Maurice Tourneur

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Maurice Tourneur (1919)

Maurice Tourneur (born February 2, 1873 in Paris , † August 4, 1961 ) was an important French film director who was one of the pioneers of film directing in his native country and the USA.

Life

The son of a jeweler was born Maurice Thomas in the Paris district of Belleville . First he began training as a graphic designer and illustrator, served in the French artillery in North Africa and worked briefly as an assistant for Auguste Rodin and Puvis de Chavanne before turning to the theater like his siblings.

He began his career as a supporting actor under the stage name Maurice Tourneur and occasionally toured England and South America with Gabrielle Réjanes theater company. In 1911, after more than 400 stage productions, he decided to go to film, initially as an assistant director. He quickly became a director and worked with leading French stars.

In 1914, Tourneur's employer, the production company Éclair, sent him onto the lucrative American market. He worked in the "first Hollywood" studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey . Tourneur moved to World Pictures after a year and became the company's most renowned director (one of his colleagues was Josef von Sternberg , who was still working as a film editor at the time ).

Tourneur quickly made a name for himself as one of the most innovative film directors in America who shot using the most modern film technology of the time and celebrated critical and audience successes. His specialty was giving style to films through the thoughtful use of buildings and lighting (his team included Clarence Brown as assistant director and editor). He turned against the emerging star system because he felt it distracted too much from a well-told story.

In 1918 Maurice Tourneur founded his own company and shot sophisticated melodramas with the actresses Mary Pickford and Elsie Ferguson . Two projects that were particularly close to his heart were the extremely elaborate films The Blue Bird (1918) (a forerunner of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ) and Prunella . Both films, however, had no financial success. Disappointed, Tourneur gave up his idea that film should primarily contribute to educating the masses.

In 1922 he read the signs of the times and went to Hollywood , but the growing influence of producers on the content and style of the films prompted Tourneur to leave the USA and return to France after a while. The French initially met him with hostility, since he had not fought for the country of his birth in the First World War. In 1929 Tourneur filmed The Ship of Lost People in Germany with the aspiring Marlene Dietrich .

Tourneur made numerous other films, despite his contempt for the National Socialists, also under the Vichy regime . In 1949, a car accident ended his film activity. Until his death he worked as a painter and translator of detective novels from English into French. Maurice Tourneur is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. His son Jacques Tourneur followed his father into the film industry.

Maurice Tourneur's films The Poor Little Rich Girl of 1917 and The Last of the Mohicans ( The Last of the Mohicans ) of 1920 were from a "culturally significant" in the Library of Congress added.

In 1945 he was honored with honorary membership by the Directors Guild of America . A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame commemorates Maurice Tourneur.

Filmography (selection)

Advertising (1919)
  • 1915: aka Jimmy Valentine
  • 1915: The Cub
  • 1917: The Poor Little Rich Girl
  • 1918: The Blue Bird
  • 1918: Prunella
  • 1918: A Doll's House
  • 1920: The Last of the Mohicans (The Last of the Mohicans)
  • 1922: Lorna Doone
  • 1923: While Paris Sleeps
  • 1926: Old Loves and New
  • 1929: The Ship of the Lost People
  • 1930: Accusée, levez-vous!
  • 1932: Les gaietés de l'escadron
  • 1933: L'homme mystérieux
  • 1934: Justin de Marseille
  • 1934: Le voleur
  • 1936: With a smile ( Avec le sourire )
  • 1938: Le patriote
  • 1938: Katja, the uncrowned Empress ( Katia )
  • 1941: The Deceived Deceiver ( Volpone )
  • 1943: The Devil's Hand ( La main du diable )
  • 1944: Maigret and the headless woman , also: his most difficult case ( Cécile est morte )
  • 1948: Secret love ( Après l'amour )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tourneur, Maurice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French screenwriter and director
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1961
Place of death Paris