Pierre Batcheff


Pierre Batcheff was a French actor of Russian origin. He became a popular film actor from the mid-1920s until the early 1930s, and among his best-known work was the surrealist short film Un chien andalou, made by Luis Buñuel in collaboration with Salvador Dalí. After appearing in about twenty-five films, he met an early death from a drug overdose.

Life

Born as Benjamin Batcheff in Harbin in China, he grew up in Saint Petersburg; he adopted the name Pierre later when he started working in the cinema. When war broke out in 1914, his family were on holiday in Switzerland and they decided to remain there, at first in Lausanne and then Geneva. Batcheff's father went bankrupt around 1917, leaving the family in financial difficulty, and Pierre started taking small parts in Georges Pitoëff's theatre company in Geneva. Between 1919 and 1921 he attended the Collège Calvin. In 1921, Batcheff moved with his family to Paris where he worked at first as a theatre actor.
Batcheff's earliest leading role in the cinema was in 1923 in Claudine et le poussin, in the first of several performances as a young aristocratic lover. In the next few years he made films with Marcel L'Herbier, Jean Epstein, and Abel Gance. By 1927 he was established as a popular young leading man, with interviews and covers photos in film magazines. He was at the same time dissatisfied with the type of roles which he was offered and he cultivated links with avant-garde circles, especially the surrealists. In 1927 he met Luis Buñuel and their discussions led to their subsequent collaboration on Un chien andalou in the following year.
In 1926 Batcheff met Denise Piazza, the daughter of a publisher, and they married in 1930. As Denise Batcheff, and later Denise Tual, she became a film editor and producer.
In the ten years of his film career, Batcheff made around 25 films. At the time of his death, he was engaged in a project with Jacques Prévert to write and direct a film which proved to be sufficiently radical to alarm some financial backers. Batcheff's behaviour showed signs of stress and became increasingly erratic, and in April 1932 he died from an overdose of drugs, possibly by suicide.
One of the Parisian newspapers reporting on his death summarised his contemporary appeal as an actor: "As an artist, he brought an extremely personal tone of refinement, of sensitivity and of melancholy, which was not devoid of strength, and this earned him a very wide popularity". It also noted that on the day after his death he had been due to sign a contract with a producer to direct his first film.

Filmography

YearOriginal titleEnglish titleDirectorNotes
1923''Maurice de Marsan and Charles MaudruLost film.
1924Claudine et le poussinMarcel ManchezRole of Claude de Puygiron
1925Princesse LuluÉmile-Bernard DonatienLost film.
1925Autour d'un berceauGeorges Monca and Maurice KéroulLost film.
1925'Jean Epstein
1926Feu Mathias Pascal'Marcel L'HerbierRole of Scipion.
1926DestinéeHenry RousselLost film.
1926'Georges PalluLost film.
1927''Raymond BernardRole of Prince Serge Oblonoff.
1927NapoléonAbel GanceRole of General Hoche.
1927Éducation de princeEducation of a PrinceHenri Diamant-Berger
1927En radeAlberto Cavalcanti
1927'Siren of the TropicsMario Nalpas and Henri ÉtiévantWith Josephine Baker.
1928'Gaston RavelLost film.
1928'Island of LoveJean Durand and Berthe Dagmar
1928VivreRobert BoudriozLost film.
1928'Jean Milva
1929'Two Timid SoulsRené Clair
1929Un chien andalou'Luis BuñuelShort film.
1929Monte CristoHenri FescourtRole of Albert de Mortcerf.
1930IllusionsLucien Mayrargue
1930''Leo MittlerLost film.
1931'Augusto Genina and Marc AllégretAlso in German version Mitternachtsliebe.
1931''Adelqui MigliarLost film.
1932BaroudBaroudRex Ingram and Alice TerryBatcheff appeared in both French and English versions.
1932Amour... Amour...Robert BibalBatcheff wrote the script only; filmed and released after his death.