MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939)

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It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939)

Award-slighted classic from the class of ‘39 (Oscar noms only for Score & Sound) easily tops the famous silent version which is crude by comparison. Helmer William Dieterle is at his best here, using remnants of German UFA expressionist style on Hugo’s cassoulet of history, cruelty & romantic debasement. The incredibly rich production & tech credits (how’d lil’ RKO pull it off?) never swamps the heartfelt perfs with Charles Laughton churning up chasms of self-loathing & sympathy (and what a voice he came up with!) while beauteous Maureen O’Hara & the remarkably young, nay, adorable Edmund O’Brien make real people of idealized types. The character casting, Thomas Mitchell, Walter Hampden, Harry Davenport & a shockingly malevolent Cedric Hardwicke, couldn’t have been bettered at Warners.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The brief, but musically magnificent Hallelujah when Laughton’s Hunchback saves Esmeralda on the steps of Notre Dame, a contentious point of authorship between long time Hollywood composer Alfred Newman (who’s credited) and recent emigre Ernst Toch (who’s not). So good, it’s worth debating; so good, Newman reused it two more times. Which almost certainly means Toch wrote it.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE