MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928)

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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.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Friday, June 6, 2008

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928)

Universal hoped to top their big-budget Lon Chaney vehicles (THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME/’23 and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA/’25) with this late silent, but they couldn’t have known what an artistic triumph they had stumbled into. Paul Leni, a master of stylized Gothic atmosphere out of the German UFA Studio, died not long after making this almost unbearably dark tale of a mutilated child who grows up to be a clown only to discover he is heir to a British title, estate & fortune. Will he survive his horrible good luck? This miraculous restoration shows Leni as a helmer who had everything: story sense, mastery of camera movement, pace & editing, great rapport over a motley group of actors working in varying styles, and an art director’s appreciation for sets & atmosphere. (He was one more brilliant protege of the legendary German stage director Max Reinhardt.) Conrad Veidt is unforgettable as the grotesque hero and you’ll be glad that Leni softens the typically fatalistic Victor Hugo ending. The KINO DVD comes with a fine ‘Making Of’ documentary, but I wish there was a modern soundtrack in addition to the antique original synch-sound discs. Sure, they're 'authentic,' but they make the film seem undeservedly quaint.

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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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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Friday, June 6, 2008

THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE