupfer as a cold, calculating and manipulative intellectual. Another remarkable TV performance was the title role in Die Bubi-Scholz-Story/The Bubi Scholz Story (Roland Suso Richter, 1997), the trauma of an aged, broken boxer.

Always seeking a great diversity in his choices and not afraid of taking risks, he played the serial killer Fritz Haarmann in Der Totmacher/Deathmaker (Romuald Karmakar, 1995). For this film he received the Coppa Volpi, the actor's award of the Venice Film Festival in 1995 and, once more, the Bundesfilmpreis (Gold Ribbon) in 1996. In the same year he again appeared in another highly successful comedy Rossini (Helmut Dietl, 1996) with Mario Adorf.

George then starred in the gay comedy Das Trio/The Trio (Hermine Huntgeburth, 1997), and the thriller Solo für Klarinette/Solo for Clarinet (Nico Hofmann, 1998), a film adaption of the successful novel by Elsa Lewin. Next Götz George starred as Nazi-Doctor Dr. Josef Mengele - the ´death angel of Auschwitz, who killed more than 300.000 people, in Nichts als die Wahrheit/After the Truth (Roland Suso Richter, 1999). In 2000 he played the advertiser Eddie Kaminski in Viktor Vogel - Commercial Man/Advertising Rules! (Lars Kraume, 2001), he was strange bird Heinrich in the drama Gott ist tot/God is Dead (Kadir Sözen, 2003) and designer Jost in Maria an Callas/Maria on Callas (Petra K. Wagner, 2005).

After a six-year-intermission, Schimanski returned to German TV-screens as Schimanski in 1997. Schimanski and George's other roles in numerous successful TV features have made him the most well-known and mostly decorated German actor of our time. In 2002 Götz George played one of the leads in the TV film Mein Vater/Coming Home (Andreas Kleinert, 2002) which won the Emmy Award for best foreign feature film in 2003. The Schimanski-episodes Das Geheimnis des Golem/The Secret of the Golem (2004) and Asyl/Asylum (2002) were nominated for the Emmy in 2004.

In 2007, Götz George received the Founders' Honorary Award of the German Television Award for his career achievement as an actor. In 2013, he starred in a very personal project: the biopic George (Joachim Lang, 2013). In this TV-film, he portrayed his father, Heinrich George, whose legacy is overshadowed by his appearance in Nazi propaganda films. In 2014 George was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz, Germany's Federal Cross of Merit.

Götz George was married to Loni von Friedl from 1966 to 1976. She gave birth to their daughter Tanja-Nicole in 1967. Since 1997 he lived together with Hamburg journalist Marika Ullrich. The couple married in 2014. George died 19 June 2016, but his death was kept secret until he was buried in Hamburg.


Trailer for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (1964). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).


German trailer for Wartezimmer zum Jenseits (1964). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).


German trailer for Aus einem Deutschen Leben/Death Is My Trade (1977). Source: Filmportal (YouTube).


German trailer for Abwärts/Out of Order (1984). Source: disc-planet.ch (YouTube).


German trailer for Das Trio/The Trio (1997). Source: Edition Salzgeber (YouTube).

Sources: Scott Roxborough (The Hollywood Reporter),  Filmportal.de, Wikipedia, and .

Bud Spencer (1929-2016)

On 27 June, 89-years old Bud Spencer has died in Rome, Italy of natural causes. The huge Italian actor with his trademark black beard was the popular star of many Spaghetti Westerns and low-budget action films of the late 1960s and 1970s. In 18 films he co-starred with his long time film partner Terence Hill. In his youth, Spencer (then: Carlo Pedersoli) was the first Italian to swim 100 metres in less than a minute. He also had a degree in law, and he registered several patents.


German autograph card by BRAVO.


With Terence Hill . German autograph card by BRAVO.


Italian postcard. Promotional card for Io Sto Con Gli Ippopotami/I'm for the Hippopotamus (Italo Zingarelli, 1979).

Bitten By the Acting Bug
Bud Spencer was born Carlo Pedersoli in Santa Lucia, a historical part of the city of Naples, in 1929. He was educated as an attorney and he even got a Juris Doctor degree, but Carlo was bitten by the acting bug.

His first film role was as a member of the Praetorian guard in the MGM epic Quo Vadis (Mervyn Leroy, 1951), shot in Italy. During the 1950s, he appeared in minor parts in various films made for the Italian market. Italian director Mario Monicelli gave him his first big role in Un eroe dei nostri tempi/A Hero of Our Times (Mario Monicelli, 1955) with Alberto Sordi .

Pedersoli was also a successful swimmer. In 1950, he was the first Italian to swim the 100 m freestyle in less than one minute (59.5 seconds). In the 1951 Mediterranean Games, he won a silver medal in the same 100 m freestyle event.

He participated in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, reaching the semi-finals in the 100 m freestyle (58.8 s heats, 58.9 s semi final). Four years later, in Melbourne, he also entered the semi-finals in the same category (58.5 s heat, 59.0 s semi final). As a water polo player, he won the Italian Championship in 1954, with S.S. Lazio. His swimming career ended abruptly in 1957.

Pedersoli appeared in some more Italian films such as the Peplum Annibale/Hannibal (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1959) starring Victor Mature, but for most of the 1960s his film career would stay minor league.


Italian postcard by Alterocca, Ferni.


Terence Hill . Italian postcard by Alterocca, Ferni.

God Forgives... I Don't!
In 1967 Carlo Pedersoli changed his screen name to Bud Spencer. Reportedly he chose this pseudonym to pay homage to Hollywood star Spencer Tracy as well as to his favourite Czech-American beer, Budweiser. Other sources report that he found it funny to call himself ‘Bud’ despite his weight and his height at 1.94 m, which made him beloved as 'the big friendly giant' of the screen.

With Terence Hill a.k.a. Mario Girotti , he appeared in the Spaghetti Western Dio perdona... Io no!/God Forgives... I Don't! (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1967). Their pairing was a coincidence while a foot injury had forced lead actor Peter Martell (Pietro Martellanza) off the picture. Terence Hill took over the part of the pistolero Cat Stevens, and the rest is history.

Their dual outings made both actors famous, particularly in Europe. At IMDb , reviewer Benjamin Gauss calls Dio perdona... Io no!/God Forgives... I Don't! one of their best films: “Although the movie has many gags and humorous parts, God Forgives... I Don't! is not one of the usual Spencer/Hill comedies, but a pretty brutal and rather serious Spaghetti Western”.

Dio perdona... Io no!/God Forgives... I Don't! wasn’t their first film together. Both had also appeared in the Peplum Annibale/Hannibal (1959). After the success of Dio perdona... Io no! followed such Westerns as I quattro dell'Ave Maria/Ace High (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1967) with Eli Wallach, and La collina degli stivali/Boot Hill (Giuseppe Colizzi, 1969) with Woody Strode.

Then they played two brothers in Lo chiamavano Trinità.../They Call Me Trinity (Enzo Barboni a.k.a. E.B. Clucher, 1970), a comedic spoof of the Spaghetti Western genre. They Call Me Trinity became Italy’s top-grossing title.The enormous success lead to the sequel ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity Is STILL My Name! (Enzo Barboni, 1971) with Harry Carey Jr., which became an even bigger success.

Most of these films have alternate titles, depending upon the country and distributor. Some films have longer Italian versions that were edited for release abroad. Hill and Spencer also appeared together in other action genres, such as in the pirate adventure Il corsaro nero/Blackie the Pirate (Lorenzo Gicca Palli, 1971), the action film ...Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!/Watch Out, We're Mad (Marcello Fondato, 1974) with Donald Pleasence, and another actioner I due superpiedi quasi piatti/Crime Busters (Enzo Barboni, 1977).

Practically all of Bud Spencer's films have him playing the role of a bearded, balding, and brawny omnipotent who usually ends a fist fight by striking a hammer-like blow on the top of his opponent's head.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity is still my name (Enzo Barboni a.k.a. E.B. Clucher, 1971) with Terence Hill .


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 53189.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43 157. Photo: publicity still for Piedone l'africano/The knock-out cop (Steno, 1978) with Baldwin Dakile.

Extralarge
Bud Spencer also appeared solo in many films. He played in the Spaghetti Westerns Oggi a me... domani a te!/Today It's Me (Tonino Cervi, 1968) starring Brett Halsey aka Montgomery Ford, and Un esercito di cinque uomini/The Five Man Army (Don Taylor, Italo Zingarelli, 1969) with Peter Graves.

Spenver made a rare entry in the horror genre in 4 mosche di velluto grigio/4 Flies on Grey Velvet (Dario Argento, 1971) with Mimsy Farmer. Then he played a dramatic role as a man innocently kept in prison in Torino nera/Black Turin (Carlo Lizzani, 1972) with Françoise Fabian as his wife.

Later films include the action-packed potboilers Piedone lo sbirro/Piedone, the cop (Steno, 1973), and Lo chiamavano Bulldozer/They Call Him Bulldozer (Michele Lupo, 1978) with Raimund Harmstorf . Spencer also wrote the complete or partial screenplay for some of his films.

His feature film career slowed down after 1983, shifting more toward television. He also became a jet airplane and helicopter pilot in 1972. He established Mistral Air in 1984, an air-mail company that also transported pilgrims. He later sold it to Poste Italiane to buy a textile mill that produced clothes for children. He also has registered several patents.

In the 1990s he acted on TV in the comic action series Extralarge (Enzo G. Castellari, 1990-1993) and Noi siamo angeli/We Are Angels (Ruggero Deodato, 1997), both with Philip Michael Thomas, best known from the 1980s TV hit Miami Vice. His final film with Terence Hill was Botte di Natale/Troublemakers (Terence Hill, 1994).

After he made a film with internationally renowned Italian director Ermanno Olmi, Cantando dietro i paraventi/Singing Behind Screens (2003), Spencer confessed that was perhaps the first time he felt he was an actor. “I always said that I was only a character” as opposed to an actor, he said. The adventure-drama is loosely inspired to real life events of Chinese pirate Ching Shih. The film won three David di Donatello and four Nastro d'Argento Awards.

In 2005, Pedersoli briefly entered politics. Then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked him to run as a regional councilor in Lazio for the centre-right Forza Italia party, but he was not elected. That same year he was awarded with the Caimano d'oro (Gold Caiman) by the Italian Swimming Federation. Two years later, he received swim and water polo coach diplomas from the Italian Swimming Federation's president Paolo Barelli.

Bud Spencer continued to appear on TV, and could be seen in the Italian Giallo-comedy television series I delitti del cuoco/Recipe for Crime (Alessandro Capone, 2010) and in an episode of the American comedy series Ninja the Mission Force (2013). Since 1960, Carlo Pedersoli was married to Maria Amato. They had three children: Giuseppe (1961), Christine (1962) and Diamante (1972).

Pedersoli passed away “peacefully” in Rome on 27 June 2016, his son Giuseppe  said in a media statement. Spencer said sports taught him humility. “One day you wake up and someone goes better than you. And you’re not anyone anymore. It’s the same way in cinema.”


Trailer of I quattro dell'Ave Maria/Ace High (1968). Source: Bud Spencer Official (YouTube).


Trailer of ...continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità/Trinity Is STILL My Name! (1971). Source: spencerhilltrailer (YouTube).


Trailer for Pari e dispari/Odds and Evens (1978). Source: Bud Spencer Official (YouTube).


Trailer for Non c'è due senza quattro/Double Trouble (1984). Source: spencerhilltrailer (YouTube).

Sources: (IMDb), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Nick Vivarelli (Variety), The Washington Times, Wikipedia, and .

Georges Brassens

Singer-songwriter and poet Georges Brassens (1921-1981) is an iconic figure in France. With his guitar, he performed more than a hundred of his poems, as well as texts from authors such as Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, and Louis Aragon. Between 1952 and 1976, he recorded fourteen albums that include several popular French Chansons. Most of his texts are black humour-tinged and often anarchist-minded. His most famous film is Porte des Lilas/Gates of Paris (René Clair, 1957).


French postcard by PSG, offered by Corvisart, Epinal, no. 1131. Photo: Aubert-Philips.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris. no. 965. Photo: Studio Vauclair.


French postcard by Editions Cap Theojac, Toulouse. Photo: Jimmy Rague. Caption: J'ferai la tombe buissonnière. J'quitterai la vie à reculons. (I'll skip the tomb. I leave life backwards).

A gift for poetry and creativity
Georges Charles Brassens was born in 1921 in the town of Sète, a town in southern France near Montpellier. Brassens grew up in the family home in Sète with his mother, Elvira Dagrosa, father Jean-Louis, half-sister Simone, and paternal grandfather Jules. His mother was a devout Roman Catholic, while his father was an easy-going, generous, open minded, anticlerical man. Brassens grew up between these two starkly contrasting personalities, who nonetheless shared a love for music. His mother, Simone and Jules, were always singing. This environment imparted to Brassens a passion for singing that would come to define his life.

A poor student, Brassens performed badly in school. Alphonse Bonnafé, his literature teacher strongly encouraged the 15-years-old Brassens’s apparent gift for poetry and creativity. Bonnafé would later write the first Brassens biography in 1963. Georges listened constantly to his early idols: Charles Trenet , Tino Rossi , and Ray Ventura.

At age seventeen, Georges and his gang started to steal from their families and others. Georges stole a ring and a bracelet from his sister. The police found and caught him, which caused a scandal. The young men were publicly characterised as ‘voyous’ (high school scum). Brassens was expelled from school.

Following a short trial as an apprentice mason in his father's business, he moved to Paris in 1940 to live with his aunt and work at the Renault car factory. In the meantime, he learned piano and wrote some of his first original compositions. He stayed there after World War II had broken out while he felt that this was where his future lay and wrote his first collection of poems. Brassens published two short poetry collections in 1942, thanks to the money of his family and friends.

In 1943, he was forced by the Germans to work in a labour camp at a BMW aircraft engine plant in Basdorf near Berlin in Germany. Here Brassens met some of his future friends, such as Pierre Onténiente, whom he called Gibraltar because he was "steady as a rock." Onténiente later became his right-hand man and his private secretary.

After being given ten days' leave in France, he took refuge in a small cul-de-sac called 'Impasse Florimont', in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Without much else to occupy him, Brassens spent his days composing songs and writing music, eventually teaching himself the guitar based on his prior experience with the mandolin. There he lived for several years with its owner, Jeanne Planche and her husband Marcel, in relative poverty: without gas, running water, or electricity. Brassens remained hidden there until the end of the war five months later, but ended up staying for 22 years. Planche was the inspiration for Brassens's song Jeanne.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 238. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 239. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 760. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions P.I., no. 536. Photo: Staval.

Gates of Paris
In 1946, after the war had ended, Georges Brassens published the first of a series of virulent, black humour-tinged articles in the anarchist journal Le Libertaire. The following year, he also published his first novel, La Lune Écoute Aux Portes, and met Joha Heiman, the woman he would love - and write about - for the remainder of his life.

His friends who heard and liked his songs urged him to go and try them out in a cabaret, café or concert hall. He was shy and had difficulty performing in front of people. At first, he wanted to sell his songs to well-known singers such as les frères Jacques.

In 1952 he met the singer Patachou , owner of a very well known cafe, Les Trois Baudets. Though Brassens had never considered himself a singer, Patachou convinced him to try his hand at performing himself. A bass player present at the audition, Pierre Nicolas, quickly joined Brassens in support, and would serve in that capacity for the remainder of the singer's career. Jacques Brel and Léo Ferré came also into the music industry with the help of Patachou . With her help, Brassens met Polydor exec Jacques Canetti, and he landed a record deal.

His first single, Le Gorille, was released later in 1952, and stirred up controversy with its strong anti-death penalty stance; in fact, it was banned from French radio until 1955. In these years, Brassens achieved fame with his elegant songs with their harmonically complex music for voice and guitar and articulate, diverse lyrics. He won the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque de l'Academie Charles Cros in 1954 for his EP Le Parapluie, and spent much of the year touring Europe and northern Africa.

In 1957, he made his film debut in Porte des Lilas/Gates of Paris (René Clair, 1957). An old bum ( Pierre Brasseur ) becomes infatuated with a pretty young girl ( Dany Carrel ) who gets entangled with a young gangster ( Henri Vidal ). Brassens played an important part as the bum’s friend, L'Artiste, a taciturn, solitary bard, whose character seems based on Brassens himself.

Peter Beagle at IMDb : “The film turned out to be a delightful, warmhearted work, holding up remarkably well on repeated viewings, and Brassens makes an excellent deadpan foil for the great Pierre Brasseur . And the songs he wrote for the film remain among the best of his classic repertoire.”

Brassens performed his songs in several other films, but his main focus was live performing. He later on made several appearances at the Paris Olympia and at the Bobino music hall theatre. He toured with Pierre Louki, who wrote a book of recollections entitled Avec Brassens. During these performances he accompanied himself on acoustic guitar. Most of the time the only other accompaniment came from his friend Pierre Nicolas with a double bass, and sometimes a second guitar (Barthélémy Rosso, Joël Favreau).

He released several more LPs over the remainder of the 1950s, during which time chronic kidney ailments began to affect his health, resulting in periodic hospitalizations. In the following decades he continued to tour. His songs often decry hypocrisy and self-righteousness in the conservative French society of the time, especially among the religious, the well-to-do, and those in law enforcement. The criticism is often indirect, focusing on the good deeds or innocence of others in contrast. His elegant use of florid language and dark humor, along with bouncy rhythms, often give a rather jocular feel to even the grimmest lyrics. Brassens’s lyrics are difficult to translate, though his work is translated in more than 20 languages.

Georges Brassens died of cancer in 1981, in Saint-Gély-du-Fesc, having suffered health problems for many years. He was 60. Brassens rests at the Cimetière le Py in Sète. Steve Huey at AllMusic : “Along with Jacques Brel , he became one of the most unique voices on the French cabaret circuit, and exerted a tremendous influence on many other singers and songwriters of the postwar era. His poetry and lyrics are still studied as part of France's standard educational curriculum.”


French postcard.


French postcard by Editions Cap Theojac, Toulouse. Photo: Jimmy Rague. Caption: Quand vous ne nous le caressez pas, chèries, vous nous les cassez. (When you do not stroke us, darlings, you break us).


French postcard by Editions Cap Theojac, Toulouse. Sent by mail in 1986. Photos: Jimmy Rague.


Gorges Brassens sings Le Gorille. Source: fabrizio lencioni (YouTube).


Scene from Porte des Lilas/Gates of Paris (René Clair, 1957) with Brassens singing Au Bois de Mon Coeur. Source: Daniel Bernard (YouTube).

Sources: Peter Beagle (IMDb), Steve Huey (AllMusic), Wikipedia and .

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: Photo by Sam Lévin

French photographer Sam Lévin (1904-1992) was one of the most important glamour photographers of the 20th Century. He photographed generations of actors and actresses, artists, politicians and royalty. Lévin's work embraces the Golden Age of French cinema perfectly. For 20 years, he was the photographer of Brigitte Bardot, and his photos of her contributed to a radically new image of women in the late 1950s and 1960s.


Alain Delon . French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 22. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Marina Vlady . French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 74. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Johnny Hallyday . French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 171. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Right From the Heart
Sam Lévin was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1904. Two years later, the rising anti-Semitism forced his parents to move to France. Sam Lévin attended classes to become a chemic, but since the age of 7, Lévin’s passion had been photography.

As a young man he could start to work as a photographer for a Northern-French newspaper and soon Lévin sold his pictures to such magazines as Match and Paris Soir and later to the New York Times.

In 1934, Lévin and his assistant Lucienne Chevert started their own studio in Paris. Their cooperation at this portrait studio continued till Chevert’s death in 1982.

In 1935 Sam Lévin was asked to replace a sick photographer at a film set. This proved to be a great start for a career as a set photographer. For the famous film maker Jean Renoir, Lévin made the set photos for the film classic La grande lllusion/The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937). Renoir taught Lévin that "you never should film (photograph) something that doesn’t come right from the heart".

This would become Lévin's motto, as well in his portrait photography. Renoir asked Lévin also to photograph his films La Marseillaise/The Marseillaise (Jean Renoir, 1938), La bête humaine/The Human Beast (Jean Renoir, 1938) starring Jean Gabin , and La règle du jeu/The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939) with Nora Gregor .

Later, Lėvin would also work with other major European filmmakers of his time: Max Ophüls, René Clair, Henri Georges Clouzot and Jean Cocteau.


Gérard Philipe . French Postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 371. Photo by Sam Lėvin.


Simone Signoret . French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 195. Publicity card for Les carbones Korès. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Martine Carol . French postcard by Edition du Globe (EDUG), Paris, no. 321. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Main Claim to Fame
Sam Lévin’s main claim to fame is not his set photography but his portrait photography. He became one of the greatest celebrity photographers in France. He combined ‘chic’ with infallible technique and thus he built an incomparable portrait gallery.

In the intimacy of his beautifully decorated studio and thanks to his modest character and his personal interest, many film stars felt comfortable. The results were pictures which showed the natural beauty of his models. He allowed the spectator to desire. Sam Lévin suggested eroticism and sexuality, but did not show them. His erotic suggestions are shiny eyes or lips and the stylisation of the body like an amphora.

Among the film stars whom he portrayed are Jean Marais , Simone Signoret , Jean Gabin , Romy Schneider , Alain Delon , Michel Piccoli , Jane Birkin , Catherine Deneuve , Yves Montand and Edith Piaf . Even the Empress of Persia, Farah Diba, and Princess Grace of Monaco asked him to make their picture.

Skilled in his use of colour, he glorified actresses by creating a modern, striking and timeless image. Using black and white, Sam Lévin studied each face and worked on the pose and the lighting to model his figure. Out of France, Lévin also worked for Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) and for the Cinecittà studios in Rome.

There Lévin pictured such international superstars as Burt Lancaster , Ingrid Bergman , Ava Gardner , Orson Welles , Gina Lollobrigida , Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni .


Gina Lollobrigida . French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), Paris, no. 360. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Dominique Wilms . French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 394. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Brigitte Bardot . French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 601. Photo: Sam Lévin, 1956.

Sensuality and Slight Immorality
Sam Lévin's strongest work is with Brigitte Bardot . 'Discovering' the girl in the mid 1950s, he was the one who considerably contributed to Bardot's early career with images 'of sensuality and slight immorality.'

During this time, France was looking for a new symbol of the nation and via Levin's images, found this in Bardot. Portraying her in vibrant colours, with tousled hair and bare feet, Levin broke away from traditional studio shoot conventions to create a new fashion aesthetic and sexual vocabulary.

Thus he conjured a refreshing image of childish naivete, coupled with an almost animalistic sexuality, which made Bardot a young tabula rasa on which France was able to stamp their objectives of modernity. Levin's photos of Bardot were one of the main forces that propelled Bardot's image to compete with Hollywood sirens for publicity.

In 1960 it was rumoured that Lėvin's photo of Bardot from behind in a white corset sold more postcards than that of the Eiffel Tower.

In 1992, Sam Lévin died in Paris, shortly after he was honoured with a major exhibition in Japan. His wife, Sabine Lévin donated his complete photographic heritage to the French state: about 400,000 negatives with the portraits of more than 4,000 people made between 1931 and 1985.


Brigitte Bardot . German postcard by Ufa (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 346. Photo: Sam Lėvin / Ufa.


Alain Delon and  Brigitte Bardot . German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/96, ca. 1961. Photo Sam Lėvin. Publicity photo for Amours célèbres (Michel Boisrond, 1961). Alain Delon and  Brigitte Bardot  starred in the segment Agnès Bernauer.


Brigitte Bardot . French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 1018. Photo: Sam Lévin.

See also our Sam Lévin album at Flickr with more than 300 postcards.

Sources: Ruud van Capelleveen (Dutch - Absofacts2), RMN Grand Palais (French), and .

Karin Baal

German film actress Karin Baal (1940) has appeared in over 90 films since 1956. She started as a teenage rebel in the cult film Die Halbstarken (1956) and became one of the brightest stars of the Wirtschaftswunder cinema.


Austrian postcard by Lichtbild-Vertrieb Paula Weizmann, Wien, no. F 7. Photo: Interwest / Union-Film / Haenchen. Publicity still for Die Halbstarken/Teenage Wolfpack (Georg Tressler, 1956) with Horst Buchholz .


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 190. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Klaus Collignon / Ufa.


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 291. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Joe Niczky / Ufa.


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 334. Photo: Klaus Collignon / Ufa.


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK 392. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Georg Michalke / Ufa.

Zeitgeist
Karin Baal was born as Karin Blauermel in Berlin, Germany, in 1940. Her mother was a seamstress. She and her brother grew up under difficult social conditions without a father, and living with their grandmother. After finishing secondary school, she attended a school for fashion design.

In 1956, she learned that a young actress was sought for the film Die Halbstarken/The Hooligans (Georg Tressler, 1956), which embodied the so-called Zeitgeist. Without any acting training the 16-year-old Baal was chosen out of 700 applicants to play the main female role opposite Horst Buchholz . She also got a three-year actor training contract.

Filmportal.de : “In Georg Tressler's film, Baal made a convincing performance as the 15-year old Sissy Bohl, who – with her self-confidence and aplomb – is superior to the boys and in the end does not shy away from taking up arms.”

From then on she was cast in roles as a blonde rebel. She played a supporting role as a prostitute in Das Mädchen Rosemarie/The Girl Rosemarie (Rolf Thiele, 1958), a film adaptation of the scandalous life and death of the prostitute Rosemarie Nitribitt ( Nadja Tiller ).

She played another ‘loose girl’ in Arzt ohne Gewissen/Doctor Without Scruples (Falk Harnack, 1959), she was a teenage delinquent in Der Jugendrichter/The Judge and the Sinner (Paul Verhoeven, 1959) opposite Heinz Rühmann , and she seduced the father ( Rudolf Prack ) of her friend in Die junge Sünderin/The Young Sinner (Rudolf Jugert, 1960).

In 1959 she finished her acting training and had her first stage roles in München (Munich). From then on, she regularly appeared on stage. In 1959, she married boyfriend and fellow actor from Die Halbstarken, Karl Heinz Gaffkus, with whom she has a son, Thomas. They divorced two years later, and Baal married in 1962 with actor Helmuth Lohner. In 1967 their daughter Therese Lohner was born, who is now an actress too.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2096. Photo: Interwest / Union. Publicity still for Die Halbstarken (1956).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf. Photo: Interwest / Union / Haenchen. Publicity still for Die Halbstarken (1956).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2329. Photo: Interwest / Union / Haenchen. Publicity still for Die Halbstarken/The Hooligans (Georg Tressler, 1956) with Horst Buchholz .


German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Interwest / Union / Haenchen. Publicity still for Die Halbstarken/The Hooligans (Georg Tressler, 1956) with Horst Buchholz .


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2507. Photo: DFH / Lilo. Publicity still for Der müde Theodor/Tired Theodore (Géza von Cziffra, 1957) with Albert Rueprecht.

Threatened Blonde Innocence
In 1961 Karin Baal was awarded the Silver Bambi award and the prize of the German Film Critics for Best Young Actress. In the 1960s she appeared in several Edgar Wallace thrillers, including Die Toten Augen von London/The Dark Eyes of London (Alfred Vohrer, 1961) with Joachim Fuchsberger , and Der Hund von Blackwood Castle/The Hound of Blackwood Castle (Alfred Vohrer, 1967).

Her parts as the threatened blonde innocence in these thrillers were a break with the independent characters she had played in the 1950s. In 1966 she was again awarded, this time with the Golden Camera by the magazine Hörzu. She incidentally appeared in international films, such as the thriller Hannibal Brooks (Michael Winner, 1969) starring Oliver Reed.

From the 1970s on, Baal was offered less film roles and focused on television. She often guest-starred in such Krimi series as Der Kommissar/The Commissioner (1975), Tatort (1979 and 1990), Derrick (1980 and 1981), Die Männer vom K3/The Men from K3 (1987 and 1991), Ein Fall für Zwei/A Case for Two (1990 and 1995), Der Alte/The Old Man (1990), Marleneken (1990), Doppelter Einsatz/Double Down (1994), Rosa Roth (1995) and Polizeiruf 110/Police 110 (1996).

On TV she also played leading roles in the six-part series Ein Jahr ohne Sonntag/A Year Without Sundays (1970) opposite Götz George , and in the 13-part TV series Wenn Engel reisen/When Angels Travel (Uwe Friessner, 1993). She also worked in popular family TV shows like Liebling Kreuzberg (1985), Schwarzwaldklinik/Black Forest Clinic (1985), and Praxis Bülowbogen/Practice Bülowbogen (1990).


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3567. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Wesel / Arion Film.


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. 4489. Retail price: 25 Pfg. Photo: Mrszalek / Kurt Ulrich-Film/DFH. Publicity still for So angelt man keinen Mann/That's No Way to Land a Man (Hans Deppe, 1959).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 626. Photo: Kurt Ulrich-Film / Dt. Film Hansa (DFH) / Marszalek. Publicity still for So angelt man keinen Mann/That's No Way to Land a Man (Hans Deppe, 1959).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam no. 1324. Photo: Weisse / Ufa.


German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen no. 616. Photo: Erwin Schneider.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf, no. 1898. Photo: Rapid / Gloria / Guzman. Publicity still for Zwischen Schanghai und St. Pauli/Voyage to Danger (Roberto Bianchi Montero, Wolfgang Schleif, 1962).


Alcohol Problems and Break-downs
Karin Baal collaborated three times with filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She played Franz Biberkopf’s (Günther Lamprecht) sister-in-law in the monumental TV series Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979), a resistance fighter in Lili Marleen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1980) and Barbara Sukowa’s mother in Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981).

In Ula Stöckl's Erikas Leidenschaften/Erika's Passions (1976), a two-person film with Vera Tschechowa , Baal's role starts out as a 'little woman' but becomes more and more confident in the course of the film. In Desperado City (Vadim Glowna, 1980), Baal played a cab driver and was able to show her former strength once more as part of the personality of an elderly woman.

Other prominent film roles were her parts in Reinhard Hauff‘s Der Mann auf der Mauer/The Man at the Wall (1982), and Margarethe von Trotta‘s Rosa Luxemburg (1986) starring Barbara Sukowa. Highlights of her theatre work were the plays Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum/The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1977) based on the novel by Heinrich Böll, Geschlossene Gesellschaft/No Exit (1986) based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos, and Mord um Mitternacht/Murder at midnight (1986) based on the thriller by Francis Durbridge.

Baal divorced from Helmut Lohner in 1977. Her third husband was actor Volker Eckstein, who died of cancer in 1993. His death rushed her in a severe personal crisis of seven years. Alcohol problems and break-downs damaged her career.

In 2006 she made her stage comeback with the play 8 Frauen/8 Women in which she appeared opposite her daughter, Therese Lohner. At the same time she was honoured with a retrospective at the Düsseldorf Film Museum. In 2000 she married the 30 years younger Kurdish actor Cevdet Çelik, from whom she lives separately since 2004.

Among her more recent films are Der Tunnel/The Tunnel (Roland Suso Richter, 2001) with Sebastian Koch, based on a true story about a group of East Berliners escaping to the West, and the drama Sieben Tage Sonntag/Seven days Sunday (Niels Laupert, 2006) of two bored 16-year-old boys who commit a murder on an innocent human being.

Her most recent film is Vergiss nie, dass ich Dich Liebe/Remember I'll Always Love You (Carlo Rola, 2011). In 2012, she published her memoir Ungezähmt – Mein Leben (Untamed - My Life). Karin Baal lives in Berlin.


Scene from Die Halbstarken (1956). Source: Susiedarling69 (YouTube).


Long scene from Das Mädchen Rosemarie/The Girl Rosemarie (Rolf Thiele, 1958). Source: TV Kult (YouTube).


Trailer for Die Toten Augen von London/The Dark Eyes of London (1961). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).


German trailer for What Have You Done to Solange? (1971). Source: Thomas Crommentuyn (YouTube).


Trailer for Lola (1981). Source: RialtoFilm (YouTube).

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line) (German), Filmportal.de, Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (German), Prisma.de (German), Wikipedia (German) and .

La liberté surveillée (1958)

Last week at Cinema Ritrovato, we saw the unusual French-Czech coproduction La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with Marina Vlady, Robert Hossein and René Lefèvre. In the middle of the Cold War, there was this non-political film about love and nature. The East-German film distributor Progress produced this series of cards for the film.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1842, 1963. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with Marina Vlady and Robert Hossein .


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 1, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Marina Vlady  and  Robert Hossein .


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 2, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Marina Vlady  and  Robert Hossein .


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 3, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Marina Vlady  and Robert Hossein.

A good use of colour and cinemascope
La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) is a French-Czechoslovakian co-production, with two directors and a cast with both French and Czech actors, all speaking their language.

The screenplay was co-written by Colette Audry, Marie Epstein, Joseph Picek and Vladimír Vlcek.

Filmed on location in Eastern Europe, the photography by Vladimír Novotný and Gustave Raulet of the landscapes is beautiful, with a good use of colour and cinemascope.

The stars are Marina Vlady, who was of Russian descent and Robert Hossein, born in the Ukraine, but he plays a French man in the film.


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 4, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958).


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 5, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Marina Vlady .


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 6, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958).


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 8, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Marina Vlady  and  Robert Hossein .


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 9, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Marina Vlady .

Yearning to live in communist Czechoslovakia
The first scene of La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty shows Hossein with the police hot on his heels.

DB DuMonteil at IMDb : "But, and that's the main originality of the screenplay, we only learn why in the very last scene.The rest of the movie is not really a thriller. The impostor subject does not really interest the writers who depict some time in Czechoslovakia."

What is unusual here is that the hero is a Frenchman who yearns to live in communist Czechoslovakia. His wish is granted when, mistaken as a masseur of a French boating team, he manages to elude the democratic authorities long enough to scamper over the Czech border.

It turns out that he is motivated by romance rather than politics. The film shows a race, a funny scene when Hossein is taught his job by an ageing René Lefèvre, then a holiday on a peaceful river, complete with country fair, campfires, songs, and a love affair between Hossein and Vlady.

DuMonteil notes that 'River movie' best depicts this unusual film, which has almost nothing to do with the gangster flicks which were thriving in France during the 1950s.


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 11, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Marina Vlady .


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 13, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Marina Vlady  and  Robert Hossein .


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 15, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958) with  Robert Hossein .


Big East-German card by Progress, no. 13002, 16, 1963. Publicity still for La liberté surveillée/Provisional Liberty (Henri Aisner, Vladimír Vlcek, 1958)  with  René Lefèvre  and  Robert Hossein .

Sources: DB DuMonteil (IMDb), Unifrance and IMDb.

Alain Souchon

Alain Souchon (1944) is a French singer-songwriter and actor. He has released 15 albums and has played roles in a dozen films, most notably opposite Isabelle Adjani in the sensual thriller L'été Meurtrier/One Deadly Summer (1983).


French postcard by Edition Lyna, Paris, no. 2094. Photo: Pierre Guyot / RCA.


French postcard by Éditions Damilla, Paris, no. 95025. Photo: G. Schachmes / Sygma.


French postcard by Ebullitions, no. 17. Photo: publicity still for L'Été Meurtrier/One Deadly Summer (1983) with Isabelle Adjani .

Love on the Run
Alain Souchon was born Alain Kienast in Casablanca, French Protectorate of Morocco (now Morocco), in 1944. His family on his mother's side is Swiss, and he has dual French-Swiss nationality.

Six months after he was born, his family moved to France. When he was 15 his father died in an accident. His mother sent him to a French college in England, but due to problems registering he decided to stay in London and work.

Upon returning to France he took up the guitar, influenced by English and American music. In 1970, he married and had his first son. He continued to play in the cabarets and bars in the Rive Gauche of Paris. Souchon signed his first contract in 1971 with the Pathé-Marconi label but had no success.

Bob Socquet, the artistic director of RCA encouraged him to perform his song L'amour 1830 at the Rose D'Or of Antibes contest. Souchon then began to collaborate with composer/arranger Laurent Voulzy. They would write together, but each released albums under his own name.

Souchon's first hit was J'ai 10 ans (1974), from the album of the same name. He continued releasing albums and in 1978 wrote the theme for François Truffaut's film L'amour en fuite/Love on the Run (1979). At this time his second son was born. In 1980, he was invited to perform at Paris´s most famous music hall, the Olympia.


French postcard by La Roue Tourne, Paris.


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron in the Signes Zodiaque series, no 14: Alain Souchon - Gemeaux (Gemini).


French postcard by Editions Humour à la Carte, Paris, no. A-C 375. Photo: Frédéric Schall / Virgin France. Caption: C'est comme vous voulez.

One Deadly Summer
In 1980, Alain Souchon also began his acting career with a part in the romantic drama Je vous aime/I Love All of You (Claude Berri, 1980) as one of the four former lovers, who Catherine Deneuve for dinner of New Year's Eve at the same time in her house. Next he appeared in the action comedy Tout feu, tout flamme/All Fired Up (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1982) with Yves Montand and Isabelle Adjani .

His most notable film is the thriller L'été Meurtrier/One Deadly Summer (Jean Becker, 1983), in which he starred opposite Isabelle Adjani . The film was a massive hit in France gaining 5,137,040 admissions and was the 2nd highest grossing film of the year. The film won several awards. Souchon was nominated for the César, the French Oscar, but did not win. Craig Butler in his review at AllMovie : “the surprising performance comes from singer Alain Souchon, who is just about perfect as the man with whom Adjani becomes involved.”

Later, he appeared in Jane B. par Agnès V./Jane B. By Agnès V (1988), Agnès Varda’s personal documentary about Jane Birkin , and in the TV film Le soldat Rose/The Pink Soldier (Jean-Louis Cap, 2006).

Following the album On avance, he left RCA and signed with Virgin Records. In 1989 La beauté de Ava Gardner was voted best title of the year by the Victoires de la Musique, an annual French award ceremony. Then came Souchon's biggest hit Foule sentimentale from his million-selling album C'est déja ça (1993). The #1 hit became one of the most emblematic songs of the singer. At the 20th anniversary of the Victoires de la Musique in 1995, Alain Souchon received the award for best ´Chanson Originale´ for Foule Sentimentale.

In 1996, he received the ´le Prix Vincent Scotto´ award given by the SACEM (Societe des Auteurs Compositeurs) for his song Sous les Jupes des Filles. Souchon returned in 2005 with the hugely successful album La vie Théodore which contained the hit single ...Et si en plus y'a personne. In 2014, his joint album Alain Souchon & Laurent Voulzy reached the top of the charts in both France and Belgium.


A fan-made music video for L'été Meurtrier/One Deadly Summer (1983). Source: Cine, film, movie (YouTube).


Clip of Foule sentimentale. Source: Alain Souchon (YouTube).


Clip et si en plus y'a personne. Source: Alain Souchon (YouTube).

Sources: Craig Butler (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and .

Georges Wague

Georges Wague (1874-1965) was a French mime, teacher and silent film actor. Between 1907 and 1922 he also performed in more than forty films. He started his film career with the silent film L'Enfant prodigue/The Prodigal Son (Michel Carré, 1907), where he played a Pierrot. His last film performance was in Faust (Gérard Bourgeois, 1922).


French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Photo: Waléry, Paris.


French postcard. Photo: Waléry, Paris. Georges Wague and Marietta Ricotti in L'Aragonaise by A. Gailhard. L'Aragonaise was a pantomime by Wague, with songs by Gailhard/Gaillard. Ricotti was a singer from the Paris Opera.

Cantomime
Georges Wague was born Georges Marie Valentin Waag in Paris in 1874.

In the early 1890s Wague participated in the soirées of La Plume, the literary magazine founded by Léon Deschamps, where he was noticed for his verse recitals. Xavier Privas proposed to sing songs while Georges Wague mimed them, creating a new artistic expression they called 'cantomime'.

In the cantomimes, which began in 1893 at the Café Procope, Wague performed on stage with a singer and piano in the wings. Often the character was Pierrot.The established mime Félicia Mallet assisted Wague in developing his highly individual style during the early part of his career. Cantomimes included Noël de Pierrot (1894) and Le Testament de Pierrot (1895).

Wague staged his first pantomime at the Théâtre Montparnasse in 1895, Le Voeu de Musette. Many others followed over the years. To revive his career after his return from military service in 1898, Georges Wague began to participate in soirées of the 'Veillées artistiques de Plaisance'. Cantomimes included Pierrot Chante (1899) and Sommeil Blanc (1899). Sommeil blanc (White Sleep) was written for him by Xavier Privas, with music by Louis Huvey.

Due to rivalry with other performers of cantomimes, Wague created a company with Christiane Mandelys (or Mendelys), who became his wife, to preserve his rights as inventor of the concept. With his troupe, he played La Roulotte (The Caravan) directed by Georges Chartron. He won success and began touring in France and abroad, leading to presentation of the last show at the Exposition Universelle (1900) where he played Pierrot parts such as unfaithful Pierrot and Christmas Pierrot.

Georges Wague decided to move into white pantomime, where large gestures and movements are made, and the pantomime is dramatic. For this he changed his stage play: his mime consisted of gestures reduced to the simplest attitudes to express the full range of thought in constant movement. He did not use the conventional alphabet of mimes in this original form of expression.


French postcard. Photo: Waléry, Paris. Publicity still for the mime drama La Chair/The Flesh (1907) with Colette . The drama was written by Georges Wague and Leon Lambert, with music by Albert Chantrier.


French postcard by Editions artistique de Walery. Photo: Walery, Paris. Publicity still for the play Giska la Bohémienne (1908) by Ed. Leroy.

More than forty films
Georges Wague taught pantomime, notably to the writer Colette , with whom he made a tour from 1906 to 1912 and caused a scandal with presentations of La Chair (Flesh) where Colette was largely naked. Wague performed in many stage pantomimes including Scaramouche, Barbe Bluette and L'homme aux poupées, and played silent roles in ballet and opera.

Between 1907 and 1922 he also performed in more than forty films. He started his film career with the silent film L'Enfant prodigue/The Prodigal Son (Michel Carré, 1907), where he played a Pierrot. His last film performance was in Faust (Gérard Bourgeois, 1922).

He continued to play a white-faced Pierrot at the Opéra-Comique during the 1920s. In 1925 he performed with the flamenco dancer Antonia Mercé y Luque, 'La Argentina', in El amor brujo at the Théâtre Trianon-Lyrique. From 1916 Wague taught at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique. Wague taught mimes who went on to great fame such as Christine Kerf, Caroline Otéro, Angèle Héraud and Charlotte Wiehé.

He also taught actors and opera singers how to use their bodies to express their feelings. This skill was much neglected in opera, where often the singers were chosen for their voice rather than their appearance and had little acting ability. Wague collaborated with the mime and actor Jean-Louis Barrault when he played Jean-Gaspard Deburau in the film Les Enfants du Paradis/Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné, 1943), the basis for his 1946 mime piece Baptiste.

Georges Wague was awarded the Grande médaille de vermeil by the city of Paris in 1962. In 1965, he died in Menton in the Alpes-Maritimes, aged 91.


French postcard by Editions artistique de Walery. Photo: Walery, Paris. Publicity still for the play Épreuve Fatale (1913) with Christine Herf, by Leon Charbonnel and Emile Artaud.


French postcard by Walery, Paris, 1929. Photo: Walery, Paris. Publicity still for the Ballets Argentina / Operas Comique production of Triana by Albeniz. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard. Photo: Waléry, Paris.

Sources: Wikipedia and .