It was such a pleasure finally to watch The Gaumont Treasures.
The Child Of Paris or L'Infant de Paris (1913) totally captivated me. Director, Leonce Perret presented a drama that ran a little over two hours, that never lost my interest. I love to see a film that surprises me. Every prediction of what will come next proved me wrong.
The story of a rich girl, whose life spirals downward, after she loses her parents, is a hackneyed cliche which has been done before, but not as compelling as this.
Some of the plot devices fail, like the little girl sleeping through her abductions. And I got an easy feeling about the love a full grown man has for a underaged orphan girl. But even that can be dismissed by less jaded eyes, if you compare it to "Broken Blossoms".
On the whole, this film does not take the easy, predictable road. This street is full of fast paced twists and turns.
Danny
CHILD OF PARIS (1913)
A wonderful film indeed - one thing I love about this (and it's true of Perret's feature Le roman d'un mousse as well) is how incredibly leisurely the pace is. It's as if the plot itself doesn't matter, you're just invited to luxuriate in the beautiful compositions, the atmosphere, the occasional subtle camera movement. This seems astonishingly advanced for a feature film of the early 1910s; worlds away from what you get in the action-oriented America features of the era (or Italian features, from what I've seen of them).
The location photography when the hunchbacked hero is sleeping rough in Nice is extraordinary, for my money surpassing even that gorgeous slow chase sequence in Fantômas. Perret was obviously one of the great directors of this era, and to judge from the clips included as extras on the Gaumont set, there are many more treasures from his filmography waiting to see the light of day. He was also extremely good at comedy - the short film, Léonce aime les morilles, is an inspired piece of escalating lunacy.
The location photography when the hunchbacked hero is sleeping rough in Nice is extraordinary, for my money surpassing even that gorgeous slow chase sequence in Fantômas. Perret was obviously one of the great directors of this era, and to judge from the clips included as extras on the Gaumont set, there are many more treasures from his filmography waiting to see the light of day. He was also extremely good at comedy - the short film, Léonce aime les morilles, is an inspired piece of escalating lunacy.