Mary Pickford, grace and mischief
When: 02.09.2026 00:00
Where: 48.856578, 2.351828
Organizer: Admin
Born in 1892 in Toronto, Mary Pickford was a pioneer of cinema, a talented actress, a bold producer and a shrewd businesswoman. Nicknamed at her debut “the girl with the golden curls” before the public even knew her name, she quickly became “America’s little fiancee”, a figure of notoriety equivalent to Chaplin’s, a reference for crowds of admirers and imitators worldwide.
Coming from a poor family of theater actors and orphaned of her father at an early age, she began on the stage at seven years old before being discovered in 1909 in New York by D.W. Griffith. Until 1912, she shot with him about fifty short films (A Beast at Bay, The School Teacher and the Waif, The New York Hat). In Hollywood, a contract signed with the Famous Players Film Company of Adolph Zukor allowed her to refine her subtle and natural acting. She demonstrated it especially with James Kirkwood in Behind the Scenes (1914), The Dawn of a Tomorrow or Fanchon the Cricket.
A skilled negotiator, she obtained, starting in 1916, control of the production of the films in which she appeared and a constantly increasing salary, before becoming her own producer by creating her company, the Mary Pickford Film Corporation. She chose the best directors to lead it, beginning with Maurice Tourneur in The Pride of the Clan (1917) and Poor Little Rich Girl. In 1917, she filmed with Cecil B. De Mille the spectacular western A Romance of the Redwoods and The Little American, which took her to the war front in Europe. In 1918, Marshall Neilan directed her in the dual role of Stella Maris.
Collaborations continued with privileged personalities. Screenwriter Frances Marion, author of several excellent scripts (The Poor Little Rich Girl, Johanna Enlists) made her first film with the actress, The Love Light in 1921. Pickford boasts of having encouraged Ernst Lubitsch’s arrival in Hollywood. He shot his first American film, Rosita, in which the actress plays the role of a street singer. She then again took on teenage roles, according to the public’s desires and despite being in her early thirties (Little Annie Rooney, Sparrows). The arrival of sound marks the decline of her career, despite a few remarkable roles.
Mary Pickford marked the history of American cinema with her discernment, charm and vitality. About fifty of her films (out of more than two hundred…) are presented during this series, most in restored copies from American and European archive collections, and with the support of the Mary Pickford Foundation.
The screenings are accompanied by pianists from Jean-François Zygel’s improvisation class (CNSMDP).
Source: https://www.paris.fr/evenements/mary-pickford-la-grace-et-la-malice-116712
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