Louis J. Gasnier

Louis Joseph Gasnier (born September 15, 1875 in Paris , France , † February 15, 1963 in Hollywood , California , United States ) was a French film director , a veteran of domestic and American cinematography.

Photoplay cover with Pearl White and the announcement of Gasnier's most famous film " The Perils of Pauline "

Live and act

Gasnier had been an actor on the Parisian stage since the late 1890s and was able to direct the theater a little later. In 1899 at the earliest (according to Gasnier), but at the latest in 1905, the production company Pathé engaged him as a director for short films. In this role, Louis Gasnier was responsible for several early works with the country's first movie star , Max Linder , and thus established Linder's extraordinary career as the first silent film comedian in international cinema history. According to Georges Sadoul , the prolific worker Gasnier is said to have directed between 100 and 200 films in the years 1909 to 1912 alone. In 1912 Gasnier moved to the USA and soon made a name for himself there as a director of action film series in the classic cliffhanger style. The adventure series “ The Perils of Pauline ”, a classic of cliffhanger cinema, was particularly popular with US audiences.

After the end of the First World War , along with the decline of the genre of the film series, Louis Gasnier began to make full-length entertainment films - comedies, romances, dramas and adventure stories - which, however, did not get beyond the mediocrity of the usual mass dispersion. In 1936 he made a name for himself with the sensational C-stripe Reefer Madness , which was intended to warn against the use of cannabis . Gasnier, "a veteran without any artistic aspirations", has only made third-rate films since the beginning of the sound film era (exception: "Topaze" with Louis Jouvet ). He also realized several commissioned productions in Spain and France and version films. When he died in 1963 - he was found dead on a park bench on Hollywood Boulevard - he was utterly impoverished and long forgotten even in film circles.

Filmography

as a director, unless otherwise stated

1905: La première sortie d'un collégien
1906: Le pendu
1907: La mort d'un toréador
1907: Débuts d'un patineur
1908: Le cheval emballé
1908: Tirez, s'il vous plaît
1910: Le travère
1910: La fille d'Arizona
1910: Max fait du ski
1911: Hernani
1914: The Perils of Pauline (series)
1914: Detective Swift (co-director)
1914: The Stolen Birthright
1915: The Exploits of Elaine (series)
1916: Annabel's Romance
1916: Hazel Kirke
1917: The Mystery of Double Cross (series)
1918: The Seven Pearls (series)
1918: Hands Up! (Series)
1919: The Tiger's Trail (series)
1919: The Beloved Cheater
1920: The Corsican Brothers
1920: The Butterfly Man
1920: Kismet
1921: Good Women
1921: Silent Years
1922: The Call of Home
1922: Thorns and Orange Blossoms
1922: The Hero
1923: Daughters of the Rich
1923: Maytime
1923: Poisoned Paradise
1924: Wine
1924: White Man
1924: The Triflers
1925: Lu, the Parisian Apache girl ( Parisian Love )
1925: Faint Perfume
1925: Pleasures of the Rich
1926: Sin Cargo
1926: That Model From Paris
1926: A mother's heart and soul ( Lost at Sea )
1927: The Beauty Shoppers
1928: Streets of Shanghai
1928: Fashion Madness
1929: Darkened Rooms
1929: Slightly Scarlet (co-director)
1930: The Virtuous Sin (co-director)
1930: The Shadow of the Law
1931: The Lawyer's Secret (co-director)
1931: Silence (co-director)
1932: The Strange Case of Clara Deane (co-director)
1932: Forgotten Commandments (co-director)
1932: Gambling Ship (co-director)
1932: Topaze
1933: Esperame
1933: Melodia de Arrabal
1933: Iris perdue et retrouvée
1934: Fedora
1934: Cuesta abajo
1934: El Tango en Broadway
1935: The last Fort ( The Last Outpost )
1936: Reefer Madness
1937: The Gold Racket
1937: Bank alarm
1938: Sunset Murder Case
1939: Juan Soldado
1939: La immaculada
1940: Murder on the Yukon
1940: Stolen Paradise

literature

Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 199.

Individual evidence

^ Georges Sadoul: Dictionary of Film Makers, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1972. p. 97
↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 199.

Web links

Louis J. Gasnier in the Internet Movie Database (English)

personal data
SURNAME	Gasnier, Louis J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gasnier, Louis Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French silent film director
DATE OF BIRTH	September 15, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris , France
DATE OF DEATH	February 15, 1963
Place of death	Hollywood , California , United States

[1] Georges Sadoul: Dictionary of Film Makers, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1972. p. 97

[2] Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 199.