Suzanne Grandais

Striking, sophisticated Suzanne Grandais (1893-1920) was the most beautiful and refined actress of the French silent cinema. Her nickname was 'the French Mary Pickford' because of her angel face and blond hair. Grandais died when she was only 27.


Vintage postcard. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard.


Spanish postcard.


British postcard by K Ltd.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 25. Photo: Reutlinger.


Possibly a French postcard, but the editor is unknown.

Louis Feuillade

Suzanne Grandais was born Suzanne Gueudret in Paris, France in 1893. At the age of 15, she already started to work as a dancer. Her first stage appearance was in Le Château Des Loufoques (The Castle of Loufoques) by Benjamin Rabier at the Théâtre de Cluny.

After a tour through South America, she played some parts in short silent films for the Lux and Eclair companies. Then she was discovered by pioneer director Louis Feuillade who hired her for Gaumont. Wikipedia (English) however suggests it was director Leonce Perret who discovered her at the Moulin Rouge.

From 1911 to 1913, Grandais made some 45 films for Gaumont, mostly short comedies and dramas. First she appeared in Feuillade's series Scènes de la vie telle qu'elle est/Life As It Is. In his Encyclopedia of Early Cinema, Richard Abel writes that these films were marked by her 'sober, restrained acting'.

Later Grandais often played Léonce Perret's wife or temptress in the Léonce series, elegant comedies starring and directed by Perret. She also appeared in such feature-length adventure melodramas as Le Mystère des roches de Kador/The Mystery of the Rocks of Kador (Léonce Perret, 1912).

In 1913-1914, Grandais switched to the German Dekage company (Deutsche Kinematograph Gesellschaft), for which she did another 18 films, directed by Marcel Robert and Charles Decroix. Then she founded her own film company with Raoul d'Archy, Les Films Suzanne Grandais.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 83.


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 10. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais, Jane Danjou and Marcel Marquet in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 11. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Anthony Gildès in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish postcard by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 3. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish postcard by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 10. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Jean Aymé in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


German postcard by Verleih Hermann Leiser, no. 7872. Photo: Willinger.

Car crash

During the First World War, Suzanne Grandais also worked at Eclipse. The drama Suzanne (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1916) was a major international success and turned Grandais into a star. French women started to notice that she always wore the latest fashions.

The great film critic Louis Delluc compared her to American serial queen Pearl White in the journal Paris-Midi in 1918. In 2005, Richard Abel called her 'arguably the most popular French actress of the early 1910s': "Grandais was equally adept at playing subtly pathetic figures, deceptive partners in crime, or witty wives who deftly outsmarted their husbands".

On Saturday 28 August 1920, Suzanne Grandais was killed while making the film serial L'Essor/The Rise (Charles Burguet, 1921) in the Alsace. She was only 27 when she died in a car crash between Sézanne and Coulommiers. Cameraman Marcel Ruette was also killed. Director Charles Burguet and his wife were in the back of the same car, but both survived. The accident happened during the shooting of the film, and the ending of the film had to be changed.

In 2009, Gallimard published a book on Grandais Un amour sans paroles (A Love Without Words), written by Didier Blonde. The author mentioned that he could see only one film of her. Most of Suzanne Grandais' more than 60 films are considered lost. But there's good news for him: several of her films have been saved by Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.

Most of these films are short comedies and dramas, often directed by Léonce Perret, from her early years at Gaumont. These include Graziella la Gitane/Graziella the Gypsy (Léonce Perret, 1912), Le homard/Lobsters: All Styles (Léonce Perret, 1913), and L'obsession du souvenir/The Obsession of a Souvenir (1913). The films are preserved with beautiful tinted and stencil-colored colours. Eye also owns some feature films with Suzanne Grandais such as Le mystère des Roches de Kador/The Mystery of the Rocks of Kador (Léonce Perret, 1912).


French postcard. Photo: Phocea Films. Suzanne Grandais in Méa Culpa (Georges Champavert, 1919).


French postcard. Photo: Phocéa Film. Suzanne Grandais in the tile role of Simplette (René Hervil, 1919).


French postcard. Photo: Phocéa Film. Suzanne Grandais in Simplette (René Hervil, 1919).


French postcard by Phocéa-Film, no. 13. Photo: Phocéa-Film. Suzanne Grandais and Henry Roussel in Gosse de riche/Rich Kid (Charles Burguet, 1920).


French postcard. Photo: Phocéa-Film. Suzanne Grandais in Gosse de riche/Rich Kid (Charles Burguet, 1920).


French postcard by Phocéa-Film, no. 16. Photo: Phocéa-Film. Suzanne Grandais in Suzanne et les Brigands/Suzanne and the Brigands (Charles Burguet, 1920).


French postcard. Photo: Sciarabin, Strasbourg / Phocea Films. Suzanne Grandais in L'essor/The Rise (Charles Burguet, 1920), 1st episode.


French postcard by Phocea-Films. This card was made for the 10th (and final) episode of the serial L'Essor/The Rise (Charles Burguet, 1921). Photo: Sciarabin, Strasbourg.

Sources: Richard Abel (Encyclopedia of Early Cinema), Alberto Blanco (Find A Grave), Gallimard (French), Wikipedia (French and English), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 6 July 2024.

Gosse de riche (1920)

The French silent film Gosse de riche/Rich Kid premiered on 27 August 1920. The day after, the star of the film, Suzanne Grandais, was killed. The car in which she was sitting with her director Charles Burguet, his wife, and the cameraman Marcel Ruette, had overturned after one wheel broke down, and a tire of another wheel exploded at the same time. Burguet and his wife were catapulted from the car and survived, but Ruette and Grandais were crushed by the car and died.


French postcard. Photo: Phocéa-Film. Suzanne Grandais in Gosse de riche/Rich Kid (Charles Burguet, 1920).


French postcard. Photo: Phocéa-Film. Suzanne Grandais in Gosse de riche/Rich Kid (Charles Burguet, 1920). 

Class struggle

In Gosse de riche/Rich Kid, Suzy Maravon (Suzanne Grandais), the daughter of an industrialist (Henri Roussel), wants to know how life is for the workers in her fathers' factory. 

So Suzy offers her services as an assistant at the workbench. By some rioters and an unfaithful foreman, Gonfaron (Camille Bardou), sabotage is committed, but with the help of another employee, Mougins (Henri Bosc), this is prevented. 

Berthe Jalabert, always playing mothers in those years, here plays the mother of Mougins. As usual, the story ends well, with a marriage. 

Around 1919-1920, many Western films were made about violent strikes or riots menacing the bourgeois elite - echoing the turmoils in Germany, and before in Russia. 

Most films of these films end in reconciliation - either by force, by reason, or by wit - instead of class struggle.


French postcard, no. 12. Photo: Phocéa-Film. Suzanne Grandais in Gosse de riche/Rich Kid (Charles Burguet, 1920).


French postcard, no. 13. Photo: Phocéa-Film. Suzanne Grandais and Henry Roussel in Gosse de riche/Rich Kid (Charles Burguet, 1920).



Suzanne Grandais. Possibly a French postcard, but editor unknown.

Sources: Arnhemsche courant (Dutch - 27-11-1920), 1895 (French), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Lorena (1918)

Last week, you could read a post here on the French silent film Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917), starring one of our favourite European film stars, Suzanne Grandais. Today another post on a film with Grandais, Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918), produced by Eclair. The Spanish company Amatller Marca Luna published the cards to promote their chocolates.


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 1. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Fred Zorilla in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 6, no. 2. Photo: Eclipse. Fred Zorilla and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 3. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 4. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais, Jean Ayme and Maillard in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 5. Photo: Eclipse. Maillard, Suzanne Grandais (right woman) and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card b Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 6, no. 6. Photo: Eclipse. On the right, Suzanne Grandais and Maillard in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 7. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).

Our search for the plot

It was hard to find the plot of Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918) on French sites. In the French online system Gallica e.g. some numbers of the leading magazine Ciné-Journal from 1918 are failing. Thanks to the Dutch online newspaper site Delpher, we managed to find a content description in the Provinciale Geldersche en Nijmeegsche courant, a Dutch regional paper of 1919.

Lorena is the daughter of the marquis of Chambrey, and secretly engaged to the painter Pierre Laurent, but her father has other plans. He wants to give her hand to Count Borgo, a son of a late friend.

Lorena hides in Mme Laurent's place but is discovered and brought back home. yet, when it all comes out that Count Borgo is already married, Lorena may marry her artist. Borgo, though, is keen on revenge and challenges Pierre to a duel.

When the duel is undecided, Pierre comes into his power. When Borgo wants to use his right to shoot at Pierre from a distance of 12 meters, Lorena intervenes. After having drugged her lover, she dresses like a man and goes to the duel. Borgo is softened by so much courage and shoots at a bottle instead of at the woman.

Lorena was produced by Grandais' own company Les Films Suzanne Grandais, but under the aegis of Eclipse, and also distributed by Eclipse. Scriptwriter was Claude Valmont.

The main actors were Suzanne Grandais in the title role, Jean Ayme as Count Borgo and Fred Zorilla as Pierre Laurent. Supporting actors were Berthe Jalabert as Madame Laurent and Maillard as Monsieur Chambrey. The film premiered in Paris on 11 February 1918 (so a year before the review in the Dutch regional paper).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 8. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais, Fred Zorilla and Berthe Jalabert in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 6, no. 9. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 10. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amattler Marca Luna, series 6, no. 11. Photo: Eclair. Suzanne Grandais and Maillard in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amattler Marca Luna, series 6, no. 12. Photo: Eclair. Suzanne Grandais and Maillard in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 13. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 14. Photo: Eclipse. Fred Zorilla, Suzanne Grandais and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 15. Photo: Eclipse. Jean Ayme and Suzanne Grandais in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 17. Photo: Eclipse. Fred Zorilla, Suzanne Grandais, and Jean Ayme in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna, series 6, no. 18. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Fred Zorilla in Lorena (Georges Tréville, 1918).

Sources: Provinciale Geldersche en Nijmeegsche courant, 15-02-1919 (Delpher - Dutch), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Midinettes (1917)

Star of the French silent film Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917) is striking, sophisticated Suzanne Grandais. She was the most beautiful and refined actress of the French silent cinema. Her nickname was 'the French Mary Pickford' because of her angel face and blond hair. She died in a car crash when she was only 27.


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 1. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 2. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Brodsky in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 3. Photo: Eclipse. Brodsky and Suzanne Grandais in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 4. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 5. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 6. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais, Jane Danjou and Brodsky in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 7. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 8. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Jean Peyrière in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 9. Photo: Eclipse. Jean Peyrière and Suzanne Grandais in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).

Her light love for a young mechanic

Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917) aka Midinette was one of the typical films of the so-called 'Third Series' of Suzanne Grandais films, produced by Charles Mary for the film company Eclipse. The Spanish postcards which we use for this post, were published by the chocolate company Amatller Marca Luna. Amatller published several series on the films with Grandais.

Ciné-Journal described the content as follows: "Midinette is the simple adventure of a charming little seamstress, that belongs to a big fashion house, in which she leads the usual life of female workers, a life shared between the workshop, her little room, and her light love for a young mechanic.

Then suddenly a radical shift takes place in her life when she gets a large heritance. She turns into a wealthy lady and is courted by a debt-ridden aristocrat, who would like to recolour his blazon with Rosette's blue billets. The delicious young girl brings all of her independence and her neighbourhood esprit into the milieu. But after some time, the exquisite Rosette understands she has no real vocation for the aristocracy, so she returns to her room and her mechanic, whom she marries."

The 'midinettes' (seamstresses) were called this way, because they often lived far from their work, and at lunchtime they had to eat quickly. So they had a 'dinette' at 'midi'.

Suzanne Grandais played Rosette of course, while Jean Peyrière played the young Duke, Anthony Gildès and Marie-Ange Fériel played his parents, and Jane Danjou played Rosette's friend. It is unclear who played the mechanic; it probably was (first name unknown) Brodsky. Directors René Hervil and Louis Mercanton were also the co-writers of the film, while the regular cinematographer of Eclipse, Wladimir, took care of the photography.

Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917) premiered in Paris on 10 August 1917. While the plot was quite simple, the press lauded Grandais' performance as well as that of her co-star Danjou. The critics also liked the several shots shot on location in Paris, such as that of the walk by the lake at night.

The film came out in a particular context, because in May 1917 the real 'midinettes' raised a strike in France, refusing a reduction of their salary because of the war. Already because of the war, they were forced to work 10 hours a day. Just like in Britain, the French employers cut half a day of work on Saturday, but in contrast to the Brits, they would not pay for it. Soon, all Parisian female seamstresses were on strike. Moreover, the strike quickly spread also to female workers working in factories and banks, so within 5 days some 10.000 women were on strike.

In the end, French employers gave in and accepted the 'English week' of one and a half-day paid weekend. This was the first step in the recognition of a weekend. Up till then, few women had joined a union because of their work being mostly domestic, but because of the strike, by the end of 1917, a third of the members of the big CGT union consisted of women.

Yet, Laure Lee Downs, in her book 'Manufacturing Inequality: Gender Division in the French and British Metalworking Industries, 1914-1939' (1995), writes that the midinettes, with their flowers on their clothes and waving the national flags, were easier embraced by the bourgeois establishment than the 'munitionettes' (the women working in the weapon factories), waving red flags and behaving less gentle. The latter group would 'face arrest, interrogation, imprisonment, and victimization of those identified as ringleaders."

One may wonder what the real midinettes may have thought of the deterministic, conventional storyline of Midinettes - stay within your class. On the other hand, during a war, the government probably would not have allowed for a film that came too close to reality.


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 10. Photo: Eclipse. Jane Danjou, Brodsky and Suzanne Grandais in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 11. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Anthony Gildès in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 12. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Marcel Marquet in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 13. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 14. Photo: Eclipse. Anthony Gildès, Suzanne Grandais, Marie-Ange Fériel and Marcel Marquet in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 15. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais and Jean Peyrière in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 16. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais, Berthe Jalabert and Brodsky in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 17. Photo: Eclipse. Marie-Ange Fériel, Anthony Gildès, Suzanne Grandais and Jean Peyrière in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917).


Spanish collectors card by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 3, no. 18. Photo: Eclipse. Suzanne Grandais, Brodsky and Jane Danjou in Midinettes (René Hervil, Louis Mercanton, 1917). This card shows the conclusion of the plot.

Sources: Gauchemip (French) Ciné-Journal (14 July 1917- French), Wikipedia and IMDb.