"Jacques Feyder, the author of "Le Grand jeu"" ""Pension Mimosas" and "La Kermesse héroïque"" "produced almost half his work before the talkies arrived." "He began in 1915 at Gaumont and, in 1921, had his first international hit with "L'Atlantide" based on the novel by Pierre Benoît." ""Crainquebille" his second independent film, which came out a year later, was in a more realist vein." "It related the misadventures of a street merchant struggling with French justice." "The "Faces of children" project started as a commission from two producers in Lausanne," "Dimitri de Zoubaloff and Arthur Porchet, who thought the director of "L'Atlantide"" "could produce a work of international renown." "A unique film, directed and written by Feyder," ""Faces of Children" owes a lot of its psychological truth to Feyder's own family situation." "And especially to the support of his wife and collaborator," "Françoise Rosay." "She was his assistant on the set, and when Feyder went to Vienna for a fortnight to negotiate his next contract, she stood in for him, supervising the link shots at Joinville studios." "Another collaborator whose contribution was essential was the great Léonce-Henri Burel." "Abel Gance's own cinematographer, he'd already worked on Crainquebille the technical wizardry of which had contributed to Feyder's reputation as a master." "For "Faces of Children"" "Burel glorifies the rough beauty of the Valais countryside, making it a central character, like the great Swedish films of Sjöström and Stiller." "Feyder and Burel also pulled off some technical feats, like the night scene lit purely by torches, when the villagers search for the girl lost in the snow." "This at a time when night scenes were usually shot in daylight, and then tinted blue or green during the editing." "Even more surprising, is this avalanche scene with the camera surfing on the glacier as it hurtles down the mountain." "The critics of the time appreciated this authenticity, already evident in "L'Atlantide"" "for which Feyder had shot several exteriors in the Sahara." "For "Faces of Children" cheating was not an option." "Feyder simply took his whole crew to Switzerland, to the Haut Valais, and shot the exteriors there during the spring and summer of 1923." "Real peasants, some of whom had never seen a camera before, or even been in a cinema, were the extras, providing much depth to scenes like that of the funeral cortege and the wedding scene, shot in the village of Grimenz." "Only the interiors of the chalet and the chapel buried under snow were shot in Joinville studios, in Paris, as were some link shots." "Besides its authenticity, what still strikes us about the film is the very modern way it looks at unhappy childhood, without sentimentality." "French films had featured children since before the war, but only as cute and amusing puppets." "No one thought of studying them as real characters." "So Feyder was making a radical breakaway from the usual comedies and melodramas by telling a sombre story without literary credentials or comic relief." "To do this, he had a small but significant asset:" "Jean Forest, a kid of the streets of Montmartre, who'd been in "Crainquebille"" "a natural actor of incredible sensitivity." "Once the film had been shot, a disagreement between Feyder and the distribution company," "Les Grands Films Indépendants, meant that the reels were seized and Feyder had to wait a year to complete the editing." ""Faces of Children" finally came out in March 1925 and was immediately hailed by the critics as a landmark, although the public stayed away." "A first restoration of the film was done in 1986, by the Belgian Cinémathèque Royale, using material from Brussels, Amsterdam and Lausanne, as well as additional material from the Cinémathèque Française which it had already restored." "Two elements were still missing:" "the titles and the colour, which was very important in Feyder's silent films." "In 1993, as part of the "Lumière" project of the "Média" programme, with the participation of the Belgian Cinémathèque Royale, the collaboration of the Cinémathèque Française and the support of Gosfilmofond in Moscow," "the Nederland Film Museum in Amsterdam undertook a new colour restoration, using two nitrate prints coming from two different negatives as well as three acetate reels." "Finally, in 2004," "Lobster completed this restoration with digital technology, stabilising the image and reducing the spots and stains." "At the same time, the original French titles were restored from two 17.5mm prints in its collection." ""Faces of Children" is a cinematic masterpiece about the world of childhood." "Jean Mitry wrote, in his "History of cinema", that "besides the "Napoleon" triptych and "Chapeau de paille d'Italie" If I had to pick out one film of French production for this decade it would, without a doubt, be "Faces of Children"."