Every Frenchman Has One by Olivia de Havilland

Every Frenchman Has One
by Olivia de Havilland
Crown Archetype
2016 Reissue
ISBN: 9780451497390 - 144 pages
Amazon - Barnes and Noble - Powells


Imagine sitting down for a nice long chat with actress and living legend Olivia de Havilland. Unless your Robert Osborne or some lucky soul, de Havilland’s book Every Frenchman Has One is as close as you’ll get to that experience.

Originally published in 1961 and reissued for Olivia de Havilland’s centennial year, this book explores the actress’s early days living in France during the 1950s. Why did she move to France in the first place? It all started when she was invited to the Cannes Film Festival to promote My Cousin Rachel (1952). She was in the middle of a divorce with her first husband Marcus Goodrich and thought a continental adventure would be a nice change of pace. She accepted the invitation but on one condition, that she would be able to bring her 3 year old son Benjamin. Little did de Havilland know that she’d soon meet her next husband Frenchman Pierre Galante. The two married, had a daughter Gisele and settled in France. De Havilland stayed long after both her children grew up and after she divorced Galante. But those first years in France took some getting used to.

Every Frenchman Has One explores all the stages of culture shock de Havilland experienced as she settled into her new life across the pond. Each chapter is an essay on the cultural differences between France and the USA and how she dealt with them. Topics include: nuances of the French language, traffic in Paris, French medicine vs. American medicine, the metric system, French stubbornness, living in old houses, hiring a French maid, Protestantism vs. Catholicism and more. Even though the subjects seem serious, de Havilland explores them in a jovial way. Each chapter is full of humorous and thoughtful anecdotes. When I read this I felt like I was transported back to 1950s Paris and was living these experience right alongside de Havilland.

Olivia de Havilland - Every Frenchman Has One

This book is only 140 or so pages and can be read in a day. The publisher Crown Archetype (an imprint of Penguin Random House) reissued the book in a slim and petite little hardcover edition that can practically fit in your pocket. It also has a gorgeous self-cover. For the 2016 edition, they added a very short interview with de Havilland about the book. It’s not the best interview. It doesn’t say who conducted it or what the circumstances were. It’s obvious the interviewer hadn’t read the book because the initial question would have been answered by reading the first chapter.

This was such a fun read and I’d recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Olivia de Havilland or French culture. I particularly loved reading about converting Fahrenheit to Celsius (it caused quite a stir when she wrote a piece for the New York Herald Tribune about it) and I was laughing out loud at her story of her disastrous home remodel. Her writing is sharp and witty and very entertaining. She's self-deprecating in the most charming way possible. A must read.


This is my fifth review for the 2016 Summer Reading Classic Film Book Challenge.

Celebrate #HispanicHeritageMonth with #DePelicula

I'm excited to join forces with Aurora of Citizen Screen to celebrate #HispanicHeritageMonth with a special social media and blog campaign: #DePelicula. I worked with Aurora to expand this once Blogathon to reach a bigger audience using social media.

Message from Aurora of Citizen Screen:
Hispanic Heritage Month, the roots of which go back to 1968, begins each year on September 15 and ends on October 15. In previous years I’ve celebrated the month by hosting The Hispanic Heritage Blogathon. Although both years of that blogathon were great successes with bloggers spotlighting Hispanic players and Hispanic-themed movies and such to commemorate the imprint Hispanics have made on Hollywood, this year I’m doing something quite different. In a joint effort with the lovely and talented Raquel @QuelleLove of Out of the Past blog I am spearheading a social media campaign to spotlight Hispanic Heritage in movies and in entertainment.

What Raquel and I have in mind is a cross-promotion campaign using the #DePelicula hashtag in order to spread the word about actors, filmmakers or films that celebrate, depict or examine aspects of Hispanic culture in film and entertainment. I will be spotlighting several Hispanic movie-related themes and persons on this blog and posting #DePelicula-related content across social media. Raquel and I would love to have you join the effort. You are welcome to blog about a movie or person as you may have done in the previous blogathons or you can design a series of posts on a social media platform of your choice. The sky’s the limit and creativity is welcomed. If interested, here are the #DePelicula details:

#DePelicula

How to participate:
1) Pick one platform: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube or Vine.
2) Pick a theme or type of content – this could be a focus on one Hispanic actor, several actors, filmmakers, movies or a combination of these.
3) Chose the Frequency: one post, daily posts or anything in between. Content should go up between 9/15 and 10/15.
4) Sign-up in the comments section below by letting us know your idea and/or plan. Please include your platform (with a link), theme and frequency.
5) Use the hashtag #DePelicula in all of your posts so we can easily share your content. Also, make sure the content is made public so everyone can see your #DePelicula posts.
6) Feel free to use the image above on any and all promotions, blog posts, etc. It is the official #DePelicula graphic.
7) Have fun! Follow the hashtag and encourage others to participate. Liking, retweeting, commenting and replying are encouraged.

While this event will focus primarily on “classic” Hollywood cinema and players, we recognize the impact Hispanics are making in films today so if you choose a contemporary Latin American actor, filmmaker or film, that’s fine, too. #DePelicula commemorates all Hispanic contributions to film and entertainment.

Help us spread the word and make this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month one for the social media record books!

If you can’t think of a topic or topics here are a few lists to get you started:

Latinos in Film from Wikipedia
Famous Hispanic from Ranker
Famous Hispanic Actresses from Ranker
Films Set in South America from Wikipedia
Golden Age of Mexican Cinema from Wikipedia
13 Films Set in Latin America
10 Early Film Actors You Need to Know
10 Early Film Actresses You Need to Know


Here's how I'll be participating:
Platform: Twitter @Quellelove
Theme/Type of Content: Quotes from Hispanic Actors and Actresses
Frequency: Daily

Will you celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with us? #DePelicula

The First Film: The Greatest Mystery in Cinema History

Who created the first film? It may not be who you think.

During the late 19th century, several inventors were working furiously on the technology that would produce moving pictures. Some of these figures are well-known including the Lumiere Brothers, Thomas Edison and others not so much. But have you heard of French inventor Louis Le Prince? Chances are you haven’t and this film seeks to rectify that.


Film-maker David Nicholas Wilkinson sets out on a quest to prove Le Prince produced the first ever films in October 1888. What’s odd about Le Prince’s story is that two years later, after he had been working on the technology to project the films he had made, he got on a train from Dijon to Paris and was never seen again. No one knows what happened to him. What adds to this mystery is the fact that Le Prince’s final trip was supposed to be one leg of a much longer journey to New York where he was going to showcase his invention and his films. Was he murdered? Would he have been recognized as the first inventor of motion pictures if he had been able to complete his journey?

Image from The First Film (2016)

A plaque above the Leeds Bridge in Leeds, England reads "Louis Aime Augustine Le Prince came to Leeds in 1866 where he experimented in cinematography. In 1888 he patented a one-lens camera with which he filmed Leeds Bridge fro this British Waterway building. These were probably the world's first successful moving pictures." 

Wilkinson spent 30 years looking for answers to all of these questions. Seven of those years were spent researching and working on this documentary including 14 months of filming. Along with writer and researcher Ifran Shah, Wilkinson sets out on a journey of discovery with lots of surprises and setbacks along the way. Wilkinson has 40 years of experience working in the British Film Industry as a film-maker, distributor, actor and author. He’s originally from Leeds, where it is said that Le Prince filmed the very first motion picture. As a young man, a teacher once told him about Le Prince. He was skeptical at first but then became fascinated with the mystery and made it his passion project to seek out answers.

Most of The First Film (2016) is comprised of on-location shooting in Leeds as well as countless interviews with film historians, critics, curators, researchers, screenwriters and other expert. Wilkinson traveled across the pond to Cleveland, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee, Washington Heights, NY and Fire Island, NY to do research. We see in-depth discussions with Le Prince’s great-great granddaughter, the leading expert on Le Prince and many others.

There are three surviving clips of Le Prince’s films, all of which pre-date the work of Edison, the Lumiere Brothers and other inventors at the time. This documentary examines the Rhounday Garden Scene. Wilkinson and Shah find the original filming location and the crew recreate this short with Le Prince's camera. As did many other inventors, Le Prince tinkered with the technology over many years. He and his wife Lizzie started a technical school of arts which lead him to many other opportunities. Le Prince worked on Civil War panoramas. These were meant for public consumption and meant to go beyond a single photograph. This might have been the seed that developed the idea for moving pictures. In The First Film, we learn about Le Prince’s progression as an inventor, about his 16 lens and single lens cameras and also about the other 10 inventors who were working on the same technology at the time.

Louis Le Prince

Wilkinson makes the bold claim that Le Prince was the world’s first cameraman, director and producer. Is he right? You'll have to watch the documentary to find out. I’ve always been drawn to stories of underdogs, especially ones whose life and work have been overshadowed by others. In this case, Le Prince’s achievements were forgotten and his mysterious disappearance possibly deprived him of the title of the maker of the first film.

The First Film (2016) is a quirky documentary that shows much passion for its subject and a determination to seek out the truth of an old but very important mystery. It’s a film for anyone who has a love of history, is curious about the early technology of film or loves a good research project. This documentary premieres online September 12th from Guerilla Films.

Many thanks to Erskine PR for the opportunity to view this film.

Watch the trailer here: