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André Calmettes (1861–1942) was a French actor and film director.
André Calmettes (1861–1942) was a French actor and film director.
Biography
After being a theatre actor for twenty years, he joined the society ', founded in 1908 by the novelist and editor, at the urging of theSociétaires of the Comédie-Française The sociétaires of the Comédie-Française are chosen from among the ''pensionnaires'' who have been in the company a year or more.
They are decided upon in the course of a general assembly of the company's administrative committee, made up of 6 e ...
.
That same year, disturbed by the noise of the spectators, he suggested that films should have musical accompaniment. One of the first composers to produce music especially designed for a film was Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano ...
, who arranged a piano score for Calmette's ''The Assassination of the Duke of Guise''. Originally the music was played in the theatre, but Calmette later found a way to put musicians behind the screen and synchronize their playing with the film.
In the three years from 1909 to 1912, he gave a more theatrical touch to his work by casting famous stage actors such as Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including by Alexandre Dumas fils, ...
, Réjane and Mounet-Sully to do adaptations of classic literary works, both French and English.
After 1913, he returned to the stage himself. He appeared in one film, ''Le Petit Chose'', by André Hugon
André Hugon (17 December 1886 – 22 August 1960) was a French film director, screenwriter and film producer best known for his silent films from 1913 onwards, particularly of the 1920s and into sound.
Hugon was born in Algiers in 1886 w ...
.
Partial filmography
* ''The Assassination of the Duke of Guise
''The Assassination of the Duke of Guise'' ( 1908) (original French title: ''La Mort du duc de Guise''; often referred to as ''L'Assassinat du duc de Guise'') is a French ''film d'art'' silent film directed by Charles le Bargy and André Calmet ...
'' (1908)
* ''La Tosca
''La Tosca'' is a five-Act (drama), act drama by the Nineteenth-century theatre, 19th-century Theatre of France, French playwright Victorien Sardou. It was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, wi ...
'' (1908)
* ''Macbeth
''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...
'' (1909)
* '' Madame Sans-Gêne'' (1911) (Sources disagree as to whether the director was Calmettes, Henri Desfontaines
Henri Desfontaines (12 November 1876, Paris – 7 January 1931, Paris) was a French film director, actor, and scriptwriter.
Filmography
As director
* 1908 : ''Hamlet''
* 1909 : '' Le Puits et le pendule''
* 1910 : '' Un invité gênant' ...
or both.)
* ''The Lady of the Camellias
''The Lady of the Camellias'' (), sometimes called ''Camille'' in English, is a novel by Alexandre Dumas fils, Alexandre Dumas ''fils''. First published in 1848 and subsequently Theatrical adaptation, adapted by Dumas for the Drama, stage, the pl ...
'' (1911)
* ''Richard III
Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
'' (1912)
* '' The Little Thing'' (1923)
References
External links
* * 1861 births 1942 deaths Film directors from Paris French male film actors French male silent film actors 20th-century French male actors French male stage actors Male actors from Paris Shakespearean directors {{france-film-bio-stub