
Jacques de Baroncelli
Directing
Biography
Jacques de Baroncelli (25 June 1881 – 12 January 1951) was a French film director best known for his silent films from 1915 to the late 1930s. He came from a Florentine family who had settled in Provence in the 15th century, occupying a building in the centre of Avignon then called the Baroncelli Palace (now the Palais du Roure). His father's side of the family were of Tuscan origin and part of the Ghibelline tradition, and they were hereditary Marquises of Javon. Though somewhat aristocratic, the family spoke Provençal, which was rather controversial at a time when it was considered to be a language of the common people. His older brother was Folco de Baroncelli-Javon. He directed well over 80 films between 1915 and 1948 and, in the 1940s, released numerous films in the United States and Italy. One of his films, a version of the Pierre Louÿs novel La Femme et le pantin (1928) was filmed in the experimental Keller-Dorian colour process.
Known For

Volpone, an elderly Venetian, connives with his money-crazed servant to convince his greedy friends that he is dying, knowing that each will try to curry favor with him in order to be named his heir. He is inundated with valuable gifts, and soon finds himself entangled deeper and deeper in a web of lies.
Volpone

A Parisian museum director believes his wife is cheating on him and so places a poisoned cigarette in the box on his desk, thus allowing chance to decide the moment of his death.
The Cigarette
No description available.
Le scandale

Shot circa 1926, these two screen tests are made up of various takes for two films by Alberto Cavalcanti and Jacques de Baroncelli.
Essais d'acteurs : Ève Francis

The adaptation of a french novel from 1864 describes the idyllic life of a convinced bachelor, Fritz Kobus, in a village in Alsace. With help by the local rabbi, he does get married to young Suzel in the end.
In Old Alsace

Edwige Feuillère and Pierre Richard-Willm star in director Jacques de Baroncelli's adaptation of the Balzac novella The Duchesse de Langeais, which tells the tale of a Parisian socialite who is romantically pursued by a Napoleonic war hero. With a screenplay by Jean Giraudoux.
Wicked Duchess

The Czar charges a man to deliver a message to the Grand Duke behind enemy lines. On his way he encounters a number of adventures.
Michel Strogoff

Francois Roques, a power-and-money-mad editor of a Paris newspaper invites four women to a housewarming at his penthouse apartment. He plans on one of them to meet death by means of a loose railing on the balcony.
One Step to Eternity

During a French construction project in the Sudan, a military doctor fights against leprosy and the natives seek protection against witch doctors.
African Diary

Jérôme owns a boat with his crook of an uncle, La Rose de la Mer. They sail with a band of crooks hired by the uncle to scuttle the ship and collect the insurance premium.
The Sea Rose

Faithfully reproduced observations of Breton fisherfolk in story of the man a local woman really loves who will not at first give himself to her because of his fondness for the sea that takes him away.
Iceland Fisherman

In the 19th century, a thug from the slums of Paris pretends to be a young aristocrat, but is unmasked by a demi-mondaine, from the same background as him.
Rocambole

A commander suspects his wife of infidelity, when she turns to a subordinate officer to help her against someone threatening to blackmail her about her troubled past.
Nitchevo

The film is based on the bitter rivalry of two pigeon racers, Fred, the bell-ringer of Bruges and Neel, the fiancé of Fred's partially sighted sister. Following a major tournament, won by Neel's bird, Fred's resentment drives him to mount an attack upon his rival so ferocious that he believes he has killed him. Seized by remorse, he intends to throw himself from the belfry, but his disabled sister risks her own life to mount to the tower and try to save him.
The Midnight Chimes

Cabaret star Zazu intervenes when young lovers are sundered by their parents' feud.
The French Way

In Paris, in the middle of the 19th century, the Comte de Chamery died of poisoning, leaving a considerable fortune to his long-dead son. Sir William, the count's murderer, hires a young rogue, Rocambole, to pretend to be the deceased's son. The two accomplices have the Count's fortune handed over to them. But their trickery is discovered by an intriguer, Baccarat, who finds the real Count of Chamery, a young painter without fortune, in love with Carmen de Montevecchio. Rocambole, who stops at nothing, kills Sir William, gets rid of Armand and makes Carmen love him. But Baccarat is determined not to let him continue his villainies.
The Revenge of Baccarat

Paris, 1830. Fleur de Marie is rescued from poverty by the mysterious Rodolphe, who is in fact the Grand Duke of Gérolstein, who has gone incognito in search of an illegitimate child he once had. Which is not at all to the taste of Sarah Mac Gregor, her current mistress who kidnaps Fleur and has her locked up in Saint-Lazare prison.
Mysteries of Paris
At the time of the departure of a freighter, a man runs on the pier, begging that he be taken aboard. The captain agrees. The only passengers are the captain’s niece, Marie, accompanied by her baby boy. A radio message is received. It seems that a murderer has just escaped on a boat.
Le Passager

Denise, a young employee of the mine, is courted by the engineer Risay while she is engaged to Daniel, a simple underground worker. A betrayal has occurred that compromises the mine. An accident occurs and about fifteen workers, including Denise's fiancé, are buried under rubble in a collapsing shaft.
The Pavilion Burns

A gypsy has cast a spell on Livette, the fiancee of Renaud, the proud guardian nicknamed, King of the Camargue. Renaud wants to punish the witch who frightened Livette. But then, meeting the gypsy, he is taken under the strange spell that emanates from her. She arranges to meet him in an isolated hut in the middle of the muddy ponds. Livette, warned of her betrothed betrayal, goes to the place where she is to meet the infidel. But Renaud changed the stakes that line the only fordable passage. And Livette dies, even more from Renaud's betrayal.