Diamant-Berger, Henri

(1895-1972)

   Director, producer, and screenwriter. Henri Diamant-Berger began his career as a journalist and film critic, ultimately becoming the editor of the journal Le Film. He began dabbling in screenwriting just prior to the war, and several of his film adaptations were made into Pathé silent films, no doubt in part because of Diamant-Berger's connections to André Heuzé, who had founded Le Film. Silent films based on Diamant-Berger's adaptations include Heuzé and Léonce Perret's Debout les morts (1916) and Raymond Bernard's Le Petit café (1919), starring Max Linder.

   Diamant-Berger soon added directing to his repertoire. He directed for Pathé a twelve-episode serial adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's Les Trois mousquetaires (1921). The film was exceptionally well done, enormously popular, and is still regarded as one of the classics of silent film.

   In 1922, Diamant-Berger left Pathé to found his own production company, Le Studio de Billancourt, buying an old aviation works that had been converted into a film studio. The studio was one of the first independent studios, outside of Pathé and Gaumont, and it was the first studio that was not made of open-glass. He began producing his own films there in the same year, continuing the Musketeers saga with a sequel series, Les Trois mousquetaires: vingt ans après (1922-1923). The series was an enormous success, which was a great triumph for Diamant-Berger. He went on to make yet another sequel, Milady (1923), and in the same year produced and directed Gonzague (1923), L'Affaire de la rue Lourcine (1923), Le Mauvais garçon (1923), and Par habitude (1923), all of which featured Maurice Chevalier.

   Diamant-Berger continued directing films in the sound era. He made some twenty or so sound films including Les Trois mousquetaires: Milady (1932), Les Trois mousquetaires: les ferrets de la reine (1932), Miquette et sa mère (1933), Arsène Lupin détective (1937), Arsène Lupin contre Arsène Lupin (1937), La Maternelle (1948), Monsieur Fabre (1951), Mon curé chez les riches (1952), and Messieurs les ronds de cuir (1959). Diamant-Berger was largely a popular director. Outside of Les Trois mousquetaires (1921), and possibly Arsène Lupin detective (1937), none of his films was particularly critically acclaimed. However, many of his films, particularly Miquette et sa mère (1933), have achieved a particular status in French-film history, and certainly memory.

   In addition to producing his own films, Diamant-Berger also produced the films of a number of other directors. He produced René Clair's Paris qui dort (1925) at Billancourt, as well as Abel Gance's spectacular Napoléon (1927). The film had to be cut from ten episodes to only one because of the enormous costs involved. He also produced Karl Théodor Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne d'arc (1929), although he sold Billancourt shortly thereafter to Pierre Braunberger and Roger Richebé.

   In later years, Diamant-Berger produced several of Robert Dhéry's films, including Branquignol (1949) and La Belle Américaine (1961). He also produced Robert Lamoureux's Ravissante (1960) and Jean-Pierre Mocky's Un drôle de paroissien (1963) and Les Compagnons de la marguerite (1967).