Catherine Hessling

Acting

Catherine Hessling

Born — Died

1900-06-22 — 1979-09-28

Place of birth

Moronvilliers, Marne, France

Known for

Acting

Credits

15 titles

Catherine Hessling, born Andrée Madeleine Heuschling, was a French stage and screen actress and the first wife of film director Jean Renoir. Hessling appeared in 15, mostly silent, films before retiring from the acting profession and withdrawing from public life in the mid-1930s.

Known for

Film credits

1930s · 5 titles

1920s · 9 titles

Nana poster
6.6

Count Moffat becomes infatuated with Nana, a presumptuous stage actress, vulgar, hypocritical and promiscuous, willing to do anything to succeed.

Nana

1926

Whirlpool of Fate poster
6.5

Orphan Virginia is left destitute following her father's death and her uncle's alcoholism; she finds refuge with bohemians but is forced to flee, eventually finding romance and a life-altering experience that triggers surreal dreams.

Whirlpool of Fate

1925

Backbiters poster
6.8

About the conflict between social classes through the life of the unhappy Catherine Ferrand, an orphan girl, who is a victim of the jealousy of women and the greed of men.

Backbiters

1927

The Little Match Girl poster
6.9

An impoverished girl tries to sell matches on New Year's Eve. Shivering with cold and unable to sell her wares, she sits in a sheltered nook. Striking a match to keep warm, the flame shows her what's beyond.

The Little Match Girl

1928

No artwork available
8.0

Paris 1883. Yvette is the daughter of a courtesan who serves men of wealth and status. She is unaware of how her mother makes money and why they are always in the presence of princes, dukes and barons. Only when Yvette goes away on a holiday she realizes that the Banker Saval is engaging her mother in such activities, she suddenly feels dirty.

Yvette

1927

La P’tite Lili poster
5.1

La P’tite Lili is a silent short drama depicting the fate of a young orphaned girl in the working-class districts of Paris. The film follows Lili, a teenage girl marked by innocence and vulnerability, as she is drawn into the city’s underworld after encountering a man who exploits her circumstances. Told through impressionistic visual style rather than dialogue, the film presents a tragic portrait of social marginalization and moral collapse within an urban environment.

La P’tite Lili

1927

The Sad Sack poster
6.7

The tale of a rich, flaky poet and his servant who both join the army and wind up in the same barracks.

The Sad Sack

1928

Sea Fever poster
6.6

The ill-fated romance of a brow-beaten seaport slum café waitress and a young man with a possessive mother, who dreams of going out to sea.

Sea Fever

1927

Charleston Parade poster
6.0

Shot in three days, this surreal, erotic silent short shows a native white girl teaching a futuristic African airman the Charleston dance.

Charleston Parade

1927

Series credits