Jean Durand

DirectorWriter

Jean Durand (1882–1946) was a French screenwriter and film director of the silent era. He was extremely prolific, working on well over two hundred films. He was married to the actress Berthe Dagmar.

Birthday

Zodiac Sign

Genres

Total Films

Also known as (male)

Place of Birth

Birthday

Zodiac Sign

Genres

Total Films

Also Known As (male)

Place of Birth

Popular works

Media

Creative career

actor

0 Works

producer

0 Works

director

78 Works

writer

4 Works

other

0 Works

An Ideal Woman

Based on a novel by José Pérez de Rozas. In Seville, Angel Caal, a Parisian businessman, escapes blindness after a car accident, thanks to the dedicated care of Mercédès, intended for the convent. They fall in love and Mercedes soon discovers the temptations of Paris.

6.5

Year:

1929

An Ideal Woman

6.5

Year:

1929

Island of Love

0.0

Year:

1929

Island of Love

0.0

Year:

1929

Palaces

Nadia de Hock breaks her engagement to another man because of her love to the marquis d'Areghi. She lives a life of pleasure until Areghi reveals he is just an adventurer who has just killed his brother. He asks her to sign a letter so he can use her as his alibi. Some time later, Areghi is attacked by Nadia's guard dogs as he tries to see her. He dies as she forgives him for the pain he caused her.

0.0

Year:

1927

Palaces

0.0

Year:

1927

La chaussée des géants

When he was a child, François Gérard got to know Antiope, a little foreigner, in a Paris park. As an adult, he sees her again in her native country, Mingrelia, which is on the verge of revolution. He is then the host of Count of Antrim, who is also Antiope's father. However, once in the presence of François, the young woman does not seem particularly moved, which somewhat puzzles him.

0.0

Year:

1926

Marie Among the Predators

0.0

Year:

1922

Marie Among the Predators

0.0

Year:

1922

Onésime's Family Drama

Much to his annoyance, Onésime's relatives arrive to stay with him, and the family resemblance is striking.

0.0

Year:

1914

Onésime gardien du foyer

Seated comfortably in the green pastures near his home, Batty Bill is suddenly presented with a baby, but with his usual dull wits he is slow to realize the catastrophe that has befallen him. When he does so, the giver of this great gift has disappeared. Poor Batty Bill endeavors to leave the baby everywhere, but without success. Ultimately he is, as he thinks, more successful, and is able to give the baby over to the police. A little later he is about to be married, when the police come and insist upon him taking his child. The indignation of his prospective wife is very amusing, and the whole thing causes a great joke from end to end.

0.0

Year:

1914

Onésime et son collègue

Batty Bill has some bachelor apartments. He also has a friend, who has fallen in love. These lovers adjourn to Batty Bill's apartments, where unfortunately for Batty Bill, they are traced by the wrathful father, who spites his wrath on the furniture and contents. While doing this, he is discovered by Batty Bill, who, in his humble endeavors to stop the damage, becomes himself the object of the father's fury and is chased through all sorts of ridiculous mix-ups, from roof to roof and through shops alike.

0.0

Year:

1914

Mister Smith Makes an Opening

Anarchy and madness result when a plague of rabbits overrun the country home of an unrepentant hunter, in this “day of the lepus” farce.

0.0

Year:

1914

Onésime, Trainer of Men and Horses

An early Gaumont short.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime Loves Animals

Looking after his aunt and uncle's house when they're away, animal lover Onésime turns it into a hospital for sick animals.

0.0

Year:

1913

Course de taureaux provençale

An early Gaumont short

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime, You'll Get Married... or Else!

Onésime becomes enamoured of a girl and sends a messenger to her on a motorcycle.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime: Calino's Inheritance

Calino's uncle leaves him an inheritance, but only if he can uncover it hidden in his uncle's house. Detective Onésime is called in to help, and is soon tangling with some criminals after the treasure too.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime sur le sentier de guerre

French parody western.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime et le pas de l'ours

The fact that the Four Arts Club were organizing an international competition of modern dances was welcome news to Simple Simon. When he ascertained that the dances would include the Cake Walk, Serpentine Crawl. Piccadilly Flop, Tango, the Wriggly Wriggle, and the Bear Dance, he selected the latter. Simon resolved to seek a teacher in its native haunts. He wandered up the mountainside and chanced upon a strolling Bruin, which he decided to capture. Learning to dance in the ordinary way holds sufficient excitement for most people. Simon, however, found that the bear dance provided unsuspected thrills. He made rapid progress, so much so in fact he won the prize.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime champion de boxe

Ernest Bourbon -- that's Onesime -- has decided to learn to box, for some reason, and also fight an American fighter who's touring France.

5.0

Year:

1913

Onésime et son âne

Ernest Bourbon discovers that a shower of gold coins fall from his donkey's hindquarters -- I've phrased that as politely as I can. Now rich, he moves to the city, dresses well and hires servants. Unlike the one about the goose that lays the golden eggs, he treats his benefactor well, even though the donkey doesn't seem to enjoy the process.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime et l'oeuvre d'art

Ernest Bourbon gets a bust delivered. Eduoard Grissolet visits him and rhapsodizes over it. Then Bourbon is taken to the loony bin, where they perform some extreme slapstick on him. He escapes, heads home, crawls into bed. The police break in. They take him to an interrogation room and push him out a window.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime, Post Office Employee

Users of the postal service aren't very happy that Onésime spends his work time writing love letters to a lovely lady. Understandably, the woman's husband doesn't take it very well either. To escape his wrath, Onésime can think of nothing better than slipping into the mail duct. And it's pneumatic.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime and the Heart of the Gypsy

While accompanying his lady to a fashionable casino, Onésime hears someone playing an overpowering waltz on a mandolin, and he starts dancing with his lady. Everyone, from the kitchen hands to the chef, dance until their out of breath.

0.0

Year:

1913

Onésime's Theatrical Debut

Onésime came down and threw himself on stage, starting into the great aria at which he excelled. We must say, in respect for the truth, that he earned what critics calls "the estimated success": Onésime, who has the voice of a barrel salesman, sings like the pulley in a well.

0.0

Year:

1913

Calino sourcier

A magic wand falls into Calino's hands, and he turns everything he touches into running water, until he falls victim to his own witchcraft. The catastrophic meets the fantastic, for the triumph of the absurd.

0.0

Year:

1913

The Disappearance of Onésime

When Onésime gets declared dead by drowning, the supposed-widow consults a private detective specialized in missing persons.

5.0

Year:

1913

Onésime Gets Married... So Does Calino

Difficulties ensue when Calino and Onésime get married on the same day, in the same registry office.

0.0

Year:

1913

Un mariage au revolver

An early Gaumont short

0.0

Year:

1912

Oxford vs. Martigues

Rugby players play the game throughout the city streets.

4.0

Year:

1912

Onésime a un duel à l'américaine

Onésime short

0.0

Year:

1912

Onésime et l'étudiante

Onésime short

4.0

Year:

1912

Under the Claw: A Story of the Transvaal

A mine owner discovers a vein of gold but unfortunately dies. His wife doesn't want to sell the mine and so the forman decides to lock her up in a cottage with a dangerous and hungry leopard.

0.0

Year:

1912

Calino, Station Master

Calino is left in charge of a railway station.

4.0

Year:

1912

Burning Heart: An Indian Tale

An Indian maiden wishes to marry her lover, but her father refuses because he does not have the requisite bride price.

4.0

Year:

1912

Onésime and Mademoiselle Badinois’ Outfit

Pétronille, a maid, borrows one of her employer's dress to go out with her boyfriend Onésime but the outfit is ruined during the meeting.

0.0

Year:

1912

Onesime, Clockmaker

In an effort to secure a promised inheritance, Onésime invents a time machine that speeds up activity on earth, hyper-animates men and machines, and telescopes the human life-cycle.

5.7

Year:

1912

Zigoto Drives a Locomotive

When the train workers go on strike, Zigoto terrorizes the town in a hijacked locomotive.

4.0

Year:

1912

The Railway of Death

When gold is discovered the first man there gets to stake his claim. Joe and another man race each other, which involves a thrilling episode on a train.

4.5

Year:

1912

Onésime Goes to Hell

Not having enough money to pay his drink bill, Onésime sells his soul to the Devil.

0.0

Year:

1912

Zigoto et la blanchisseuse

For some time now, Sosthène, clerk at the Grand Laundromat of Papillon-sous-Bois, has been in love with Alphonsine, the girl who brings the laundry. One evening, he decides to win the heart of his beloved, who until now has been cruel and deaf to his fiery declarations, and if necessary, he'll kidnap her. Hidden at the edge of the woods, when Alphonsine goes by, Sosthène rolls through the grass until he lands at the beauty's feet, proclaiming his love in a deranged voice: "Be mine, or die!", "You idiot!". Blood rushes to Sosthène's head. His breath becomes so ragged that it can be heard a mile away, catching the attention of the famous detective Zigoto who was walking Bouboule, his no less famous police dog.

0.0

Year:

1912

Zigoto et le château mystérieux

Berthe Dagmar is kidnapped and Lucien Bataille is almost immediately on the case: examining the road with a magnifying glass, putting a straw hat on a horse, climbing a high gate, and duckwalking across a parapet. Nothing will stop him in his quest to.... well, whatever it is he's doing.

0.0

Year:

1912

Zigoto gardien de grand magasin

Lucien Bataille is hired as security for the department store, and proceeds to wreck much of it to keep anyone from from stealing anything.

0.0

Year:

1912

Onésime et la grève des mineurs

Ernest Bourbon, with his idiotic smile perpetually plastered on his face, invites the miners into his apartment, which they accidentally destroy. Miners, as we know, always carry their shovels and pickaxes with them, and never wash.

0.0

Year:

1912

Zigoto's Honeymoon

In the grip of passionate foreplay, Zigoto and his lover are oblivious to an escalating series of interruptions and catastrophes going on around them. (MoMA)

4.0

Year:

1912

Onésime et le nourrisson de la nourrice indigne

Onésime needs to take care of an infant and does everything he can to avoid that responsibility.

5.0

Year:

1912

Calino s'endurcit la figure

There is one joke in this slapstick from Jean Durand's comedy unit at Gaumont: Calino wants to win a boxing match, and decides that he needs to toughen up one part of his body: no glass jaw for him! So he subjects his chin to various punishment, all of which he endures with no sign of discomfort.

0.0

Year:

1912

Calino, Love Tamer

One day, Calino has the bold and imprudent idea to follow a woman down the street. The woman leads him all the way to the traveling lion cage run by her husband. To avoid her husband's jealous anger, the woman introduces Calino as an apprentice lion tamer.

0.0

Year:

1912

Calino courtier en paratonnerres

Calino goes politely around to three or four people from the bourgeois class, trying to sell them a lightning rod: but due to a factory defect, the apparatus attracts lightning instead of driving it away.

4.0

Year:

1912

Zigoto et l'écuyère

Lucien Bataille finds himself hired as a secretary to an elderly man. His principal duty is to make sure that the man's niece, Berthe Dagmar, doesn't see the young man she's interested in. No problem! Bataille finds himself assigned a spirited horse when called on to accompany the young lady in her equestrian exercises.

0.0

Year:

1912

Onésime est trop timide

Ernest Bourbon is introduced to a young lady, object matrimony. Unfortunately for him, he slips the ring on the other girl.

0.0

Year:

1912

Zigoto's Outing with Friends

The short by Jean Durand begins with his frequent character, Zigoto (Lucien Bataille) reading a boring book. So, instead he goes on an outing in his new car with his friends. The captioning says it's a new '101 horsepower car'--this, during an age when the horsepower of cars actually was between 4-30 horsepower! So, in other words, it's supposed to be a super-fast car.

4.0

Year:

1912

One Hundred Dollars, Dead or Alive

An early Gaumont short.

5.0

Year:

1912

La prairie en feu

A Sioux tribe, led by their great chief, wreaks revenge on the palefaces by setting fire to a nearby village. But the cowboys fight back and mortally wound the great chief.

5.0

Year:

1912

Onésime: Costume Boy

While the costume maker Onésime is absent, his mannequins begin to play...

0.0

Year:

1912

Onésime vs. Onésime

His double behaves very badly, while the real Onésime suffers the consequences.

0.0

Year:

1912

Onésime et le physicien

0.0

Year:

1912

Une Plaidroierie De Calino

Early short comedy

0.0

Year:

1912

Pendaison à Jefferson City

Joe is about to be hung for his crimes but he's going to reveal the whole truth first.

4.8

Year:

1911

La nuit de noces de Calino

Early Calino short

0.0

Year:

1911

No! You’re Not Going Anywhere Without Me!

An early Gaumont short

4.0

Year:

1911

Telemechanics

A device using radio waves can make machines and people move from a distance.

0.0

Year:

1911

Calino polygame

Against a painted backdrop of palm trees, Clément Mégé accepts an Arab's offer of three Black wives out of a tent. He takes them back to Paris, where they wreak havoc not only on his apartment, but his favorite bistro.

0.0

Year:

1911

Eugénie, Stand Up Straight!

Poor Eugénie! She's humpbacked and everyone wants to straighten her out, but when success finally comes, she's too tall not to cause disasters. To solve the problem, the help of a sword swallower is urgently needed.

5.7

Year:

1911

Calino et ses pensionnaires

Calino decides to take a boarder. The gentleman turns out to be a huntsman. All goes well until pay day when the roomer refuses to get out of bed to pay his bill. He says that his pocketbook is in one of his trunks in the garret. Up goes the anxious Calino and his officious mother and sister only to find, upon ransacking each trunk, a furious African lion emerge. The hungry beasts pursue the trio in full haste and the complications and situations encountered are unusually comical. Calino never pays the board bill.

4.0

Year:

1911

Zigoto and the Affair of the Necklace

The film begins with the Count giving an actress a necklace. However, after her performance, the valuable necklace is missing and so the actress goes to hire some detectives to find it. I loved the strange detective agency in the film. The place had a sliding door, chains on the wall and detectives seem to magically appear out of the floor. It was very kooky but fun.

5.0

Year:

1911

Calino Wants to Be a Cowboy

Calino wants to live the cowboy life and travels to America to see the West.

4.0

Year:

1911

Zigoto plombier d'occasion

A French comedy short with Zigoto.

4.0

Year:

1911

The Rembrandt in Rue Lepic

A couple buy what is advertised as a Rembrandt painting, but a wild slapstick chase ensues after a woman sits on it.

4.5

Year:

1911

Calino's Baptism

A short Calino film.

4.0

Year:

1911

Le truc d'Anatole

A husband steps out at night, and the wife decides to leave him.

0.0

Year:

1911

Le Maillot à Pointes D'acier

A man, tired of being hit by his wife, finds an ad for a spiked vest to protect him - but will it protect others from him?

0.0

Year:

1911

Calino médecin par amour

An old Gaumont movie.

0.0

Year:

1911

Zigoto, policier, trouve une corde

Just as the streets to hell, to hear it from the travelers, are paved with good intentions, the illustrious police officer Zigoto's brain is full of the most commendable initiatives. While passing before a door, he sees a piece of rope underneath and thinks it his duty to bend down and pick it up. But he's amazed to see that the more he pulls, the longer the cord becomes: "For a thousand prefects - that was his favorite exclamation - do they take me for a pulley?" Upon the arrival of two officers, the men open the door, when all of a sudden a black, horned mass crashes into them.

0.0

Year:

1911

In the Air

Julius wants to marry Nelly, but her uncle forbids that. An attempt to court her failed, but the second attempt with the help of an aircraft might work.

0.0

Year:

1910

A Drama on a Locomotive

Henri and Pierre, railroad engineers, are both in love with Jeanne. When Pierre refuses to give her up, a fight breaks out in the engine, imperiling everyone aboard the train.

0.0

Year:

1910

Elastic Transformation

A woman enters a room with a man. She creates a duplicate of him and changes his personality by throwing his clothes from one man to the next.

5.0

Year:

1909