Édith Jéhanne

Édith Jéhanne
Édith Jéhanne as Odette de Lavardens, in an advertisement for Rouletabille chez les Bohémiens, from Le Matin, 15 September 1922
Born
Édithe Jeanne Cosson

(1899-02-09)9 February 1899
Châteauroux, France
Died14 June 1949(1949-06-14) (aged 50)
Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, France
OccupationActress
Years active1922–1930

Édith Jéhanne (born Édithe Jeanne Cosson, 9 February 1899 – 14 June 1949)[a] was a French film actress of the silent and early sound era.[2]

Biography

Édithe Jeanne Cosson was born in 1899 in Châteauroux, Indre,[b] to Jean Baptiste Léonce Louis Cosson, a locksmith, and Thérèze Tartière, a seamstress.[3] The family had seven children[4] including the future painter Hélier Cosson (1897–1976),[c] and Elodie Cosson (1901–1954), who was the future daughter-in-law of the poet Paul Valéry[5] and an actress under the name Sylvia Grey.[d]

Édith Jéhanne discovered cinema as a teenager.[6] It was while visiting her sister on the set of The Secret of Rosette Lambert in 1920 that she was reportedly discovered by the film's director, Raymond Bernard.[7] She began her film career immediately,[8] appearing in Raymond Bernard's Triplepatte (1922) and Henri Fescourt's Rouletabille chez les Bohémiens. She chose her two first names, spelled differently, as her stage name.

Throughout her career, ambiguity surrounded her personality. Biographical information about her is scarce, and often—probably intentionally—inaccurate. For example, it is sometimes stated that she was born in 1902.[9] A 1926 article in Cinéa[10] mentions the origin of her stage name but states that she was born in Berry, near Nohant-Vic. Other sources mention, without further details, that she was the younger sister of actress Sylvia Grey.[11] In 1923, the two sisters appeared on the cover of the magazine Mon Ciné.[12]

In 1927, she made what were arguably her most important films, Raymond Bernard's The Chess Player and Georg Wilhelm Pabst's The Love of Jeanne Ney.

In December 1927, she married Henri Jules Louis Bouyer, director of a dental school.[13] She played her last roles shortly afterwards, in 1929.[e]

In his memoirs, Raymond Bernard believed he remembered that Édith Jéhanne had died shortly after the advent of talking pictures.[14] In fact, she died in 1949, in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer.[3]

Critical assessment

Reviews of Jéhanne were often laudatory, presenting her as a promising artist.[15][16]

She played the titular character and lead in The Love of Jeanne Ney, for which a contemporary critic commented

Her greatest attribute is a deep sensitiveness, a living the part she plays ... she goes through the film like an arrow, unblurred and definite and admirable. Her power is in her eyes which give the dual impression of defencelessness and courage.[17]

However, some modern critics have felt her performance in the film was overshadowed by that of Brigitte Helm, who had appeared in Metropolis earlier that year.[18]

Christine Leteux wrote of her performance in Tarakanova (1930):

She's a fresh-faced young actress with no theatrical experience, whereas producers tend to favour stage actresses like Huguette Duflos or Suzanne Bianchetti, who are often no longer quite the right age for their roles. Jéhanne has an expressive face and luminous eyes. She's closer to American actresses than to French screen stars. Her charm still works its magic on contemporary audiences.[14]

Filmography

Bibliography

  • MacPherson, Kenneth (December 1927). "Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney and its Making: An UFA film by Pabst". Close Up. Vol. 1, no. 6.
  • Powrie, Phil; Rebillard, Éric (2009). Pierre Batcheff and stardom in 1920s French cinema. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0748621972.
  • Marcus, Laura (2010). The Tenth Muse: Writing about Cinema in the Modernist Periodbooks.google.de. Oxford University Press. p. 337. ISBN 9780191615412.
  • Wlaschin, Ken (2009). Silent Mystery and Detective Movies: A Comprehensive Filmography. McFarland. p. 195. ISBN 9780786454297.
  • Klepper, Robert K. (2015). Silent Films, 1877-1996: A Critical Guide to 646 Movies. McFarland. p. 419. ISBN 9781476604848.
  • van Schlun, Betsy (2016). The Pool Group and the Quest for Anthropological Universality: The Humane Images of Modernism. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110439212.

Notes

  1. ↑ Jéhanne's birth and death dates vary according to the sources.[1] While André Siscot's Les gens de cinema lists 1899 and 1949, respectively,[2] other sources gave 1902 as her year of birth. Jéhanne's regular director Raymond Bernard claimed that she died soon after finishing her last film in 1930.[1]
  2. ↑ The IMDb website indicates that she was born in 1899 in Châtelet, Cher, under her mother's name – Louise Beurdin. However, Édith Jeanne Beurdin, who was a seamstress, died in Paris in 1926 (sources: Archives de Cher, Archives de Paris). This completely erroneous information is nevertheless regularly repeated.
  3. ↑ Héliard Cosson, born in 1897. Source: Archives de l'Indre, civil registry of Châteauroux.
  4. ↑ Elodie Cosson appears to have acted (as Sylvia Grey) in only three films – The Secret of Rosette Lambert (1920), The House in the Forest (1922) and How I Killed My Child (1925). She should not be confused with the English actress of the same name (1866–1958), famous during the Victorian era.
  5. ↑ Her last two films, released in 1930, were shot in 1929.

References

  1. 1 2 Kemp, Philip (2021). "Europe in full disintegration": Pabst and Jeanne Ney (booklet) (Blu-ray). Eureka! Masters of Cinema.
  2. 1 2 Siscot, André (1999). Les gens de cinema [Cinema's People] (in French). Brussels: Éditions Memor. ISBN 978-2930133317.
  3. 1 2 Birth certificate no. 49, 10 February 1899, Châteauroux, Archives de l'Indre.
  4. ↑ Wallerand, Marc (2020). Madeleine Valéry : Belle-fille de Paul Valéry [Madeleine Valéry: Paul Valéry's stepdaughter] (in French). Valence: Éditions & Régions. p. 54. ISBN 9782953021578.
  5. ↑ Bertholet, Denis (1995). Paul Valéry. Plon "edition=FeniXX digital reissue. ISBN 9782259236300.
  6. ↑ "Ce que disent de Triplepatte : sa fiancée" [What Triplepatte's fiancée says about him]. Comœdia (in French). 22 September 1922. p. 3. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  7. ↑ Bonnefille, Eric (2010). Raymond Bernard: Fresques et miniatures [Raymond Bernard: Frescoes and Miniatures] (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. p. 46. ISBN 978-2296115019.
  8. ↑ Henry, Pierre (15 July 1924). "Beautés photogéniques" [Photogenic beauties]. Cinéa - Ciné pour tous (in French). p. 17. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  9. ↑ "Quel âge ont-ils ?" [How old are they?]. Le Pêle-mêle : journal humoristique hebdomadaire (in French). No. 258. 27 January 1929. p. 13. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  10. ↑ "Vedettes de demain" [Stars of tomorrow]. Cinéa - Ciné pour tous (in French). 2 September 1926. p. 25. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  11. ↑ Le Camériste (1 December 1926). "Entre nous" [Between ourselves]. Cinéa - Ciné pour tous (in French). p. 33. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  12. ↑ "Édith Jéhanne et Sylvia Grey". Mon Ciné (in French). No. 82. 13 September 1923.
  13. ↑ Acte de mariage no. 1391 of 15 December 1927, Paris 5th arrondissement, Archives de Paris, 5M 279 (vue 2)
  14. 1 2 Leteux, Christine (8 November 2012). "Tarakanova de Raymond Bernard (1930) - Analyse et critique du film" [Raymond Bernard's "Tarakanova" (1930) - Film Analysis and Review]. DVDClassik (in French). Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  15. ↑ Raymond-Millet, J. K. (29 July 1927). "Les figures de l'écran. Raymond Bernard" [The figures on the screen. Raymond Bernard]. Le Rappel (in French). p. 3. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  16. ↑ Eric, Fred (19 January 1927). "Le Joueur d'échecs" [The Chess Player]. Le Peuple (in French). p. 3. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  17. ↑ Macpherson, Kenneth, ed. (December 1927). "The Love of Jeanne Ney". Close Up. 1 (6). Retrieved 21 April 2026.
  18. ↑ Morgan, Sarah. "The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927) – Film Review". On: Yorkshire Magazine. On: Media. Retrieved 21 April 2026.
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