One of the last films of the silent period, and one considered among the last great films, one of the great classics of that glorious moment in the history of film art. All in a very significant year, 1928, just the year when would see the light the officially recognized as first sound film, ending the silent era, and bringing one of the greatest revolutions that took place in the cinema. The great Paul Leni suited for this occasion a novel by literary giant Victor Hugo, and certainly one of his most appreciated novels to French author, in which he portrays the story of an individual in seventeenth-century England, the son of a exiled nobleman and victim of what was called "comprachicos", individuals who bought children, and performed surgical practices in the face of the kids, deforming them and leaving an eternal and bizarre smile. The film tells the story of that unfortunate, while a love affair goes growing with a blind girl with whom they grew up together. Remarkable film, from a filmmaker who produced not a few imperishable exercises, and worked hand in hand with the great masters of silent film, also an adaptation that was certainly a challenge, with such a controversial and yet complex subject, represent sleaze of a grim, almost creepy smile. Conrad Veidt is responsible for the complicated task, and the fact is that his work is extraordinary, seriousness and expertis of the filmmaker are reflected, and actor's performance fits great in one of the final works of the great Paul Leni.
In 1690, in England, we see the monarch, James II (Sam DeGrasse), resting, attended by his servant Barkilphedro (Brandon Hurst), he receives the news that a nobleman, who previously refused to give allegiance to the king, returned from exile, is looking for his son. Learns the kid ended up with "comprachicos", was sold to individuals practicing strange facial surgeries, deforming faces of children. The surgeon in question is Dr. Hardquanonne (George Siegmann), the child is called Gwynplaine, and is welcomed by Ursus (Cesare Gravina), both live with Dea, one baby girl saved by the child from the street. Gwynplaine (Veidt), defaced since childhood with a smile, as an adult is a traveling circus attraction, and is well known for the crowds, along with Dea (Mary Philbin), now a woman as well. The king is dead, a great show is done in court, and Dea and Gwynplaine are taking approaches. But the man who laughs, as he is known, will get restored his noble heritage, having to marry for it with Duchess Josiana (Olga Baclanova), but future wife laughs at him. Then the laughing man and Dea have already declared his love, they match, but given the failure of the wedding, there are order to capture Gwynplaine, the wedding is attempted, the Duchess need to receive inheritance. He refuses though, does not get married, is pursued, but finally have a chance to stay with Dea.
The context is delineated to us soon, we are located in England, XVII century, the so-called "comprachicos" and its abhorrent practices, the thought is nightmarish, typical of a nightmare, peddling children but what is worst, disfiguring them for life, making scarecrows in circus attractions, street phenomena who are condemned to a pathetic existence. That person is our protagonist, a tortured, tormented being who finds love despite all in the humanity of a blind, the only woman who paradoxically sees what no one else sees, sees and loves his way of being, ignores his face, she, the blind who loves him, which is presented to us in many occasions significantly dressed in white. Gwynplaine lives among circus people, people of comedy, but curiously the major of the comedies is his life, an individual who awakens taunts and jeers, but never loses the smile, reinforcing powerfully irony, but while strengthening the presence and pathos of the character, which seems to laugh not to mourn. The very idea of adapting a novel to film is always a complex task, and if it is a work of Victor Hugo, playing a particular subject, it is even more, because as mentioned above, the image is certainly hard, represent a man who has a awkward grin forever etched on his face, a disfigured face takes indeed a bizarre look, even disturbing aspect; known is the detail that even the author of Batman, Bob Kane, was inspired by the character of Gwynplaine and his creepy grin to create the arch villain by excellence of the hero, the Joker. The interpreter for such a complex role becomes Conrad Veidt, one of the great names in Germany actor matters then, star of the legendary
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) by Robert Wiene, cornerstone of German Expressionism, besides having also worked in American films when he had to emigrate from Germany with Hitler's rise -not to go any further, the mythical
Casablanca (1942) also has him in its credits-, given his anti Nazi insight. This is therefore one of the biggest names of silent film and was able to adapt to the arrival of talkies, a real acting legend, and his interpretation is to remember, with that creepy and disturbing smile that for much of the film we see him hiding, his eyes gravitating desperately, his frowned and while extremely strange gestures occur in his sinister face. Undoubtedly one of the great performances of this legendary actor.
The film shows the experience and journey of a seasoned filmmaker in silent films, such an experienced expressionist in the use of black and white as narration resources and expression at a time, manifesting it in some of his shots, containing strong chiaroscuros, creator comfort in such situations is noted, comfort and narration flow together with these resources, sometimes observed a rather soft contrast, and sometimes the same effect is sharp. The montage will also have moments of variation, showing the film with a relatively frenetic pace at times, to acquire a rather slow and parsimonious way, consistent of course every time with the circumstances of the picture. The domain and category of German director are very evident in this film, one of his works of maturity, where we will see he was a very technical filmmaker, who shone on the technical side, and among other staging techniques we observe overlays planes, multiple variations of this resource we will appreciate during the footage, capturing alienation and delirium, visually is most different from all, the most unreal, it is in those moments where we nottice the great expressionist that Paul Leni was, a filmmaker from the golden age of German film, plus some setting that certainly have a lot of strength in its composition. For those decades of the last century, the cinema in North America began to decline, gradually ceased to be an art to go being an industrial product, the great bastions David Wrk Griffith and Mack Sennett began to weaken, foreigners, immigrants from various parts of Europe, they were those who try to rescue the artistic content of the pictures, those were the years of Von Stroheim, the superb Von Sternberg, Hungarian Paul Fiejos, and Paul Leni. The musical accompaniment is also remarkable, and it is particularly idyll sequences between Gwynplaine and Dea, with sublime and almost ethereal notes properly acclimating tender moments in which traumatized laughing man is approaching his blind lover. Even singing notes, perfectly consistent to music, eventually creating an ethereal environment, when both individuals, outsiders to normal society, find love in each other's company. Such "experiments" -among to just mentioned, there are times when the film sounds are
inserted, not yet definitively, in an embryonic mode, but were approximations, were glimpses of sound in a movie film- in a silent feature is one of the details to highlight in the film, not in vain considered by experts in silent films as a genuine masterpiece, although some works of Leni are perhaps best known, such as
The man of the wax figures (1924), Last warning (1929) or
The dead's will.
For the final sequence we have one of the most visually powerful passages of the film, that night uproar dominates everything, crowned by the bizarre smile of a man who laughs, the sequence happens at night, plaguing the dark all the hubbub, appreciating some of the moments of greater ease in the narrative of the camera of the German, and also setting some of the most chromatically attractive moments due to contrasts that are generated. Leni while adhering largely to French literary work, in the end a license is taken by applying considerable changes and opting for an end full of hope, lovers embracing together with Gwynplaine finally getting his sightless beloved -woman character that in the book has a final quite different-; the tormented Gwynplaine, who turns sleazy identify his grins, whetrher they are genuine or mixed with terror and humiliation, finds love, peace, happiness. The figure depicted can be seen as an allegory, that sordid smile can be a symbol of derision the king, who banished a nobleman, who sold his son to a "comprachicos" only for the infant finally to recover his noble benefits, and what is more, even rejects the hand of a duchess in the very house of Lords. The staging is therefore enormous, full of notable right guesses, acting particularly Conrad Veidt is consistent, but also Mary Philbin, Dea, is a great contribution to the film, sweet, innocent, fragile, some critics even relate her representation with those of Lillian Gish, Griffith's muse; distances apart from one case to another, the contribution of Philbin is correct and significant. Great film, as initially pointed, was born in a year of great significance in the history of cinema,
The Jazz Singer in 1928 was released, and although its success was questionable, or if it is a mediocre film like some think, is indeed the picture that brought the sound to the movies;
The Laughing Man is considered by some critics as the last great masterpiece of silent film, Paul Leni would direct one more film after this work,
The Last Warning (1929), which would be the culmination of a filmography not too prolific, with many short films in content, it is certainly a remarkable artistic career. In the years that began to happen what is now an overwhelming and aberrant reality, when cinema was ceasing to be an art in America, and when Nazism expelled many talents of their European homelands, was in the yankees land where these talents flourished, as in the case of the great Paul Leni, one of the brightest directors of the silent film, and we have in this work one of his greatest cinematic achievements.
One of the last films of the silent period, and one considered among the last great films, one of the great classics of that glorious moment in the history of film art. All in a very significant year, 1928, just the year when would see the light the officially recognized as first sound film, ending the silent era, and bringing one of the greatest revolutions that took place in the cinema. The great Paul Leni suited for this occasion a novel by literary giant Victor Hugo, and certainly one of his most appreciated novels to French author, in which he portrays the story of an individual in seventeenth-century England, the son of a exiled nobleman and victim of what was called "comprachicos", individuals who bought children, and performed surgical practices in the face of the kids, deforming them and leaving an eternal and bizarre smile. The film tells the story of that unfortunate, while a love affair goes growing with a blind girl with whom they grew up together. Remarkable film, from a filmmaker who produced not a few imperishable exercises, and worked hand in hand with the great masters of silent film, also an adaptation that was certainly a challenge, with such a controversial and yet complex subject, represent sleaze of a grim, almost creepy smile. Conrad Veidt is responsible for the complicated task, and the fact is that his work is extraordinary, seriousness and expertis of the filmmaker are reflected, and actor's performance fits great in one of the final works of the great Paul Leni.
In 1690, in England, we see the monarch, James II (Sam DeGrasse), resting, attended by his servant Barkilphedro (Brandon Hurst), he receives the news that a nobleman, who previously refused to give allegiance to the king, returned from exile, is looking for his son. Learns the kid ended up with "comprachicos", was sold to individuals practicing strange facial surgeries, deforming faces of children. The surgeon in question is Dr. Hardquanonne (George Siegmann), the child is called Gwynplaine, and is welcomed by Ursus (Cesare Gravina), both live with Dea, one baby girl saved by the child from the street. Gwynplaine (Veidt), defaced since childhood with a smile, as an adult is a traveling circus attraction, and is well known for the crowds, along with Dea (Mary Philbin), now a woman as well. The king is dead, a great show is done in court, and Dea and Gwynplaine are taking approaches. But the man who laughs, as he is known, will get restored his noble heritage, having to marry for it with Duchess Josiana (Olga Baclanova), but future wife laughs at him. Then the laughing man and Dea have already declared his love, they match, but given the failure of the wedding, there are order to capture Gwynplaine, the wedding is attempted, the Duchess need to receive inheritance. He refuses though, does not get married, is pursued, but finally have a chance to stay with Dea.
The context is delineated to us soon, we are located in England, XVII century, the so-called "comprachicos" and its abhorrent practices, the thought is nightmarish, typical of a nightmare, peddling children but what is worst, disfiguring them for life, making scarecrows in circus attractions, street phenomena who are condemned to a pathetic existence. That person is our protagonist, a tortured, tormented being who finds love despite all in the humanity of a blind, the only woman who paradoxically sees what no one else sees, sees and loves his way of being, ignores his face, she, the blind who loves him, which is presented to us in many occasions significantly dressed in white. Gwynplaine lives among circus people, people of comedy, but curiously the major of the comedies is his life, an individual who awakens taunts and jeers, but never loses the smile, reinforcing powerfully irony, but while strengthening the presence and pathos of the character, which seems to laugh not to mourn. The very idea of adapting a novel to film is always a complex task, and if it is a work of Victor Hugo, playing a particular subject, it is even more, because as mentioned above, the image is certainly hard, represent a man who has a awkward grin forever etched on his face, a disfigured face takes indeed a bizarre look, even disturbing aspect; known is the detail that even the author of Batman, Bob Kane, was inspired by the character of Gwynplaine and his creepy grin to create the arch villain by excellence of the hero, the Joker. The interpreter for such a complex role becomes Conrad Veidt, one of the great names in Germany actor matters then, star of the legendary The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) by Robert Wiene, cornerstone of German Expressionism, besides having also worked in American films when he had to emigrate from Germany with Hitler's rise -not to go any further, the mythical Casablanca (1942) also has him in its credits-, given his anti Nazi insight. This is therefore one of the biggest names of silent film and was able to adapt to the arrival of talkies, a real acting legend, and his interpretation is to remember, with that creepy and disturbing smile that for much of the film we see him hiding, his eyes gravitating desperately, his frowned and while extremely strange gestures occur in his sinister face. Undoubtedly one of the great performances of this legendary actor.
The film shows the experience and journey of a seasoned filmmaker in silent films, such an experienced expressionist in the use of black and white as narration resources and expression at a time, manifesting it in some of his shots, containing strong chiaroscuros, creator comfort in such situations is noted, comfort and narration flow together with these resources, sometimes observed a rather soft contrast, and sometimes the same effect is sharp. The montage will also have moments of variation, showing the film with a relatively frenetic pace at times, to acquire a rather slow and parsimonious way, consistent of course every time with the circumstances of the picture. The domain and category of German director are very evident in this film, one of his works of maturity, where we will see he was a very technical filmmaker, who shone on the technical side, and among other staging techniques we observe overlays planes, multiple variations of this resource we will appreciate during the footage, capturing alienation and delirium, visually is most different from all, the most unreal, it is in those moments where we nottice the great expressionist that Paul Leni was, a filmmaker from the golden age of German film, plus some setting that certainly have a lot of strength in its composition. For those decades of the last century, the cinema in North America began to decline, gradually ceased to be an art to go being an industrial product, the great bastions David Wrk Griffith and Mack Sennett began to weaken, foreigners, immigrants from various parts of Europe, they were those who try to rescue the artistic content of the pictures, those were the years of Von Stroheim, the superb Von Sternberg, Hungarian Paul Fiejos, and Paul Leni. The musical accompaniment is also remarkable, and it is particularly idyll sequences between Gwynplaine and Dea, with sublime and almost ethereal notes properly acclimating tender moments in which traumatized laughing man is approaching his blind lover. Even singing notes, perfectly consistent to music, eventually creating an ethereal environment, when both individuals, outsiders to normal society, find love in each other's company. Such "experiments" -among to just mentioned, there are times when the film sounds are inserted, not yet definitively, in an embryonic mode, but were approximations, were glimpses of sound in a movie film- in a silent feature is one of the details to highlight in the film, not in vain considered by experts in silent films as a genuine masterpiece, although some works of Leni are perhaps best known, such as The man of the wax figures (1924), Last warning (1929) or The dead's will.
For the final sequence we have one of the most visually powerful passages of the film, that night uproar dominates everything, crowned by the bizarre smile of a man who laughs, the sequence happens at night, plaguing the dark all the hubbub, appreciating some of the moments of greater ease in the narrative of the camera of the German, and also setting some of the most chromatically attractive moments due to contrasts that are generated. Leni while adhering largely to French literary work, in the end a license is taken by applying considerable changes and opting for an end full of hope, lovers embracing together with Gwynplaine finally getting his sightless beloved -woman character that in the book has a final quite different-; the tormented Gwynplaine, who turns sleazy identify his grins, whetrher they are genuine or mixed with terror and humiliation, finds love, peace, happiness. The figure depicted can be seen as an allegory, that sordid smile can be a symbol of derision the king, who banished a nobleman, who sold his son to a "comprachicos" only for the infant finally to recover his noble benefits, and what is more, even rejects the hand of a duchess in the very house of Lords. The staging is therefore enormous, full of notable right guesses, acting particularly Conrad Veidt is consistent, but also Mary Philbin, Dea, is a great contribution to the film, sweet, innocent, fragile, some critics even relate her representation with those of Lillian Gish, Griffith's muse; distances apart from one case to another, the contribution of Philbin is correct and significant. Great film, as initially pointed, was born in a year of great significance in the history of cinema, The Jazz Singer in 1928 was released, and although its success was questionable, or if it is a mediocre film like some think, is indeed the picture that brought the sound to the movies; The Laughing Man is considered by some critics as the last great masterpiece of silent film, Paul Leni would direct one more film after this work, The Last Warning (1929), which would be the culmination of a filmography not too prolific, with many short films in content, it is certainly a remarkable artistic career. In the years that began to happen what is now an overwhelming and aberrant reality, when cinema was ceasing to be an art in America, and when Nazism expelled many talents of their European homelands, was in the yankees land where these talents flourished, as in the case of the great Paul Leni, one of the brightest directors of the silent film, and we have in this work one of his greatest cinematic achievements.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario