Le Carnaval des vérités
1920 film
Le Carnaval des vérités is a 1920 French silent film written and directed by Marcel L'Herbier.
Background
After completing a commercial film for Léon Gaumont, Marcel L'Herbier was offered a contract to work on a prestigious series of films which would be known as "Gaumont Série Pax". Although the terms of the contract placed unwelcome restrictions upon his control over his work, L'Herbier realised that it also offered him an unparalleled opportunity to benefit from the international links of the Gaumont company and to work in the best technical facilities then available. His first project, which he was both to write and to direct, was Le Carnaval des vérités, a symbolist drama about the struggle between Truth and Falsehood.
Production
Filming took place on location on the Basque coast near Biarritz in November 1919 and subsequently at the Studios de La Villette in Paris.
The central role in the film was played by the stage actress Suzanne Desprès, who was making her first appearance in a film. Other parts were taken by the experienced Paul Capellani and two actors who would make regular appearances in L'Herbier's silent films, Marcelle Pradot and Jaque Catelain.
Great emphasis was placed on the visual design of the film, and one of the two set-designers was Claude Autant-Lara, then aged 18 and undertaking his first job in cinema. His work included a "phantasmagoric" set for the climactic scene of the film which featured a masked ball.
Plot
Comtesse Della Gentia and her lover Paul attempt to seduce and blackmail a rich neighbour Juan, who is in love with a naïve young friend of theirs, Clarisse.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Le Carnaval des vérités” as 1920 film. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1920 film. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3220846. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1920 and 1919.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Le Carnaval des vérités” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.