André Berley

André Berley (1890 - 1936) was a French stage and screen actor, known for his part in Carl Dreyer’s La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928).


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 644. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Evil Judge
André Berley was born André Edmond Obrecht in Paris in 1890 (according to IMDb he was born in 1880). From the early 1910's on, he was highly active on stage. Berley worked both in music-halls and on the classical stage. Among his greatest stage successes were L'Age de raison (1924) by Paul Vialar, Les Marchands de gloire (1925) by Marcel Pagnol, and  the musical comedy Le Renard chez les poules (1929). He debuted in film during the last years of the silent cinema. He performed a major part in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc/The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer) featuring Maria Falconetti as Jeanne. Berley played Jean d'Estivet, one of the evil judges, which also included Sylvain, Maurice Schutz, Michel Simon and Antonin Artaud. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: " The Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent film, but the original transcripts of Joan's trial are brilliantly conveyed by the pantomime of the actors. The film's title is supremely double-edged -- Joan's 'passion' is shown to be as erotic as it is spiritual." Berley also acted in a second silent film, the steamy melodrama Harakiri (1928, Marie-Louise Iribe, Henri Debain).


Sylvain. French postcard by Ed. Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 83. Photo: Alliance Cinématographique. Publicity still for La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928).

Franco-German multilinguals
Thanks to a contract with MGM, André Berley stayed around 1930 for a year in Hollywood. He acted in seven French versions of MGM’s early sound films, including Buster se marie/Parlor, Bedroom and Bath (1931, Claude Autant-Lara) starring Buster Keaton. He did one more Hollywood movie at Paramount: Le petit café (1931, Ludwig Berger), the French-language version of Playboy of Paris, with Maurice Chevalier essaying the same role in both versions. Based on a play by Tristan Bernard, Le petit café was regarded as a vast improvement on the English-language original. In Hollywood Berley was directed by several famous European directors, like Jacques Feyder, Henri Chomette, Reinhold Schünzel and Arthur Robison. After his return to France, he mainly acted in French sound cinema. Until his death in 1936, Barley participated in many French versions of Franco-German multilinguals. Berley played for instance the part of Emil Jannings in the French version of Die Abenteuer des Königs Pausole/The Adventures of King Pausole (1933, Alexis Granowsky): Les aventures du roi Pausole (1933). He also acted in the Franco-British coproduction Juanita (1935, Pierre Caron), and in three Franco-American co-productions, including the French version of The Merry Widow (1934) with Maurice Chevalier. Only 46, André Berley died in 1936, shortly after the shooting of La Maison d'en face/The House Across the Street, an adaptation of the play by Paul Nivoix directed by Christian-Jaque. The film, which starred Elvire Popesco, was released in January 1937. His daughter Denise Berley is a stage and cinema actress.


Maurice Chevalier in Le petit café (1931). Dutch postcard, no. 74. Photo: Paramount.

Sources:  Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Ciné-Ressources (French), Wikipedia (French and English), and IMDb.

Sylvain

Eugène Silvain (1851 - 1930), better known as Sylvain, was a prominent French stage actor. He is best remembered as the evil bishop Cauchon in Carl Dreyer’s silent masterpiece La passion de Jeanne d’Arc/The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).

 
French postcard, ca. 1900.

 
French postcard, early 20th century.

Very Successful at the Comédie Française
Eugène Charles Joseph Silvain was born in Bourg-en-Bresse, France in 1851. Sylvain was an officer in the French army during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871. After the war he left the army to become a stage actor. He debuted in Algeria, then played Beaumarchais in Paris. There he studied at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique. In 1878 he was accepted at the Comédie Française, where he became very successful. He played several times Ergaste in L’Ecole des maris by Molière. Sylvain was not only a typical Molière performer but also often acted in plays by Victor Hugo such as Hernani. In 1883 he was appointed sociétaire of the Comédie Française, and from 1916 to 1928 he was doyen (dean) of the prestigious theater company. In 1922 made his film debut in the silent film, Molière, sa vie, son oeuvre/Moliere, his life, his work (1922, Jacques de Feraudy). In this documentary De Feraudy first related about the places where Molière was born, studied, played his works and died. Then, through engravings, Molière is seen performing at Versailles and in front of Parisian audiences. Finally Sylvain and other actors of the Comédie-Française interpret scenes from Molière's work including Le dépit amoureux, Tartuffe, Les précieuses ridicules, Le Misanthrope, le bourgeois gentilhomme, Don Juan and Le malade imaginaire. Sylvain married actress Louise Hartman, who had a brilliant career at the Théâtre de l'Odéon, and afterwards at the Comédie Française. Their children were the dramaturg Jean Sylvain and Jeanne Sylvain, who was married to actor/director Edmond Roze.

 
French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 191. Photo: Comoedia.

 
French postcard by Wyndham Ed., Paris, no. W 103. Photo: Sylvain in Molière's play Tartuffe.

Fat, Skinny, Wrinkled, With Warts In Their Faces
In 1928 Sylvain left the Comédie Française. This coincided with his role in the silent masterpiece La passion de Jeanne d’Arc/The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer). La passion de Jeanne d’Arc is a true pan-European production with a Danish director, a German art director (Hermann Warm, famous for his sets for Caligari), a Polish-Hungarian director of photography (Rudolph Maté), and a largely French cast, led by Maria Falconetti – also a member of the Comédie-Française - as Jeanne d’Arc. The film focused on the famous trial of Jeanne d’Arc in 1431. Sylvain played Pierre Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, who leads the ecclesial court that must trial Jeanne. Despite the enormous set by Warm, Dreyer’s camera focuses only on emotions by keeping the camera close to the faces of Jeanne and her persecutors. They try to nail her for blasphemy and heresy, and are commissioned by the English to find a ground to burn her at the stake. Dreyer thus accentuates the ugliness of the judges, who are presented as fat or skinny, wrinkled, having warts in their faces etc. Their faces contrast with the virgin-like features of Jeanne. In addition to Sylvain, other judges were played by a.o. André Berley, Maurice Schutz and Antonin Artaud. For a long time the film was considered lost until a print was found in a mental hospital in Oslo. Sylvain died not too long after the release of the film, in 1930 in Marseille, the city where he had built his own theatre in 1923. His wife died just a few months after. Both were buried at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

 
French postcard by Ed. Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 83. Photo: Alliance Cinématographique. Publicity still for La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928).

Sources: Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.