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East German starfoto by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 26/78. Photo: Linke.

Handsome and athletic Daniel Olbrychski (1945) is a Polish actor best known for his leading roles in several Andrzej Wajda films. He also worked with Volker Schlöndorff, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Claude Lelouch and recently played Russian defector and spymaster Vassily Orlov opposite Angelina Jolie in the Hollywood blockbuster Salt (2011).

Daniel Marcel Olbrychski was born in Łowicz, Poland, in 1945 as the son of Franciszka Olbrychski and Klementyny Sołonowicz-Olbrychski. He attended the Gimnazjum i Liceum im. Stefana Batorego in Warsaw. In the years 1963 and 1964, he performed at the Teatr Młodzieżowy TVP (Youth Theatre) under the direction of Andrzeja Konica. He started to attend the Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Teatralna (Academy of Dramatic Arts in Warsaw), but never finished his studies. In 1964, his film career started at the age of 18 with the war film Ranny w lesie/Wounded in the Forest (Janusz Nasfeter, 1964). A year later, he worked for the first time with director Andrzej Wajda at the Western-style war epic Popioły/The Ashes (Andrzej Wajda, 1965), which was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. He also appeared in Wajda’s Wszystko na sprzedaż/Everything for Sale (Andrzej Wajda, 1969) with Beata Tyszkiewicz, and the comedy Polowanie na muchy/Hunting Flies (Andrzej Wajda, 1969). He then had the lead in the drama Życie rodzinne/Family Life (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1971). He also starred in the drama Krajobraz po bitwie/Landscape After the Battle (Andrzej Wajda, 1970), the story of a Nazi German concentration camp survivor soon after liberation, residing in a DP camp somewhere in Germany. The film is based on the writings of Holocaust survivor and Polish author Tadeusz Borowski. Olbrychski also starred in the drama Brzezina/The Birch Wood (Andrzej Wajda, 1970), based on a novel by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. It was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival, where Andrzej Wajda won the Golden Prize for Direction and Daniel Olbrychski won the award for Best Actor. They also worked together on the German drama Pilatus und andere - Ein Film für Karfreitag/Pilate and Others (Andrzej Wajda, 1972), based on the 1967 novel The Master and Margarita by the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov. Then followed Wesele/The Wedding (Andrzej Wajda, 1972), an adaptation of a play by Stanisław Wyspiański which Wajda also directed for the theatre. Wesele describes the perils of the national drive toward self-determination after the Polish uprisings of November 1830 and January 1863, the result of the Partitions of Poland. Ziemia Obiecana/The Promised Land (Andrzej Wajda, 1975) is a drama based on a novel by Władysław Reymont. Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th-century capitalism. Very popular was the Polish-Soviet historical drama Potop/The Deluge (Jerzy Hoffman, 1974), based on the 1886 novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 47th Academy Awards, but lost to Amarcord (Federico Fellini, 1973). The film is the third most popular in the history of Polish cinema, with some 28 million tickets sold in Poland and 30.5 million in the Soviet Union. Olbrychski also starred in Panny z Wilka/The Maids of Wilko (Andrzej Wajda, 1979), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Daniel Olbruchski then played one of the leads in Volker Schlöndorff's masterpiece Die Blechtrommel/The Tin Drum (1979) based on Günter Grass's novel. The Tin Drum was one of the most financially successful German films of the 1970s. It won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was jointly awarded the 1979 Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, along with Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979).

IMDb describes Daniel Olbrychski as a ‘hot-tempered patriot’, who would enjoy horseback riding on town centre squares. Another amusing anecdote is that once a picture of Olbrychski as an SS-man was displayed in a contemporary art exhibition. As soon as he knew this, he went armed with a sabre and with a TV news crew to the exhibition room, where he cut down his portrait, ending its existence. In the 1980s, he gradually switched from leads to supporting roles. He appeared in the popular French musical epic Les Uns et les Autres/Bolero: Dance of Life (Claude Lelouch, 1981). Other West-European films include La Truite/The Trout (Joseph Losey, 1982), starring Isabelle Huppert, Eine Liebe in Deutschland/A Love in Germany (Andrzej Wajda, 1983) with Hanna Schygulla, and Die Geduld der Rosa Luxemburg/Rosa Luxemburg (Margarethe von Trotta, 1986) featuring Barbara Sukowa. Rosa Luxemburg received the German Film Award (Bundesfilmpreis) as best feature film. In 1986, Olbrychski received the French L'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honour). In Italy, he made the drama Mosca addio/Farewell Moscow (Mauro Bolognini, 1987) based on the life of Russian Jew Ida Nudel. For this film, Liv Ullmann was awarded a David di Donatello for Best Actress. He then had his American debut in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman, 1988), the successful film adaptation of the novel by Milan Kundera starring Daniel Day-Lewis. He also appeared in the third of the ten episodes in Krzysztof Kieślowski's classic Polish TV series Dekalog/The Decalogue (1988). His films during the 1990s were less prominent. He had a part in the Polish historical drama Ogniem i Mieczem/With Fire and Sword (Jerzy Hoffman, 1999), based on a novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz and starring ‘Bond girl’ Izabella Scorupco. At the time of its filming, it was the most expensive Polish film ever made. Olbrychski and Wajda reunited for Pan Tadeusz/Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania (Andrzej Wajda, 1999), based on the epic poem by Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz, and for the comedy Zemsta/The Revenge (Andrzej Wajda, 2002), an adaptation of a popular stage farce of Aleksander Fredro with director Roman Polanski in the lead role. In 2007, Olbrychski received the Stanislavsky Award at the 29th Moscow International Film Festival for his outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky's school. His part was remarkable as the sinister Russian defector who accused Angelina Jolie of being a Russian spy in the American action thriller Salt (Philip Noyce, 2010). Since then he appeared in the German film Wintertochter (Johannes Schmid, 2011), the Polish historical film Bitwa warszawska 1920/Battle of Warsaw 1920 (Jerzy Hoffman, 2011) and in the Russian production Legenda No. 17/ Legend No. 17 (Nikolay Lebedev, 2013), a biopic of Russian ice hockey legend Valeri Kharlamov (played by Danila Kozlovsky). Daniel Olbrychski married three times. His first wife was Monika Dzienisiewicz-Olbrychska (1967-1977), with whom he has a son, actor Rafał Olbrychski (1971). His second wife was Zuzanna Lapicka (1978-1988), with whom he has a daughter, Weronika (1982). Since 2003, he has been married to Krystyna Demska. He is also the father of Viktor Sukowa, who was born into a relationship with German actress Barbara Sukowa. In the mid-1970s, he had a 3-year relationship with singer Maryla Rodowicz.

Sources: Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Film Polski (Polish), Wikipedia (English and Polish) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vintage East-German postcard. VEB Progress, Starfoto, No. EVP M 20. Daniel Olbrychski in Pan Wołodyjowski (Jerzy Hoffman 1969), based on the eponymous novel by Henrik Sienkiewicz. The story is set during the Ottoman Empire's invasion of Poland in 1668–1672. Olbrychski played Azja Tuhajbejowicz, the rival and antagonist of the leading character, Michał Wołodyjowski, played by Tadeusz Łomnicki . The film was in competition at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival, where Lomnicki won the Prize for Best Actor.

Handsome and athletic Daniel Olbrychski (1945) is a Polish actor best known for his leading roles in several Andrzej Wajda films. He also worked with Volker Schlöndorff, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Claude Lelouch and more recently played Russian defector and spymaster Vassily Orlov opposite Angelina Jolie in the Hollywood blockbuster Salt (2011).

Vintage East-German postcard. VEB Progress, Starfoto 2193. Photo by Balinski. NB Majdaniec's name is misspelled on this card.

Helena Majdaniec (5 October 1941 – 18 January 2002) was a Polish big beat singer and film actor, "the queen of Polish Twist". Helena Majdaniec cooperated with Niebiesko-Czarni, Czerwono-Czarni, Karin Stanek, Olivia Newton-John, Cliff Richard and Demis Roussos. She performed mainly in Szczecin and Paris.

Born officially in the village of Mylsk in Polish territory occupied by Nazi Germany (now in Ukraine), Helena Majdaniec grew up in Szczecin, where she completed her schooling with music lessons at a local conservatoire. She made her public debut in 1962 in Szczecin in student clubs. In 1962 she performed at the Sopot Festival and in 1963 at the Opole Festival. In 1963 she recorded her first album. In the 1960s, she sang at the Olympia in Paris and toured Poland, as well as Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Sweden. She worked with groups such as Radiowy Zespół M-2, the Czerwono-Czarni (1962) and the Niebiesko-Czarni (1964), Ricercar 64, Studio Rytm and composers Piotr Figl and Bogusław Klimczuk. Majdaniec' main hits of the 1960s in Poland were: Rudy rydz/ Jutro będzie dobry dzień/ Czarny Alibaba/ Happy End/ Zakochani są wśród nas/ Wesoły twist.

Helena Majdaniec has also acted in a few films, notably by Janusz Nasfeter (Zbrodniarz i panna/ The Murderer and the Girl, 1953), in which she sang Happy End, and Kazimierz Kutz (Ktokolwiek wie.../ Whoever May Know, 1966). In Germany she performed as herself in The Beat-Club (1966) and the Rudi Carrell Show (1965) and acted in the TV movie Titel hab' ich noch nicht (1964) by Ulrich Thein. In 1968, Majdaniec moved to France to live in Paris, where she found engagements in the cabarets "Rasputin", "Shéhérazade", "Tsarevitch", where she gained a good reputation singing in Russian, and took part in several radio and television shows. She took part in the Rose d'Or festival in Antibes alongside Olivia Newton-John, Cliff Richard and Demis Roussos. She also performed in Canada, Kuwait and Morocco. In the 1970s, she took part in the 50 Years of Polish Songs concerts in Poland and the United States. She returned to Poland more regularly from 1990 onwards, although she still maintained her main residence in Paris. Two days after taking part with another former Polish star of the 1960s and 1970s, Karin Stanek, in a very popular television programme, she died suddenly on 18 January 2002 in her family home in Szczecin. The Szczecin Summer Theatre is named after her.

Sources: English, Polish and French Wikipedia, IMDb.

The song Happy End: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmEEiUzXRgI

Vintage East-German postcard. Starfoto Progress, 2126.

Elżbieta Czyżewska (1938-2010), aka Elzbieta Czyzewska and Elzbieta Csyzewska, was a Polish stage and screen actress, who moved to the United States in the 1960s. She gained critical acclaim in the early 1960s that culminated in breakthrough performances in The Saragossa Manuscript (1964, dir. Wojciech Jerzy Has), Marriage of Convenience (1966, dir. Stanisław Bareja) and Everything for Sale (1969, dir. Andrzej Wajda). Czyżewska received the Obie Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actress in 1990 for Crowbar.

(Source: English Wikipedia)

East German Starfoto by Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 31/76.

Italian actress Sylva Koscina (1933-1994) may be best remembered as Iole, the bride of Steve Reeves in the original version of Hercules (1958). She also starred in several Italian and Hollywood comedies of the 1950s and 1960s.

Sylva Koscina was born Sylva Koskinon in Zagreb, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Croatia), in 1933. She moved to Italy as a teenager, during the Second World War. She was a physics student at Naples University. She was chosen as Miss Di Tappa at the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy bicycle race) in 1954. A picture of her exchanging a kiss with the winner was published in newspapers all over Europe and led to her being offered a job as a model. She worked as a fashion model and was soon discovered for the cinema. She made a fleeting appearance in the part of an aspiring actress in the Toto comedy Siamo uomini o caporali?/Are We Men or Corporals? (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1955) before she had her breakthrough as the daughter of the train engineer in Il ferroviere/The Railroad Man (Pietro Germi, 1956). Pretty, and even too elegant for the part, Sylva Koscina immediately confirmed her talent in Guendalina (Alberto Lattuada, 1957) as a young mother of Jacqueline Sassard. She played leading roles in popular comedies like Nonna Sabella/Grandmother Sabella (Dino Risi, 1957), Ladro lui, ladra lei/He a Thief She a Thief (Luigi Zampa, 1958), and Poveri millionari/Poor Millionaires (Dino Risi, 1958), Koscina alternated cleverly between roles as a vamp and as an ingenue. She represented women in the search for upward social mobility, the image of Italy that had left its worst problems behind.

Sylva Koscina was an actress noted for her carriage. She had an entirely feminine way of walking on the screen and she even lectured Giorgia Moll on how to walk like a lady in the sophisticated comedy Mogli pericolose/Dangerous Wives (Luigi Comencini, 1958). In many of her roles she gives the impression of modelling at a fashion show, head high, mouth very slightly open, eyes lost in the distance. She is the elegant actress of the sixties with an aristocratic manner bordering on snobbery. However she also seemed at ease in a peplum (sword and sandal epic): she was a marvellous fiancee for Hercules (Steve Reeves) in Le fatiche di Ercole/Hercules (Pietro Francisci, 1958), a prototype of this film genre. In Il vigile/The Policeman (Luigi Zampa, 1960), she played herself opposite Alberto Sordi as a traffic officer. Charmed by her he lets Sylva go without a ticket, but when the film star thanks him on TV he gets into a lot of trouble. Koscina married Raimondo Castelli, a small producer connected with Minerva Films. She kept well afloat with anything but negligible roles, such as a dramatic part in Il sicario/Blood Feud (Damiano Damiani, 1961) with Belinda Lee. In La lepre e la tartaruga/The Hare and the Tortoise, an episode in Le quattro verità/The Three Fables of Love (Alessandro Blasetti, Hervé Bromberger, René Clair, Luis García Berlanga, 1963), director Blasetti constructs a deliciously sophisticated duel between her and Monica Vitti. In 1965 Sylva took part in Giulietta degli spiriti/Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini, 1965) as one of Giulietta Masina's sisters. But she also became a television personality who is often the special guest on variety shows.

After passing thirty, Sylva Koscina tried playing the American card. She starred in the comedy caper Three Bites of the Apple (Alvin Ganzer, 1967) with David McCallum and Deadlier Than the Male (Ralph Thomas, 1966), in which she and Elke Sommer portrayed sophisticated professional killers duelling with Bulldog Drummond (Richard Johnson). She partnered with Paul Newman in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (Jack Smight, 1968) and Kirk Douglas in A Lovely Way to Die (David Lowell Rich, 1968). She appeared as a German doctor, Bianca, in Hornet's Nest (Phil Karlson, Franco Cirino, 1970) with Rock Hudson, but without luck. Her fame became a bit tarnished, but it was given a boost with her appearance in the Italian edition of Playboy magazine in 1967. The photography by Angelo Frontoni was exquisite, but the fact of a film star photographed bare-breasted in a magazine provoked a scandal. Thus the image of Sylva, based on an elegant and slightly snobbish femininity was enriched with an erotic touch. In that same period, L'assolute naturale/He and She (Mauro Bolognini, 1969) was released complete with a full nude shot. This was a sign of the radical change Italian cinema and society underwent. Some of her lovemaking scenes with Gabriele Tinti in the fantasy film Lisa and the Devil (Mario Bava, Alfredo Leone, 1974) had to be cut because they were considered pornographic.

Since the early 1960s, Sylva Koscina invested most of her star salaries in a luxurious villa, in the well-to-do district of Marino, Rome, complete with 16th centuries of furniture and artist's paintings. This lasted until her spending overcame her dwindling income, and in 1976, when she had to face a tax evasion inquest, she was forced to sell her house. She lived with Raimondo Castelli since 1960, but they could not marry because his wife refused to divorce. In 1967 they married in Mexico, but this marriage was not officially recognized in Italy, and they separated in 1971. Sylva depended more and more on erotic appearances. In June 75 she was on the cover and featured again in the Italian Playboy. She appeared in sex comedies like Some Like It Cool (Franz Antel, 1977) with Tony Curtis, and in a segment of Sunday Lovers (Dino Risi, 1980) with Ugo Tognazzi. In the 1980s, Sylva had a long-running live theatre performance in Rome. By then a mature but still beautiful Koscina, performed every night in the nude. She only incidentally appeared in films, including Cenerentola '80/Cinderella ´80 (Roberto Malenotti, 1984) with Adolfo Celi, and Rimini Rimini (Sergio Corbucci, 1987) with Laura Antonelli. Koscina returned before the cameras in the year just before her death: her last appearance was in the tantalizingly titled C'è Kim Novak al telefono/Kim Novak is on the Phone (Riki Roseo, 1994). Sylva Koscina died in Rome in 1994, aged 61, after a long battle with breast cancer.

Sources: Hal Erickson (All Movie), Simon Benattar-Bourgeay (CinéArtistes - French), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

East-German Starfoto by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin. The postcard refers to the Italo-Franco-Spanish film Sette uomini d'oro/Seven Golden Men (Marco Vicario, 1965) and the Italian film La notte è per rubare (Giorgio Capitani, 1968).

Philippe Leroy-Beaulieu (Paris, 15 October 1930 – Rome, 1 June 2024) was a French actor. He appeared in over 150 films from 1960. Even when also working in France, he worked mainly in Italy where his name remains linked to the performance he gave of Yanez de Gomera in the TV series Sandokan (1976), and to that of Leonardo da Vinci in the TV series La vita di Leonardo da Vinci/ The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1971). Yet, audiences already appreciated him as a co-star alongside Rossana Podestà in the films Sette uomini d'oro Seven Golden Men (1965) and the sequel Il grande colpo dei 7 uomini d'oro/ The Great Strike of the 7 Golden Men (1966). He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his debut performance in Jacques Becker’s Le trou/ The Hole (1960), and for an Emmy for his lead in The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1971). He was previously a decorated paratrooper in the French Foreign Legion, where he served in the First Indochina War and the Algerian War.

(Sources: English and Italian Wikipedia)

East German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb Starfoto, no. 34/280. Photo: DEFA / Kilian. Rudolf Forster in the Swedish-German feature Spielbank-Affäre/Casino Affair (Arthur Pohl, 1957).

Austrian film actor Rudolf Forster (1884-1968) appeared in more than 100 films between 1914 and 1968. He was known for Zur Chronik von Grieshuus/Chronicles of the Gray House (1925), Die 3 Groschen-Oper/The Threepenny Opera (1931) and Das Glas Wasser/A Glass of Water (1960).

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin. no. 3097. Photo: Steffen. Richard Widmark, the postcard refers to his historical film Cheyenne Autumn (John Ford, 1964), even if here he appears in a modern outfit.

Slight, blonde Richard Widmark (1914-2008) suddenly established himself as an icon of American cinema with his debut as a giggling psychopath in Kiss of Death (1947). He was one of the most sought-after actors in Hollywood for a good three decades and appeared in 75 films.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Starfoto, no. 548. Photo: Sovexportfilm. Lyudmila Gurchenko in Karnavalnaya noch/Carnival Night (Eldar Ryazanov, 1956). The German title is Nun schlägt's 13!

Lyudmila Markovna Gurchenko (born Gurchenkov) (Russian: Людмила Марковна Гурченко, informal – Lucia, 12 November 1935 – 30 March 2011), was a popular Soviet and Russian actress, singer and entertainer. A celebrity after her film debut Carnival Night, she next knew her downfall because of bad reputation, but after years of modest roles she had her comeback with Siberiade and Station for Two. She became People's Artist of the USSR in 1983, thanks to the succes of films like these.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2307. Jeanne Valérie and Georges Rivière in the French Swashbuckler Mandrin (Jean-Paul Le Chanois, 1962).

German postcard by Starfoto VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 1382. Teddy Reno and Waltraut Haas in the Austrian ice revue film Traumrevue (Eduard von Borsody, 1959). From September 1960 on, the film ran in cinemas in the DDR.

Teddy Reno, pseudonym of Ferruccio Merk Ricordi (Trieste, July 11, 1926), is an Italian singer, record producer and actor and naturalized Swiss.

Austrian actress and singer Waltraut Haas (1927) was a popular star of 70 German and Austrian film operettas and comedies during the 1950s and 1960s.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmverleih Starfoto no. 1101. Photo: Rizzoli Film. Lea Massari in I sogni nel cassetto (Renato Castellani, 1957), in East-Germany titled Träume in der Schublade.

Lea Massari, pseudonym of Anna Maria Massatani (Rome, 30 June 1933), is an Italian actress.

Born in Rome, in the district of Monteverde Vecchio, as the daughter of a Roman engineer, and also of Umbrian descent on her mother's side, during her childhood Lea Massari lived in Spain, France and Switzerland. Back in Rome, she enrolled at university and attended architecture courses in the early 1950s. In the meantime, she worked as a model and collaborated with the set and costume designer Piero Gherardi, a family friend, who soon introduced her to the world of cinema. With her aristocratic and refined features, underlined by her feline gaze and hoarse voice, on the set of the film Proibito (1954), where Gherardi also worked, she was noticed by director Mario Monicelli, who convinced her to play a passionate Sardinian girl, alongside Amedeo Nazzari and Mel Ferrer. The role of the sweet and in love girl was repeated with I sogni nel cassetto (1957) by Renato Castellani, where she was dubbed by Adriana Asti. On the occasion of her debut on the big screen, at the age of 21 she assumed a stage name in memory of her fiancé Leo, with whom she was supposed to be married, but who died in a tragic accident a few days before the wedding.

In the 1960s Massari took part in many Italian and French productions, playing increasingly challenging roles, mostly as a middle-class woman. She began to gain international notoriety alongside Gabriele Ferzetti and Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni's film L'avventura (1960), in which she played perhaps the most iconic role of the first phase of her career, that of a dreamy young woman who suddenly disappears. In the same period she was in the cast of other important films: La giornata balorda (1960) by Mauro Bolognini, Il colosso di Rodi (1960) by Sergio Leone, alongside Rory Calhoun, and especially Una vita difficile (1961) by Dino Risi, alongside Alberto Sordi and Franco Fabrizi. Although uncredited, she is notable in Le quattro giornate di Napoli by Nanni Loy (1962), based on a subject by Vasco Pratolini, followed by a participation in another war-themed film, La città prigioniera (1962) by Joseph Anthony, with David Niven, Ben Gazzara and Martin Balsam. In that period she received a special David di Donatello award for her performance in I sogni muoiono all'alba (1961) by Mario Craveri and Enrico Gras, based on a play by Indro Montanelli. In 1963 she was proposed for the role of Marcello Mastroianni's wife in 8½ by Federico Fellini, later assigned to Anouk Aimée; it seems that during the audition for this part the director was not convinced because of inadequate make-up by Gherardi. In the same year she starred with Francisco Rabal in I cavalieri della vendetta by Carlos Saura.

Since the early years of her career Massari was often paired with well-known French actors, such as Jean Sorel in the aforementioned Bolognini film of 1960 (La giornata balorda), Alain Delon in Alain Cavalier's L'insoumis (1964) and Valerio Zurlini's La prima notte di quiete (1972) (for which she won the first of her two Nastri d'argento), Maurice Ronet in Il giardino delle delizie (1967), a debut film by Silvano Agosti which was heavily censored in Italy, Jean-Louis Trintignant in La course du lièvre à travers les champs (1972) by René Clément, Yves Montand in Le fils (1973) by Pierre Granier-Deferre, Philippe Leroy in La linea del fiume (1976) by Aldo Scavarda and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Chi dice donna dice donna (1976) by Tonino Cervi. In 1970 she teamed up with Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider in the controversial Les Choses de la vie, the first success of director Claude Sautet, for which the Roman actress won the Louis-Delluc award; she would return to work with Piccoli in 1979 with Le divorcement by Pierre Barouh.

Much appreciated especially in France, after having dealt with the scabrous theme of incest in Louis Malle's Le Souffle au coeur (1971), where she played probably the most important role of her maturity and which also cost her a sensational accusation in Italy for corruption of minors, closed with a full acquittal, in 1973 she received an Étoile de Cristal as best foreign actress. In 1969 she had also starred with Gérard Blain and debutant Teo Teocoli in Gianni Vernuccio's film Paolo e Francesca, released two years later. After appearing in John Frankenheimer's Story of a Love Story (1973), opposite Alan Bates and Dominique Sanda, and Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Allonsanfàn (1974), opposite Marcello Mastroianni, in 1975 she was called to participate as a juror at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1977, together with Riccardo Cucciolla, she took part in the film Antonio Gramsci - I giorni del carcere by Lino Del Fra, which won the Pardo d'oro at the Locarno Festival. In 1979 she received her second Nastro d'argento for the role of Luisa Levi in Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1978) by Francesco Rosi, where she played alongside Gian Maria Volonté, whom she herself considered the best colleague she had ever worked with.

Massari has also worked successfully in the theatre, including in William Gibson's Due sull'altalena/Two for the Seesaw (1960), directed by Arnoldo Foà, and on television, as in Capitan Fracassa (1958), I promessi sposi (1967), in the role of the Monaca di Monza, I fratelli Karamazov (1969) and Quaderno proibito (1980); particularly appreciated by audiences and critics was her performance in Sandro Bolchi's Anna Karenina (1974), repeated several times by RAI. Her last appearance on the small screen was in Una donna spezzata (1988) by Marco Leto, based on the novel La femme rompue by Simone de Beauvoir and scripted by Massari herself.

Passionate about hunting from a young age, following the example and encouragement of her father, she reduced her artistic activity from the early 1980s onward. She appeared again in Giuseppe Bertolucci's film Segreti Segreti (1985) (in which she played the painful role of Lina Sastri's suicidal mother), to devote herself decisively to ecological and animal rights campaigns. An actress notoriously disinclined to be a star, shy and reserved, and often forced to live and work abroad partly because of her husband's work, she retired for good in 1990, at the age of 57. After that she rarely appeared in public and gave few interviews, refusing various invitations to return to the set, such as the one received by Ferzan Özpetek, who in 2005 wanted her in Cuore sacro, in a role then assigned to Lisa Gaston. Her last film, which had little success, was Viaggio d'amore (1990) by Ottavio Fabbri, based on a subject by Tonino Guerra, in which she starred alongside Omar Sharif. After retiring from the stage, she moved to Sardinia with her husband (married in 1963) Carlo Bianchini, a former Alitalia pilot. Following a financial crisis, she put her important collection of antique jewelry up for auction in 1994.

In addition to her campaigns in defense of animals and against vivisection, which also led her to support various dog pounds, her passion for the guitar and Brazilian music is well known.

Sources: IMDB, Italian Wikipedia.

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2655. Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar and Amanda Barrie as Cleopatra in Carry On Cleo (Gerald Thomas, 1964), released in the GDR as Cleo, Liebe und Antike. It was the tenth in the series of the 31 Carry On films, produced by Peter Rogers and distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated.

East-German postcard. Starfoto, VEB Progress, No. 2733. Jerzy Zelnik as pharaoh Ramses XIII in the Polish film Pharaoh/ Faraon (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1966), based on the homonymous novel by Bolesław Prus. The film was nominated for a Golden Palm in Cannes and for an Oscar for best foreign film. Pharaoh is among 21 digitally restored classic Polish films chosen for Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema.

After the death of the seriously ill Pharaoh Ramses XII, his descendant Ramses XIII wrestles in the midst of a serious crisis for power in the state. In addition to the ailing financial situation - the treasury was plundered - and the ubiquitous corruption, a tortured and impoverished population, his country is threatened by enemies. The fate of the country lies in the hands of the almighty caste of priests around their leader Herhor, the high priest of Thebes and commander in chief of the armed forces. The young pharaoh Ramses XIII. fights in the midst of this initial situation for his supremacy and tries to contain the power of the clergy, which however takes the initiative and ignites an intrigue against the young pharaoh.

The Pharaohs Ramses XII. and XIII., on which the plot is built, are usually referred to as fictional in reviews of the film as well as the underlying novel. However, these two kings were considered historical and documented people at the time of Bolesław Prus. For example, Alfred Wiedemann in his book Egyptian History, Volume 1–2, from 1884 not only lists these two pharaohs as the last of the 20th dynasty, but also, as in the novel and film, the priest Sa-Amen Herhor (Herihor) as the first ruler of the following Third intermediate time. According to the knowledge of his time, Prus represented the poorly documented end of the 20th dynasty, but did not create any fictional rulers. (Sources: German and English Wikipedia)

Jerzy Zelnik, born 14 September 1945 in Krakow, began his acting training in 1965 at the State Drama School PWST in Warsaw. In 1963 he had made his film debut in a small role in Leonard Buczkowski's film Smarkula. In 1966 he played the lead role in Jerzy Kawalerowicz's film Faraon. In 1968 he finished his acting training and got his first theater engagement at the Teatr Stary in Krakow. He then played in numerous theaters across Poland and was artistic director of the Teatr Nowy in Łódź from 2005 to 2007. From 1979 to 1986 and again since 1992 he has been a member of the Teatr Powszechny ensemble. Jerzy Zelnik met his wife Urszula in 1968. In 2007 he was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta.

(German WIkipedia)

German postcard by Starfoto Hasemann, no. 273. Photo: Schorcht.

Austrian actress and singer Dorit Kreysler (1909-1999) appeared in German and Austrian comedies and musicals of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

Dorothea Josephina Friedericke Nicolette Kreisler was born in 1909 in Mödling, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary (now Austria). Some sources say in a field hospital near Budapest, while her father was a colonel of the cavalry, and her mother had accompanied her husband when she was pregnant. As a child, Dorit showed already ambitions for the theatre and the Viennese theatre critic Dr. Liebstöckl reportedly was so impressed with her that he advised the young girl to work on the stage when they met in a streetcar. He talked with her parents and they finally agreed. After following acting and dance classes she made her stage debut in Böhmen in a performance of Jedermann/Everyman. From there she went on to St. Gallen, Switzerland, where she mostly played buoyant roles.

In 1934 Dorit Kreysler made her film debut. She filled in for the ill Renate Müller in the Ufa production Freut euch des Lebens/Enjoy Yourselves (Hans Steinhoff, 1934). She also starred in a comedy about two competing hotels, Jungfrau gegen Mönch/The Maiden Against The Monk (E.W. Emo, 1934) with Ida Wüst, in Frischer Wind aus Kanada/Fresh Wind Out of Canada (Erich Holder, Heinz Kenter, 1935) with Paul Hörbiger, and in Eine Nacht an der Donau/A Night on the Danube (Carl Boese, 1935). Then she focussed again on her theatre work. After guest roles in Metropoltheater in Berlin, she turned in 1938 again to films, like Peter spielt mit dem Feuer/Peter Plays With Fire (Joe Stöckl, 1938) with Hans Holt, and Die Frau ohne Vergangenheit/Woman Without A Past (Nunzio Malasomma, 1939) with Sybille Schmitz. Her best known films include the comedy Frau nach Maß/Wife Bespoke (Helmut Käutner, 1940) with Hans Söhnker, Wiener Blut/Vienna Blood (Willi Forst, 1940) with Willy Fritsch, Karneval der Liebe/Carnival of Love (Paul Martin, 1943) with Johannes Heesters and the film version of Johann Strauss' comic opera Die Fledermaus/The Bat (Géza von Bolváry, 1946), in which she played Adele. In 1945 she married the White-Russian Timothé Stutloff. At the first day after the end of WW II her daughter Anja was born. In 1953 the pair divorced again. During the 1950’s Dorit played mainly supporting roles in films. Among her post-war films were Artistenblut/Artist’s Blood (Wolfgang Wehrum, 1949), Ich mach dich glücklich/I’ll Make You Happy (Sándor Szlatinay, 1950), Sensation in San Remo (Georg Jacoby, 1951) with Marika Rökk, and Dieses Lied bleibt bei Dir/Cabaret (Willi Forst, 1954) with Paul Henreid, and Opernball/Opera Ball (Ernst Marischka, 1956) with Johannes Heesters. Her last film appearance was in the Caterina Valente musical Das Einfache Mädchen/The Easy Girl (Werner Jacobs, 1957). From 1957 on she concentrated again on stage work. In 1970 she appeared in the TV film Die Vertagte Nacht (Otto Anton Eder, 1970). During her stage tours Dorit Kreysler always returned to her home city Graz, where she died in 1999.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Starfoto Hasemann, no. 315. Photo: Schorcht.

Austrian actress and singer Dorit Kreysler (1909-1999) appeared in German and Austrian comedies and musicals of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

Dorothea Josephina Friedericke Nicolette Kreisler was born in 1909 in Mödling, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary (now Austria). Some sources say in a field hospital near Budapest, while her father was a colonel of the cavalry, and her mother had accompanied her husband when she was pregnant. As a child, Dorit showed already ambitions for the theatre and the Viennese theatre critic Dr. Liebstöckl reportedly was so impressed with her that he advised the young girl to work on the stage when they met in a streetcar. He talked with her parents and they finally agreed. After following acting and dance classes she made her stage debut in Böhmen in a performance of Jedermann/Everyman. From there she went on to St. Gallen, Switzerland, where she mostly played buoyant roles.

In 1934 Dorit Kreysler made her film debut. She filled in for the ill Renate Müller in the Ufa production Freut euch des Lebens/Enjoy Yourselves (Hans Steinhoff, 1934). She also starred in a comedy about two competing hotels, Jungfrau gegen Mönch/The Maiden Against The Monk (E.W. Emo, 1934) with Ida Wüst, in Frischer Wind aus Kanada/Fresh Wind Out of Canada (Erich Holder, Heinz Kenter, 1935) with Paul Hörbiger, and in Eine Nacht an der Donau/A Night on the Danube (Carl Boese, 1935). Then she focussed again on her theatre work. After guest roles in Metropoltheater in Berlin, she turned in 1938 again to films, like Peter spielt mit dem Feuer/Peter Plays With Fire (Joe Stöckl, 1938) with Hans Holt, and Die Frau ohne Vergangenheit/Woman Without A Past (Nunzio Malasomma, 1939) with Sybille Schmitz. Her best known films include the comedy Frau nach Maß/Wife Bespoke (Helmut Käutner, 1940) with Hans Söhnker, Wiener Blut/Vienna Blood (Willi Forst, 1940) with Willy Fritsch, Karneval der Liebe/Carnival of Love (Paul Martin, 1943) with Johannes Heesters and the film version of Johann Strauss' comic opera Die Fledermaus/The Bat (Géza von Bolváry, 1946), in which she played Adele. In 1945 she married the White-Russian Timothé Stutloff. At the first day after the end of WW II her daughter Anja was born. In 1953 the pair divorced again. During the 1950’s Dorit played mainly supporting roles in films. Among her post-war films were Artistenblut/Artist’s Blood (Wolfgang Wehrum, 1949), Ich mach dich glücklich/I’ll Make You Happy (Sándor Szlatinay, 1950), Sensation in San Remo (Georg Jacoby, 1951) with Marika Rökk, and Dieses Lied bleibt bei Dir/Cabaret (Willi Forst, 1954) with Paul Henreid, and Opernball/Opera Ball (Ernst Marischka, 1956) with Johannes Heesters. Her last film appearance was in the Caterina Valente musical Das Einfache Mädchen/The Easy Girl (Werner Jacobs, 1957). From 1957 on she concentrated again on stage work. In 1970 she appeared in the TV film Die Vertagte Nacht (Otto Anton Eder, 1970). During her stage tours Dorit Kreysler always returned to her home city Graz, where she died in 1999.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Bildrückseite:
"Geburtstag 28. Dezember, Berlin-Westend, Foto dpa"

Printed on back:
Sophia Loren
Sahen Sie in den Filmen "Aida", "Liebe, Brot und tausend Kusse", "Boccaccio 70", "Hochzeit auf italienisch"
Starfoto Progress
VEB PROGRESS FILM-VERTRIEB, 102 BERLIN, BURGSTR. 27

© All Rights Reserved
----------------------
This is a scanned image from a batch of wire photos, publicity photos, vintage snapshots, cabinet cards, CDVs and real photo postcards purchased from auction.

I did some small, cosmetic clean-up retouches in photoshop.

Any comments or observations are much appreciated!

Photo postcard circa 1963.

Printed on back:
Sophia Loren
Sahen Sie in den Filmen Aida, Bocaccio 70, Hochzeit auf italienisch, Gestern, heue und morgen
u.a.

Echt Foto

EVP MDN–, 20
Foto: Archiv, Nr. 2676
Reproduktion verboten

VEB PROGRESS FILM-VERTRIEB, 102 BERLIN, BURGSTRASSE 27

Dr. Gen. Nr. (30) Ag 500/6/66 III/18/6
-----------------------
English:
Sophia Loren
You saw in the movies Aida, Bocaccio 70, Wedding in Italian, Yesterday, Today andTomorrow

Real photo

Progress Starfoto
EPP MDN, 20
Photo: Archive, No. 2676
Reproduction prohibited

Sophia Loren, original name Sofia Villani Scicolone, (born September 20, 1934, Rome, Italy), Italian film actress who rose above her poverty-stricken origins in postwar Naples to become universally recognized as one of Italy’s most beautiful women and its most famous movie star.

Before working in the cinema, Sofia Scicolone changed her last name to Lazzaro for work in the foto-romanzo, popular pulp magazines that used still photographs to depict romantic stories. Her first film role was as an extra, one of many slave girls in the American production of Quo Vadis? (1951). Under the tutelage of producer Carlo Ponti (her future husband), Scicolone was transformed into Sophia Loren. Her career was launched in a series of low-budget comedies before she attracted critical and popular attention with Aida (1953), in which she lip-synched the singing of Renata Tebaldi in the title role.

Loren’s beauty often overshadowed her enormous talents as an actress, but her earthy charisma is evident even in such early works as Vittorio De Sica’s L’oro di Napoli (1954; The Gold of Naples). With Ponti’s help, Loren increased her international visibility by appearing in Hollywood films opposite such major stars as Cary Grant (Houseboat, 1968), Clark Gable (It Started in Naples, 1960), Frank Sinatra (The Pride and the Passion, 1957, also with Grant), Alan Ladd (Boy on a Dolphin, 1957), William Holden (The Key, 1958), and Paul Newman (Lady L, 1965). Such exposure was undoubtedly instrumental in helping her win an Academy Award (Oscar) for best actress in De Sica’s La ciociara (1961; Two Women), in which she delivered a powerful performance as the courageous mother of a teenage girl during World War II.


© All Rights Reserved
----------------------
This is a scanned image from a batch of wire photos, publicity photos, vintage snapshots, cabinet cards, CDVs and real photo postcards purchased from auction.

I did some small, cosmetic clean-up retouches in photoshop.

Any comments or observations are much appreciated!