Nationality: French. Born: Rennes, 21 August 1892. Career: On stage in Paris from age 16; 1912âfilm debut in Jim Crow ; followed by some 200 films; 1929âdirected the film Dans la nuit . Awards: Best Actor, Cannes Festival, for The Wages of Fear , 1953; special CĂ©sar award, 1978. Died: In Cannes, 15 April 1989.
Jim Crow (PĂ©guy)
Crépuscule d'epouvante ; L'Enfant du carnaval
L'Atre (Boudrioz); La Nuit de la revanche (Etievant); Les 50 Ans de Don Juan (Etievant); Du Crépuscule à l'aube (de Feraudy)
TempĂȘtes (Boudrioz); Miarka, la fille Ă l'ourse (Mercanton); La Maison du mystĂšre (Volkoff); Le Vol (PĂ©guy); Valvaire d'Amour (Tourjansky); Phroso (Mercanton)
La FlambĂ©e des rĂȘves (de Baroncelli); PĂȘcheur d'Islande (de Baroncelli); La Mendiante de Saint-Sulpice (Burguet); Martyre (Burguet); L'Autre aile (Andreani)
Barocco (Burguet); Le RĂ©veil (de Baroncelli); Ame d'artiste (Dulac); La Flamme (Hervil)
La Proie du vent (Clair); Nitchevo (de Baroncelli); 600,000 Francs par mois (PĂ©guy and Koline); L'Orphelin du cirque (Lannes); Feu! (de Baroncelli)
L'Esclave blanche (Genina); CharitĂ© ; La Femme rĂȘvĂ©e (Durand); Paname n'est pas Paris (Malikoff); Maquillage (Basch)
Le Passager (de Baroncelli); La Plongée tragique (Heinz); Feux Follets (Waschneck)
Waterloo (GrĂŒne); Les Fourchambault (Monca)
Chiqué (Colombier); Accusée levez-vous! (Tourneur); La Maison jaune de Rio (Grune and Péguy); Le Capitaine jaune (Sandberg); L'Arlésienne (de Baroncelli)
Maison de danses (Tourneur); Au nom de la Loi (Tourneur); Dainah la métisse (Gremillon); Faubourg Montmartre (Bernard); Les Croix de bois (Bernard)
Gitanes (de Baroncelli)
Les MisĂ©rables (Bernard); Au bout du monde (FlĂŒcht-Linge) (Ucicky and Chomette)
Le Grand Jeu (Feyder); Roi de Canargue (de Baroncelli); Obsession (Tourneurâshort)
L'Impossible aveu (Glavany); Le Domino vert (Selpin and Decoin); L'Equipage ( Flight into Darkness ) (Litavak); Michel Strogoff (de Baroncelli)
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)
Abus de confiance ( Abused Confidence ) (Decoin); Troika sur la piste blanche (Dréville); Police mondaine (Bernheim and Chamborant); La Femme du bout du monde (Epstein)
L'Occident (Fescourt); Les Pirates du rail (Christian-Jaque); LĂ©gions d'honneur (Gleize); S.O.S. Sahara (de Baroncelli); Bar du Sud (Fescourt)
Carrefour ( Crossroads ) (Bernhardt); L'Or du Cristobal (Stelli and Becker); La Brigade sauvage ( Savage Brigade ) (Dréville and L'Herbier); Yamile sous le CÚdres (d'Espinay)
La Loi du nord ( La Piste du nord ) (Feyder); Le Diamant noir (Delannoy); La Nuit merveilleuse (Paulin)
Le Soleil a toujours raison (Billon)
Promesse Ă l'inconnue (Berthomieu)
Les Affaires sont les affaires (Dréville); Le Ciel est à vous (Gremillon); Les Roquevillard (Dréville)
Haut-le-Vent (de Baroncelli); L'EnquĂȘte sur le 58 (Tedescoâshort)
La Ferme du pendu (Dréville)
La Bateau Ă soupe (Gleize); La Cabane aux souvenirs (Stelli); Gringalet (Berthomieu)
Le Diable souffle (Gréville)
Vertigine d'Amore (Capuano)
Mafia ( Il nome della legge ) (Germi); La Femme que j'ai assassinée (Daniel-Norman)
Il Bivio (Cerchio); Malaire (Perla); Cuori sul mar (Bianchi)
Gli Inesorabili (Mastrocinque); Son dernier verdict ( Ultima Sentenza ) (Bonnard); Incantesimo Tragico (Mastrocinque)
TempĂȘte sur les Mauvents (DupĂ©); Le Salaire de la peur ( The Wages of Fear ) (Clouzot)
Si Versailles m'était conté ( Royal Affairs in Versailles ) (Guitry); L'Affaire Mauritzius ( On Trial ) (Duvivier)
Les Diaboliques ( Diabolique ) (Clouzot); Maddalena (Genina); Tam Tam (Napolitano); To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock) (as Bertani); Rafles sur la ville ( Sinners of Paris ) (Chenal)
La Mort en ce jardin ( Gina ; Evil Eden ) (Buñuel)
Le Feu aux poudres (Decoin); Les Suspects (Dréville)
Le Gorille vous salue bien (Borderie); Le PiĂšge ( No Escape ) (Brabant); PĂȘcheur d'Islande (Schlöndorffer)
Les Naufrageurs (Brabant); Les Bateliers de la Volga (Tourjansky); La Valse du gorille (Borderie)
La Vérité ( The Truth ) (Clouzot)
Tintin et le mystÚre 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)
Lo Sogarro (Siano); Rififi Ă Tokyo ( Rififi in Tokyo ) (Deray)
Un Roi sans divertissement ( La Poursuite ) (Leterrier)
Le Chant du monde (Camus)
Un Homme de trop ( Shock Troops ) (Costa-Gavras)
Ballade pour un chien (Vergez); La Nuit bulgare (Mitrani)
Ils (Simon); Comptes Ă rebours (Pigaut)
Camorra (Squietieri); La piĂč bella sereta della mia vita (Scola) (as Judge)
Les Martiens (Ciampiâshort); Le Sang des autres (Simenon)
Sept morts sur ordonnance (Rouffio); Cadaveri eccelenti ( Illustrious Corpses ) (Rosi) (as Procura)
Nuit d'or (Moatti); Comme un boomerang (Giovanni); Alice, ou la derniĂšre fugue (Chabrol) (as Vergennes)
A l'ombre d'un été (Van Belle); Ne pleure pas (Ertaud)
Le Chemin perdu (Moraz)
La Puce et le Privé (Kay); Tre fratelli ( Three Brothers ) (Rosi) (as Donato Giuranna)
Si le soleil ne revenait pas (Goretta) (as Anzevui)
Les Saisons du plaisir (Mocky) (as Charles)
Dans la nuit (+ ro)
Au joli coin (+ ro)
"Une CarriÚre 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.
Ford, Charles, Charles Vanel: Un Comedien Exemplaire , Paris, 1986.
Cartier, Jacqueline, Monsieur Vanel: Un Siecle de Souvenirs , Paris, 1989.
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 PĂ©guy's Jim Crow . He played with Rejane in Mercanton's Miarka, la fille Ă 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 , TempĂȘtes , and La Maison du mystĂšre , and appeared in many films by Jacques de Baroncelli, particularly in the Pierre Loti story PĂȘcheur 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 GrĂŒne's Waterloo . In 1929 he directed Sandra Milowanoff in Dans la nuit , a film now restored by the CinĂ©matheque 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 MisĂ©rables 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 FlĂŒchtlinge ( Au bout du monde ), and he was in Marcel CarnĂ©'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'AinĂ© des Ferchaux ). In 1958 he again played in PĂȘcheur 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 CĂ©sar 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.
âLiam O'Leary
Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: