FACES OF CHILDREN (Switzerland-France/1925)

My first encounter with the films of the Belgian director Jacques Feyder were the clips from his silent films shown in the remarkable documentary Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1996). Until this week, the only Feyder film I had seen was his American film Anna Christie starring Greta Garbo. Last October, Image Entertainment released a box titled: "Rediscover Jacques Feyder: French Film Master". It consists of three discs: Queen of Atlantis, Crainquebille and Faces of Children, which many consider the best of these three silent works. It concerns a 10 year-old boy having great difficulty adjusting to the death of his mother and, subsequently, to her father's marriage to a widow who has a daughter. What makes Faces of Children particularly accomplished is the location photography shot on location in the Swiss Alps (including a stunning avalanche sequence) and the performance by the young actor Jean Forest (who debuted in Feyder's Crainquebille). Forest retired from acting in 1935 at the age of 22.