A young man in his thirties, Julien Duvivier (1896-1967) has already made twenty or so films when he made Maman Colibri in 1929. The film director’s talent made hugely famous by Pépé le Moko (1936) and Pot-Bouille (1957) was already well-known.  Following the success of Poil de Carotte (1925), he joined Film d’Art, a prestigious production company for which he made Maman Colibri. The result of a collaboration with the UFA, a famous German firm, the film enjoyed an international cast:  Italian Maria Jacobini (1892-1944) held the starring role alongside Franz Lederer (1899-2000) who the French public had just discovered in Loulou by G. W. Pabst (1885-1967). Duvivier adapted a play by Henry Bataille (1872-1922), a French author in vogue whose work depicted the decadence and hypocrisy of the upper class.  In 1904, Maman Colibri’s performances had caused a scandal!

Outdoor scenes were filmed in Algeria in April 1929, at a time when France was about to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of this colony.  It was the chance for the film director to exercise his talents for shooting on location appreciated in the sequence re-enacting an attack by the garrison. Then the team joined the Joinville studios to film indoors.  Future film director Christian-Jaque’s (1904-1994) sumptuous decor, the magnificence of the extras, the costumes and the light were hailed by the critics proving that Duvivier mastered the techniques of silent film perfectly.

When the film was released in February 1930, talking films and their innovation where what attracted the public to cinemas making Maman Colibri already obsolete.  How sadly ironic, boldly adapting such a wordy play to silent film!

The original music for this film was composed by Amaury Chabauty in 2010 in the context of the call for proposals launched in partnership with the Sacem (Société des auteurs compositeurs et éditeurs de musique – Society of authors, composers and music editors).