Vanel, Charles

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VANEL, Charles

Nationality: French. Born: Rennes, 21 August 1892. Career: On stage in Paris from age 16; 1912—film debut in Jim Crow; followed by some 200 films; 1929—directed the film Dans la nuit. Awards: Best Actor, Cannes Festival, for The Wages of Fear, 1953; special César award, 1978. Died: In Cannes, 15 April 1989.

Films as Actor:

1912: Jim Crow (Péguy)
1921: Crépuscule d'epouvante; L'Enfant du carnaval
1922: L'Atre (Boudrioz); La Nuit de la revanche (Etievant); Les 50 Ans de Don Juan (Etievant); Du Crépuscule à l'aube (de Feraudy)
1923: Tempêtes (Boudrioz); Miarka, la fille à l'ourse (Mercanton); La Maison du mystère (Volkoff); Le Vol (Péguy); Valvaire d'Amour (Tourjansky); Phroso (Mercanton)
1924: La Flambée des rêves (de Baroncelli); Pêcheur d'Islande (de Baroncelli); La Mendiante de Saint-Sulpice (Burguet); Martyre (Burguet); L'Autre aile (Andreani)
1925: Barocco (Burguet); Le Réveil (de Baroncelli); Ame d'artiste (Dulac); La Flamme (Hervil)
1926: La Proie du vent (Clair); Nitchevo (de Baroncelli); 600,000 Francs par mois (Péguy and Koline); L'Orphelin du cirque (Lannes); Feu! (de Baroncelli)
1927: L'Esclave blanche (Genina); Charité; La Femme rêvée (Durand); Paname n'est pas Paris (Malikoff); Maquillage (Basch)
1928: Le Passager (de Baroncelli); La Plongée tragique (Heinz); Feux Follets (Waschneck)
1929: Waterloo (Grüne); Les Fourchambault (Monca)
1930: Chiqué (Colombier); Accusée levez-vous! (Tourneur); La Maison jaune de Rio (Grune and Péguy); Le Capitaine jaune (Sandberg); L'Arlésienne (de Baroncelli)
1931: Maison de danses (Tourneur); Au nom de la Loi (Tourneur); Dainah la métisse (Gremillon); Faubourg Montmartre (Bernard); Les Croix de bois (Bernard)

1932: Gitanes (de Baroncelli)
1933: Les Misérables (Bernard); Au bout du monde (Flücht-Linge) (Ucicky and Chomette)
1934: Le Grand Jeu (Feyder); Roi de Canargue (de Baroncelli); Obsession (Tourneur—short)
1935: L'Impossible aveu (Glavany); Le Domino vert (Selpin and Decoin); L'Equipage (Flight into Darkness) (Litavak); Michel Strogoff (de Baroncelli)
1936: Les Bateliers de la Volga (Strijewsky); Port Arthur (I Give My Life) (Farkas); Jenny (Carné); La Belle equipe (They Were Five) (Duvivier); Les Grands (Gandera and Bibal); L'Assaut (Ducis); La Flamme (Berthomieu); Courier Sud (Billon); Vertige d'un soir (La Peur) (Tourjansky)
1937: Abus de confiance (Abused Confidence) (Decoin); Troika sur la piste blanche (Dréville); Police mondaine (Bernheim and Chamborant); La Femme du bout du monde (Epstein)
1938: L'Occident (Fescourt); Les Pirates du rail (Christian-Jaque); Légions d'honneur (Gleize); S.O.S. Sahara (de Baroncelli); Bar du Sud (Fescourt)
1939: Carrefour (Crossroads) (Bernhardt); L'Or du Cristobal (Stelli and Becker); La Brigade sauvage (Savage Brigade) (Dréville and L'Herbier); Yamile sous le Cèdres (d'Espinay)
1940: La Loi du nord (La Piste du nord) (Feyder); Le Diamant noir (Delannoy); La Nuit merveilleuse (Paulin)
1941: Le Soleil a toujours raison (Billon)
1942: Promesse à l'inconnue (Berthomieu)
1943: Les Affaires sont les affaires (Dréville); Le Ciel est à vous (Gremillon); Les Roquevillard (Dréville)
1944: Haut-le-Vent (de Baroncelli); L'Enquête sur le 58 (Tedesco—short)
1945: La Ferme du pendu (Dréville)
1946: La Bateau à soupe (Gleize); La Cabane aux souvenirs (Stelli); Gringalet (Berthomieu)
1947: Le Diable souffle (Gréville)
1948: Vertigine d'Amore (Capuano)
1949: Mafia (Il nome della legge) (Germi); La Femme que j'ai assassinée (Daniel-Norman)
1950: Il Bivio (Cerchio); Malaire (Perla); Cuori sul mar (Bianchi)
1951: Gli Inesorabili (Mastrocinque); Son dernier verdict (Ultima Sentenza) (Bonnard); Incantesimo Tragico (Mastrocinque)
1952: Tempête sur les Mauvents (Dupé); Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) (Clouzot)
1953: Si Versailles m'était conté (Royal Affairs in Versailles) (Guitry); L'Affaire Mauritzius (On Trial) (Duvivier)
1954: Les Diaboliques (Diabolique) (Clouzot); Maddalena (Genina); Tam Tam (Napolitano); To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock) (as Bertani); Rafles sur la ville (Sinners of Paris) (Chenal)
1956: La Mort en ce jardin (Gina; Evil Eden) (Buñuel)
1957: Le Feu aux poudres (Decoin); Les Suspects (Dréville)
1958: Le Gorille vous salue bien (Borderie); Le Piège (No Escape) (Brabant); Pêcheur d'Islande (Schlöndorffer)
1959: Les Naufrageurs (Brabant); Les Bateliers de la Volga (Tourjansky); La Valse du gorille (Borderie)
1960: La Vérité (The Truth) (Clouzot)
1961: Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d'Or (Vierne); L'Ainé des Ferchaux (Melville); Maria, matricula de Bilbao (Vajda); Symphonie pour un massacre (Symphony for a Massacre) (Deray); La steppa (The Steppe) (Lattuada)

1962: Lo Sogarro (Siano); Rififi à Tokyo (Rififi in Tokyo) (Deray)
1963: Un Roi sans divertissement (La Poursuite) (Leterrier)
1964: Le Chant du monde (Camus)
1967: Un Homme de trop (Shock Troops) (Costa-Gavras)
1969: Ballade pour un chien (Vergez); La Nuit bulgare (Mitrani)
1970: Ils (Simon); Comptes à rebours (Pigaut)
1972: Camorra (Squietieri); La più bella sereta della mia vita (Scola) (as Judge)
1973: Les Martiens (Ciampi—short); Le Sang des autres (Simenon)
1975: Sept morts sur ordonnance (Rouffio); Cadaveri eccelenti (Illustrious Corpses) (Rosi) (as Procura)
1976: Nuit d'or (Moatti); Comme un boomerang (Giovanni); Alice, ou la dernière fugue (Chabrol) (as Vergennes)
1977: A l'ombre d'un été (Van Belle); Ne pleure pas (Ertaud)
1979: Le Chemin perdu (Moraz)
1980: La Puce et le Privé (Kay); Tre fratelli (Three Brothers) (Rosi) (as Donato Giuranna)
1987: Si le soleil ne revenait pas (Goretta) (as Anzevui)
1988: Les Saisons du plaisir (Mocky) (as Charles)

Films as Director:

1929: Dans la nuit (+ ro)
1932: Au joli coin (+ ro)

Publications

By VANEL: articles—

"Une Carrière exemplaire: Charles Vanel," interview with R. Predal in Cinéma aujourd'hui (Paris), no. 10, 1976.

"Charles Vanel par Charles Vanel," dossier in Avant-Scene du Cinéma (Paris), 15 November 1981.

Interview with F. Gévaudan, in Cinéma (Paris), January 1982.

On VANEL: books—

Ford, Charles, Charles Vanel: Un Comedien Exemplaire, Paris, 1986.

Cartier, Jacqueline, Monsieur Vanel: Un Siecle de Souvenirs, Paris, 1989.

On VANEL: articles—

Niogret, Hubert, and Yann Tobin, "Charles Vanel," in Positif (Paris), February 1982.

Sellier, G., "Charles Vanel, un 'non-séducteur' du cinéma français," in Cinéma (Paris), October 1983.

Borger, Lenny, "Charles Vanel: Esteemed Character Actor, Dead at 96," in Variety (New York), 26 April 1989.

Stars (Mariembourg), September 1989.

"Dans la nuit: Film de (et avec) Charles Vanel (1929)," in Jeune Cinéma (Paris), November 1992.

* * *

Charles Vanel, the grand old man of French cinema, was born in 1892 at Rennes. He was educated for a career at sea, but his poor sight put an end to this ambition. Possessing a very fine voice, he decided to become an actor and went to Paris where, encouraged by Firmin Gemier, he played at the Theatre Antoine and the Gymnase. After four years of the theater, he entered films in 1912, playing in Robert Péguy's Jim Crow. He played with Rejane in Mercanton's Miarka, la fille à l'ourse, but had his first big success in Robert Boudrioz's remarkable L'Atre in 1922. This marked the beginning of a prolific silent film career for Vanel. He acted with Mozhukin in L'Enfant du carnaval, Tempêtes, and La Maison du mystère, and appeared in many films by Jacques de Baroncelli, particularly in the Pierre Loti story Pêcheur d'Islande, filmed in his native Brittany. He played in Germaine Dulac's Ame d'artiste and Rene Clair's Proie du vent (with Sandra Milowanoff, who had played in the Loti film). Vanel worked for German and Italian directors, and played Napoleon in Karl Grüne's Waterloo. In 1929 he directed Sandra Milowanoff in Dans la nuit, a film now restored by the Cinématheque Française which allows us to see a very talented director indeed. This story of rural love and jealousy set among quarry workers has a documentary realism, but as a film it was overshadowed by the coming of sound.

With the arrival of sound, Vanel spent two years in Germany on French versions of German films, and on his return to France became a familiar figure on the cinema screen. He played opposite Harry Baur in Raymond Bernard's two-part versions of Les Misérables in 1933 and also appeared in Bernard's Faubourg Montmarte and Les Croix de bois. He was in Feyder's Le Grand Jeu and La Loi du nord. For Gustav Ucicky he played in Flüchtlinge (Au bout du monde), and he was in Marcel Carné's Jenny. He was Yves Montand's cowardly partner in Clouzot's Le Salaire de la peur (for which he received the Cannes best actor award). He worked for Hitchcock (To Catch a Thief), Buñuel (Le Mort en ce jardin), and Jean Pierre Melville (L'Ainé des Ferchaux). In 1958 he again played in Pêcheur d'Islande (Schlöndorffer), and he was in both the Strijewsky and Tourjansky versions of Les Bateliers de la Volga. In 1978 Vanel was honored with a special César award, and continued to appear in films in his last years. He had a prolific output of 80 films during a distinguished career covering more than 70 years.