''La Femme d'une nuit'' ("The woman of one night") is a 1931 French drama film directed by

Marcel L'Herbier Marcel L'Herbier (; 23 April 1888 – 26 November 1979) was a French filmmaker who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued unti ...

. It was made simultaneously with

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

versions of the same story, which were however not only in different languages but in different genres.

Cast

Francesca Bertini Francesca Bertini (born Elena Seracini Vitiello; 5 January 1892 – 13 October 1985) was an Italian silent film actress. She was one of the most successful silent film stars in the first quarter of the twentieth-century. Early life Born Elena ...

as La princesse de Lystrie *

Jean Murat Jean Murat (13 July 1888 in Périgueux – 5 January 1968 in Aix-en-Provence) was a French actor. He was married to the French actress Annabella. He was one of the surviving passengers of the August 1923 Air Union Farman Goliath crash. Selected ...

as Jean d'Armont *

Boris de Fast Boris de Fast (July 6, 1890 – 1973) was a Russian actor, screenwriter, film editor and make-up artist. Born in Feodosia, Feodosia, Crimea in the Russian Empire, he emigrated to France, where he worked in the Cinema of France, film industry. His ...

as Portier lystrien *

Andrews Engelmann Andrews Engelmann (23 March 1901 – 25 February 1992) was a Russian-born German actor. He worked primarily in Germany, where he specialised in playing Russian roles, but also appeared in a number of British films during his career. He was born as ...

as Portier lystrien *

Georges Tréville Georges Tréville (28 July 1875 – 30 May 1944) was a French actor and film director. Born as Georges Troly, during the silent era, he played the gentlemen thief Arsène Lupin in several short films. He also went to Britain to direct and star ...

Antonin Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...

as Jaroslav

Production

In 1930 Marcel L'Herbier was asked by the producer Mario Nalpas to go to Berlin to make a film based on a novel by Alfred Machard. In common with many other early sound films, the proposal was that three versions would be made simultaneously in different languages - French, Italian, and German - but what was unusual in the production was that each version was to be in a different genre. The German version ('' Königin einer Nacht'') was an operetta, the Italian version ('' La donna di una notte'') was a comedy, while the French version (''La Femme d'une nuit'') was a dramatic film. This made the process of script preparation particularly difficult.Marcel L'Herbier, ''La Tête qui tourne''. (Paris: Belfond, 1979.) pp. 195-197. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

s Boris Bilinsky and Pierre Schild. Filming was completed during about seven weeks during the summer of 1930. Before the French version could be released, the producer Nalpas was forced to sell his rights in the production, and in the resulting financial confusion the film received very little commercial release. L'Herbier also asked for his name to be removed from it when it was re-edited without his agreement.Laurent Véray (ed.), ''Marcel L'Herbier: l'art du cinéma''. (Paris: Association française de recherche sur l'histoire du cinéma, 2007.) p. 238; p. 275; p. 384.

References

External links

* 1930 films French drama films 1930 drama films 1930s French-language films Films directed by Marcel L'Herbier Films scored by Michel Michelet French multilingual films French black-and-white films 1930 multilingual films 1930s French films Films based on French novels Films based on works by Alfred Machard French-language drama films {{1930s-France-film-stub