French film director and screenwriter of the silent era. He directed films between 1905 and 1922. One of his brothers was the actor-sculptor Paul Capellani and another the film director Roger Capellani.
Capellani, along with his brother Paul, studied acting under Charles le Bargy at the Conservatoire de Paris. Starting his career as an actor, he worked with the director Andr‚ Antoine at the Th‚ƒtre Libre and the Od‚on. He then began directing plays for the Od‚on, working alongside the lauded actor and director Firmin G‚mier. In 1903, he became the head of the Alhambra music hall in Paris.
He continued to work as an actor and director until he received a job offer from the Path‚ FrŠres studio in 1905. Charles Path‚, who held high hopes for the artistic potential of film as a medium, invited him to join the artistic staff under the direction of Ferdinand Zecca. When Path‚ in 1908 launched a “prestige” production unit, the Soci‚t‚ des Auteurs et des Gens de Lettres (SCAGL), Capellani became its first artistic director. During his Path‚ career, he worked as an adviser and supervisor to various directors, including Michel Carr‚, Georges Denola, Henri ti‚vant, and Georges Monca.
He often drew upon his theatrical background to cast stage actor colleagues for his films, such as Henry Krauss, who appeared as Quasimodo in his The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1911) and as Jean Valjean in his Les Mis‚rables (fr) (1912). Les Mis‚rables also gave the actress Mistinguett her first important screen role.
His films cover many genres, including melodramas, fairy tales, costume dramas with historical and biblical themes, and literary adaptations, especially after taking up directorship of SCAGL in 1908. Characteristics of his style include a keen sense for staging actors in three-dimensional space, dynamic use of location filming, and an attention to subtle, realistic details that highlight the humanity of his characters.
In 1915, he moved to the United States and worked for the film studios Path‚ Exchange, Metro Pictures Corporation, the World Film Company, Cosmopolitan Productions, Nazimova Productions, and his own newly created studio, Capellani Productions, Inc. Under his direction, Alla Nazimova rose to prominence as one of the greatest silent film stars in Hollywood.
Capellani returned to France in 1923, where he floated several new film projects but was unable to bring any to fruition. He died of diabetes in Paris on 26 September 1931, aged 57.
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