Musidora and the French Silent Cinema

In the spring of 1914, 1 Musidora was offered another option for expanding her already versatile talents as an actress: I have acted in vaudeville plays… And a man came to fetch me for acting in a drama… Another one, who had seen me in the drama, carried me away to the revue… The one who had seen me in the revue, wrote to me: "The cinema is an art, come and act in films."2The man who saw her in the revue and who solicited her collaboration was Louis Feuillade, leading film director of the second largest film company in France at the time, Gaumont.Musidora's nearly three year affiliation 3 with Gaumont is most strongly marked by her acting in films directed by Louis Feuillade, although, in 1915, she also worked with other Gaumont directors such as Gaston Ravel, Léonce Perret, and Jacques Feyder. Louis Feuillade (1873-1925) was not only the leading film director at the company, but, since 1907, was its artistic supervisor as well.That year, he succeeded his mentrix Alice Guy-Blaché, who left for the United States after having occupied the position of leading filmmaker and supervisor of the Gaumont production for the previous ten years.4 By 1914, Feuillade was one of the most prolific, versatile, and established of French filmmakers.Because of company policy, his name was still unknown to the public, but his films usually did very well at the box-office.5 He made his films within the disciplined rhythm maintained at the Gaumont studios