An astounding portrait of tragedy seen through the eyes of a young boy, Visages d'Enfants (aka Faces of Children, 1925) opens with 11-year-old Jean (Jean Forest) watching as his mother's coffin is carried out of his father's home. With remarkable point of view photography, director Jacques Feyder shows Jean's perspective during the emotionally devastating act of following along with the other villagers in the Swiss mountain community of Saint-Luc as his mother's body is buried in the local cemetery. Meanwhile his oblivious 4-year-old sister Pierrette (Pierrette Houyez) plays happily, unaware of the life-altering tragedy that is unfolding.

As time passes, Jean remains haunted by his mother's death. He keeps a portrait above his bed and every night imagines his mother (Suzy Vernon) has come to life and is smiling at him. Every Sunday he and his father (Victor Vina) lay flowers at his mother's grave. Change comes dramatically in the form of a village widow, Jeanne (Rachel Devirys), with a young daughter Arlette (Arlette Peyran). As the town's mayor, Pierre learns of her financial struggles and becomes romantically linked to Jeanne. The two decide to marry, but fearing how his sensitive son will take the news, Pierre decides to send Jean on a two week vacation with his kindly godfather and priest (Henri Duval). The priest will break the news of the remarriage to Jean and when he returns home, all will be settled. But acclimation to this new life does not come easy for Jean. He fights constantly with his new stepsister Arlette, and over time the pair develop a real hatred of each other. In Jean's eyes, he has been displaced, moved out of his former room into a smaller one and his own mother's legacy forgotten when he sees his stepmother wearing her broach or planning to use his mother's former dress as material for a new garment.

Feyder shows remarkable skill and empathy in looking at the tragic loss of his mother through Jean's eyes in a script co-written with Francoise Rosay, his wife and the mother of his three sons. In one of the film's most poignant of many memorable scenes, Jean retrieves his mother's dress from a wooden trunk. He lays it flat on the chest and sits at the foot of the gown, laying his head in the "lap" as if seeking comfort from his own mother. Visages d'Enfants is a powerful portrait of how profoundly loss registers in a child's life and how oblivious adults can be to that pain.

In History of World Cinema film theorist Jean Mitry said of Feyder's film, "If I could select only one film from the entire French production of the 1920s, surely it is Faces of Children that I would save." Others have compared the emotional power of the film and its unique sympathy for its child's point of view to another French masterwork, Francoise Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1959). The film also bears some resemblance to another child's view of loss by French director Jacques Doillon, Ponette (1996).

Full of maverick filmmaking techniques in addition to its radical vision of life seen through Jean's eyes, Visages d'Enfants, at one point, takes the point-of-view of an avalanche as it makes its way down a mountaintop to dramatically alter the course of Jean's life. Stylistic innovation is just one part of Visages' success. As an entertainer, Feyder is remarkable, generating stomach-churning suspense from that avalanche and later, from Jean's harrowing attempt to take his own life.

Though the film's subtlety and insight give Visages a timeless feel, and a power that remains today, the film was not a box office success despite some favorable press at the time of its release.

One of the founders of the French cinema's genre of poetic realism, Jacques Feyder was born in 1885 Belgium and came from a long line of military men. His decision to enter show business was a source of great disgust for his father who forbid him to use the family name on the stage.

Feyder's first directing opportunity came courtesy of World War I when so many directors were serving in the war that Feyder was called upon to direct a string of comedies.

In keeping with his penchant for realism, Feyder distinguished his directorial identity by shooting his films on location, including Queen of Atlantis/L'Atlantide (1921) shot in the scorching heat of the Sahara, Crainquebille (1922) filmed in the market area of Paris's Les Halles and Visages filmed in the breathtaking Haut-Valais region of Switzerland.

After a brief stint in Hollywood during the late Twenties, where he directed Greta Garbo in a silent, The Kiss (1929), then the German version of Anna Christie (1931), and Marlene Dietrich in Knight Without Armour (1937), Feyder returned to Europe where he continued to work in film until the mid-1940s. Visages was Feyder's follow-up film to 1922's Crainquebille, his successful drama of a lowly pushcart salesman who after being sent away to prison finds his life changed forever. Crainquebille was also the debut of the heartbreaking child actor Jean Forest, who played an orphan newsboy in that film. Feyder discovered him on the streets of Montmartre.

Producer: Dimitri De Zoubaloff, Francois Porchet
Director: Jacques Feyder
Screenplay: Jacques Feyder, Francoise Rosay
Cinematography: Leonce-Henri Burel, Paul Parguel
Art Direction: Jacques Feyder
Cast: Jean Forest (Jean Amsler), Victor Vina (Pierre Amsler), Arlette Pevran (Arlette Dutois), Henri Duval (Le Canonier), Rachel Devirys (Jeanne Dutois), Jeanne Marie-Laurent (La domestique).
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by Felicia Feaster