Léon Poirier (25 August 1884 – 27 June 1968) was a French film director,

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and film producer best known for his silent films from 1913 onwards. He directed some 25 films between 1913 and 1949. His most famous film today is '' Verdun: Visions of History'', a drama-documentary depicting the

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Battle of Verdun The Battle of Verdun ( ; ) was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front in French Third Republic, France. The battle was the longest of the First World War and took place on the hills north ...

. His later films adopted a form of poetic realism influenced by pictorialist photography.

Life

Poirier was the nephew of

Berthe Morisot Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; 14 January 1841 – 2 March 1895) was a French painter, printmaker and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the ...

. He began his career in the theatre, as secretary of the Théâtre du Gymnase. Following a serious accident, he withdrew from theatrical productions and accepted a contract from Gaumont to make a film. In 1914 with the outbreak of war, he joined the army and became a lieutenant in the artillery, even though his accident exempted him from duty. At the end of the conflict he returned to filmmaking, creating a large number of films in the silent era, but reducing his output after the advent of sound. Most of these works adopted a form of pictorialist naturalism.Ian Aitken, ''European Film Theory and Cinema: A Critical Introduction'', Edinburgh University Press, 2001, p.70 In 1928 Poirier completed '' Verdun: Visions of History'', a dramatized documentary about the battle. The film was shot on site of the carnage. Poirier utilised, ten years after the conflict, the battlefield and the ruins of the forts of Vaux and

Douaumont Douaumont () is a former commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Douaumont-Vaux. History The village was a single street lying on an east-west axis and appe ...

. The performers were French and German veterans and a few professional actors. He directed his last film in 1947 and retired to Urval where he died in 1968.

Filmography

* 1913: '' Cadette'' * 1914: '' Le Trèfle d'argent'' * 1914: '' Le Nid'' * 1914: '' Ces demoiselles Perrotin'' * 1914: '' L'Amour passe'' * 1919: '' Âmes d'Orient'' * 1920: ''

Narayana Narayana (, ) is one of the forms and epithets of Vishnu. In this form, the deity is depicted in yogic slumber under the celestial waters, symbolising the masculine principle and associated with his role of creation. He is also known as Pu ...

'' * 1920: '' Le Penseur'' * 1921: '' L'Ombre déchirée'' * 1921: '' Le Coffret de jade'' * 1922: '' Jocelyn'' * 1923: ''

Geneviève Genevieve (; ; also called ''Genovefa'' and ''Genofeva''; 419/422 AD – 502/512 AD) was a consecrated virgin, and is one of the two patron saints of Paris in the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. Her feast day is on 3 January. Rec ...

'' * 1923: '' The Courier of Lyon'' * 1924: ''

La Brière ''La Brière'' (translated as ''Passion and Peat'') is a 1923 novel by Alphonse de Chateaubriant that won the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française for that year. The novel is set in the rustic fenland landscape west of Nantes, known as ...

'' * 1926: '' La Croisière noire'' * 1928: '' La Croisière jaune'' * 1928: '' Verdun: Visions of History'' (''Verdun: Visions d'Histoire'') * 1930: '' Caïn, aventures des mers exotiques'', co-directed by

Emil-Edwin Reinert Emil-Edwin Reinert, or Emile-Edwin Reinert, (16 March 1903 – 17 October 1953) was a French film director, screenwriter, audio engineer and producer. Born in Rava-Ruska, Austria-Hungary in 1903, Reinert directed films in France, Great Britain ...

* 1933: '' La Croisière jaune'', co-directed by André Sauvage * 1933: '' La Voie sans disque'' * 1936: ''

The Call of Silence ''The Call of Silence'', also screened as ''The Call'' (French: ''L'Appel du Silence''), is a 1936 French drama film directed by Léon Poirier and starring Jean Yonnel, Pierre de Guingand and Jacqueline Francell. It is a biography based on the li ...

'' * 1937: '' Sisters in Arms'' * 1940: '' Brazza ou l'épopée du Congo'' * 1943: '' Jeannou'' * 1949: '' La Route inconnue''

References

External links

* 1884 births 1968 deaths French film directors French film producers French male screenwriters 20th-century French screenwriters French silent film directors Writers from Paris 20th-century French male writers {{france-film-director-stub

Life

Filmography

See also

References

External links