As a poet Theophile Gautier is well-nigh forgotten today which is a great pity but he lives through his two novels 'Mademoiselle Maupin' and 'Le Capitaine Fracasse'. The former has only been filmed once to my knowledge but the latter has proved extremely popular and has thus far notched up no less than nine versions.
This time round it is Cavalcanti at the helm and what a marvellous job he has done. His direction is exceptionally 'modern' for 1929 with splendid close-ups, strong characterisation, excellent pacing and plenty of momentum. Although flamboyant in nature it is striking in its simplicity. The camerawork of Paul Portier and art direction by Erik Aaes are superb. As a bonus we have luckily been spared one of those ghastly and totally unsuitable 'specially composed' scores that blight so many restorations and instead we have piano arrangements of classic pieces, most effective of which is from Cesar Franck's Symphony in D.
Pierre Blanchar brings his customary elegance and air of melancholy to the role of the impoverished Baron de Sigognac, who joins a troupe of travelling Commedia dell Arte players and falls in love with the ingenue, played by Lien Deyers. Apparently Monsieur Blanchar's eyes were damaged by gas whilst serving in the First World War. This would explain his 'faraway' look which proved to be so effective. The lovely Miss Deyers had recently impressed as Kitty in Fritz Lang's 'Spies'. As her husband was Jewish she was obliged to leave Germany and she subsequently sank alas, without trace. Her character in this has to fight off the attentions of the dastardly Duc de Vallombreuse played by a youthful Charles Boyer, who has star quality in spades. Fascinating Roumanian actress Pola Illery plays Chiquita, a gypsy who is handy with a knife! As with Lien Deyers the coming of Nazism effectively finished her career.
In short this is a little gem and gloriously entertaining. What would appear on the surface however to be just a romantic, picaresque tale is not without its darker undertones and the grimness of the penultimate scene really packs a punch.
As Gautier himself once said: "What I write is not for little girls."
This time round it is Cavalcanti at the helm and what a marvellous job he has done. His direction is exceptionally 'modern' for 1929 with splendid close-ups, strong characterisation, excellent pacing and plenty of momentum. Although flamboyant in nature it is striking in its simplicity. The camerawork of Paul Portier and art direction by Erik Aaes are superb. As a bonus we have luckily been spared one of those ghastly and totally unsuitable 'specially composed' scores that blight so many restorations and instead we have piano arrangements of classic pieces, most effective of which is from Cesar Franck's Symphony in D.
Pierre Blanchar brings his customary elegance and air of melancholy to the role of the impoverished Baron de Sigognac, who joins a troupe of travelling Commedia dell Arte players and falls in love with the ingenue, played by Lien Deyers. Apparently Monsieur Blanchar's eyes were damaged by gas whilst serving in the First World War. This would explain his 'faraway' look which proved to be so effective. The lovely Miss Deyers had recently impressed as Kitty in Fritz Lang's 'Spies'. As her husband was Jewish she was obliged to leave Germany and she subsequently sank alas, without trace. Her character in this has to fight off the attentions of the dastardly Duc de Vallombreuse played by a youthful Charles Boyer, who has star quality in spades. Fascinating Roumanian actress Pola Illery plays Chiquita, a gypsy who is handy with a knife! As with Lien Deyers the coming of Nazism effectively finished her career.
In short this is a little gem and gloriously entertaining. What would appear on the surface however to be just a romantic, picaresque tale is not without its darker undertones and the grimness of the penultimate scene really packs a punch.
As Gautier himself once said: "What I write is not for little girls."