Jacques Feyder

Vocation

Family

Belgian actor, screenwriter and film director who worked principally in France, but also in the USA, Britain and Germany. He was a leading director of silent films during the 1920s, and in the 1930s he became associated with the style of poetic realism in French cinema. He adopted French nationality in 1928. "L'Atlantide" (1921) (based on the novel by Pierre Benoit), and "Crainquebille" (1922) (from the novel by Anatole France) were his first major films to achieve public and critical attention. He followed these with "Visages d'enfants" (filmed in 1923 but not released until 1925) which proved to be one of his most personal and durable films. Feyder accepted an offer from MGM to work in Hollywood, where in 1929 his first project was directing Greta Garbo in "The Kiss," her last silent film. It was in Hollywood that he made the transition to sound films. Feyder returned to France in 1933. During the next three years he made three of his most successful films, all of them in collaboration with screenwriter Charles Spaak and featuring Françoise Rosay in a leading role. "Le Grand Jeu" (1934) and "Pension Mimosas" (1935) were both significant creations in the style of poetic realism; "La Kermesse héroïque" (1935) (also known as "Carnival in Flanders") was a meticulously staged period film with contemporary political resonances, which earned Feyder several international awards. In 1917, Feyder had married Parisian-born actress Françoise Rosay (1891–1974) with whom he had three sons; she acted in many of his films and collaborated with him as writer and assistant director on Visages d'enfants. Jacques Feyder died on 24 May 1948, aged 60, at Prangins, Switzerland. Link to Wikipedia biography