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Marcel L'Herbier (France, 1888) parasited creatively on the French art avantgarde, exploiting their practices to coin a novel form of visual narration, in
particular the idea of filming scenes as seen through the eyes of the
character.
He debuted with
Rose-France (1919), an early example of cinematic "impressionism" (the name used for art films in postwar France),
and with symbolist melodramas like
Le Carnaval des Verites/ The Carnival of Truths (1920), which had
sets designed by the
18-year-old
Claude Autant-Lara, and L'Homme du Large/ Man of the Sea (1920),
based on Balzac's philosophical tale "Un Drame au Bord de la Mer".
El Dorado (1921) is a visually austere melodrama that weaves together
two stories: on one hand the cabaret dancer who struggles to take care of her sick son, and on the other hand the two runaway lovers. The two tales become one
because the protagonist wants to take revenge on the man who abandoned her, who is both the father of her son and the father of the girl in love.
The cabaret dancer was played by Eve Francis, the former lover and favorite actress of Paul Claudel, the wife of writer Louis Delluc (later one of the most influential film critics) and a frequent collaborator of avantgarde filmmaker
Germaine Dulac.
El Dorado is a Spanish night-club.
Sibilla is one of the sensual flamenco dancers, a top attraction.
Men fight over a rose that she throws in the crowd.
Even Joao the clown is madly in love with her.
Her son is alone at home, sick in bed in a spartan and cold room, calling his mother.
Right after her show she rushes home to take care of him.
Meanwhile, the crowd boos the other dancers and demands a Sibilla encore.
She reads a letter by a lover in which he wrote
that he is a widower with a grown-up daughter,
Jhrna, and wishes to marry her: twelve years of lies.
Sibilla writes a letter to Estiria, now an old man, telling him that she needs money to care for their sich son but he replies by simply crossing out her letter.
He even seems happy at the idea that their illegitimate son will die.
Estiria is busy scheming the marriage of his legitimate daughter with a decayed
aristocrat.
Sibilla finds another job, as a model and guide for a young man, an aspiring painter, Hedwick, son of a Scandinavian woman who lives in a mountain village.
Hedwick is touring the Alhambra, obsessed by the image of a woman in white.
Hedwick begins painting Sibilla in the Alhambra but is distracteda by his thoughts for the woman in white.
Sibilla reads the cards for him and learns that Hedwick once met a lady in the Alhambra and fell in love, but the woman in white is engaged to another man.
The woman in white finally arrives and tells Hedwick that she
is getting married against her will.
Sibilla watches them unseen and then asks a local man who the woman is:
the woman in white is Estiria's daughter, Iliana, and she'll inherit a fortune.
When the doctor refuses to continue caring for her son because she hasn't paid her bills, Sibilla decides to confront the father, i.e. Estiria, in person.
On the evening of Iliana's wedding to the penniless aristocrat,
Sibilla walks to the city, where a religious festival is underway, and tries to meet with Estiria, but he refuses to see her.
The wedding reception has already started and the nobility is already dancing.
She is thrown out of Estiria's palace and cries on the steps, desperate.
She wanders back to the Alhambra, with a strong desire for revenge,
and witnesses another secret encounter between Hedwick and Iliana.
Sibilla locks them into a building of the Alhambra and they make love.
The news that Sibilla disappeared spreads at the wedding reception.
A furious Estiria beats up Iliana's maid Conception, who then runs away too.
Sibilla sends a letter to Estiria threatening him with scandal.
and then finally opens the gates so that Iliana and Hedwick can leave the
Alhambra.
Sibilla invites Iliana to stay with her in her humble dwelling and tells her
how she was seduced and abandoned by her father Estiria: Sibilla's child is
Iliana's half brother.
Hedwick visits Estiria and tells him that he's in love with Iliana.
He also tells him that he knows of Estiria's affair with Sibilla
and that Sibilla has Iliana.
Servants eavesdrop and smile.
Estiria tries to kill Hedwick but Hedwick escapes.
Iliana, at Sibilla's home, arranges for the doctor to return but the boy is in bad shape and the doctor recommends fresh mountain air.
One day the maid Conception brings news to Iliana that Estiria has gone mad.
Hedwick offers Sibilla to take the child to his mother since he is taking
Iliana there anyway, and so Hedwick and Iliana take the child with them to
the mountain village of Hedwick's mother.
Another festival takes place in Sibilla's town. The night-club is full of partygoers.
Sibilla returns to dancing but she feels that her life is pointless
and she stabs herself to death backstage.
An old woman alerts the spectators who all run backstage to witness the scene.
His masterpiece was the science-fiction melodrama
L'Inhumaine/ The Inhuman Woman (1924),
originally conceived for the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and influenced by expressionism and cubism,
with sets designed by cubist painter Fernand Leger, by fellow filmmaker Claude Autant-Lara and by architects Alberto Cavalcanti and Robert Mallet-Stevens,
costumes by fashion designer Paul Poiret,
and an original soundtrack by classical composer Darius Milhaud
(of which only "Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra" survives).
The plot is not particularly creative but the art-deco "scenography" and the visual composition are
(fast editing, shifting camera angles, color manipulation and multiple exposures).
Before this film, only Anton-Giulio Bragaglia's Thais (1917), whose futurist-style sets were designed by Enrico Prampolini, and Sergej Ejzenstein's Strike (1925) had attempted such bold experiments with styles derived from the visual arts.
The film is two films in one: first a film noir (ante litteram), centered around a femme fatale, and then a sci-fi movie. The latter is notable because television was only invented in 1927.
The female protagonist is played by Georgette Leblanc, a soprano singer who was the lover of playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. Unfortunately, the (exaggerated) acting is the weakest element of the film.
Guests arrive at the futuristic house of famous singer-songwriter Claire.
They include the philosopher Kranine, founder of a humanitarian movement,
the Indian prince Djorah,
and a wealthy businessman Frank Mahler, owner of a chain of theaters in the USA,
all rivals in love.
The beautiful Claire arrives, also known as the "inhuman woman".
A guest is late but finally arrives: the young engineer Einar, driving a sports car, passionate about all things mechanic. However, he is so shy he doesn't
even dare sit at the dinner table.
Claire mentions that she intends to travel around the world unless something
unpredictable happens.
The businessman, the philosopher and the prince try to dissuade her, each one offering her something special. But she is indifferent to what they have to offer.
Meanwhile, a juggler and a jazz band have been performing for the guests.
During the performance of a fire eater, Einar tells Claire that he will kill
himself if she rejects him, at which she responds with sarcasm.
Claire leaves Einar and chats with the Indian prince. She has a waiter
deliver a knife to Einar, as if to help him commit suicide.
Einar is desperate and humiliated.
Einar suffers as he watches the other rivals vie for the woman's heart.
He writes a farewell note and drives away.
Driving at high speed along the coast, he crashes his car down a cliff.
A poor peasant who is riding in a mule-driven carriage and who has witnessed the accident sneaks into Claire's mansion brings the terrible news.
The body is never found, and is assumed to be lost in the sea.
Claire is devastated by Einar's suicide.
The newspapers run the news of the engineer who killed himself for a femme fatale, and many readers look down on her.
When Claire performs again in a packed theater, Kranin shouts against her,
and the theater suddenly splits between those who defend Claire and those who
despise her.
She begins singing despite the chaos in the theater, and her sublime voice
quiets everybody down. It's a triumph.
A man goes to see her backstage, bringing the news that the
mutilated body of Einar has been found and he needs her to identify the corpse.
The following morning he takes her to a secluded laboratory
and leaves her alone. She walks inside and finds a body lying on a table
which she identifies as Einar.
She cries bitter tears but then Einar appears, very much alive.
It was a trap to test her real feelings.
He gives her a tour of the laboratory that he has built.
He was inspired by her sarcasm to devote his life to a higher goal.
The Indian prince Djorah has followed them and is devoured with jealousy.
She returns to the laboratory where Einar explains the invention he is working on: a television that broadcasts her singing and simultaneously projects the images of the listeners to her, even from the most remote places.
She is mesmerized by the demonstration.
As she sings, she and Einar watch scenes of life from different places of the world.
Eventually Einar tunes the television to show the theater where she is scheduled to perform that night and she realizes that she's running late for the show.
He also demonstrates a machine that can in theory resurrect the dead, but he hasn't dared to test it on anyone.
Djorah keeps stalking her and one day he disguises himself as a taxi driver,
and hides a venomous snake inside a bouquet of flowers.
She asks him to drive her to Einar's place and, bitten by the snake,
dies (spasmodically) in the back seat.
When they arrive at Einar's laboratory, Einar is shocked to find her dead while
Djorah hides his face and drives away.
Einar carries Claire's lifeless body to the resurrection machine and tests it
on her.
After a couple of frantic attempts, he succeeds and Claire comes back to life,
finally conquered by his love.
He then directed Feu Mathias Pascal/ The Late Mathias Pascal (1925), an adaptation of Pirandello's novel,
"Le Vertige" (1926), a mediocre adaptation of a play by Charles Mere',
Le Diable au Cœur/ The Devil in the Heart (1928), a mediocre adaptation of a novel by Lucie Delarue-Mardrus,
and L'Argent (1928), an adaptation of the 1891 Zola novel.
L'Argent (1928)
is a three-hour long film; overlong and rarely shocking or
exciting; and the acting is poor.
Rumor spreads that the banker Saccardi is finished. His bank is, in fact,
the target of dirty manouvres by a rival banker,
Gunderman, who controls oil prices around the world and wants to teach
him a lesson.
The baroness Sandorf observes all these battles trying to profit from them.
Meanwhile, the young engineer and amateur aviator Hamelin has found out
a place that has rich deposits of oil, and his wife
is excited that they can finally get rich.
Hamelin and his wife see Saccard at a restaurant, where the banker morbidly
stares at the woman's legs. A mediator asks Saccard to listen to Hamelin's idea.
Saccard eagerly visits
Hamelin's place but mainly to stare at his wife.
However, Saccard finally realizes that Hamelin's idea is pure genius.
Saccard puts all his energies into the project and even
looks for an agreement with Gunderman but the rival rejects him.
Nonetheless, Saccard pretends that Gunderman sides with him and thus talks
other financiers in funding his venture with Hamelin.
Hamelin is reluctant to go ahead with the plan, but his greedy wife eventually
prevails.
Saccard announces to the world the venture to
make the best gasoline out of Guyana's oil, and adds that Hamelin in person
will fly across the ocean to Guyana on that new oil.
Hamelin is right not to trust Saccard because the banker is already plotting
behind his back and flirting with his wife.
And, yet, the publicity due to the transatlantic flight helps raise more money around Europe.
News of a plane crash devastates his wife, who even pulls out a gun to kill
herself, but Saccard has already received a telegram that Hamelin is alive and
well, and he shows it to the derelict wife. She realizes that Saccard has
been cynically exploiting the episode to make more money in the stock exchange.
She yells at him, but he replies that he made them both rich.
However, Hamelin struggles to get the business going in Guyana.
Saccard spends money on Hamelin's wife, and people begin to gossip.
The sexy baroness, who used to be Saccard's lover and pretends to be still in
love, is jealous, and tells Hamelin what people think: that he
has invested in Hamelin only because infatuated with his wife, and that
the business is going badly, and that he will fail.
Saccard loses his temper and almost strangles her.
She leaves smiling, scheming as usual.
Hamelin sends a telegram that things are not going well in Guyana. He boards the
first steamship; Hamelin keeps the telegram to himself, leaving everybody else
to believe that business is growing.
Saccard finally tries to kiss Hamelin's wife, who resists him.
He reminds her that she is living on credit because she has been spending more
than she could afford.
Still scheming, the baroness visits Hamelin's wife and tells her that
Saccard has broken the law.
During an extravagant party staged by Saccard, the baroness incites Hamelin's
wife. After Saccard tries to kiss her again, the wife pulls out a gun to kill
him. The baroness, who has watched the event unfold, pretends to save Saccard's
life by stopping the woman from shooting.
Hamelin's wife has already signed a complaint that can be used in a court of law.
Gunderman launches his attack, causing shares in Saccard's bank to collapse.
Hamelin returns in bad health, one eye patched.
Saccard is arrested. Hamelin too, and the shock makes him blind.
Gunderman intervenes to have Hamelin released.
Even in jail Saccard starts planning his next venture, this time with the
his prison ward.
The advent of sound made L'Herbier's visual style rapidly obsolete and he
turned to mediocre material for his film, that initially were still mostly
built around artistic sets:
Nuits de Princes/ Nights of Princes (1930), an adaptation of novel Joseph Kessel's of 1927,
L'Enfant de l'Amour/ Illegitimate Child (1930), an adaptation of Henry Bataille's play,
La Femme d'une Nuit/ The Woman of one Night (1931), an adaptation of Alfred Marchand's novel of which he made three versions in three different languages (an operetta in the German version, a comedy in the Italian version, and a melodrama in the French version),
the detective movies Le Mystere de la Chambre Jaune (1930) and Le Parfum de la Dame en Noir/ The Perfume of the Lady in Black (1931), both adaptations of Gaston Leroux novels of 1907-08,
L'Epervier/ The Sparrowhawk (1933), one of his collaborations with
screenwriter and film critic Jean-Georges Auriol,
Le Scandale/ The Scandal (1934), an adaptation of
Henry Bataille's play "Le Scandale" (1909),
L'Aventurier/ The Adventurer (1934), an adaptation of a play by Alfred Capus,
Le Bonheur/ Happiness (1934), an adaptation of Henri Bernstein's play "Le Bonheur",
the exotic war movie La Route Imperiale (1935)
melodrama Veille d'Armes/ Eve of Battle/ Sacrifice d'Honneur (1935)
Les Hommes Nouveaux/ The New Men (1936), based on a novel by Claude Farrere,
La Porte du Large/ The Door of the Open Sea/ The Great Temptation (1936), an adaptation of Balzac's tale,
Nuits de Feu/ Nights of Fire (1937), an adaptation of Tolstoy's tale "The Living Corpse",
the melodrama La Citadelle du Silence/ The Citadel of Silence (1937)
Forfaiture/ The Cheat (1937), a
remake of
Cecil DeMille's
The Cheat,
the historical drama La Tragedie Imperiale/ Rasputin (1938),
Adrienne Lecouvreur (1938),
based on
Eugene Scribe's
play "Adrienne Lecouvreur"
(1849),
Terra di Fuoco (1939), a collaboration with filmmaker Giorgio Ferroni in Italy,
the historical drama La Brigade Sauvage/ Savage Brigade (1939), unfinished and completed by Jean Dreville,
the historical drama Entente Cordiale (1939), based on Andre' Maurois' book "King Edward VII and His Times",
Ecco la Felicita`/ La Comedie du Bonheur/ The Comedy of Happiness (1942) in Italy,
Histoire de Rire/ Foolish Husbands (1941),
the fantasy film La Nuit Fantastique/ The Fantastic Night (1942)
the comedy L'Honorable Catherine (1943),
La Vie de Boheme (1945), which is an adaptation of
Henri Murge's short stories "Scenes de la Vie de Boheme" (1851),
filmed during the war but released only at the end of the war,
the comedy Au Petit Bonheur/ Happy Go Lucky (1946),
the historical drama L'Affaire du Collier de la Reine/ The Queen's Necklace (1946),
the melodrama La Revoltee/ Stolen Affections (1948),
Les Derniers Jours de Pompei/ The Last Days of Pompeii (1950), an adaptation of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel,
and
the comedy Le Pere de Mademoiselle/ The Father of the Girl (1953).
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