Detailing the impossible. Louis Feuillade made
more than 800 films covering
almost every contemporary genre: historical drama, comedy, realist drama, melodrama, religious films. However, he was most famous, or infamous, for his crime serials:
Fantômas (1913-14),
Les Vampires, Judex (1916), La Nouvelle Mission de Judex (1917),
Tih-Minh (1918) and Barrabas (1919).
Critics panned his
crime films, often savagely, because the preoccupation of French critics and film-makers in the 1910s and 20s was to elevate cinema -– and, ironically, back then the French saw their own films as lacking the artistry and sophistication of American ones, by Griffith or DeMille – to the level of art. It was years before
Feuillade's films escaped the label of aesthetic backwardness. Now,
critics have realized that what Feuillade has done is to offer us an alternative cinematic mode to Griffiths', one that continues in updated variants throughout cinema. It is predicated on a principle of uncertainty, that questions our understanding of the real. It is
as fluid and elusive a tradition
as a cat burglar,
dressed in black on a night-time rooftop.
posted by matteo
on Nov 8, 2004 -
7 comments
It all comes down do one question: Must France stay in Algeria? “If the answer is yes,” he says, “then you must accept the consequences.” Gillo Pontecorvo's "
The Battle of Algiers",
now out on a
Criterion dvd, is a film of
quiet,
overwhelming power. The mix of subjective and
documentary techniques holds the viewer's trust so authoritatively that many scenes come close to sneaking out of the mental "movies I saw" box to mix with the viewer's own memories. No matter how complicated or fragmented the action becomes, Pontecorvo gets the pace, tone and rhythm exactly right, filling the screen with eloquent details.
(Last year, Pontecorvo's masterpiece was discussed here, too. More inside)
posted by matteo
on Nov 3, 2004 -
9 comments
