Pierre Batcheff and Stardom in 1920s French Cinema

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by Phil Powrie and Eric Rebillard

Type: Biographies
Subject: Actor > Pierre Batcheff
Keywords: Pierre Batcheff, France, 1920s, actor
Publishing date: 2009
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 272 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-0-7486-2197-2

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Book Presentation:
This book is the first major study of a French silent cinema star. It focuses on Pierre Batcheff, a prominent popular cinema star in the 1920s, the French Valentino, best-known to modern audiences for his role as the protagonist of the avant-garde film classic Un chien andalou. Unlike other stars, he was linked to intellectual circles, especially the Surrealists. The book places Batcheff in the context of 1920s popular cinema, with specific reference to male stars of the period. It analyses the tensions he exemplifies between the 'popular' and the 'intellectual' during the 1920s, as cinema - the subject of intense intellectual interest across Europe - was racked between commercialism and 'art'. A number of the major films are studied in detail: Le Double amour (Epstein, 1925), Feu Mathias Pascal (L'Herbier, 1925), Éducation de prince (Diamant-Berger, 1927), Le Joueur d'échecs (Bernard, 1927), La Sirène des tropiques (Etiévant and Nalpas, 1927), Les Deux timides (Clair, 1928), Un chien andalou (Buñuel, 1929), Monte-Cristo (Fescourt, 1929), and Baroud (Ingram, 1932).

Key Features
• The first major study of a French silent cinema star.
• Provides an in-depth analysis of star performance.
• Includes extensive appendices of documents from popular cinema magazines of the period.

About the authors:
Phil Powrie is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences at the University of Surrey

Press Reviews:
Phil Powrie and Eric Rebillard's examination of the actor Pierre Batcheff opens up unique pathways into terrains embracing both the woefully overlooked - stars in the silent and early sound era of French cinema - and the justifiably well worn - the surrealist cinematic landmark Un chien andalou (1929)… Powrie and Rebillard have done important groundwork in establishing key issues with regard to stars, performance, and masculinity in the silent/early sound era, and their efforts should serve to provoke further explorations in this area.– Vicki Callahan, University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, French Studies

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press

See the complete filmography of Pierre Batcheff on the website: IMDB ...

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