Profile of Musidora on Famous Like Me

Musidora (February 23, 1889 - December 11, 1957) was the professional stage-name of the extremely popular French silent film actress of the early twentieth century. She is most remembered for her vamp persona in the role of Irma Vep in the early motion picture crime serials Les Vampires. She was also a successful author, screenwriter and film director.

Born Jeanne Roques in Paris, France and raised by a feminist mother, Musidora began her career in the arts at an early age; writing her first novel at the age of fifteen. During the very early years of French cinema Musidora began a professional collaboration with the highly successful avant-garde French film director Louis Feuillade.

Adopting the moniker of Musidora (Greek for "gift of the muses") and affecting a unique vamp persona that would later be popularized in the United States of America by actress Theda Bara, Musidora soon found a foothold in the nascent medium of moving pictures. With her heavily kohled dark eyes, somewhat sinister make-up, pale skin and exotic wardrobes, Musidora quickly became a highly popular and instantly recognizable presence of European cinema.

Beginning in 1915, Musidora began appearing in the hugely successful Feuillade directed serials Les Vampires as Irma Vep (an anangram of "vampire") opposite French actor Edouard Mathé. Contrary to the title, the Les Vampires serials were not actually about vampires, but about a criminal gang of underworld figures. Vep is hypnotized after performing in a cabaret act in a criminal haunt called The Howling Cat by an enigmatic figure with the intention of turning her into a criminal assassin. The somewhat surreal series was an immediate success with French cinema-goers and ran in installments until 1916. After the Les Vampires serial, Musidora starred as Diana in another popular Feuillade serial, Judex, filmed in 1914 but delayed for release until 1917 because of the outbreak of WW1. The Les Vampires and Judex serials have been lauded by critics as the birth of avant-garde cinema and cited by such renowned filmmakers as Fritz Lang and Luis Buñuel as being extremely influential in their desire to become directors.

As well as acting, Musidora became a highly respected film producer and director under the tutelage of her mentor, Louis Feuillade. Between the late 1910s and early 1920s, she directed ten moderately successful films, all of which are lost with the exception of two; 1922's Soleil et Ombre, and 1924's La Terre des Taureaux. At a time when many women in the film industry were relegated to acting, Musidora achieved a great deal of critical success for her achievements as a producer and director.

Musidora married Dr. Clement Marot on April 20, 1927. The union lasted fifteen years and produced one child, Clement Marot Jr. The couple divorced in 1944. After her career as an actress faded, she focused on writing and producing. Her last film was an homage to her mentor Feuillade entitled La Magique Image in 1950, which she both directed and starred in. Musidora died in Paris, France in 1957 and was laid to rest in the Cimetiere de Montmartre.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Musidora