Léon Poirier

Louis Marie Léon Alfred Poirier (born August 25, 1884 in Paris , † June 27, 1968 in Urval ) was a French film director and screenwriter.

Live and act

The nephew of the painter Berthe Morisot grew up with his grandmother after the early death of his mother. As a teenager he submitted a verse drama to the Comédie Française , but the performance was rejected. In 1910 he took part in Forzon et Wicheler's production of the play Le mariage de Mademoiselle Beulemans at the Théâtre de la Renaissance with the actors Hélène Dieudonné and Jules Berry , the following year he took over the management of the Comédie des Champs Elysées and produced En douce , a revue with Mistinguett , but went bankrupt with the company in 1912.

In early 1914, the film producer Léon Gaumont invited him to make films with him. Because of the outbreak of the First World War, however, only one short film was made. Poirier, not mobilized because of a weak lungs, volunteered for military service and experienced the war in the military transport service. In 1919 he was demobilized with the rank of lieutenant.

Gaumont made him the artistic director of his film studio, and in the following years he made films such as Le penseur (1920), Jocelyn (1922, based on Alphonse de Lamartine ), L 'affaire du courrier de Lyon (1923) and La Brière (1924) , after Alphonse de Châteaubriant ). The main female roles in these films were played by the previously unknown actress Laurence Myrga .

At the invitation of Georges-Marie Haardt , the head of administration of the Société Anonyme André Citroën , Poirier took part in an Africa expedition, the Croisière Noire from Algeria to Madagascar. The result was the documentary La croisière noire (The Black Sex), which was shown in 1926 at the Opéra de Paris . He processed his experiences during the First World War in the film Verdun, visions d'Histoire (1928) with Albert Préjean in the leading role. A sound version, this time with Paul Amiot , was written in 1931 under the title Verdun, souvenirs d'histoire .

In 1930 Poirier returned to Madagascar and made the film Caïn, aventure des mers exotiques , a film that was considered too intellectual and had little success. He declined to take part in the Croisière Jaune due to his poor health, but was significantly involved in the completion of André Sauvage's documentation about the trip. Autopolis , a documentary about car assembly made at the same time, was considered lost and was not rediscovered until 20211.

With the support of Marcel Michelin , the son of the industrialist André Michelin , he was able to realize his most important project in 1935, a film about Father Charles de Foucauld, who was murdered in Algeria in 1916 . L'appel du silence with Jean Yonnel premiered in France in 1926 and became an international success.

In 1937 Soeurs d'armes was made , another film about the First World War. With the support of the Colonial Ministry, Poirier shot Brazza ou l'épopée du Congo in 1939 . During the Second World War he only made one film, Jeannou , with Michèle Alfa and Thomy Bourdelle . In his last film, La route inconnue (1948), he turned again to the life of Père Foucauld. He then retired with his wife to Urval, a village in the Dordogne , where he died in 1968.

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personal data
SURNAME	Poirier, Leon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Poirier, Louis Marie Léon Alfred (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	August 25, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris
DATE OF DEATH	June 27, 1968
Place of death	Urval