Mabel's Directors

Over the course of her career Normand would work with at least 25 unique directors, including herself. Some she worked with more frequently than others, and to that extent we might consider how important they were to the shape of her career. Some of the directors Normand worked with were names that would persist through film history enjoy exceptional regard today, but others did not.

Some Disclaimers

Over the course of her career Normand would work with at least 25 unique directors, including herself. Some she worked with more frequently than others, and to that extent we might consider how important they were to the shape of her career. Some of the directors Normand worked with were names that would persist through film history enjoy exceptional regard today, but others did not.

A Numbers Game?

This treemap is a good starting point for talking about the directors that Mabel Normand worked with most, but doesn’t tell the whole story. While it gives a good sense of scale for how many films she made with Mack Sennett at Keystone (and Biograph before that), there are a few reasons that directing the most films might not be the best indicator of importance. The first and most obvious reason is that not each film she made was not equally important, unique, successful, or influential. Another is that Sennett is not the sole credited director in every film of hers he made. The unimodal and bimodal networks below better reflect these considerations, as the relationship between each director and the films themselves is less hierarchical.

A Network Game

Direction in early film might best be represented in this way, as it can account much better for the collaborative aspect of many silent comedies. In this bimodal graph we can see these directors' relationship to Normand (the actor) through the films they made together. In the unimodal graph, we get a more direct sense of influence, rather than authority. In both, you can click a node (the dots) and drag it around the window to see how much they pull the rest of the network. Certainly Normand (the director) wont have as much pull as Sennett, but it is more than many of the others.

Yet Another (More Specific) Word of Caution

Scholars interested in accounting more fully for her influence on early comedy and film production might be warned to avoid over-valuing the role of director as an indication of Normand’s creative vision and authority on set. Doing so risks falling into flawed, traditional notions of the artist as a singular genius that wields mastery over their work, craft, and collaborators. Such a model of criticism will not fit well into Normand’s story just as it wont fit with thoughtful engagement with the historical period.

To this point, It is worth noting that Normand did not want to direct Mickey (1918), which was a major vehicle for the star and the first picture she would make at the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company. Instead she sought out Richard F. Jones, who she must have felt would be an excellent collaborator. In this way she might resemble the great actors-producers of film history who have known how to broker their star-personas in front of the camera and behind it.