Roudès, Gaston

(1878-?)

   Director. Gaston Roudès was a director who made films during the silent era and at the early part of the sound era. He made his directing debut at Éclipse Studios working with Joë Hamman on the Arizona Bill series of Camargue Westerns made between 1911 and 1913. Episodes in the series include Le Pouce (1911), La Piste argentée (1911), and La Consience de Cheval-Rouge (1912). All of these have been lost. Roudès went on to make more than forty other silent films including La Rose du radjah (1913), Le Scarabée d'or (1913), La Légende d'Œdipe (1914), Papillon et le roi nègre (1914), Les Gaz (1918), La Doute (1920), La Dette (1920), La Voix de l'océan (1922), Le Lac d'argent (1922), Le Petit moineau de Paris (1923), Le Crime des hommes (1923), L'Éveil (1924), La Douleur (1925), La Maternelle (1925), Le Prince Zilah (1926), Cousine de France (1927), La Maison au soleil (1928), and L'Ame de Pierre (1928). He also directed a number of films with Marcel Dumont, including Au-délà les lois humaines (1920), Les Élus de la mer (1921), Les Petits (1925), and La Dédale (1927).

   Roudès made several films during the sound era. These include Un coup de mistral (1931), Le Carillon de la liberté (1931), Le Gamin de Paris (1932), Roger la honte (1933), L'Assomoir (1933), La Maison du mystère (1933), Flofloche (1934), Le Petit Jacques (1934), Le Chant de l'amour (1935), Enfants de Paris (1936), La Joueuse d'orgue (1936), Un coup de rouge (1937), La Tour de Nesle (1937), and Une main à frappé (1939). Most of Roudès's films, whether sound or silent, were melodramas, although he worked in other genres. His historical film La Tour de Nelse was one of his better films, as was his Roger la honte. Both films were later remade, the first by Abel Gance in 1955 and the second by André Cayatte in 1946. Many of Roudès's films feature the actress France Dhélia. Roudès stopped working in 1939 and may have died that year, although what precisely happened to him is not known. He has been largely overlooked by film historians, and many of his films are presumed lost, although several have been saved and archived by the Cinémathèque Suisse.

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