The constant nymph (1928) - Adrian Brunel

At the end of the 20s of the last century, one of the greatest revolutions of the cinema, if not the biggest one, was about to take place, the silent cinema had the hours numbered, the sound was already close to being born for the cinematographic art, an unparalleled change. In England, one of the directors who best knew how to direct films at that peak moment, was Adrian Brunel, whose career was a bit slow with that great revolution, because during the 20's it was his moment of greatest artistic brilliance. For this, one of his final films of that period, the briton adapts a successful and controversial novel by Margaret Kennedy, in which even Alma Reville, the famous wife of Hitchcock, collaborated in the development of the script. This is the story of some artists, one, a young musical composer, who goes to visit the other, old and in the final stretch of his life, who lives with his family, exclusively formed by women, in a remote cabin. The mature composer dies, and when a cousin of the family is going to take the girls to a study center, she falls in love with the young man; what the boy does not consider is falling in love with one of the daughters of the deceased. A film full of great stars of the moment in silent movies, with a direction certainly not extraordinary, but very correct, which is part of the work of a respectable british director of the silent era.

                                                 

In a train, the young musician Lewis Dodd (Ivor Novello) travels to see an old master, retired in the austrian countryside with his wife and daughters. Upon arrival, he meets the beautiful Tessa (Mabel Poulton), his childhood friend, in addition to Antonia (Benita Hume), Pauline (Dorothy Boyd), daughters of Albert Sanger (Georg Henrich), the elderly composer, and the third wife of this one, Linda (Mary Clare). Lewis spends very good times with the family, they have dinner, they laugh, they get along, while Ike (Peter Evan Thomas) courts Antonia, but Albert dies suddenly. Ike and Antonia will marry, an uncle of the girls goes to the remote house, Tessa and Pauline will go with him to England to study; the daughter of this uncle, Florence (French Double), after a brief courtship of Lewis, falls in love, commits, and marries the musician, to the disappointment of Tessa. Weddings happen, already in England, Lewis is uncomfortable because Florence organizes meetings with her influential friends to benefit his musical career, the frivolity harasses him, while Tessa and Pauline, fed up with the english school, escape and go to their house; Florence receive them with reluctance. Lewis snubs Florence and her meeting with musical friends, humiliates her several times, while a powerful mutual attraction with Tessa is born, Florence notices it, but there is no turning back, the lovers plan to flee together, they do it, they leave everything; however, a tragic outcome awaits them.

The end of the 20s, and early 30s, more specifically 1929, with The Jazz Singer, implied irreversible changes for the seventh art, in the form of the arrival of sound to the cinema; some careers ended, they abruptly came to an end as the artists could not adapt to such a change. Problems of diction for some actors, silent directors who could not make the leap to the sound -the giant Chaplin predicted that the arrival of sound was something temporary and without a future in the cinema; it was difficult for him to adapt, but he finally succeeded-, various reasons, many careers that were not the same again. In this context, just before that great change, this film is released, still framed, naturally, within the guidelines of the silent cinema, as we will see. To begin with, the film is characterized by having in its totality, moveless, static shots, there will be close-ups, general shots, the perspective will vary, but never the lack of movement, the eternal stillness of the camera, a null dynamism, an almost non-existent development; with the camera locations, also, it approaches the theatrical representation. The only thing that breaks warmly, timidly, that flatness and linearity in the narrative and visual language, is the employment, ephemeral, of some superimpositions of frames, in which we see the bell of the Sanger steward, and the musical notes during some interpretations, or the lyrics of the respective song; but apart from that, nothing more, the whole film will be narrated in a conventional and flat way. Being the arrival of the sound to the world of the cinema just about to happen, during the integrity of the film, will not vary that unfolding of the camera, static like a tree, and with the aforementioned exception of the succinct frames overlayings, that visual rigidity will not be broken.

To compensate for this somewhat sterile development of the camera, the acting quality of the actors was necessary, and of course the stars fulfilled with the work. We have Mabel Poulton, one of the biggest female stars in the decline of the silent film, accompanied by Ivor Novello, at the peak of his career, a sex symbol of the time, before the arrival of sound truncated his stardom, for the days in which the master Hitchcock would discover him for the year before released The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), perhaps mediated by Alma, his wife. The hitherto meteoric career of Novelo continued its course, here surrounded by women, reinforcing his image of masculine star, one of the main references of the british cinema, before of course that the sound changed everything forever. The decade of the 20 was the most successful for the filmmaker, making this patent in the work now analyzed, serious staging, and reinforced by, as we see, the flashing stars of the moment. Likewise, as in so many other films of the time, brilliance, greater ambitions and technical complexities -technical liberties, freedom of the camera, which, naturally and being just, would come successively in coming years- are sacrificed, to give preponderance to the drama, the drama that is represented is everything, the vicissitudes and tragic hardships are the center of everything, before whose primacy is dispensed any greater technical ornaments. It is thus in the movie preponderance of human beings, their actions, their avatars, over greater virtues, tricks or technical devices in the staging, and that is one of the causes why the picture is much more closely related to a set in a theatrical scene that to a purely cinematographic exercise, sticks more closely to the conception of the original work, the theatrical drama.

The drama is, by the way, a great human sketch, but mainly, a feminine sketch, numerous females, each one in their inner world, they are flourishing, discovering the maturity, the sexuality, the necessity and almost obligation to marry; many are the prospects but naturally Tessa is the main character, facing a severe duel with Florence. The women who discover a new world are the nucleus of the film, their father has died, the situation is urgent, they are sent to study in England and to avoid it, they can not think of a better idea than to marry, with different destinies each, from the butler of the family, to the wealthy Ike. Disparates are their destinies, as is normal in life, but the need is the same, marriage as a necessity, a way out to a radical change in their existences, they become women, life with the sisters has to change, to seek husband, live with a man, although only Antonia achieves it immediately. Something controversial and taboo unleashed the film, by the way, by the subject of some adolescents who discover in a relatively forceful way, for the time, sexuality and adulthood, although in the film that adolescence is diminished a little fot the older females featured. The females overflow the film, being of course the central duel the most tense, Tessa faces Florence, the naive young girl against the dominant and eager to rise socially Florence, in a contrasting and remarkable feminine and actoral duel. However, within the general trend of the film, one of the most interesting sequences is that of the concert, in which normality is broken, the monotony that hitherto prevailed unbreakably in the film, the distribution of people is contrived and of the camera, and the framing of those shots in a precise way, giving these sequences a nature that is noticeably different from the rest, a sequence that, together with the short ones of outdoors, are the most different from the film in the technical aspect. As it was said, although it can hardly be considered a masterpiece, the film is a remarkable exercise in silent films, british silent films, always supported by the great solvency of its stars in the cast; it is also important the picture because, after the arrival of the sound, and the decrease in production of Brunel, many of his sound films were declared officially lost, being considered today as valuable cinematographic gems to be rescued, so this feature is one of the last works of this great filmmaker that are preserved. Finally, the drama must have a tragic end, according to the nature of unleashed passions, jealousy, lack of love, frustration, poor Tessa can not enjoy the warmth of her beloved, fatally closing this appreciable film adaptation, by a director almost never mentioned between the best or most famous, but not in vain some critics try to vindicate and rescue his work.

Downhill (1927) - Alfred Hitchcock

In the final moments of silent cinema, in 1927, just a year before reaching the great revolution of sound to the seventh art, one of the biggest names in cinema, the British titan Alfred Hictchcock showed a significant and known prolific activity. Three films even produced Hitch in that year, before he finally made his triumphant entry to talkies; The Lodger earned him his first major international success, then The ring would continue the early stage of the master of suspense. The third film of that year becomes the one in question in this article, a film that departs largely from many of the cornerstones that would accompany forever Hitch's movies, and that he was already outlining in his features then, but nevertheless keeps closeness and loyalty to other main reference points. The British adapts once again work from literature, a play curiously co-written by the protagonist, Ivor Novello, in which the vicissitudes and misfortunes of a young student in Britain are reflected, who covers up to a friend, assumes culpability for a breach of him, being expelled from their school, and initiating a series of bitter adventures for him, but not everything is lost. Hitchcock continued cementing one of the most remarkable filmographies, and this silent film, without being a masterpiece, is a significant mark of his genius.

          

After seeing a text informing that this is a story about the disparate loyalty of two friends, we are introduced to a world of youth, young students play rugby in their student campus. Among them is Roddy Berwick (Novello), who is hailed by his peers, he is appreciated by everyone, including the school principal. During a dinner, Mabel (Annette Benson), flirts with both Roddy and Tim Wakely (Robin Irvine), his great friend; she is dependant in a shop, inviting Tim to an alone meeting, but both friends go to the shop. When in there, Tim tries to molest her, not getting it, the girl continues flirting with both, but the next day the director sends for the two friends. Mabel accuses Rod of trying to molest her, and, although Tim was the real offender, he accepts guilt, is expelled from school, and his father, after learning, despises him, Rod leaves home. Working as a waiter, he meets Julia Fotheringale (Isabel Jeans), famous actress, and she, when the young man inherits 30,000 pounds of his godmother, gets to steal his money in collaboration with her friend Archie (Ian Hunter). A collapsed Roddy is dedicated to being the company of older women, he is a gigolo, activity that ends up destroying him, but at the worst moment, alone, with no house nor friends, crazed, instinctively returns home, where his father will give him a pleasant surprise.

The movie's preface already will inform us correctly, the picture we will watch portrays a dissimilar story of loyalty, it tells us that a friend keeps it, and at a high price; great way to go diagramming what will be largely appreciated in the feature. Then we are introduced to the youth world, that is portrayed with the rugby game, with the innocence of young flirting, school, games in the dining room, all initial subtle and carefree tonic proper of youth, a tonic which will be maintained during the first part of the film. We attend to a novelty in the Hitchcockian cinema, something hitherto unseen, he does not use the suspense that had already discovered with The Lodger, does not lays his story on murders nor mysterious deaths, but uses another kind of darkness, another sleazy topic, moral decay, the collapse experienced by the young, the individual who calmly accepts a guilt stranger to him, accepts what at first almost ruins his life, a new topic and relatively unheard of in the filmography of Hitch. It is set in the picture, yes, one of the few guidelines -perhaps the only one- that would be constant in his films, the culprit false, but in a variety of first time seen, the false guilty accepting this false guilt, even at the expense of vital integrity, something that we would not see repeated until I confess (1953). It seemed that his luck would shift when receiving succulent and unexpected inheritance, when he marries a famous actress, but that will be only the final step to bottoming out in his decline, when Julia divests him of nearly all his money, is an endless road, an endless fall that is presented in the film. But then comes the worst, having to resort to be gigolo, another character says she can not believe he has reached that, curiously the character with whom one of the most pathetic moments of the film is generated, an elderly woman lustfully looking the young fellow, offensive image, is his lowest point.

Hitch is often accused of misogyny, and that might be seen, perhaps, in the way that the female characters are addressed, always shown the women as weathervanes, light and licentious, provocative, without too much judgment, always creating problems for their fickle and reprehensible behaviors. Both Mabel and Julia are negative elements, as in many films by Hitch is appreciated. First Mabel, who flirts shamelessly with the two friends, cites one of them alone, to finally, between both, accusing the innocent one of having had dubious intentions toward her, when actually she tried to instigate him; without any problems or reasons, she shows a despicable behavior, spoiling the life of the most beloved student. Julia would complet misogyny, the actress who after marrying Rod, finally ends up wresting his large inheritance, plunging him into misery; attitudes like this are seen more then once in Htchcock, especially in his initial stage, perverse women whose role seems to be only generating problems, with poor judgment or unscrupulous, main reason for director being accused thay way, maybe not so unjustly. Hitch is an individual who, speaking in terms of silent cinema, was never excessively devotee of verbal language, the proof is that almost dispenses explanatory texts or dialogues, for over the first fifteen minutes, almost only one dialogue is appreciated; Hitchcock never used the conventional way of narrating or transmitting, from his initial works is noticed that. As a natural consequence of this, the actors, in the latest years of silent cinema, had a higher dramatic responsibility, lacking dialogues, their histrionic skills, variety of records, had a much greater impact on the narrative. With few exceptions, only at the end we will see the camera regain an ease and variety of records that previously filmmaker was already perfecting, we do not see in his lens his marked agility and ease-of movements -seen for example, in the two quoted features of the same year- of before, no travellings, just some interesting moment of light contrasts. The first daring or shake of the lethargy of the camera is seen when the two friends approach the principal, indeed the first turning point of the film, the focus and camera movement depict the first moment of a certain vigor, and we must wait to see the next one.

For ending sequences filmmaker gets back that ease and prowess that was developing: placing ourselves in the perspective of tormented Rod, a tremulous camera transmits his final collapse. Trembling sequence shots goes parading with overlayed shots, close-ups and certain darkness to capture that terrible moment, even some images as a leitmotif (posters referring to Mabel, gears), contrasting light and shadows game, etc. Everything is articulated in moments that condense the visually most remarkable assets of the picture, because apart from this, in that field there is not much to see in the film, the dizzying visual zenith of the movie is left to the end, correct resource since this aligns with the climax of the story itself. As recalls the great Truffaut in the extensive interview that the French made to his idol Hitch, the symbolism of the escalator obviously serves to make the analogy to the decline Roddy is about to embark in when he leaves his house; degradation that is just beginning, and it will again be symbolized with the elevator, which also descends, as the degradation continues for false guilty. When Rod, apparently recovered, happy to heir 30,000 pounds, gets a new disappointment from another female, symbolically falls again, this elevator goes down, descends, as our protagonist. This feature of silent period of Hitch certainly is not the best he produced, lacks several of his main artistic edges (including humor, an essential tool in virtually all films by Hitch, appears with droppers in this exercise), it is relatively a rarity in his production. But eventually there will be a happy ending, there is redemption, hell is over, there we do have something very consistent with Hitch, thus finishing a picture, a happy ending despite all the nightmare, when we see Roddy playing rugby again. Hitch produced this feature as last task with his then producer, the Gainsborough Pictures, a few weeks before finishing contract with that study, reuses Ivor Novello, who incidentally, along with Constance Collier -both under the pseudonym David L ' Estrange-, wrote the play that inspired the film. Took the British Novello's popularity, his success with the female audience (he was a sort of sex symbol then), and wields, for a change, a warm sexuality, with moments like Ivor topless. Among the nine exercises of silent films by Hitch, maybe this is not considered as one of his highest points, but being a film of this stage of the British, is enough incentive for viewing.

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) - Alfred Hitchcock

Before Alfred Hitchcock began to make sound films, and before he reached immortal fame as the master of suspense, the filmmaker took steps in silent cinema, in which about a dozen films produced. This film is his third feature, but, according to many critics and the filmmaker himself, could be considered his first film, in the sense that it is the first film containing so many major guidelines, directives, themes that would guide the rest of his pictures, is the first truly Hitchcockian film. From the beginning Hitch expressed his taste for cinema adapting a literary work, and this time the adapted novel is the work of Marie Belloc Lowndes, which as well was inspired by the notorious Jack the Ripper murders. Set in his native England, the portrayed story introduces us to a young guest at an inn, where there is much fear of a serial murderer who is killing women in the town, all blondes; the young fellow, who has a little strange habits, develops approach and attraction with the daughter of the family that hosts him, but everything is complicated when he becomes the prime suspect in the murders, especially when she is committed to the police officer handling the case. A remarkable silent film, was the first time that Hitch towered in a thriller full of intrigue, it was the first time that left imprint of his genius, the best Alfred Hitchcock had just been born.

                

In a British city, the first thing to appreciate is an alarmed and terrified crowd, as the body of a woman has appeared, the police begins to conduct research and warnings about this, which is not the first murder of this kind. Then we see a guest house, an inn whose housewife is Mrs. Bunting (Marie Ault), she lives with her husband (Arthur Chesney), and his daughter Daisy (June Howard Tripp), whom is courted by Joe (Malcolm Keen). Then it comes for hosting a new tenant (Ivor Novello), he has no problem paying a month in advance for a room. Joe, who is a policeman, is put in charge with the case of multiple murders, must search the murderer, while Daisy begins to meet and approaching the new host; she, despite consenting courtship of Joe and listening to his marriage proposal, actually is not convinced of marrying him. The days pass, Joe begins to suspect the host, who in turn develops pleasantness for the company of the female, there is an attraction which is reciprocated, as Daisy manifest preference for the mysterious young man, leaving aside the police. But Joe does not doubt anymore, breaks into the young's room, finds elements that incriminate him decisively, a situation from which the host flees. Local crowd thinks, as the detective, he is the culprit, and they are just about to lynch him, but there will be an opportunity to clarify everything at once.

The picture declares its intentions from the start, after seeing a picture with a certain set of contrast, the first foreground itself of the film is that of a woman screaming, screaming wildly, after which appears on the screen the words To Night - Golden Curls. Great premonition, appropriate anguish and oppression because afterwards we appreciate the appearance of the first female corpse, suspense and death have already been exposed. We have in this statement, To Night - Golden Curls, a sort of leitmotif recurrently appearing, remembering the murderer obsession, blonde curls, blonde victims to kill; even at the end of the film, with everything clarified, and the couple hugging, will reappear the legend, it was already printed an obsession of the murderer, but interestingly, of the filmmaker as well, whose weakness for blondes and his use of them in his main films is legendary. In the same vein, it is pleasant to nottice how Hitchcock is showing some signs of being a sort of modern director making silent movies, because although obviously he is limited to the resources that silent cinema offered, his narrative was already outlining resources of a new era of cinema. Proof of this is the sequence of a detective typing the police report, eyewitness accounts about the murderer: that blank, while being written, tells us these details, which are not exposed in a traditional way with text boxes. Also, a neon fulfill the same role when its dynamism gives us more scope of the situation, it is a way of telling rather more dynamic than traditional; in the twilight of silent films, Hitchcock began to show glimpses of relative modernity in his forms, in his language, and this would be seen in his later pictures. Thus, within the repertoire of technical resources of the filmmaker, although is not yet exploited all his imagery, we can start appreciating some notable effects such as some frames overlays when the family imagines the guest walking on the floor above. With this resource, coupled with low angle shots used in that sequence, intrigue continues being engendered, uncertainty and some mystery, while in turn shows his wit, in the final years of silent films.

In the film we can also appreciate a nice halo of expressionism, perfectly normal being that German movement one of the largest schools then in cinema, and indeed Hitchcock prints something like that, with some light and shadows game, lighting contrasts distorting reality a bit, and contributing to the overall atmosphere of perennial suspense. In this, the first Hitchcockian film, also is remarkable that in certain sequences suspense is generated by simplicity, details, simple details that together make up the total suspense, make us think that the murderer is the host. Small details like the suspect's first interactions with Daisy, he gets a knife, brandishing it with uncertain intentions toward her; then, as they play chess, takes a metal rod to stir the ashes of the fire, and again seems to have dishonest intentions against her, later the police find plans in his room, a female photograph as well. Until the end, all the details are incriminating against him, it seems that he is the murderer, or at least mildly, we are being insinuated of that. Further details, apparently minor ones but actually important, are for example the images of the candelabrum, constantly swinging, with which it is understood that the young man is walking, walking without stopping, restlessness and intrigue are reinforced. And the suspense is further strengthened in turn by Hitch's montage, is an at moments frantic montage in which the succession of images multiplies the emotion, foregrounds, detailed closeups of faces, objects, watches, scenarios details, feet walking. All that framework, certainly frantic assembly when needed resting on correct and accurate shots, is proof that the camera work and its expressive and narrative possibilities was always one of the most important watchwords in Hitchcock, his artistic tool was always a resource well exploited by the director. Final detail of drama and suspense we will get when see the already proven innocent about to be lynched by the crowd, when handcuffs got hooked on a fence, leaving him almost at the mercy of a human mass ready to execute him for crimes he didn't commit.

There are noticeable change from the first moment he appears, with music, tense and mysterious, diametrically opposed to the privacy and tranquility of the family, in addition to the detail of light bulb going out, the individual who appears with a scarf covering half of his face, as it indicated the descriptions of witnesses on the murderer. All these details weave intrigue, uncertainty, the master was discovering what he does best in a film. There are elements that will certainly turn the film into the first work fully identifiable as a Hitchcock's creation, classic elements of his films, we have one of his biggest vertices: the false culprit that is immersed in unexpected nightmare, and he must run to prove his innocence, and even to save his life. Added to this is the intrigue of course, it is the first film by Hitch in which the mystery and uncertainty are the main ingredients, had just born the best Hitch, he had found his definitive course in the art of cinema. And his debut in this area is successful, embryonically cemented his style and personality as a director, the entire picture is aimed to unravel the mystery, the identity of the real murderer almost remains in the background, it is not a film about a murder but above suspicion, uncertainty, and suspense is due to the effective realization of it all. It is a variety of his suspense, the false culprit figure that has been seen many times in his later films, has here a different nuance in the treatment given, because unlike other films (North by Northwest (1959), only to give an example), here it is not limited to display only an individual wanting to escape the Kafkaesque situation where he is caught. This feature is a bit challenging to the public, because all the little details indicate that the host is the murderer, a kind of anti-hero is configured, at least until everything is finally clear. Another detail proper of films by Hitch becomes the romance developed during all wanderings, and particularly the love triangle, so typical in his initial director stage (Young and Innocent (1937), to give another example), and hence, for the connoisseur of the British master oeuvre, certainly this is the first film containing the main edges of Hitchcockian cinema, including the first of his classic cameos in his features. As the director himself recognized, this is the first film with all his cornerstones, or many of them at least, as even some humor we will find, is his first foray into intrigue, he found his subject, his effectiveness to capture the suspense evidences it, is a certainly necessary silent film feature.