Vintage French postcard. Imprimerie Moderne, Béziers. Publicity for Stacia Napierkowska's dancing in the lyrical tragedy Héliogabale, performed at the Arènes de Béziers on 21 and 23 August 1910. Photo by Félix. 'Mlle Napierkowska, 1re Danseuse de l'Opéra Comique'.
Exotic Stacia Napierkowska (1886-1945) was a fascinating star of the silent film era. The French actress and dancer is best remembered as the seductive but cruel Queen Antinéa in the classic fantasy L’Atlantide/Missing Husbands (1921). Between 1908 and 1926 she appeared in 86 films.
Stacia Napierkowska was born in Paris either in 1886 or in 1891, even if in 1922 in the magazine Mon Ciné she - quite ridiculously - declared herself to be born in 1896. Her father was Polish, her mother French. Part of her youth she lived in Turkey, where her father, descendant of Polish refugees, ran a local art academy in Scutari. In 1905 the family returned to Paris. Like Mistinguett, Napierkowska debuted as a dancer in the revues of the Folies-Bergère. Then she danced in a revival of Lysistrata by Maurice Donnay at the Bouffes-Parisiens. Albert Carré director of the Opéra Comique spotted her and engaged her for the production Fêtes Romaines (Roman Holiday), which he presented at the Théâtre Antique d'Orange. Her performance, but especially her statuesque body and her beauty, triggered an indescribable enthusiasm from thousands of spectators. The public’s fascination for her would endure for twenty years. In 1908 theatre maker André Antoine replaced her for Margarethe Zelle/ Mata Hari, whom he considered too primadonna-like. Napierkowska was an instant success in the play Anthar at the Odéon, which afterward knew a long tour along the capitals of Europe. Zelle contested her dismissal in court but only got a small compensation.
In the same year 1908, when she was already a star dancer at the Opéra Comique, Napierkowska made her film debut in L'empreinte ou la main rouge/The mark or The Red Hand (Paul Henri Burguet, 1908) with Max Dearly and Mistinguett. Philippe Pelletier at Ciné Artistes writes that “her perfect physique, her long black hair and dark eyes were quickly put to use to interpret exotic roles for productions of the Société Cinématographique des Auteurs et Gens de Lettres (Film Society of Authors and Men of Letters) directed by Albert Capellani”. Stacia Napierkowska often inserted dances into her film performances, such as in Dans l'Hellade/In Hellas (Charles Decroix, 1909), Cléopâtre/Cleopatra (Ferdinand Zecca, Henri Andréani, 1910) where she is a messenger who is poisoned and dances a dance of death, and Le pain des petits oiseaux/The Bread of Little Birds (Albert Capellani, 1911), in which she becomes a dance star.
Several Internet sources like Ciné-Artistes state that Stacia performed Queen Semiramis in Le sérail en dix volets/Sémiramis (Camille Morlhon, 1910), but that is incorrect - existing film copies show that the role was played by Yvonne Mirval. Stacia did play a very voluptuous - and again dancing - Esmeralda in an early silent adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris/The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Albert Capellani, 1911), opposite Henry Krauss as Quasimodo. Max Linder, always looking for pretty women, engaged Stacia Napierkowska as his partner in several short comedies like Max lance la mode/Max Sets the Fashion (René Leprince, Max Linder, 1912). In Spain she did a dance tour and appeared in the film Max toréador (Max Linder, 1913).
Stacia Napierkowska then set course to the United States with The Captive. This ballet captured the American public, but not the censors. In 1913, she was arrested during a performance in New York City which was declared indecent. After returning to France, Napierkowska stated in the New York Times (27 April 1913): "Really, I have not brought away a single pleasant memory from the United States" and "What a narrow-minded people they are -- how utterly impervious to any beautiful impression!"
In France her successful film career continued. She appeared as Marfa Koutiloff in the popular serial Les Vampires/The Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915) starring the equally exotic Musidora. Then Napierkowska went immediately to Rome to star in Lo stratagemma di Stasià/Stacia’s Stratagem (Ugo Falena, 1915) and a score of other Italian short and medium-length films during World War I, such as Effetti di luce (Ugo Falena, Ercole Luigi Morselli, 1916), La modella (Ugo Falena, 1916) and Chiffonnette (Ubaldo Pittei, 1916). In Rome, she tried to convince her close friend, journalist Germaine Dulac, to start making films. Dulac finally agreed on condition that Stacia would participate in her second film, the adventure Venus Victrix/In the storm of life (Germaine Dulac, 1917).
Stacia Napierkowska also directed a short silent film herself, L'Héritière de la manade/The Heiress of the Manade (Stacia Napierkowska, 1917). Also, she did a memorable wild, almost hysterical dance in the recently found and restored film La Tragica Fine di Caligula Imperator (Ugo Falena, 1917), in which her dance is the centerpiece of an otherwise average film. Afterward, Napierkowska took a break from the cinema and ballet to rest.
Stacia Napierkowska is probably best known for her role as Antinéa, Queen of Atlantis, in the fantasy film L'Atlantide/ Missing Husbands (Jacques Feyder, 1921). The director approached her for this part in 1919. IMDb cites director Jacques Feyder about this meeting: "Miss Napierkowska was an extraordinary dancer. I had seen her at a dance festival where she, as slim as a flower stalk, had been enthusiastically applauded by a crowd of Parisians admirers. A year later, having to choose actors for L'Atlantide, I proposed her for the leading part of Antinéa and the producer agreed; so, in a cold December afternoon, she was in my office, all wrapped in a fur coat, to sign the contract. I thought I did not remember so a plump face but my doubt vanished in a moment because I was too happy for having her in my film, and she left the office without having put off her coat.
The first costume rehearsal was an ugly surprise for me: during last year she had gained a thirty pounds of weight at least. Of course there was nothing to do but hoping that a hard work and the burning sun of Sahara could get my Antinéa a little less fat. It happened just the opposite: the air of the desert whetted her appetite more and more. The dresser complained for having to enlarge the costumes almost every day. Our headquarters were at Touggourt, in a hotel where the food was simply delicious, and because of it my most important occupations were to take away as much bread as possible from her table and tell her dreadful tales about the terrible effects of cream pastry when eaten under the tropical sun."
Despite an exuberance of boas, ostrich feathers and leopard skins, the filmmaker struggled to hide the overweight of his diva during the shooting in 1920. Finally, she would not dance in the film and merely played the vamp with her eyes. However, L'Atlantide/Atlantis became a great success and turned Stacia Napierkowska into one of the legends of silent cinema. Napierkowska made a few more films, even if it was almost her swan song too. Her last screen role was Salomé in Le berceau de dieu/The Cradle of God (Fred LeRoy Granville, 1926) starring Léon Mathot. After that she retired. Philippe Pelletier writes that she “then quickly sank into oblivion.”
Stacia Napierkowska died in 1945 in her hometown Paris.
