Marcel L'Herbier facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Marcel L'Herbier
Born	(1888-04-23)23 April 1888 Paris, France
Died	26 November 1979(1979-11-26) (aged 91) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Occupation	Film director
Spouse(s)	Marcelle Pradot
Awards	Légion d'honneur

Marcel L'Herbier (23 April 1888 – 26 November 1979) was a famous French filmmaker. He became well-known in the 1920s for his creative and experimental silent films. He directed more than 40 feature films, continuing his career until the 1950s. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, he worked on cultural shows for French television. Marcel L'Herbier also played many important roles in the French film industry. He was the founder and first president of France's national film school, the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC).

Early Life and Film Beginnings

Marcel L'Herbier was born in Paris, France, on 23 April 1888. He came from a family of professionals and thinkers. As he grew up, he showed many talents, including sports, dancing, debating, and the arts. He studied law and literature, and also learned music, hoping to become a composer.

An early relationship had a dramatic ending where he was injured, but he survived. In 1912, he met Georgette Leblanc, who inspired him to write plays, poetry, and reviews. He also made many friends in the world of literature and theater.

When World War I started in 1914, L'Herbier's life changed. Because of his injured hand, he couldn't join the army right away. He worked in a factory making military uniforms. Later, he served in different army units. By chance, in 1917-1918, he was moved to the army's film section. This is where he got his first training in filmmaking. He became interested in film as an art form after seeing The Cheat (1915) and meeting film critics Louis Delluc and Émile Vuillermoz.

Making Silent Films

While still in the army, L'Herbier wrote two film stories for other directors. He then got a job to make a film about France for the government. This film, Rose-France (1918), was very original and poetic. It used many new camera tricks. Even though some people found it too unusual, it showed that he was a talented and creative filmmaker.

After making another film, Le Bercail (1919), he signed a two-year contract with a film company called Gaumont. This allowed him to work on bigger projects. On Le Bercail, he first worked with actress Marcelle Pradot, who later starred in most of his silent films. They got married in 1923.

Between 1919 and 1922, L'Herbier made six films for Gaumont. Three of these were very important silent films. He adapted a story by Balzac for L'Homme du large (1920). A more ambitious film was El Dorado (1921), a grand and visually stunning drama filmed in Spain. It was known for its visual experiments, like blurry images.

After this, L'Herbier wanted more creative freedom. He started his own production company called Cinégraphic. His first film with his own company was L'Inhumaine (1924). This was one of his most ambitious films. He worked with famous artists from other fields, like Fernand Léger (painter), Robert Mallet-Stevens (architect), and Darius Milhaud (composer). The film was visually amazing but also caused a lot of discussion among audiences and critics.

In 1923, L'Herbier discovered the writer Luigi Pirandello. He wanted to make a film based on Pirandello's novel Il fu Mattia Pascal. Pirandello, who usually didn't trust filmmakers, agreed to let his work be filmed for the first time. The film, Feu Mathias Pascal (1925), starred the Russian actor Ivan Mosjoukine and was very successful.

Even with his successes, Cinégraphic was losing money. So, for his next film, Le Vertige (1926), L'Herbier chose a more popular story, which was a commercial success. This was followed by Le Diable au cœur (1928), a sea drama. This was the first French film to be shot using special film that captured all colors (panchromatic film).

The last film from Cinégraphic was L'Argent (1928). It was based on a novel by Zola and updated to modern times. With an international cast and beautiful art deco designs, L'Argent was a major work that marked the end of L'Herbier's silent film career. He was known for making some of the most creative silent films of his time. He also helped other filmmakers and worked with a regular group of talented people, including Jaque Catelain, who became his lifelong friend.

Moving to Sound Films

After a film that was silent but had a full soundtrack added later, L'Herbier made L'Enfant de l'amour (1929). This was the first full talking picture made in a French studio. Early sound films had many technical problems, and L'Herbier also had to make this film in three languages (French, English, and German) at the same time. This meant using different actors for some roles.

The film was successful enough to get him more offers. However, L'Herbier felt he was losing his creative freedom. After making two detective films based on books by Gaston Leroux, Le Mystère de la chambre jaune [fr] (1930) and Le Parfum de la dame en noir [fr] (1931), he stopped making films for two years and went back to writing.

In 1933, he returned to filmmaking. He made several films based on stage plays, which were popular but didn't allow him much artistic freedom.

L'Herbier's most successful film of the 1930s was Le Bonheur (1934). During filming, a camera fell on him, and he lost sight in one eye. He sued the producers, and the court decided in his favor in 1938. This was a big moment in French law because it recognized for the first time that a director should be seen as an author of their film, not just an employee. This was important for L'Herbier, who always fought for filmmakers to be recognized as creative artists.

Between 1935 and 1937, L'Herbier directed seven films. Three of these had a strong patriotic theme, showing the French navy and French influence in Morocco.

Before World War II started, he made a series of historical dramas. These included La Tragédie impériale (1938) about Tsar Nicholas II and Rasputin, and Entente cordiale (1939), which showed the friendship between France and Britain.

When the war began in 1939, L'Herbier was in Rome filming La Comédie du bonheur. But he had to return to France before it was finished because Italy was about to join the war.

During the German occupation of France (1940-1944), L'Herbier worked with other filmmakers to protect the French film industry. He directed four more films during this time. The most successful was La Nuit fantastique (1942). This "realistic fairy tale" allowed him to return to the experimental visual style of his silent films, but now with new uses of sound.

After the war, L'Herbier made a few more films, mostly based on books. His creative career in cinema ended with Les Derniers Jours de Pompéi (1950) and Le Père de mademoiselle (1953). In 35 years, he directed 14 silent films and 30 sound films.

Working in Television

As his film directing career slowed down, Marcel L'Herbier started working in television, which was a new medium then. He was very interested in how television was different from cinema. He believed that cinema was a creative art form, while television was for recording and sharing information with many people. He thought television could help people understand cinema better.

From 1952 to 1969, L'Herbier produced over 200 television shows about cultural topics. He presented most of them himself. While some shows were about classical music or history, most were about cinema. He hosted eight series of programs that included discussions, interviews, and film clips. He also directed five television plays, many of which were broadcast live. He was the first well-known filmmaker to work in French television, and he used it to educate the public.

Leadership in the Film Industry

Besides his creative work, L'Herbier took on many leadership roles in the French film industry. From 1929, he worked to get more recognition for the rights of filmmakers as authors. In the mid-1930s, he believed the French film industry needed to be better organized to compete with foreign films. He helped create a union for film workers, which he later became president of in 1939. This union helped improve pay, working hours, and insurance for film employees.

During the German occupation, L'Herbier worked to keep French cinema going. He became a spokesperson for the government on film matters.

In 1941, L'Herbier was chosen as president of the Cinémathèque française, a famous film archive. However, his plans for changes led to disagreements, and he was replaced in 1944.

L'Herbier's biggest contribution to the French film industry was creating a national film school. He had argued for this for many years. In 1943, the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) was founded in Paris. L'Herbier became its first president in 1944 and stayed in that role until 1969. IDHEC trained directors, producers, cameramen, sound technicians, editors, and designers. It became very important, and many famous filmmakers from France and other countries trained there.

His Writings

Marcel L'Herbier wrote a lot about cinema throughout his career. He wrote over 500 articles for magazines and newspapers. Some of these were collected in his book Intelligence du cinématographe (1946). One of his main ideas was that filmmakers should have rights over their creative work. He also wrote about the unique style of French cinema and how foreign films could threaten it. In 1953, he helped create the Cinema section of the newspaper Le Monde.

Before he started his film career, L'Herbier published a book of poetry and a play. In his final year, he published his autobiography, La Tête qui tourne (1979), which means "the head that spins" or "the head that shoots a film."

Marcel L'Herbier passed away in Paris on 26 November 1979, at the age of 91.

His Legacy

In 1921, just three years after his first film, a French film magazine's readers voted Marcel L'Herbier the best French director. Critics saw him as one of the most important filmmakers for the future of cinema. He was part of the "first avant-garde" in French cinema, a group of filmmakers who thought creatively about moving images.

While he was highly praised in the 1920s, his later work was sometimes overlooked. Some people found his silent films too focused on style rather than story. His public roles and political connections in the 1930s and 1940s also led to some criticism. However, because he remained involved in so many parts of the French film industry until the 1960s, he was never truly forgotten in France. More recently, his films have been re-released and re-examined, leading to new interest in his work.

In English-speaking countries, Marcel L'Herbier is still not widely known. His films are rarely shown, and there aren't many DVD releases or English writings about him. However, film history books still recognize his important contributions to silent cinema, especially with films like El Dorado, L'Inhumaine, and L'Argent.

Filmography (as director)

See also

In Spanish: Marcel L'Herbier para niños