British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

Kean, Ou, Désordre et Génie

Alternative title
Edmund Kean, Prince Among Lovers
Synopsis
Feature film about Edmund Kean adapted from the play Kean by Alexandre Dumas père. The film makes reference to Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Othello and adds the death scene from Romeo and Juliet.
Country
France
Medium
Film
Technical information
Black-and-white / Silent
Year of release
1922
Duration
c100; 9000 feet

Credits

Director
Alexander Volkoff
Screenplay
Alexander Volkoff; Ivan Mosjoukine; Kenelm Foss
Cast
Pauline PoJuliet
Ivan MosjoukineKean
Nathalie LissenkoElena Koeffeld

Additional Details

Production type
Fiction Films
Plays
Hamlet; Othello; Romeo and Juliet
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
Kean, Edmund (1787-1833)

Notes

Notes
Ball and the UCLA Film Archive give the release date as 1922, other sources cite 1924. Ball notes that at the time of writing Shakespeare on Silent Film there was a print in the Jugoslovenska Kinoteca, Beograd.

Available on DVD (Region 1) in 2013 as part of FRENCH MASTERWORKS: RUSSIAN EMIGRES IN PARIS 1923-1928.
General
Mosjoukine’s death scene (over 15 minutes) is said to one of the longest in cinematic history.

The play was popular with the studios - versions were made in Denmark in 1910 with Martinius Nielsen, a Brunestelli version from Italy in 1917 and in 1922 a German production directed by Rudolf Biebrachs.
Reviews
Ball, Robert Hamilton. Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968 (pp268-9, 373).

Production Company

Name

Albatros

Archive

Name

UCLA Film & Television Archive

Email
arsc@ucla.edu
Web
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/access/databases.html External site opens in new window
Phone
(310) 206 5388
Fax
(310) 206 5392
Address
Individual Access
Archive Study and Research Center
46 Powell Library
302 East Melnitz
Los Angeles
CA90095-1323
USA

Online Retailer

Name

amazon.com

Web
http://www.amazon.com External site opens in new window

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