Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset
| Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 30, 1862 Fumay, Ardennes, France |
| Died | June 22, 1913 (aged 51) Paris, France |
| Occupation | silent film director, film writer |
| Spouse(s) | Victorine-Caroline-Adolphine Diey |
Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset (30 March 1862 - 22 June 1913) was an early film pioneer in France, active between the years 1905 and 1913. He worked on many genres of film, but was particularly associated with the development of detective or crime serials, such as the Nick Carter and Zigomar series.
Victorin Jasset was born in Fumay in the Ardennes region of France in 1862, and after studying painting and sculpture with Dalou, he began a career designing theatre costumes and as a decorator of fans. He then became known as the producer and designer of spectacular ballets and pantomimes, notably Vercingétorix in 1900 at the newly built Théâtre de l'Hippodrome in Paris. In 1905 he was hired by Gaumont to work with Alice Guy on film productions (such as La Esméralda (1905), based on Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris, and La Vie du Christ (1906)), working firstly as a designer and then as assistant director.
After a short period working for the Éclipse film company, Jasset was engaged in 1908 by the new Éclair production company to make film series beginning with Nick Carter, le roi des détectives. The detective hero Nick Carter was based on the series of popular American novels which were then being published in France by the German publisher Eichler. Jasset kept the name of the character but invented new adventures with a Parisian setting. The first six sections that Jasset directed were released at bi-weekly intervals in late 1908, and each one narrated a complete story.
Following another short period working for the small Raleigh & Robert company, Jasset returned to Éclair and travelled to North Africa to produce a series of fiction films and documentaries in Tunisia, taking advantage of its natural light and spectacular locations such as the ruins of Carthage. In the summer of 1910 he returned to Paris to become the "artistic director" of the Éclair studio, having oversight of all the company's production as well as his own film-making unit. In 1911 he made Zigomar, taking his title character from the popular newspaper and magazine stories of Léon Sazie about a master-criminal. This feature-length film was so successful that a second title, Zigomar contre Nick Carter (1912), was made ready within six months, and a third instalment followed in 1913, Zigomar peau d'anguille. Jasset adapted other popular novels such as Gaston Leroux's Balaoo in 1913, and in the same year Protéa, a spy story in which for the first time the title character was a woman, played by a long-time favourite actress of Jasset, Josette Andriot. The Protéa series continued after Jasset's death.
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