Saturday, June 17, 2017

Born Today June 17: Adolphe d'Ennery


1811-1899

French playwright Adolphe Phillippe d'Ennery (sometimes spelled Dennery) was born on this day in Paris.  Though writing before finding success, his first successful drama was published in 1831 and was actually co-penned with another author: Charles Desnoyer.  It would be the first of several successful co-authorships for him (more than a 100 actually).  He was also a novelist (oddly many of his novels were adaptations of his own plays), but it is his plays that he is remembered for today.  The first time his work was used for the basis of a film scenario came in 1902 with the UK produced short A Duel With Knives, ironically based on one of his novels (the film is that not to have survived).  The first time one of his plays was used for film material came just 2 years later with The Voyage Across The Impossible (1904), a film made by none other than Melies.  Probably the most famous silent film to use his writing for a script was D.W. Griffith's own personal adaptation of one d'Ennery's co-authored novels in Orphans Of The Storm (1921), a 2 1/3 hour long epic starring the Gish sisters.  The first sound film to be produced from his work came in 1932 with It Happened In Paris.  One of his plays was first adapted for a television movie in 1957 in the Soviet Union in Don Sezar de Bazan.  The most recent use came in 2011, again made for television; this time a stage performance of an opera that he and Louis Gallet wrote the libretto for.  Le Cid was a French production.  He died in the city of his birth of the 25th of January 1899 at the age of 87.  He is buried in Pére Lachaise.


For More:


No comments:

Post a Comment