Visages d'enfants is quite simply of masterpiece. Jacques Feyder, Belgian born, made a series of great pictures during the silent era, as well as talkies. He started as an actor. He got later employed in Gaumont and directed shorts. In 1921, he managed to finance his first feature-length picture:
L'Atlantide. The film was entirely shot in the Sahara desert, in gruelling conditions. It was followed by
Crainquebille (1922) a delightful story shot at the heart of the Paris food market (Les Halles) where he used for the first time little Jean Forest. Then, the boy got the lead in
Visages d'enfants. The film was shot in the Swiss Alps and decribed the torments of a young boy who has just lost his mother. Feyder shows a great understanding of his young characters coupled with an undeniable visual mastery. Forest played the lead again in
Gribiche (1926) which I wrote about on SSO
here. Feyder's last silent French film before leaving for Hollywood was
Les Nouveaux Messieurs, a great comedy about a young dancer who is the mistress of a politician. Jacques Feyder deserves better recognition than what he is getting nowadays in France. His filmography is rather small, but each film was meticulously written, produced and acted. I have yet to see a bad Feyder...and I have nearly seen all his extant films. Fortunately, the French Cinémathèque will show a retrospective of his work next spring/summer. I hope to be able to see some of his rarest work such as the German version of
La Kermesse Héroïque called
Die Klugen Frauen (the clever women) and also the German version of
Les Gens du voyage (a circus picture with Françoise Rosay in the lead). Both versions have Rosay in the lead (she spoke German). There is also the super-rare,
Si l'empereur savait ça, the French version of the infamous
His Glorious Night which is supposed to be a very funny comedy with Rosay in the lead again.