Flicker Alley's release 0f The House of Mystery (La maison du mystère) restores to light a major movie serial almost lost forever, and allows us again to appreciate the talents of the White Russian filmmakers who greatly energized French filmmaking in the 1920s. In particular, star Ivan Mosjoukine and director Alexander Volkoff, who would also collaborate on Kean (1924) and Casanova (1927) are approaching the height of their powers.The plot is pure melodrama: a mill owner is framed for murder, escapes from a penal colony, and spends years trying to clear his name, while the real killer woos his wife. But the ten episodes use their extended cumulative running time to explore nuances of character rather than to pile on implausible escapes and battles (though there are a few extremely impressive examples of those). The result is a tale of injustice that grips and satisfies, while displaying a highly sophisticated cinematic sense.
- 4/30/2015
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
The first in a short series celebrating the films of the Pathé-Natan company, 1926-1934.
The late silents and early talkies of France are arguably neglected in comparison with, say, the German cinema. Yet at Pathé-Natan, work was produced which rivals in sophistication that of any other country you care to name. Directors from France, Germany and Russia worked there, innovating and developing under the umbrella of a distinctive "house style." Time they had their due.
La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d'Arc (1929), directed by Marco de Gastyne, was a big hit: it easily beat Dreyer's La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) at the box office, benefitting, in the eyes of French audiences, from having a real Frenchwoman as Joan. The Dreyer was a multi-national co-production, but what audiences overlooked was that the Gastyne film was produced by a Romanian Jewish emigre, Bernard Natan, who had bought control of Pathé, the country's most distinguished film company.
The late silents and early talkies of France are arguably neglected in comparison with, say, the German cinema. Yet at Pathé-Natan, work was produced which rivals in sophistication that of any other country you care to name. Directors from France, Germany and Russia worked there, innovating and developing under the umbrella of a distinctive "house style." Time they had their due.
La merveilleuse vie de Jeanne d'Arc (1929), directed by Marco de Gastyne, was a big hit: it easily beat Dreyer's La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) at the box office, benefitting, in the eyes of French audiences, from having a real Frenchwoman as Joan. The Dreyer was a multi-national co-production, but what audiences overlooked was that the Gastyne film was produced by a Romanian Jewish emigre, Bernard Natan, who had bought control of Pathé, the country's most distinguished film company.
- 3/8/2012
- MUBI
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