Catherine Hessling
in the films of Jean Renoir
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH, 2018
« I only made films in the hopes of making my wife a star. » Jean Renoir
The full line-up for this 10th edition of the Lumière festival has now been announced here. Among the highlights, a special homage to one of the great figures of the silent era, actress Catherine Hessling. A model for the Art Academy of Nice, she came to the attention of Auguste Renoir, and modelled for him until her death. His son, Jean, fell in love with her and claims he turned to film in order to make her a star. "As a teenager, Catherine found herself, overnight, in the center of a world she was unaware of the day before; a world where fine gentlemen told her she was a marvellous woman, a world where Auguste Renoir reigned. He was at the time a famous and celebrated old man, and only had eyes for her," wrote Pascal Merigeau in Jean Renoir (Flammarion).
Of incomparable beauty ("unusual" beauty, according to the filmmaker himself), representative of the women of the era, modern and free ("When preparing to pose, she would sing popular songs at the top of her lungs"), Catherine Hessling appeared in five of Renoir's silent films. She sought inspiration in American stars like Gloria Swanson, Mae Murray or Mary Pickford, which gave her acting a unique tone. Years of dancing en- dowed her with an exceptionally agile body which, combined with her eye expressions, recalled early 20th century mimes.
Catherine Hessling will be honoured at the Lumière festival with a series of four films by Jean Renoir:
> Whirlpool of Fate (La Fille de l’eau,1925)
> Nana (1926)
> Charleston Parade (Sur un air de charleston, 1927)
> The Little Match Girl (La Petite marchande d’allumettes, 1928)
The full programme of the Catherine Hessling series is available here.
The serie is organized in collaboration with:
With the support of Chopard
