
Marcel L'Herbier
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- April 23, 1888
- Died
- November 26, 1979
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
Marcel L'Herbier (1888-1979) was a French filmmaker who achieved prominence as an avant-garde theorist and imaginative practitioner with a series of silent films in the 1920s. His career as a director continued until the 1950s and he made more than 40 feature films in total. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked on cultural programmes for French television. He also fulfilled many administrative roles in the French film industry, and he was the founder and the first President of the French film school Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC). In 1921, only three years after his first film, Marcel L'Herbier was voted by readers of a French film magazine as the best French director. In the following year, the critic Léon Moussinac marked him as one of the filmmakers whose work was most important for the future of cinema. In this period, L'Herbier was linked with filmmakers such as Abel Gance, Germaine Dulac and Louis Delluc as part of a "first avant-garde" (Impressionism) in French cinema, the first generation to think spontaneously in animated images.
Filmography

Cavalcanti 2026
as Self (archive footage)

La Féerie des fantasmes 1975
Director

What the East Wind Saw 1954
Director

The Father of the Girl 1953
Director, Screenplay

The Last Days of Pompeii 1950
Dialogue, Screenplay, Director

Stolen Affections 1948
Screenplay, Director

Queen's Necklace 1946
Director

Happy Go Lucky 1946
Director

The Bohemian Life 1945
Director

The Honorable Catherine 1943
Director

Fantastic Night 1942
Director, Adaptation

Foolish Husbands 1941
Director, Writer

Comedy of Happiness 1940
Writer, Director

La Mode rêvée 1940
Director, Screenplay

Savage Brigade 1939
Writer, Director

Cordial Agreement 1939
Director

Land of Fire 1939
Director

Adrienne Lecouvreur 1938
Director, Writer

Rasputin 1938
Director, Screenplay

Forfaiture 1937
Director

The Citadel of Silence 1937
Director
- Nights of Fire
Nights of Fire 1937
Director, Screenplay

The Great Temptation 1936
Director, Writer
- Children's Corner
Children's Corner 1936
Director

The New Men 1936
Director, Screenplay

The Imperial Road 1935
Scenario Writer, Director

Sacrifice of Honor 1935
Director, Screenplay

The Adventurer 1934
Director

Le Bonheur 1934
Writer, Director

The Scandal 1934
Screenplay, Director

The Hawk 1933
Writer, Director

Scent of the Woman in Black 1931
Director, Screenplay

Zuiderzeewerken 1930
Producer

The Mystery of the Yellow Room 1930
Director, Scenario Writer

La Femme d'une nuit 1930
Director, Scenario Writer

Illegitimate Child 1930
Director

Princely Nights 1929
Director, Screenplay

Autour de l'argent 1929
as Himself

L'Argent 1928
Director, Writer

Little Devil May Care 1928
Director, Screenplay

Le Vertige 1926
Director, Writer

The Late Mathias Pascal 1925
Director, Writer

The Inhuman Woman 1924
Scenario Writer, Director

The Gallery of Monsters 1924
Producer, Art Direction

The Flood 1924
Producer, Art Direction

News Item 1923
Producer, Art Direction

Le marchand de plaisirs 1923
Art Direction, Producer
- Résurrection
Résurrection 1923
Writer, Director

Don Juan et Faust 1922
Director, Screenplay

El Dorado 1921
Director, Writer

Prometheus, Banker 1921
Writer, Director
- Villa Destin
Villa Destin 1921
Director, Scenario Writer

The Man of the Sea 1920
Director, Writer, Editor

Le Carnaval des vérités 1920
Director, Writer

Le Bercail 1919
Director

Rose-France 1919
Director, Writer

Infatuation 1918
Actor, Scenario Writer, Writer

The Blindness of Youth 1917
Screenplay
Credits from TMDB.