Louis J. Gasnier
| Louis J. Gasnier | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Louis Joseph Gasnier September 15, 1875 Paris, France |
| Died | February 15, 1963 (aged 87) Hollywood, California, USA |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1899–1958 |
| Spouse(s) | Gertrude "Trudy" Ellison |
Louis Joseph Gasnier (September 15, 1875 – February 15, 1963) was a French-born American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. A cinema pioneer, Gasnier shepherded the early career of comedian Max Linder, co-directed the enormously successful film serial The Perils of Pauline (1914) and capped his output with the notorious low-budget exploitation film Reefer Madness (1936) which was both a critical and box office failure.
Born in Paris, Louis J. Gasnier began his career in the theatre as an actor and director. Accounts vary as to when his film career began; according to Gasnier himself, his association with Pathé Frères commenced in 1899, during the earliest days of the company. Georges Sadoul recognized Gasnier as a member of early French filmmakers known as the 'Vincennes School' which also included Gaston Velle, Georges Hatot, Lucien Nonguet, Lépine, Andre Heuré, Georges Monca and Albert Capellani. However, Pathé was notoriously stingy with credits in those days, so no credits for Gasnier are known before 1905.
Gasnier's earliest known credits begin through his association with Max Linder, whom he is said to have discovered. Gasnier helmed many of Linder's earliest films and continued to work – sometimes as co-director with Linder – on projects featuring the comic through 1913. Gasnier also directed some films in Italy for Film d'Arte Italiana, a division of Pathé, with some featuring the legendary Italian film diva Francesca Bertini. Sadoul, writing in 1965, commented that Gasnier directed "100 to 200 films from 1909-1914" alone. No established filmography for Gasnier comes even close to such a figure in the stated period, suggesting that there are many French, and perhaps some Italian, films made by him which remain unidentified.
Pathé Frères established a film production company in the United States in 1911, and in 1913 Gasnier agreed to go to the United States to head their facility in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The worldwide success of Gasnier's serial The Perils of Pauline, co-directed with Donald MacKenzie and starring Pearl White, elevated Gasnier to the position of executive vice-president within the American division of Pathé. Gasnier resigned this position in 1916 and established a production company, Astra Film, with writer-director George B. Seitz, which nevertheless continued to distribute through Pathé. In 1919, Astra Film dropped Pathé as distributor and went with Robertson-Cole, the predecessor to Film Booking Offices of America. With Seitz' departure, Astra became Louis J. Gasnier Productions, but only a few films were made by this firm before Gasnier was contracted by producer B. P. Schulberg to direct for his Preferred Pictures firm. These years were the highpoint of Gasnier's career; these films were often marketed with his name above the title and some times as a one-word name – "Gasnier". With the public, Gasnier was associated with high adventure in exotic locales, such as what was endemic to serials, or with social melodrama of the kind that was popular in the early 1920s.
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