Month: March 2020

Blondine (1945)

BLONDINE (1945)
Article 4307 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-10-2013
Directed by Henri Mahe
Featuring Georges Marchal, Nicole Maurey, Michele Philippe
Country: France
What it is: Fairy Tale

A beautiful woman sets out on a quest to save a handsome prince from an evil queen.

I’m guessing somewhat on the plot description above because my print of this is in unsubtitled French, so I may have certain plot details awry. Still, I’m not sure that it’s the plot that is the prime attraction here (though I will add that if my plot description is correct, it’s the reverse of the usual fairy tale subject). No, it’s the wonderful set design and art design that give this one its flavor; at one time or another, I found myself comparing the visual look to the work of any number of highly visual directors and artists, such as Melies, Cocteau, Capek, Dr. Seuss, Escher or Dali. Most of my sources list the giant (who only appears fleetingly as far as I can tell) as the fantastic content, but there are a number of dwarfs as well, a walk under the water, a group of flower people, and many other fantasy touches. I’m not sure why it only has a 5.0 rating on IMDB; you’d think that its visual sense alone would rate it a little higher. Nevertheless, I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to rescue this one from my “ones that got away” list and enjoy it as well as I did.

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Whence Does He Come? (1906)

WHENCE DOES HE COME? (1906)
aka D’ou vient-il?
Article 4306 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-9-2013
Directed by Ferdinand Zecca
Cast unknown
Country: France
What is it: Trick short

A man in a bathing suit jumps out of the ocean onto a pier, and is followed by the rest of his clothing (which he puts on) and other accessories.

It’s basically a one-trick film; the footage of a man walking backwards up to a pier, tossing into the water his umbrella, dog, pipe and clothing, and then diving in himself is run backwards. I’m not sure whether this one was meant to mystify or amuse; you’d think that the backwards footage trick had been used enough up to that point that it wouldn’t surprise anyone. Yet, when I think of it, I actually haven’t seen backwards footage used that often in the early days of cinema, and I also wonder if the date may be correct. At any rate, we have another silent trick film on hand.

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What is Home Without the Boarder (1901)

WHAT IS HOME WITHOUT THE BOARDER (1901)
aka La maison tranquille
Article 4305 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-7-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Cast unknown
Country: France
What it is: Comedy

Three rambunctious boarders break a hole in the floor to terrorize the residents who live below them.

This movie is listed in the Walt Lee guide, but it neglects to list anything about its fantastic content. I’m guessing that it got in the list on the strength of seeing Melies as the director, because on viewing the short, I really don’t see any fantastic content. The closest it comes is in a scene where one of the boarders drops down to the room below, covers himself with a blanket, and then frightens someone entering the room. Though it could be argued that the resident thought it was a ghost, the fact that the boarder was hunched over and had sticks sticking out of both ends of the blanket leaves me to believe he was imitating an elephant, not a ghost. Therefore, this movie is a bit of a false alarm.

The movie is also devoid of typical Meliesian special effects, as well. The novelty of the short is that both floors are seen at the same time, and it seems to highlight the athleticism of the performers (one of which is probably Melies himself) in performing their feats of dropping down and climbing up to other floors. There’s really no plot to speak of, and it’s not particularly funny; it’s more interesting than effective.

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Sunnyside (1919)

SUNNYSIDE (1919)
Article 4304 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-5-2013
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Featuring Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Olive Ann Alcorn
Country: USA
What it is: Comedy

An incompetent and put-upon farmhand in a small town finds his small-town romance put into jeopardy when a city man turns up and threatens to steal her heart.

The fantastic content of this short is that at one point Chaplin’s character falls into a ditch and knocks himself unconscious. He dreams he is among a group of dancing wood nymphs. What this sequence has to do with the rest of the movie, I’m not sure, but then, the short really does have only the barest whisper of a plot; the city man doesn’t even show up until two-thirds of the way through the movie.

You know, sometimes I think that Chaplin’s strength wasn’t his comic inventiveness; in this short at least, the slapstick comedy that makes up most of the movie is pretty hit and miss. It’s when he probes the emotional depths of his character that he is strongest; the sequences surrounding his relationship with the woman he loves are the most interesting parts of the movie. There’s apparently some controversy about the ending; there’s obviously a dream sequence near the end of the movie, but whether it’s the final scene or the scenes right before it is ambiguous. I myself opted with the scenes before it as the dream sequence, though that may be simply because it’s the more conventional structure. All in all, this is a fairly average Chaplin short.

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Seven Years Bad Luck (1921)

SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK (1921)
Article 4303 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-4-2013
Directed by Max Linder
Featuring Max Linder, Alta Allen, Ralph McCullough
Country: USA / France
What it is: Comedy

A rich and soon-to-be-married bachelor breaks a mirror, and then tries to avoid the seven years bad luck that goes with it. However, despite his best efforts, bad luck begins to dog him and threatens to hoodwink his upcoming marriage.

This isn’t the first movie I’ve covered from Max Linder, but the other one I’ve seen (AU SECOURS! from 1922) is more of a special effects showcase and doesn’t feel really representative of his work. So I consider this one a more authentic example of the Max Linder experience, and I found it charming, delightful and very funny. I’m especially taken by the creativity of some of his comic bits; for example, this is the movie that debuted the famous mirror gag in which one person has to pretend to be another’s mirror reflection, and it’s in fine form here. There’s a great sequence in a zoo where, on the run from the police, Max seeks refuge in a lion cage. He also engages in numerous disguises, and even manages to pull off appearing in blackface (using a stocking over his head rather than makeup) without the gag becoming offensive; he’s doing it to elude pursuit only and doesn’t engage in stereotypical behavior. Granted, the fantastic content is iffy; it consists of the “seven years bad luck” curse, and the presence of a palm reader at a couple of points in the story. Nevertheless, I’m really glad to have seen this one and had a chance to see a master silent comedian in top form.

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The Waif and the Wizard (1901)

THE WAIF AND THE WIZARD (1901)

Article 4302 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 9-3-2013
Directed by Walter R. Booth
Cast unknown
Country: UK
What it is: Trick short with a twist

A waif goes on stage to help a magician with a trick. He is so amazed by the magician’s prowess that he asks him to come home and solve his family’s problems.

So many of these early shorts cover the same ground that after a while you appreciate whenever something new is added to the mix. In the case of this short, It combines the trick film with the mellerdrammer; the opening scene is standard magician trick film fare, but once we move on to the family problems, the change of scenery adds some novelty. The family’s problems are the stuff of tear-jerking melodrama; there’s no father, the daughter is ailing, and they’re about to be evicted. The solutions to the problems are terse, but sometimes amusing; I like how the magician deals with the landlord. Special effects-wise, there’s nothing really special going on here, but the novelty of throwing in a story to follow does add a little to the proceedings.

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La valise de Barnum (1904)

LA VALISE DE BARNUM (1904)
Article 4301 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-31-2013
Directed by Gaston Velle
Featuring Gaston Velle
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A showman puts up posters showing the acts in his sideshow. After making his assistants disappear, he then goes through the posters again, only this time the images in the posters come to life.

In terms of its special effects, this short doesn’t really do anything that Melies hadn’t done (with the possible exception of a short stop-motion sequence at the end). Still, the difference in style gives the short a bit of its own identity, and the sideshow theme also adds some novelty value; the images include a bearded lady and a strong man, as well as the obligatory dancing girl. This one is passable.

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Upside Down: or, The Human Flies (1899)

UPSIDE DOWN; OR, THE HUMAN FLIES (1899)
Article 4300 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-30-2013
Directed by Walter R. Booth
Cast unknown
Country: USA / UK
What it is: Trick short

A magician performs for a handful of people, and then does his most amazing trick; he causes his audience to walk on the ceiling.

The main special effect here is simple enough; it looks like we have two rooms with identical decor, except one is upside down. This one he films with the camera upside down, making it look like the people are walking around and dancing on the ceiling. One thing I thought was interesting is that this particular trick doesn’t appear to be copped from Melies; at least, I can’t remember any of his early shorts that tried this particular trick, but then, a lot of his shorts are missing. It’s a minor short, but it is interesting to see an early silent whose trick hasn’t been overused.

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The Conjuror (1899)

THE CONJUROR (1899)
aka L’impressionniste fid de siecle, An Up-to-Date Conjuror
Article 4299 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-29-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Magic film

A magician performs various tricks involving making a woman appear and disappear, and then performs the same tricks on himself.

When I first started this movie-watching project, I originally wanted to watch all the movies in a strict chronological order, so I could learn to appreciate the growth of sophistication in the form as I saw it pass before my eyes. However, the logistics of that approach made it impossible; it would have required me to have a complete list of movies beforehand and have access to all the silent films I wanted to see at the very beginning of the project, and that was simply not practical. That’s why I’ve ended up watching movies like this one more than four thousand movies down the line, and I’ve seen so many of Melies’s magic shorts in random order that it is sometimes hard to appreciate their innovations when I’ve already seen them so often in later movies. However, I always like to give more credit to these earlier films in that they were certainly less stale than his later films, and some of the transitions in this one (especially the scenes where he and the woman jump off of a table onto the floor and change into the other character in mid-jump) are so smoothly and effectively done, you know he put a lot of work into them. I’m willing to bet that this short is more important than some of his later magic shorts, and it’s actually quite nice for what it is. I do wonder if my print is complete, though; the film seems to start in the middle of the action, and I think there’s a few seconds of footage missing at the very beginning.

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The Untamable Whiskers (1904)

THE UNTAMABLE WHISKERS (1904)
aka Le roi du maquillage
Article 4298 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-28-2013
Directed by Georges Melies
Featuring Georges Melies
Country: France
What it is: Trick short

A magician draws caricatures of bearded men on a blackboard, and then magically changes into those characters.

This is Melies demonstrating a single special effect repeated over and over; it basically demonstrates a crossfade being used to change one character into another. It’s one of his more focused trick shorts, and I suspect what he was demonstrating here was the technique of having these things happening against a fully decorated background instead of just a black area. It’s not one of his best works, but it’s mildly amusing.

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