Jacques Feyder

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Jacques Feyder (born July 21, 1885 in Ixelles / Elsene , Belgium ; † May 24, 1948 in Prangins , Switzerland ) was a Franco-Belgian film director .

Life

Jacques Feyder came from a middle-class family, many of whom were members of the military. He too was initially supposed to become an officer, but against his father's will he decided to pursue a career as an actor. Feyder moved from Belgium to Paris, where he appeared in various theaters, but initially only in small roles. His film career began in 1912 as an actor under directors such as Georges Méliès and Louis Feuillade . He began to be increasingly interested in filmmaking and assisted, among others, the director Gaston Ravel . Since 1915 he has directed his own films for the Gaumont film company . At first, Feyder mainly shot small comedies. In 1917 he married the famous actress Françoise Rosay . They stayed married until his death, Rosay supported her husband in many of his projects.

In 1917 Feyder was drafted into the Belgian army and worked as an actor in troop entertainment. In 1919 he successfully returned to the film business. He had his artistic breakthrough with L'Atlantide (1921) based on a novel by Pierre Benoît . The film was also well received by the public and was commercially successful. Another masterpiece is the film Visages d'enfants (“Children's Faces”), made in Switzerland in 1923 , which deals with the emotional situation of stepchildren. Kindergesichter was not published until 1925 because of a dispute with the rental company and, although received good reviews, was a commercial failure. In 1928 his satire Les noveaux messieurs was censored because Feyder had joked about politicians in it. Therefore he turned abroad for some time. In Germany, Feyder filmed Émile Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin in 1928 . The following year, he was the director of the last silent films with Greta Garbo The Kiss (The kiss) , and in 1930 he turned in the US, the German version of her first sound film Anna Christie .

In 1933 Feyder returned to France, who had no problems switching to talkies . There he became one of the leading exponents and co-founders of French poetic realism in film in the 1930s. In his films like Die klugen Frauen (1935) he made fun of social situations. Feyder also shot in German and English until the Second World War. During the war, Feyder left for neutral Switzerland, where he made his last film in 1942 with A Woman Disappears and gave readings at the Geneva Conservatory . In 1948 he died at the age of 62 in Prangins, Switzerland .

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Victor Bachy: Jacques Feyder. Artisan du cinéma. 1885-1948. Libr. Universitaire, Louvain 1968.
  • Kerstin Eberhard: Jacques Feyder 1885–1948. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors. Biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies (2nd, reviewed and updated edition). Reclam, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-010455-6 , pp. 237-239.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jacques Feyder at Allmovie
  2. ^ Jacques Feyder at Allmovie
personal data
SURNAME Feyder, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Franco-Belgian film director
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Ixelles / Elsene , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1948
Place of death Prangins , Switzerland