ROI DES CHAMPS ELYSSES

[antoniod]

Oops. I posted in the wrong topic. I said I found ROI DES CHAMPS ELYSSES hard to sit through, as it didn't jell. Oh, well.

[Joe Migliore]

I've always liked that film, and hope that a nice print will make it to DVD in the near future, like AN OLD SPANISH CUSTOM made it to Industrial Strength Keaton.

[antoniod]

Maybe it plays better on a movie or TV screen than on YouTube. I DID like the bit with the ladder backstage.

[Roseha]

I ordered it on DVD-R from a-1video.com and have just watched it. It's a little uneven in the middle, but it definitely has a certain charm. I think any fan of Buster should see it, for most of the film his talking is kept to a minimum (am I correct that he is dubbed here?) and he displays some wonderful pantomime right from the opening scene, where he is tossing fake Franc notes to the crowd and at one point uses his elegant cane as a baseball bat. He's also convincing in the other role as the criminal.

The next to last scene, which features a fight behind a stage bar with the two Busters, is wonderful and clearly silent-film inspired.

[todmichel]

I like this movie too. But I never understood why Buster was dubbed in this French film, when only some years before he was shooting French versions of his movies ("Buster se marie" with Françoise Rosay, etc.) in Hollywood.
I can understand for Laurel & Hardy, as ATOLL K came twenty years after their "phonetic" films - but Buster?

[gjohnson]

It not that confusing....it was a French production.

[todmichel]

Quote: "It not that confusing....it was a French production."

But it's just because it was a French production that I asked why Buster didn't speak French himself in it, rather than to be dubbed by another actor. Many foreign actors were in French movies in the 1930s and spoke their dialogue in French, with an accent of course. He could have had a "dialogue coach" just as he had in his French-language films in Hollywood.

[Roseha]

Many foreign actors were in French movies in the 1930s and spoke their dialogue in French, with an accent of course. He could have had a "dialogue coach" just as he had in his French-language films in Hollywood.

It would be interesting to find out if any version exists in Buster's own voice, though I haven't read anything to that effect. I read an article about the film years ago but don't remember the whole question being addressed.

The French film makers definitely limit his speaking much of the time, when he's with his girlfriend she seems quite the chatterbox by comparison!