Kemm, Jean

(1874-1939)

   Actor, director, and screenwriter. Born Jules Félix Adolphe Bécheret, Jean Kemm began his screen career as an actor at Pathé in 1909. Because of his age at the time he began working in cinema, it is likely that Kemm had previously worked in the theater, although this is uncertain. However, he had a successful screen-acting career, during which he appeared in more than thirty films in a period of less than ten years. He starred in some of the classic silent films by many of the great directors of the day, including Georges Denola's Chercheurs d'or (1909), Le Remords du juge (1911), La Gouvernante (1911), Le Chef d'œuvre (1911), Pauvre père (1912), La Porteuse de pain (1912), En famille (1915), and Le Mot de l'énigme (1916), Albert Capellani's Le Signalement (1910) and Les Mystères de Paris (1911), Michel Carré's L'Homme de peine (1911), Georges Monca's Le Petit chose (1912) and his classic La Fille des chiffoniers (1912), Alexandre Devarennes's La Fille du garde-chasse (1912), René Leprince's Le Dédale (1912), Camille de Morlhon's Une brute humaine (1913), L'Infamie de l'autre (1913), Vingt ans de haine (1914), and La Vieillesse du père Moreux (1914).

   In 1916, Kemm also began directing as well as acting in films. His first films included Madeleine (1916), Les Deux marquises (1916), a remake of Le Dédale (1917), and L'Obstacle (1918), and he also acted in the last of the three. However, after 1918, Kemm devoted himself to directing entirely and did not appear in another film. He made nearly thirty films between 1917 and his death in 1939, and is considered one of the major innovators of the cinéroman, or serial drama. Kemm's films include La Comtesse de Somerive (1917), André Cornélis (1918), which he codirected with Denola, Le Destin est maître (1919), Micheline (1921), L'Enigme (1921), L'Absolution (1922), Hantise (1922), La Ferme du Choquart (1922), Vidocq (1922), L'Enfant Roi (1923), and Le Bossu ou le petit Parisien (1925). Kemm was the first director to bring the literary action hero Le Bossu to the screen and was a master of literary adaptation in general, a number of his films being adaptations of literary texts.

   Kemm directed not only silent films, but a number of sound films as well. Among these are Atlantis (1930), Le Juif polonais (1931), which stars Harry Baur, Amour et discipline (1933), Le Coffret de lacque (1932), which stars Danielle Darrieux, L'Héritier du bal Tabarin (1933), which stars Duvallès, Le Barbier de Seville (1936), codirected with Hubert Boulon, La Pocharde (1936), codirected with Jean-Louis Bouquet, and Liberté (1937). In addition to acting and directing, Kemm also worked on the screenplays to both L 'Absolution (1922) and Le Bossu (1925).

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins