Dinty (2024 restoration Eye Filmmuseum)

Marshall Neilan: Dinty (US 1920). Anna May Wong (Half Moon). La Cinémathèque française.

Grain de son / Sanomalehtipoika Dinty / Dinty [Swedish title].

US © 1921 Marshall Neilan Productions.

Marshall Neilan / États-Unis / 1920 / 67 min / 35 mm / INT. FR. Dutch intertitles / Version restaurée

Avec Wesley Barry, Colleen Moore, Anna May Wong.

Helsinki premiere: 4 Dec 1922 Kino-Palatsi - Suomen Biografi Osakeyhtiö.

E-sous-titres français.

Grand piano: Demian Martin (classe d'improvisation de Jean-François Zygel)

Vu samedi 26 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Anna May Wong, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "À San Francisco, un jeune Irlandais survit en vendant des journaux. Gavroche débrouillard, il sauve la vie d'une femme condamnée par un trafiquant d'opium (dont l'épouse est interprétée par Anna May Wong). Conçue autour de l'enfant-star Wesley Barry, l'histoire oscille entre pathos et humour, mais n'échappe pas aux relents racistes, jusque dans la promotion du film qui évoque « une belle jeune fille chinoise de dix-huit étés dans une jolie tenue orientale »."

AA: Marshall Neilan was the director of several Mary Pickford masterpieces in the greatest years of her stardom. Wesley Barry the boy star entered some of them uncredited. As the character called Dinty he was introduced in Go and Get It. Barry appeared in various boy roles, including as Penrod, also directed by Neilan.

Dinty is a rousing coming of age story of an Irish-born boy in California. His newly immigrated father Danny O'Sullivan dies in a car accident, and his mother Doreen toils to make ends meet. Doreen is always tired and is bedridden with tuberculosis until her death. The love bond between mother and son is the emotional core. Only Doreen could understand Danny. "She was the only thing I had". The sorrow is infinite.

Doreen is played by Colleen Moore before her flapper stardom. A great comedienne is great in everything, and she is deeply moving in a dramatic role. Dinty still belongs to the period of American cinema in which poverty could be shown honestly, and it is startling to see Colleen Moore playing an exhausted cleaning lady succumbing to TB. Her sense of humour adds dimensions to the character. Her talent of fun is the main force of survival, together with the love of Dinty.

Dinty turns streetwise. Initially a victim of cruel bullying, he learns the tricks of the trade as a newspaper boy, forms bonds, organizes a network and cultivates relationships, making a good impression with honesty, returning a wallet lost by a policeman and refusing a reward. With signal systems the boys learn to defend themselves in a Darwinian world of the survival of the fittest. But they prefer the teaching of "love thy neighbour".

A parallel story is a Chinese gangland thriller in plein Yellow Peril mode, complete with trapdoors, gunfights, hidden execution and torture chambers, opium dens, hideous threats, kidnappings of white girls and cryptic Chinese proverbs. In this world we encounter Anna May Wong (15 years old) as the wife of the opium king Wong Tai (Noah Beery). In a last minute rescue, Dinty helps save the judge's daughter from the gangsters' execution chamber which has apparently been inspired by The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe.

Although the black boy character is otherwise portrayed in the same refreshing self-evident spirit of equality as in the Our Gang series, in the finale an embarrassing melon-eating gag spoils the fun.

An important reconstruction / restoration from Eye Filmmuseum. Still missing 2076 ft / 633 m /18 fps/ 31 min, but the current presentation makes sense. I like the powerful landscapes as photographed by Charles Rosher (Mary Pickford films, Lubitsch movies, Sunrise) together with David Kesson and Foster Leonard. Choppy and ravaged at times, but we get the picture.

Howard Hawks was the assistant director. This is the earliest film I have seen in which Hawks is credited.

...

LE GIORNATE DEL CINEMA MUTO (PORDENONE 2024): ANNA MAY WONG (1905-1961)

DINTY (US 1920) dir: Marshall Neilan, John McDermott. story: Marshall Neilan. scen: Marion Fairfax. cont: Charles Smith. photog: Charles Rosher, David Kesson, Foster Leonard. ed: Daniel J. Gray. des: Ben Carré. asst. dir: Tom Held, George Dromgold. cast: Wesley Barry (“Dinty” O’Sullivan), Colleen Moore (Doreen Adair O’Sullivan), Tom Gallery (Danny O’Sullivan), J. Barney Sherry (Giudice/Judge Whitely), Marjorie Daw (Ruth Whitely), Pat O’Malley (Jack North), Noah Beery (“King” Dorkh), Walter Chung (Sui Lung [“Chinkie”]), Kate Price (Mrs. O’Toole), Tom Wilson (Barry Flynn), Aaron Mitchell (Alexander Horatius Jones [“Watermillions”]), Newton Hall (il Duro/The Tough One), Young Hipp (Ling Dorkh), [Anna May Wong (Half Moon), Jimmy Wong]. prod: Marshall Neilan, Marshall Neilan Productions. dist: Associated First National Pictures. rel: 29.11.1920. copy: incompl., 35 mm, 4474 ft / 1363 m (orig. l. 6550 ft), 66'36" (18 fps); titles: NLD. source: Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam.

Yiman Wang: "Dinty was a star-making vehicle for 13-year-old Wesley Barry (1907-1994), who won rave reviews for his “sun-kissed” freckled face and lively impersonation of the film’s Irish boy hero, who struggles to make a living as a newsboy and succeeds in rescuing Judge Whitely’s daughter Ruth from a Chinatown opium smuggling gang. Director Marshall Neilan, a stage actor turned film actor, producer, director, and writer, was credited with writing this story of pathos, humor, romance, and adventure, crafted to capitalize on Barry’s increasing popularity, built up through their previous collaborations Daddy-Long-Legs (1919) and Go and Get It (1920)."

"Shot in Los Angeles with locations in San Francisco (exteriors in Chinatown and of the landmark Spreckels Mansion), as well as Catalina Island off southern California, Dinty’s narrative explores who gets to be assimilated into white America. Dinty the infant boy comes to the U.S. with his Irish mother Doreen O’Sullivan (Colleen Moore in an early starring role) to join her husband Danny (Tom Gallery), only to find out he has died in a car accident. Over a decade’s menial work leaves Doreen infected with tuberculosis and dependent on Dinty, now a teenage newsboy who has to fight the territorial older newspaper boys to make a living. Befriending Chinese boy Sui Lung, nicknamed “Chinkie,” and a black boy, Alexander Horatius Jones, nicknamed “Watermillions,” the trio provide comedy and drive to the tension-ridden plot of last-minute rescue and white romance, respectively set in San Francisco’s Chinatown (on the seedy side) and the Spreckels Mansion (on the white side). Moving Picture World (25.12.1920) stated that Marshall Neilan directed the Chinatown episodes (he did much more than that), while John McDermott directed the Irish sequences that open the film."

"Advertised as a “Freckle-faced funomenon,” Dinty captivated reviewers and fans with its story of an Irish boy rescuing a white woman from the Chinese guillotine engineered by “King” Dorkh, an opium smuggling, tech-savvy “half breed” Malay, played by Noah Beery in yellowface. Upon Ruth’s reunion with her father and her boyfriend Jack North, the three newspaper boys, together with Half Moon (Anna May Wong), “King” Dorkh’s abandoned Chinese wife, gather in Judge Whitely’s mansion for an ice cream celebration, though the treat holds no delight for Alexander Horatius Jones, who in classic racial stereotyping is appeased with a giant slice of watermelon."

 

"Racism inescapably saturates the film’s humor as well as its immigration/assimilation thrust, upholding black-white segregation and anti-miscegenation laws. The Chinese position, however, is less defined: “Chinkie” and Half Moon seem assimilated enough to enjoy the ice cream, but are denied the possibility of social mobility, unlike Irish-born Dinty. Paralleling the film’s message, 15-year-old Anna May Wong, uncredited as Half Moon, was to spend her entire career negotiating between exclusionary Orientalizing and assimilation friends took me to visit a studio where Marshall Neilan was shooting Dinty. Neilan blinked his eyes, stepped back, drew closer, and asked me to act for him. The next day I was hired.” 

(“Une Matinée au Louvre avec Anna May Wong,” Pour Vous, 18.7.1929) A year later, she shared with her German audience the pride of getting “a real role, the second female role” in Dinty after unspecified films in which she was an extra in crowd scenes. (“Von Anna May Wong: Bambus oder: Chinas Bekehrung zum Film,” Mein Film, Nr. 222, 1930) In truth, Wong was exaggerating, as Marjorie Daw’s was technically the second female role."

"As the only Chinese woman in the drama, Wong made the most of her limited screen time through  facial and bodily expressions in close-up. First National’s publicity for Dinty described her uncredited role as “a beautiful Chinese maiden of eighteen summers in pretty Oriental garb.” She soon gained a reputation as Hollywood’s sought-after “slender, almond-eyed daughter of the orient,” earning $150 a week (Chicago Daily Tribune, 2.10.1921), and was hailed as “a new color [yellow]” in the “screenland harmony of color” (“Yellow on Silver,” Pantomime, 10.12.1921)."

"While trivialized as an ornament on the screen, Wong was praised for her industriousness – a “Chinese Cinderella” who “loves her menial duties at [her laundry] home.” (Henry M. Neely, “The Little Chinese Cinderella of the Screen,” Evening Public Ledger [Philadelphia], 08.09.1921) Now, 104 years after this early career milestone, it behooves us to affirm Wong’s work on the screen, even when sidelined as an “Oriental” ornament." Yiman Wang

Ben Carré and the art direction of Dinty

"In 1919 Ben Carré left Maurice Tourneur’s well-organized company at the Goldwyn studios in Culver City. They had been close collaborators since 1914, making 34 films together. Ben was naturally anxious about the future when he reported to Marshall Neilan Productions, based at Lois Weber’s old studio in East Hollywood. It wasn’t a purpose-built studio; typical of early Hollywood adapted spaces, it consisted of a bungalow with a small garage, orchard garden, and a hastily assembled open air stage in the backyard. Ben’s office was the gardener’s tool shed, where he placed his drawing board on a potting shelf by a window."

"Fiercely independent, Neilan’s company was always strapped for financing; over the years staff came and went as it relocated from place to place. Ben saw something of himself in Neilan, and loyally remained with him for four years. Neilan’s crew mainly consisted of inexperienced hires recruited from other companies and off the street, who were given a chance. But there were also people like cameramen Charles Rosher, Karl Struss, and Dave Kesson, Neilan’s assistant Frank Urson (who worked with James Cruze and Cecil B. DeMille), and Howard Hawks. And characters like “One Punch Harry,” a receiving clerk who was also their propman, who had left boxing to pursue the glamour of show business. One true veteran Ben valued and befriended was his scenic artist, Cash Shockey, who had worked for D. W. Griffith’s company."

"For Dinty, Neilan rented production space at the Hollywood Studios, a good facility with stages that catered to independent film companies. Neilan selected one of the studio’s small dressing-room shacks as his office, and asked Ben to meet him there to discuss the film. “Neilan had put under contract a very young actor, Wesley Barry. He said, ‘I think I see a little of myself in this […] boy. I want to make a star out of him.’” 

"Dinty and his feisty group of newsboys can be seen as a 1920 forerunner of the future “Our Gang” comedy series that Hal Roach would start to make in 1922."

"There was no script yet, but Ben recalled, “Neilan was full of scenes with gags; many times I did not know what type of story I was working on, a drama or a comedy.” The film is full of specialty set pieces, props, stunts, and effects, which were all narrative challenges Ben had to solve. The story encompassed a number of varied locations, from Irish country cottages to mansions, slums, police stations, and shady Chinatown interiors, including a secret torture room with a swinging guillotine. Truly an action-adventure melodrama, it required ships, yachts, seaplanes, and a submarine. They shot on studio stages in Hollywood, and locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Pedro, and Catalina Island."

"Ben fondly remembered going with his propman to the old Chinatown district of Los Angeles to find set dressing and props, after which he experienced his first real Chinese meal: “We found beautiful ceramics and furniture, and oh the restaurant, no chop suey or goulash, but a dozen plates delivered all at once by the clap of the waiter’s hands. … What a dinner!”"

"Although self-destructive (he fought against the producer system, alienated people like Louis B. Mayer, and developed a reputation as unreliable, being a heavy drinker), as well as chronically underfunded, Neilan was one of those early creative independents, a maverick who was willing to take risks in the pursuit of his passion for making pictures. (Mary Pickford remained a stalwart friend for decades.) Dinty is an excellent example of Neilan’s improvisational spirit. And testimony of Ben Carré’s ingenuity, invention, and love of challenges." Thomas A. Walsh, Catherine A. Surowiec / Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone), 2024: Anna May Wong (1905-1961)

Drifting (2015 restoration George Eastman Museum)

Tod Browning: Drifting (US 1923). Priscilla Dean (Cassie Cook).

Tod Browning: Drifting (US 1923). Anna May Wong (Rose Li). Photo: La Cinémathèque française.

La Marchande de rêves.

US © 1923 Universal Pictures.

Tod Browning / États-Unis / 1923 / 70 min / DCP / VOSTF

D'après la pièce La Marchande de rêves de Daisy H. Andrews et John Colton.

Avec Wallace Beery, Priscilla Dean, Matt Moore, Anna May Wong.

Not released in Finland or Sweden.

Grand piano: Adrien Avezard (classe d'improvisation de Jean-François Zygel)

Vu samedi 26 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Anna May Wong, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "Shanghai. Une Américaine, complice d'un trafic d'opium, tombe amoureuse du policier infiltré chargé de la surveiller. L'avant-dernière collaboration entre Tod Browning et son actrice fétiche, Priscilla Dean, vaut pour son montage alterné, son final haletant, et surtout Anna May Wong, qui, malgré un rôle toujours proche du cliché, crève l'écran. Tandis que la liaison entre l'actrice et le cinéaste fait scandale : Browning est renvoyé de chez Universal."

AA: Priscilla Dean was a big star of the silent cinema. Her breakthrough took place in the 1910s when women were driving forces in big action adventure movies. Tod Browning had already favoured women protagonists in films starring Mabel Taliaferro and Edith Storey before he collaborated for the first time with Priscilla Dean in Which Woman? (1918). Both Dean and Browning had started their film careers with D. W. Griffith. Drifting was their eighth and penultimate collaboration. Priscilla Dean's appearance differs from movie star looks of later times. Without being conventionally beautiful she is a magnetic presence. 

Anna May Wong, at 18, appears in her second collaboration with Tod Browning. Hers is the second female lead, Rose Li, infatuated with Captain Arthur Jarvis (Matt Moore). The role has been compared with Madame Butterfly, but I think it is something different, closer to Violine Fleuri (Annabella) in Napoléon vu par Abel Gance. An unrequited love of a pure soul, as different from the compromised ones, Cassie Cook (Priscilla Dean) and Joséphine de Beauharnais (Gina Manès) respectively. This part Anna May Wong conveys beautifully. I am also reminded of Letter from an Unknown Woman. Tod Browning reportedly had to quit Universal because of his extramarital affair with Anna May Wong.

Drifting is Orientalism rampant, a potboiler with Yellow Peril cliches and zero patience for cultural sensitivity. As a piece of sensationalist action it is grandiose, well staged and exciting. The mise-en-scène is striking, the turning points and revelations are effective, the village atmosphere is vivid, the children are appealing, and the villain flavours his comments with Chinese proverbs. The crescendo towards the final conflagration is terrific.

A well made restoration from challenging materials by George Eastman Museum. I enjoyed the passages with subtle sepia toning.

...

LE GIORNATE DEL CINEMA MUTO 2015: REDISCOVERIES AND RESTORATIONS

DRIFTING

(La perduta di Shanghai)

Country USA

Release Date  26 August

Production Co.  Universal Pictures

Director Tod Browning

DCP

82'

Archive Source  George Eastman House, Rochester, NY

   

Print Notes  orig. l: 7,394 ft (7 rl.) (from 35 mm), (transferred at 20 fps) col. (tinted); titles: ENG

Cast: Priscilla Dean (Cassie Cook; Lucille Preston), Matt Moore (Capt. Arthur Jarvis), Wallace Beery (Jules Repin), J. Farrell MacDonald (Murphy), Rose Dione (Madame Polly Voo), William V. Mong (Dr. Li), Anna May Wong (Rose Li), Bruce Guerin (Billy Hepburn), Marie De Albert (Mrs. Hepburn), William Moran (Mr. Hepburn), Frank Lanning (Chang Wang).

Other credits: scen: Tod Browning, A. P. Younger, from the play by John Colton & Daisy H. Andrews (1910); titles: Gardner Bradford; ph: William Fildew; ed: Errol Taggart

première: 19.8.1923, New York

Restored 2015.

 

Jared Case (GCM 2015 Program Notes): "Drifting was Tod Browning’s last silent film at Universal. The scenario was based on a stage play written in 1910 by Daisy Andrews and John Colton, which enjoyed a revival in a 1922 New York production starring Alice Brady. Universal bought the rights later that year and assigned the film to Browning, as another pairing with his frequent star Priscilla Dean (Under Two Flags, White Tiger). The narrative follows Cassie Cook, an American heavily involved in the Chinese opium trade, who is engaged in an uneasy alliance with her rival, Jules Repin. When she receives an erroneous tip on a horse race that she passes on to Repin, both find themselves destitute, and Cassie has her stolen clothes ripped off her. Repin trafficks the drug from the town of Hang Chow, and the desperate duo travel there to investigate the problems at the source of their supply. Arthur Jarvis, a government agent undercover as a mining engineer in Hang Chow, intends to break the opium ring, and seizes much of the drug, causing a bottleneck in the supply. Cassie, posing as a novelist, ingratiates herself with Jarvis and manages to steal a government file from his office. Meanwhile, Repin works with his source, Dr. Li (whose daughter Rose is in love with Jarvis), to recruit the hill dwellers of the surrounding area to invade the town and capture the supply for themselves."

"It was well-publicized in early 1923 that Dean was unhappy with the immorality of the character she would portray, though Universal downplayed the situation and it seemed to be quickly resolved. This may have something to do with the relative sanitization of the character in comparison to the stage play. Originally, Cassie was a “lady of easy virtue” with opportunistic instincts, which made her reformation through love all the more striking and dramatic. After nine films with Dean at Universal, Browning moved on to M-G-M for most of the remainder of his silent films, including his productive period with Lon Chaney. Dean also soon left Universal, and continued to work for Hunt Stromberg and Metropolitan in silent films, but struggled to find work in the sound era, and ended her career in 1932."

"Never a lost film, but long unavailable, Drifting has been reconstructed by the Moving Image Department of George Eastman House thanks to the co-operation of MaNDA (Magyar Nemzeti Digitális Archívum és Filmintézet) – Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute, Gosfilmofond of Russia, and the National Film Preservation Foundation. A tinted nitrate print donated to George Eastman House in 1991 by the Czech National Film Archive was the starting point for this reconstruction. In the release print from Prague, all the original English titles had been replaced by Czech titles. The search for a script or continuity proved fruitless, and 2011 Selznick School student Zuzana Zabkova translated the Czech text in order to construct new English titles. These were edited into the body of the film. This version was still a reel short of the original 1923 release, and the end of the film was so fragmented that it was nearly impossible to follow its action. In 2012, George Eastman House was able to obtain elements of the film held by Gosfilmofond and MaNDA. All the elements were digitally scanned and compared with the Czech nitrate. The analysis revealed that all three prints were incomplete, but when combined produced the most complete version of Drifting that could be achieved from the extant material. The tinting of this version replicates the colors found in the Czech nitrate print." – Jared Case

Yellow Sky (1948)

William A. Wellman: Yellow Sky (US 1948). Harry Morgan (Half Pint) and Richard Widmark (Dude). Photo: La Cinémathèque française.

La Ville abandonée / Polttava aurinko / Desperados (Swedish title) / Cielo amarillo (US Spanish).

US © 1948 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.

William A. Wellman / États-Unis / 1948 / 98 min / DCP / VOSTF

D'après le roman Yellow Sky de W. R. Burnett.

Avec Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, Anne Baxter.

Almost no music on the soundtrack, natural sound effects instead.

Loc: Death Valley National Monument, CA/NV; near Lone Pine, CA (ghost town).

E-sous-titres français: Scena Media.

Vu samedi 26 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "Poursuivis par des soldats, des hors-la-loi se réfugient dans une ville fantôme perdue au milieu du désert. Rongés par l'appât du gain, Richard Widmark et Gregory Peck s'affrontent dans un huis clos tendu, qui questionne la loyauté envers les siens et le désir de rédemption. Un western atypique, perpétuellement surprenant par sa violence contenue."

AA: A vigorous, ascetic Western about the desperate escape of brutal bank robbers into Death Valley. Nomen ist omen, but the robbers avoid what looks like certain death thanks to a prospector and his granddaughter (Anne Baxter) who against their better judgement decide to help them, which they will soon enough regret. A band of Apaches appears in an unconventional function. They pursue peaceful coexistence with the prospector team in the ghost town called Yellow Sky. 

 

Also the female protagonist interpreted by Baxter is unusual. She is a true Wild West woman, raised by the Apache, able to defend herself in gunplay and fistfight. A real danger of sexual violence is omnipresent from the side of the bandits, even from "the good bandit" Stretch (Gregory Peck). Richard Widmark is a reliably menacing figure, driven by hate and revenge. Gregory Peck is the weakest link in the cast, phony as the bandit leader.

William Wellman was a fine director through all decades, and Yellow Sky belongs to his best achievements, also thanks to the powerful cinematography of Joseph MacDonald. The action choreography is effective, and there are memorable visual effects such as an extreme close-up through the helical grooves of a rifle barrel. Samuel Fuller reused the effect in Forty Guns. And it became a permanent element in James Bond opening credits.

Wings, Beggars of Life, The Public Enemy, Wild Boys of the Road, A Star is Born (1937), Nothing Sacred, Story of G.I. Joe, Westward the Women, Island in the Sky, Track of the Cat and Good-bye, My Lady are among my favourites.

The theme of sexual violence appears also in Beggars of Life, Wild Boys of the Road and Westward the Women. In all three the rapist is killed.

The year is 1867. The banditry belongs to the aftermath of the Civil War. Stretch's home has been destroyed by Quantrill's Raiders.

...

I had seen Yellow Sky on Finnish tv in 1975 and on German tv in 1982 (Deutsche Fassung). Now I saw it for the first time on a cinema screen, and it made a big difference. Joseph MacDonald was at his finest in this period (My Darling Clementine, Call Northside 777, Panic in the Streets, Viva Zapata!). Because the show started over 20 minutes late, I missed the ending in order to catch rare Anna May Wong screenings.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) with Tony Revolori and Ralph Fiennes. La Cinémathèque française.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson / États-Unis / 2014 / 99 min / DCP / VOSTF

D'après Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness.

Avec Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric.

Vu samedi 26 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Wes Anderson, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "Derrière les murs de l'opulent hôtel, le plus beau de la Mitteleuropa, se trouve un concentré du cinéma de Wes Anderson. Cadres ciselés et ornements symétriques. Splendeur surannée et humour pince-sans-rire. Une histoire de famille éclatée et des liens indéfectibles entre le concierge du palace et son jeune groom. Entraînés dans une affaire d'héritage, ils se retrouvent mêlés à un vol de tableau, tandis qu'autour d'eux, les bouleversements politiques de l'entre-deux-guerres dévastent le continent. Fresque haletante en rose et noir, The Grand Budapest Hotel est un hymne à l'amitié et à la beauté d'une époque révolue, au casting étourdissant."

« En réalité, le gourmet, comme l'artiste, est l'une des créatures les plus malheureuses sur terre. Son mal vient de ce qu'il recherche constamment et trouve si peu : la perfection. » (Ludwig Bemelmans)

Émilie Cauquy: "On nomme manie, en psychiatrie, un état d'excitation intellectuelle et physique avec exaltation de l'humeur et euphorie anormale. Ainsi, The Grand Budapest Hotel est une comédie maniaque à saturation ébouriffante : casting en avalanche de stars funambules hollywoodiennes et européennes, récit à tiroirs façon matriochka (télescopage de trois époques différentes avec son jeu de trois formats d'image distincts), dialogues mitraillettes et mille idées formelles à la minute récompensées ici et là (décors, costumes et accessoires, séquences en stop motion et en silhouette), photographie tout en symétrie signée par le désormais attitré Robert D. Yeoman, sans oublier l'orchestre Ossipov et ses trente-cinq joueurs de balalaïkas, cors des alpes, orgue, cloches ou autre cymbalum (Oscar de la meilleure musique pour Randall Poster et Alexandre Desplat, déjà présent sur Fantastic Mr. Fox et Moonrise Kingdom). Le film a été tourné principalement à Görlitz (zone interrogeant la frontière, entre Allemagne, Pologne et République tchèque), mais pour les nombreux plans larges du palace (inspiration mélangée du Palais Bristol, Grandhotel Pupp et du Gellért à Budapest), une maquette de trois mètres de haut a été réalisée, maison de poupée monumentale entièrement décorée à la main, objet de musée immédiat. Pour raconter les tribulations d'une Mitteleuropa qui court à sa perte, Wes Anderson s'est clairement inspiré des écrits de Stefan Zweig, de l'imaginaire de Ludwig Bemelmans et du cinéma d'Ernst Lubitsch. Un bel ensemble obsessionnel et joyeux, tiré à quatre épingles et parfaitement remonté comme un coucou sophistiqué de la Forêt-Noire perfectionné au Japon, qui donne vie à un drôle de mélange entre fougue (travelling en longue prise et effet domino, signatures du cinéaste) et mélancolie, à ce tropisme délicat pour le monde perdu en photochrome et résistance pudique à la nuit de l'humanité des années 1940." Émilie Cauquy

AA: The Grand Budapest Hotel is a grandiose banquet of Wes Anderson's image-driven cinema. It is a multiple mystery story: a story of the famous author of the novel The Grand Budapest Hotel, which tells the story of the hotel's elusive propietor, which leads us to the fabula about a wealthy dowager and her fortune, her murder, a frameup and an innocent sentenced to prison. There are mountain rides, death-defying chases, downhill racing, bridges, gondolas and elevators. There is also sex and gore. All told with childish, impish glee and performed by a glorious cast. It could lead to excess and confusion, but the thousands of marvels blend into a consistent whole in Wes Anderson's hands.

Comedy? Yes. Thriller? Yes. A period film? In a way (as in parody). A historical play? Not really. A Stefan Zweig adaptation? Read Die Welt von Gestern / The World of Yesterday instead.

Wes Anderson is a grand artisan and chef de partie, specialized in the art of the cinematic pâtisserie.

I have never seen a more superb DCP. I was stunned from the beginning to the end.

David Hockney & Martin Gayford: A History of Pictures (a book)

David Hockney & Martin Gayford: A History of Pictures : from the Cave to the Computer Screen. New Edition. With 315 illustrations. © 2016 and 2020 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London / David Hockney / Martin Gayford. - New York: Abrams, 2020. ISBN: 9781419750281. 368 pp.

Thames & Hudson: A History of Pictures.

Abrams Store: A History of Pictures.

Abrams: "A compact edition of David Hockney and Martin Gayford’s brilliant book, A History of Pictures: From the Cave to the Computer Screen features updated material and pieces of art original to this volume."

 

"Informed and energized by a lifetime of painting, drawing, and making images with cameras, David Hockney, in collaboration with art critic Martin Gayford, explores how and why pictures have been made across the millennia. Juxtaposing a rich variety of images—a still from a Disney cartoon with a Japanese woodblock print by Hiroshige, a scene from an Eisenstein film with a Velázquez paint­ing—the authors cross the normal boundaries between high culture and popular entertainment, and argue that film, photography, paint­ing, and drawing are deeply interconnected."

"Featuring a revised final chapter with additional works by Hockney, this compact edition of A History of Pictures remains a significant contribution to the discussion of how artists represent reality."

AA: I have just finished reading the dialogue book A History of Pictures by David Hockney and Martin Gayford. I bought it at the Fondation Louis Vuitton bookstore at the David Hockney 25 exhibition and have been savouring it slowly. It is well written but so dense with ideas that it cannot be read more than a few pages at a time. It is also a worthy entry to the Platon / Socrates tradition of dialogue literature.

It is a unique art history. The authors state that there are many books on the history of paintings, drawings, sculptures, tapestries, photographs, films, television, videos and CGI but as far as they know this is the first history of pictures in general. It is an audacious enterprise, and the result is a joyous adventure through the history of human culture from the chosen perspective.

The generalist, encyclopaedist and universalist approach yields new and surprising insights on every page. The authors have devoted their lives to art, and their knowledge is formidable, but they are never snobbish, nor snobbishly anti-snobbish.

It is one of the great works on the philosophy of art history. And a work of art history as philosophy. And of the art of seeing, in all senses of that word, including understanding profoundly. It is also a contribution to the critique of judgement.

Among other things, A History of Pictures is an essential study on the camera, the history of which is at least hundreds of years longer than that of photography. I was not aware that artists had used the camera (camera obscura, camera lucida) since the days of Galileo, Caravaggio and Vermeer. New optical instruments then changed the way we see the world, also in art.

Hockney had already discussed that in his television programme and book, Secret Knowledge : rediscovering the lost techniques of the old Masters (2001, 2006, Thames & Hudson). I am looking forward to getting my copy and reading it as soon as possible

Wild Rovers (1986 MGM restoration in 133 min)

Blake Edwards: Wild Rovers (US 1971) with Karl Malden (Walter Buckman), William Holden (Ross Bodine) and Ryan O'Neal (Frank Post). La Cinémathèque française.

Deux hommes dans l'Ouest / Lännen miehet – Ross ja Frank / Ross och Frank – västerns män (Swedish title in Finland) / Två red ut (Swedish title in Sweden).

US © 1971 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.

Blake Edwards / États-Unis / 1971 / 133 min / 35 mm / VOSTF / Metrocolor / Panavision

Avec William Holden, Ryan O'Neal, Karl Malden.

Générique

Réalisateur : Blake Edwards

Réalisateur seconde équipe : Dick Crockett

Assistants réalisateurs : Alan Callow, Lorin B. Salob

Scénariste : Blake Edwards

Sociétés de production : Geoffrey Productions, MGM - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Producteurs : Blake Edwards, Ken Wales

Directeur de production : Ridgeway Callow

Distributeur d'origine : MGM - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer France

Directeur de la photographie : Philip H. Lathrop

Cadreur : Duke Callaghan

Ingénieurs du son : Bruce Wright, Harry W. Tetrick

Compositeur de la musique originale : Jerry Goldsmith

Auteur des chansons originales : Ernie Sheldon "Wild Rover"

Compositeur des chansons originales : Jerry Goldsmith "Wild Rover"

Interprète des chansons originales : Sheb Wooley "Wild Rover"

Soundtrack: "Goodbye Old Paint" (Charley Willis, late 1800s).

Directeurs artistiques : George W. Davis, Addison Hehr

Décorateurs : Robert R. Benton, Reg Allen

Costumier : Jack Bear

Maquilleurs : Tom Tuttle, Bill Turner

Coiffeur : Cherie

Monteur : John F. Burnett

Script : Marie Kenney

Directeur de casting : Joe D'Agosta

Coordinateurs des effets spéciaux : Earl McCoy, Charles Schulthies

Photographe de plateau : Eric Carpenter

Interprètes : William Holden (Ross Bodine), Ryan O'Neal (Frank Post), Karl Malden (Walter Buckman), Lynn Carlin (Sada Billings), Tom Skerritt (John Buckman), Joe Don Baker (Paul Buckman), James Olson (Joe Billings), Leora Dana (Neil Buckman), Moses Gunn (Ben), Victor French (le shérif Bill Jackson), Rachel Roberts (Maybell Tucker), Sam Gilman (Hansen), Charles H. Gray (Savage), William Bryant (Hereford), Jack Garner (Cap Swilling), Caitlin Wyles (la petite amie de Bodine), Mary Jackson (la mère de Sada), William Lucking (Ruff), Ed Bakey (le joueur), Ted Gehring (le shérif de Tucson), Alan Carney (le barman du palace), Ed Long (Cassidy), Patrick Sullivan Burke (le ténor du palace), Hal Lynch (Mack), Bennie E. Dobbins (l'éleveur de moutons), Bob Beck (l'employé des bains-douches), Geoffrey Edwards (le fils de l'employé des bains-douches), Studs Tanney (le pianiste), Bruno VeSota (le barman de la cantina), Dick Crockett (le shérif adjoint)

Loc: 

    Arizona: – Red Rock Crossing, Sedona – Nogales – Patagonia (San Rafael Ranch State Park) – Flagstaff – Old Tucson – Empire Ranch, Sonoita – Arches National Park.

    Utah: – Moab – Monument Valley.

US premiere: 19 June 1971

Finnish premiere: 19 Nov 1971 Boston – released by Filmipaja Oy – 138 min

French premiere: 29 Dec 1971

    E-sous-titres français: Scéna-Media.

    Séance présentée par Jean-François Rauger

Vu jeudi 24 avril 2025 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "En quête d'une autre vie, deux cowboys se lancent dans le braquage de banques. Pour son unique incursion dans le genre, Blake Edwards signe un western à la beauté crépusculaire, coupé et remonté par la MGM avant d'être restauré, des années plus tard. Un récit d'amitié filiale, poignant, formidablement interprété par William Holden et Ryan O'Neal."

AA: "My best film" said Blake Edwards about his only Western* Wild Rovers - in its original cut before James T. Aubrey, President of MGM, butchered it, an experience so traumatic that Edwards needed to make another movie, S.O.B., to heal.

In the context of La Cinémathèque française's "Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables", Wild Rovers represents the Revisionist Western that became dominant in the late 1960s. 

It was nothing less than eine Umwertung aller Werte - a revaluation of all values.

Wild Rovers is anti-heroic, anti-glamorous and anti-bravado. Its way with classic landscapes is anti-sublime.

Wild Rovers is prosaic, elegiac and humoristic, but as distinct from other revisionist Westerns, it is not cynical or nihilistic. There is a lot of realistic violence, but it is not gratuitous, sadistic or prolonged for sensation.

Wild Rovers is a tragicomedy with affinities with the picaresque. It is a humanistic Western. 

The protagonists are not mean or evil. They are idiots. There is no tragic grandeur when they perish, but a lingering ache about their unfulfilled potential, a sense of loss.

Vitality and mortality are inseparable. Animals matter, from dog puppies to wild broncos. A cougar attacks the banker's home, complicating the amateur robbers' plan.

THE BUDDY MOVIE

Wild Rovers is a buddy movie. Easy Rider and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had launched the popular new trend.

Wild Rovers was also inspired by The Wild Bunch and on the other hand Love Story which had made a film star of Ryan O'Neal (previously popular on tv as Rodney Harrington in Peyton Place).

The original cut of Wild Rovers was chided at MGM as a homosexual Western. Those were the days. After Brokeback Mountain, should it not be celebrated for the same reason?

But although there is the original poster of Ryan O'Neal on horseback behind William Holden, and a double bath scene in which O'Neal is stark naked, et cetera, and although Wild Rovers can be called a love story among men, that is only in the same sense as Howard Hawks said about his films. There is no sexual love affair between men.

But in Delphine Seyrig's Sois belle et tais-toi! / Be Pretty and Shut Up (FR 1976/1981), actresses lament the buddy movie as a new step in patriarchal cinema. Previously, leading roles were shared by men and women. Now, only by men. The actresses sensed in the cinema of that period something close to homosexuality (gay only). There are always two men.

Among the films I have seen at the Cinémathèque's Western retrospective, in only one (Colorado Territory) the main relationship has been between a man and a woman, in all others, between two men. Like in Ulzana's Raid, there is a veteran mentoring a newcomer in Wild Rovers. It is a love story between men - like father and son.

...

William Holden gives one of his greatest performances in Wild Rovers. There are those who find it the greatest. He got better with age.

...

The cinematographer is Philip H. Lathrop in his eighth and last movie with Edwards. Lathrop was adventurous and experimental, willing to try something new, here conveying the power of natural light from sunrise to nighttime on the ranch, in the town and on the desert trek, in sunshine and in snowy winter landscapes. Familiar landscapes and situations look different in the curious eyes of Blake Edwards and Philip Lathrop.

The immaculate 35 mm print of the 1986 MGM restoration looked grandiose on the Salle Henri Langlois screen in Panavision. Metrocolor seems to have the look of an oil painting. The print is integral, clean and complete. But a lingering question remains: was the film meant to look quite this soft and blurry?

* Blake Edwards started as a screenwriter for Lesley Selander in Panhandle (US 1948) and Stampede (US 1949), both starring Rod Cameron.

The Law and Jake Wade

John Sturges: The Law and Jake Wade (US 1958) with Patricia Owens (Peggy) and Robert Taylor (Jake Wade). Photo: La Cinémathèque française.

Le Trésor du pendu / Saaliinjako / De tysta husens dal.

    John Sturges / États-Unis / 1958 / 86 min / 35 mm Copie unique / Metrocolor / CinemaScope 2.35:1

US © 1958 Loew's Inc.

D'après le roman The Law and Jake Wade de Marvin H. Albert.

Avec Robert Taylor, Richard Widmark, Patricia Owens.

Loc: California: High Sierra: Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, Death Valley.

Finnish premiere: 5 Dec 1958.

    Copie avec sous-titres français: M. Seawl

    Vu dimanche 20 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "Un ancien gangster, devenu shérif, voit son passé resurgir quand un ancien complice se manifeste pour remettre la main sur un vieux magot. Sans éluder les passages obligés du genre – l'attaque nocturne des Comanches, le duel final au pistolet –, Sturges se recentre autour d'un scénario qui mêle sens du suspense et relation équivoque, et où brille le magnétique Richard Widmark."

"En pleine gloire après le succès de Fort Bravo (1953) et Règlement de comptes à O.K. Corral (1957), John Sturges transpose sur grand écran le roman de Marvin H. Albert, The Law and Jake Wade – renommé Le Trésor du pendu – en 1958. Quelques mois avant son ambitieuse adaptation du Vieil Homme et la mer d'Ernest Hemingway, il filme un combat psychologique au sommet entre Robert Taylor et Richard Widmark, souligné par la superbe photographie de Robert Surtees. En abordant le western par une veine plus intime, plus proche de ses personnages, le cinéaste rend compte de la complexité des sentiments et de l'inévitable confrontation à son passé. Sans éluder plusieurs passages obligés du genre – l'attaque nocturne des Comanches, le duel final au pistolet –, il se recentre autour d'un scénario qui mêle sens du suspense et relation équivoque, où brille le magnétique Richard Widmark. Dans les paysages somptueux de la Sierra Nevada, Le Trésor du pendu s'éloigne peu à peu des sentiers balisés pour incarner le poids de la fatalité et du destin, de l'amitié fraternelle devenue haine viscérale."

AA: John Sturges's The Law and Jake Wade is a Western in the classic tradition, perfectly enjoyable in the same way as Viennese classicism in music. The sound and the elements are familiar, but infinite variations are possible.

The conflict between two men, Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) and Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark), former gang partners, now on opposite sides of the law, is the driving force.

Maestro Robert Surtees is the cinematographer, and the mise-en-scène is stunning on authentic High Sierra locations (in daytime), alternating with MGM studio setups (in nighttime). It would presumably have been unbearably cold on location at night. I'm happy to suspend disbelief.

I see Jake Wade for the first time and begin to think about affinities among the six movies that I have seen so far in the Cinémathèque's "Le Western, en 25 films indispensables" series,

The Civil War connection intrigues me. In three (The Naked Spur, Vera Cruz, Jake Wade), the protagonists are Civil War veterans. Two (Ulzana's Raid, Colorado Territory) take place 15-20 years after the war. One (3:10 to Yuma) is outside history.

In most, the relationship between two men is central. Only in Colorado Territory the main relationship is between a man and a woman (Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo). In Ulzana's Raid we have a veteran (Burt Lancaster) mentoring a newcomer (Bruce Davison). In Vera Cruz, two mercenaries  (Burt Lancaster, Gary Cooper) meddle in the Mexican Civil War as frenemies, finally settling their accounts in a showdown. 

In The Naked Spur (James Stewart, Robert Ryan), 3:10 to Yuma (Van Heflin, Glenn Ford) and The Law and Jake Wade, the relationship between the two men is more complex than simple antagonism. In all, the outlaw is the most intelligent and articulate one, able to dominate the airspace with psychological intrigue and undermine the adversary's assurance, mission and conviction. There is a Dostoevskyan sense that the outlaw can channel to the dark side and turn into an evil double. He can instinctively find the weak spot and the weak link and exploit them ingeniously.

In The Law and Jake Wade, Richard Widmark has the juiciest part as the voice of the Devil tempting Jesus in the Desert. He is excellent as Clint Hollister, but his cynical monologues tend sometimes to be on the long side. He might be capable of boring fellow passengers to death without having to touch guns. The granite-faced Robert Taylor carries his role with silent dignity. Perhaps he is happy to be on the right side of the law and be spared of tedious tirades in the future.

The Law and Jake Wade does not belong to the cynical Westerns like Vera Cruz. It is still the age of chivalry and codes of honour prevail even among killers. A classic showdown is unavoidable.

I enjoy the big screen presentation of a beautiful 35 mm print in what seems authentic Metrocolor and CinemaScope. The autumn colours are engaging. At times the look resembles a watercolour, at other times an oil painting with soft outlines, not sharp but appealingly vibrant. This soft touch is not that of a blurry, duped print but of an exceptionally fine one, perhaps close to the camera negative.

3:10 to Yuma (1957) (2013 Sony 4K restoration)

Delmer Daves: 3:10 to Yuma (US 1957) with Glenn Ford (Ben Wade) and Van Heflin (Dan Evans). La Cinémathèque française.

Delmer Daves: 3:10 to Yuma (US 1957) with Felicia Farr (Emmy) and Glenn Ford (Ben Wade). Il Cinema Ritrovato 2005. 

3h10 pour Yuma / Armoton ase / 3.10 till Yuma.

    US © 1957 Columbia Pictures Corporation.

Delmer Daves / États-Unis / 1957 / 92 min / DCP / VOSTF – n&b – 1.85:1

D'après la nouvelle 3h10 pour Yuma (1953) d'Elmore Leonard.

Avec Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana.

Theme song: "3:10 to Yuma" words and music by Ned Washington and George Duning, sung by Columbia recording artist Frankie Laine. Backing: Norma Zimmer.

Loc: Arizona:

– Old Tucson – 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, (Contention City backdrop) – Sedona (Bisbee exterior set, about Mogollon Dr) – Contention City – Texas Canyon (stagecoach ambush and Evans' ranch).

    Digital restoration: Sony Pictures / Grover Crisp / 4K / 2013 [estimate, no date was given]

    E-sous-titres français Scéna International.

    Vu samedi 19 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

Joël Daire (La Cinémathèque française) : "Souvent comparé à Le Train sifflera trois fois (High Noon, Fred Zinnemann, 1951), 3h10 pour Yuma repose sur des ressorts dramatiques et psychologiques bien différents. Là où Zinnemann exposait un drame de la solitude, Daves édifie une violente confrontation psychologique, et parfois physique, entre deux tempéraments que tout oppose : Ben Wade (Glenn Ford), hors-la-loi pilleur de trains, séducteur pervers et corrupteur machiavélique, et Dan Evans (Van Heflin), fermier ruiné, au caractère buté et mutique, méprisé par sa famille, chargé, par nécessité économique, de convoyer Wade jusqu'au train qui le conduira en prison. Sur ce canevas, Daves élabore une magnifique progression dramatique, des plaines arides de l'Arizona au huis clos d'une chambre d'hôtel où se concentre leur affrontement. La force de la mise en scène est de conduire le spectateur à éprouver une égale sympathie pour les deux hommes, et par de subtiles variations, de les amener l'un et l'autre sur une voie où ils ne peuvent plus que s'entre-détruire ou pactiser. Mais leurs enjeux personnels ne sont pas égaux : pour Wade le prisonnier, il s'agit de reconquérir sa liberté, alors qu'Evans le loser doit racheter sa dignité bafouée. Entretenant le suspense au prix d'un long plan-séquence qui conduit les deux hommes jusqu'au train, Daves, deus ex machina humaniste et bienveillant, fait pleuvoir sur ses héros une eau quasi baptismale qui laisse espérer, pour l'un et l'autre, un heureux dénouement."

AA: Delmer Daves's 3:10 to Yuma I see for the first time on a cinema screen – in a brilliant digital restoration, presumably from Sony Pictures / Grover Crisp / 4K / 2013 (no restoration credit is given).

Glenn Ford (1916–2006) appears for the only time as a villain on his career of 110 movies. His presence is different from the usual – unique, in fact. He is usually genial, focused and persistent but holding back, protecting the sociopsychological balance, refusing to dominate. As Ben Wade he is extroverted, assertive, alert, calculating and controlling. Under his smooth, smiling, sympathetic appearance he is a brutal killer.

Elmore Leonard (the author of the original story), Halsted Welles (the screenwriter) and Daves were obviously inspired by High Noon. The titles of both movies declare that they are about time – a deadline. In both, a man must face alone the threat of a band of outlaws. There are two women, a wife and a barmaid. The railway station setting in the middle of the desert and the long shadows on the streets of a small sunlit town are further similarities.

The man of law and order is not a sheriff but the farmer Dan Evans, played by Van Heflin in an interpretation that evokes Shane. In contrast to the outlaw Ben, Dan is a family man. Ben is glamorous and charismatic; Dan, unglamorous and ordinary. Ben is intelligent and articulate; Dan, simple, taciturn, salt of the earth. On his barren land, suffering from drought, he has fallen on hard times, and therefore accepts the assignment to escort the outlaw to the train station. "Some have greatness thrust upon them" (Shakespeare). In the finale, Dan sticks to the assignment alone, defying the risk of an almost certain death.

In the lineage of William S. Hart's soul fights, the battle of good and evil is a complex chain of events that takes place in a moral twilight. Like in The Naked Spur, a transference arises between the outlaw and his guardian. Ben smooth-talks Dan into doubting his mission and offers to double the pay.

Female characters are important. Dan's wife Alice (Leora Dana) suffers together with her husband. She hopes for better times, also because "then maybe we won't be so tired all the time", referring to deprivations of her female needs. The barmaid Emmy (Felicia Farr) appears in a scene necessary for the plot (explaining why Ben Wade needs quality time apart from his gang) which grows into independent value – turning into the anthology piece of the movie. It is a masterstroke of storytelling intelligence under the Code. Felicia Farr conveys subtly a woman who is fulfilled and broken-hearted at once. And we understand why Ben later says he envies Dan.

Dan's ego hurts from a lingering feeling of Alice's contempt. Dan's younger son loses his respect for his father who does not stand up to villains during the hold-up. His older son understands that it would be a needless sacrifice. All this contributes to Dan's decision to risk everything in the finale.

Charlie Prince, Ben's second-in-charge, is played with impressive cold focus by Richard Jaeckel. There is a sense of solidarity and loyalty among the robber band, and Charlie is a capable leader when Ben is under arrest. 

The ending of the movie has been widely criticized, and I agree that it is the weakest part. 3:10 to Yuma proceeds like a tragedy – until there is a happy ending.

That Ben finally follows Dan to the 3:10 train to Yuma although his band could save him, is, however, psychologically believable. Three turning-points make it so. 

The first is the dinner at the Evans farm. Ben is invited and treated with respect. For him, this ordinary event is extraordinary (as are the dinners with the desert nomads Shane and Ethan Edwards). 

The second, quoted by Ben himself, is Dan saving Ben's life in the hotel room from the murder attempt of the drunken Bob, brother of Bill Moons, the stagecoach driver killed by Ben in the beginning.

The third is the hanging of the town drunk Alex Potter (Henry Jones) from the hotel chandelier. Next to Dan, Alex was the last man to remain with the posse fighting the outlaws. The hanging is meant to demoralize Dan, but it has the opposite effect. A fleeting impression reveals that it disgusts even Ben and distances him from his gang. It may be a factor in his decision to kill Charlie when he is about to shoot Dan at the station. The vast implication is that there will be no gang anymore. Not for him anyhow.

As the train leaves the station, rain starts to fall – and the movie turns into a fairytale. Still, the symmetry is impressive: the stagecoach in the dusty desert in the beginning, the train rolling through the rainswept desert in the end. The theme song is haunting. It has deservedly become an evergreen, but it is played one time too many.

The black and white cinematography in 1,85:1 by Charles Lawton is magnificent with deep focus, majestic crane shots, expressive close-ups and low angles, and dynamic forward tracking shots or zooms. The minimalism of the subject is conveyed by a grandeur of the imagery.

The excellent restoration does justice to the fine definition and the art of light and shadow.

...

The remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007) by James Mangold with Russell Crowe (Ben Wade) and Christian Bale (Dan Evans) is also worth seeing. All performances are great. The story has been prolonged by a half an hour with confrontations with Indians and at a railway construction site and unnecessary scenes of violence. I prefer the more compact energy of the original. Even from it I would have pruned slow passages and Ben's monologues.

Vera Cruz

Robert Aldrich: Vera Cruz (US 1954) with Burt Lancaster (Joe) and Gary Cooper (Ben). La Cinémathèque française.

Vera Cruz (title in France, Finland, Sweden).

US © 1954 Flora Productions. PC: Flora Productions / Hecht-Lancaster Productions. Distr: United Artists Corp.

Robert Aldrich / États-Unis / 1954 / 93 min / 35 mm / VOSTF

d'après une histoire originale de Borden Chase

The first film released in SuperScope 2:00:1.

Avec Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Sarita Montiel

Filmed entirely in Mexico.

    Estudios Churubusco.

    Loc: – Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán, San Juan Teotihuacán, Estado de México (Caravan Scene) 

– Texcoco, El Molino de las Flores Estado de Mexico – Chapultepec Castle – Chapultepec Park – C. Atletas 2, Country Club Churubusco, Coyoacán – Cuernavaca, Morelos – Mexico City

    US premiere: 25 Dec 1954.

    Finnish premiere: 27 Jan 1956 – Adams Filmi Oy.

    Copie avec sous-titres français n.c.

    Vu samedi, le 19 avril 2025 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: "Avec Vera Cruz, Aldrich annonce la noirceur et le cynisme du western spaghetti avec un film d'aventures nihiliste et anti-héroïque, qui sera l'une des inspirations avouées de Sergio Leone. Tout au long d'un récit sombre et violent, il livre une vision pessimiste de la nature humaine à travers une galerie de personnages ambigus à l'insolence affirmée."

AA: Robert Aldrich's Vera Cruz, set in 1866, is an epic Mexican Western that takes places during the Second Mexican Empire. 

The cast of characters includes George Macready as Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico, who reigned in 1864–1867. Benito Juárez, his predecessor and successor as President of the Republic of Mexico, is not on display, but his army, led by General Ramirez (Morris Ankrum), figures formidably. 

Brutalized in the American Civil War (1861–1865), two mercenaries, Ben (Gary Cooper) and Burt Lancaster (Joe), continue on the warpath in another country. It does not matter on which side: they are only in it for the loot. The United States supports the Republican Juaristas. The Emperor is supported by the Second French Empire.

Industrial scale slaughter drew attention in the American Civil War, and in Vera Cruz we witness it in a Mexican civil war. The weapons on display – a Colt Model 1883 Gatling Gun, 1872 Colt single-action army revolvers and 1894 Winchester rifles – are anachronistic, but the key idea is accurate: this is a new era of mechanical destruction in warfare. No chivalry, gallantry or glory is possible.

Last year was the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, a current that turned its back to history, heroism and big subjects. I sense in it a momentous reaction to the Franco-Prussian War and the preceding American and Mexican civil wars – Édouard Manet made a formidable series of paintings of the execution of Maximilian I by the Republicans.

I have been impressed by Tony Kaes's interpretation of Weimar cinema as "shell shock cinema" in reaction to the First World War. Watching the French Cinémathèque's Western retrospective I have started to think: might the Western be seen as a "shell shock cinema" reaction to the American Civil War? It's been 160 years now, and the wounds are still unhealed.

...

After Apache (1954), Vera Cruz was the second film by Aldrich for Hecht-Lancaster Productions. They established Aldrich as a big leaguer. Aldrich directed Burt Lancaster four times (also in Ulzana's Raid and Twilight's Last Gleaming). Only John Frankenheimer directed him more often.

Vera Cruz is a pioneering work in the cynical lineage leading to The Dirty Dozen (also by Aldrich) and The Wild Bunch. It precedes the 1960s trend of the antihero (James Bond and Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name).

Strong female agency is represented by the Monarchist, Countess Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel) and the Juarista, Nina (Sara Montiel).

The authentic landscapes have been caught magnificently by Aldrich's cinematographer Ernest Laszlo in SuperScope. The epic battles are impressive and electrifying. The visions of the slaughter are devastating, horrifying and depressing. 

The SuperScope presentation is impressive. The print is clean but blurry. The Technicolor experience is uneven.

Wes Anderson (exhibition at la Cinémathèque française)

Wes Anderson poster and totebag art. La Cinémathèque française

Wes Anderson. Photo: La Cinémathèque française.

Wes Anderson

Exposition du 19 mars 2025 au 27 juillet 2025

Exposition produite par la Cinémathèque française en collaboration avec le Design Museum de Londres et en partenariat avec Wes Anderson et American Empirical Pictures.

Le Design Museum de Londres accueillera une version remaniée de l’exposition après son passage à Paris.

Commissaires :

Matthieu Orléan, la Cinémathèque française, Paris

Lucia Savi, Johanna Agerman Ross, le Design Museum, Londres

En collaboration avec Octavia Peissel, American Empirical Pictures

La Cinémathèque française, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6. Visité le 19 avril 2025

« J’ai visité la Cinémathèque pour la première fois il y a 25 ans, alors qu’elle se trouvait encore au Trocadéro, mais je l’avais déjà arpentée dans mon imagination (à travers les lettres de François Truffaut) à l’époque de l’avenue de Messine et de la rue d’Ulm – et d’une certaine manière, je relie indirectement ma propre éducation cinématographique à Henri Langlois et à ses acolytes – c’est donc un plaisir tout particulier pour moi que de participer à cette exposition, quel que soit ce que nous choisirons de présenter ! » Wes Anderson

La Cinémathèque française: "Cette exposition, la première consacrée à l’œuvre jubilatoire du cinéaste Wes Anderson, suit l’évolution chronologique de son travail, depuis ses premiers pas comme réalisateur autodidacte dans les années 90 (Bottle Rocket), jusqu’à ses opus les plus récents (Asteroid City), les plus flamboyants et les plus récompensés à travers le monde (The Grand Budapest Hotel)."

"La rigueur formelle du cinéma de Wes Anderson révèle des partis pris récurrents de mise en scène : une passion pour les tableaux vivants, la symétrie, le graphisme, le montage cut, les dialogues poétiques et l’omniprésence de la musique. Sans oublier sa fidélité absolue à la pellicule. Cette exposition explore les spécificités esthétiques de l’ensemble de sa filmographie et le travail méticuleux réalisé en amont des tournages avec la complicité jamais démentie de sa troupe : le chef-opérateur Robert Yeoman, le scénariste Roman Coppola, le compositeur Alexandre Desplat, le chef décorateur Adam Stockhausen. Du charme doux-amer de La Famille Tenenbaum à l’épopée d’une Europe pré-68 en ébullition dans The French Dispatch, en passant par les défis artisanaux du stop motion (Fantastic Mr. Fox, L’Île aux chiens), l’exposition offre l’opportunité de découvrir comment la vision iconoclaste d’Anderson et son souci du détail ont permis de créer certains des films visuellement et émotionnellement les plus fascinants de ces dernières décennies. Un cinéma de fantaisies qui n’en demeure pas moins d’une puissante humanité."

"Wes Anderson propulse ses personnages dans des mondes imaginaires (l’île de New Penzance, la mégalopole de Megasaki, la petite ville d’Ennui-sur-Blasé, ou la bourgade désertique d’Asteroid City), mais plutôt que de tourner en studio, il préfère investir le réel et le transformer au gré des histoires qu’il scénarise lui-même. Des centaines d’objets sont créés pour habiter les lieux : mobilier, livres, cartes, journaux, moyens de transport… Wes Anderson a eu la précoce idée de conserver tout ce travail de design, et l’exposition s’est donné pour ambition de présenter au public nombre de ces objets cultes. Réunis pour la première fois, ils représentent bien plus que des souvenirs. Ils témoignent d’un usage, et conservent quelque chose de ceux qui les ont créés et manipulés."

"Les visiteurs pourront ainsi découvrir la maquette du train du Darjeeling Limited peint à la main ; les livres aux couvertures colorées de Moonrise Kingdom ; le tableau Boy with Apple qui siège dans la loge de The Grand Budapest Hotel ; ou encore les marionnettes de Fantastic Mr. Fox et d’Asteroid City, les miraculeuses miniatures de Simon Weisse, le travail de la graphiste Erica Dorn, et évidemment les collections inouïes de costumes – notamment ceux conçus par la costumière multi-oscarisée Milena Canonero."

"Plus que tout autre d’ailleurs, le cinéma de Wes Anderson est donc propice à sa propre exposition : un écrin précieux où les reliques du passé deviennent présent, et où la scénographie devient mise en scène. Ces objets issus des films seront complétés par une sélection de photographies et Polaroïds inédits, ainsi que de documents originaux, soigneusement conçus, écrits et dessinés de la main du réalisateur (carnets de travail, archives scénaristiques, dessins préliminaires, storyboards). Cette exposition permet de rendre compte d’une méthode de travail empreinte de liberté, n’obéissant à aucune règle préétablie, et loin des stratégies marketing rigides souvent recherchées par les studios hollywoodiens. Elle révèle les secrets de fabrication de ces comédies mélancoliques, qui ont bouleversé à jamais le cinéma contemporain." Matthieu Orléan (La Cinémathèque française)

AA: Since the 19th March 2025, there have been crowds and queues of young people, including children, visiting the Wes Anderson exhibition and retrospective at the Cinémathèque française. It is a good omen. "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it".

Wes Anderson's breakthrough happened in the great current of American cinema known as the "Class of 1999". I first took note when I invited Robin Wood to dinner in Helsinki during the Hitchcock Centenary in 1999 and asked about his favourite current films. He was enthusiastic about Rushmore.

Anderson was original from the beginning and has reinvented himself time and again as a true visionary. The Paris exhibition is a gorgeous display of Anderson's imagination, fantasy and craft. In each film, he creates a world, and the concept of the exhibition is of a voyage through these worlds in modes ranging from realism (Bottle Rocket) to animation (Fantastic Mr. Fox). 

There is at the Cinémathèque always also the permanent exhibition of Musée Méliès, la magie du cinéma. A perfect fit, since Wes Anderson is the foremost heir to Georges Méliès in contemporary cinema.

Two books have been published for the exhibition. The official exhibition catalogue is Wes Anderson: Les Archives (2025, 296 pages). There is also Dada Wes Anderson (2025, 52 pages). But I start with Christophe Narboni's Wes Anderson La Totale (October 2024, 288 pages), a wonderful overview to all the films, including shorts.

FILMOGRAPHY (FEATURE FILMS)

1996  Bottle Rocket (video) and Bottle Rocket (vintage 35 mm print)

1998  Rushmore

2001  The Royal Tenenbaums

2004  The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

2007  The Darjeeling Limited

2009  Fantastic Mr. Fox

2012  Moonrise Kingdom

2014  The Grand Budapest Hotel

2018  Isle of Dogs

2021  The French Dispatch

2023  Asteroid City

2024  The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (Netflix)

2025  The Phoenician Scheme

Christophe Narbonne: Wes Anderson La totale: les 11 films et les 7 courts-métrages expliqués. Hard cover. 288 pp. 217 x 278 x 29 cm. Maison d'édition: E/P/A. Octobre 2024. E/P/A: "Obsession du détail et de la symétrie, audace chromatique, esthétique vintage : le cinéaste texan Wes Anderson impose un style et une signature inimitables, dont la portée déborde du cadre strictement cinématographique. Inspirant les plus grands créateurs d’aujourd’hui, son univers si caractéristique embrasse le réel d’une façon poétique et ludique en mettant en scène une galerie de personnages loufoques, une mélancolie persistante, des mélodies entêtantes. Regarder un film de Wes Anderson revient à traquer le visible et l’invisible, à recenser les références et les clins d’oeil plus ou moins cachés que ce grand esthète affectionne. Un véritable jeu de piste dont ce livre a pour ambition de vous livrer les clés. Synopsis, genèse, distribution, réception critique et publique : tous les films, courts et longs-métrages décryptés. Une iconographie foisonnante : affiches, photographies de plateau, matériel préparatoire… Des portraits et des interviews des proches collaborateurs de Wes Anderson pour aller plus loin. Des focus pour découvrir les motifs récurrents de l’oeuvre, les obsessions formelles et les thématiques du réalisateur. Des révélations inédites : des secrets de tournage et des anecdotes sur le processus de création… Un index détaillé pour retrouver rapidement les oeuvres et les personnes citées."

The Naked Spur

Anthony Mann: The Naked Spur (US 1953) with Janet Leigh (Lina Patch) and James Stewart (Howard Kemp). La Cinémathèque française.

L'Appât / Teräskannus / Stålsporren.

    US © 1952 Loew's Incorporated. Year of release: 1953. PC: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.

Anthony Mann / États-Unis / 1953 / 91 min / 35 mm / 1.37:1 / Technicolor / VOSTF

Avec James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan.

    Soundtrack: "Beautiful Dreamer" (Stephen Foster, posthumous 1864).

    Loc: – Rocky Outcrop "The Naked Spur" near Durango, Colorado – Durango, Colorado – Animas River, Durango, Colorado – San Juan Mountains, Colorado – Rocky Mountains, Colorado – Lone Pine, California.

    World premiere: 6 Feb 1953 Denver, Colorado.

    Helsinki premiere: 1 Jan 1954 Aloha - O.Y. Fox Films A.B.

    Vu vendredi, le 18 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: " Trois apprentis chasseurs de prime s'escriment à conduire à bon port leur prisonnier, manipulateur et cynique, pour toucher une prime. Un huis clos au cœur d'une nature élégiaque, immense et périlleuse. Et une quinte flush pour le duo Mann/Stewart, qui signe un cinquième chef-d'œuvre après les sensationnels Winchester 73, La Porte du diable, Les Furies et Les Affameurs. "

" Figure névrosée d'une pentalogie du Far West, James Stewart ne quitte plus la veste usée du cow-boy fruste et tourmenté, celle d'un chasseur de primes contraint d'accepter l'aide de deux compagnons peu fiables. Avec ses avalanches de rochers, sa grotte qui s'écroule ou son torrent tumultueux, L'Appât est un modèle de maîtrise dans l'utilisation du paysage. Les accidents de relief agissent sur la psychologie des personnages, autant qu'ils exacerbent leurs divergences, au cours d'un périple régi par la rivalité, la manipulation, le cynisme et la cupidité, que seule la blondeur féminine de Janet Leigh parvient à atténuer. "

AA: The five Westerns by Anthony Mann and James Stewart (Winchester '73, Bend of the River, The Naked Spur, The Far Country and The Man from Laramie) belong to my favourites since childhood, but in the 2024 Cinémathèque française retrospective dedicated to Mann I skipped them.

The Naked Spur is one of the great Westerns. I included it in my MMM Film Guide of best films, and it gets better at each viewing. At last I see it in the cinema, and it's hard to start writing. The screenplay is excellent. The Rocky Mountains are breathtaking. The superb cast consists of only five main actors plus a band of 12 Blackfoot Indians in a tragic sequence. 

In 1868, Howard Kemp (James Stewart) wanders in the mountains in search of a killer wanted for shooting a marshal in Abilene, Kansas. He hires the old prospector Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell). Lt. Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker), who calls himself an Indian hunter, elbows himself into the company. He has been dishonourably discharged for raping a Blackfoot chief's daughter. They track down the wanted man, Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan), a protector of Lina Patch (Janet Leigh) since her father was killed in a bank robbery.

As a child I saw The Naked Spur as an adventure thriller. Now I admire it as a psychological drama, in which character is revealed through action. The central character is Howard Kemp (James Stewart), a man whose secrets come to light in key turning-points. First believed to be a sheriff, he is exposed as a bounty hunter. After Howard's fever dream, in which he calls the name of Mary, we understand that he is a veteran of the Civil War and Mary was his wife who ran away with another man and sold their cattle farm.

When Kemp realizes that the band of Blackfoot Indians following them are after Anderson, he dismisses him. Kemp and the Blackfoot chief exchange signs of peace. But behind Kemp's back, Anderson starts to shoot the Blackfoot, who all die, and sheltering Vandergroat, Kemp is hurt in the leg.

The most intelligent person on the voyage is Vandergroat, the evil genius, a master of divide et impera. He dominates the airspace psychologically, and the movie grows into a battle of wills relevant to the Dostoevskyan lineage (Porfiri vs. Raskolnikov, Myshkin vs. Rogozhin) familiar also from Hitchcock's superman cycle which culminated in Strangers on a Train (Guy Haines vs. Bruno Antony). In all these stories there is the sense that the psychologically dominant villain is the evil double of the protagonist. Vandergroat turns the members of the convoy against each other and gets free. In the showdowns Kemp is again badly hurt and Tate and Anderson die, as well as Vandergroat himself. 

Seen on Good Friday, it's easy to see The Naked Spur as a passion play. James Stewart gives a powerful performance as the agonized, deeply traumatized anti-hero who has lost his mental balance because of the betrayal he has endured. The pain and suffering in Howard Kemp's character is profoundly convincing. The finale is a self-revelation. Kemp realizes how low he has sunk, bursts into tears, buries Ben's body and rides off to California with Lina.

On the road to Vertigo, Stewart gave performances that anticipated his unforgettable interpretation as Scottie Ferguson, and this is one of them. The theme of vertigo is organic in the Rocky Mountains adventure. The fear of heights is innate since the beginning. The terrains get increasingly rugged along the journey, as the Animas River gets wilder.

There are four Hitchcock connections in The Naked Spur. James Stewart (the star of four Hitchcock films during the same period when he starred in his eight films with Mann). Janet Leigh (who gave the performance of a lifetime in Psycho, enhancing her role with heartfelt interiority during the long ride into the night). The vertigo theme. And the evil genius of the villain as the dark double of the protagonist.

Westerns are usually horizontal, but The Naked Spur is vertical, appropriately for the vertigo theme. The cinematography by William Mellor is distinguished by superb extreme high angle and low angle shots.

André Bazin compared the colour cinematography of The Man from Laramie with Cézanne: 

"Grass is mixed up with rocks, trees with desert, snow with pastures and clouds with the blue of the sky. This blending of elements and colours is like the token of the secret tenderness nature holds for man, even in the most arduous trials of its seasons."

The Naked Spur was Mann's second Western in Technicolor. The print on display failed to do justice to Technicolor.

Die Augen der Mumie Mâ / The Eyes of the Mummy (FWMS print)

Ernst Lubitsch: Die Augen der Mumie Mâ / The Eyes of the Mummy (DE 1918). Pola Negri. Poster design: Josef Fenneker. Please click on the image to expand it.

Les Yeux de la momie.

Ernst Lubitsch / Allemagne / 1918 / 58 min / 35 mm / INT.FR. deutsche Zwischentitel / Copie unique.

Avec Emil Jannings, Pola Negri.

Film issu des collections de la Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung à Wiesbaden.

Grand piano: Abel Saintbris (classe d'improvisation de Jean-François Zygel)

Sous-titres français n.c.

Vu lundi, le 14 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Rétrospective Ernst Lubitsch, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

La Cinémathèque française: " Les péripéties exotiques d'une jeune danseuse retenue prisonnière dans un tombeau égyptien. Le premier long métrage réalisé par Lubitsch révèle son sens du récit dramatique, tandis que Pola Negri et Emil Jannings accèdent à la célébrité. "

Taglines from IMDb: " Bewitching Pola Negri as an Oriental dancer who comes from the burning Sahara to capture London society by storm. All the charm and mystery of the East caught into a passion-swept romance of irresistible appeal. "

AA: Revisited Ernst Lubitsch's first feature film and his first collaboration with Pola Negri.

On display was a Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung print, of fair visual quality, a complete version, with lovely sepia toning. The last time I saw this film it was also a fair FWMS print of Die Augen der Mumie Mâ that we screened in our 2008 programme. My first viewing had been of a bad print in the 1981 Lubitsch retrospective in Stockholm.

Orientalism is rampant in The Eyes of the Mummy. It is beyond offensive.

The Eyes of the Mummy was Lubitsch's first experiment outside comedy, and the aim was for grand, exotic entertainment. This is a film of apprenticeship, of a director eager to try something new. Commercially, he succeeded, but for a viewer of a later generation the movie is clumsy and awkward.

The film is well cast, but Emil Jannings (already a Lubitsch regular) overacts horribly. Harry Liedtke (another Lubitsch regular) is molto simpatico as the painter who marries Mâ. The reliable Margarethe Kupfer also belonged to the director's stock company. Max Laurence as Prince Hohenfels in his sole Lubitsch role is another force of normality in counterweight to the overwrought main couple.

The revelation is of course Pola Negri, who changed the cinema of Ernst Lubitsch. They soon achieved world fame together. None of this is evident in The Eyes of the Mummy, but it all started here. It is fascinating to see Pola Negri before her mannerisms had set. At times she is unrecognizable, a stranger to us and herself. She overacts and rolls her eyes. But there are moments of touching interiority, a sadness out of this world. She performs ancient sacred dances in commercial Europe. Her sensuality is genuine and natural. But are we worthy?

I like the laconic force of some of the intertitles. "Die Augen leben, die Augen leben" in the beginning. "Zu spät" in the finale.

The Eyes of the Mummy is sometimes classified as a horror film. I don't object, but I hesitate to use the label. It is certainly a film of "das Unheimliche". It belongs to the wild growth of the fantastique. 

Last year in the Ben Carré retrospective of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto I revisited Maurice Tourneur's Trilby (US 1915). It made me think of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (DE 1920). Gerald du Maurier's novel Trilby (GB 1894) and the eponymous play (1895), whose protagonists Svengali and Trilby became concepts of culture, have also an affinity also with The Eyes of the Mummy. The priest Radu (Jannings) wields telepathic power over the dancer Ma (Negri), and Ma's eyes inside the mummy of the ancient Queen Ma make the spectator lose his mind.

There is also magic power in the portrait of Ma that the painter Alfred Wendland (Liedtke) has created. There are affinities with the lineages of works of authors as different as Edgar Allan Poe (The Oval Portrait), Honoré de Balzac (Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu), Oscar Wilde (The Portrait of Dorian Gray) and even Leo Tolstoy (Mikhailov's portrait of Anna Karenina, which upsets Lyovin's mental balance).

There are fascinating power fields at play, but Lubitsch does not quite know what to make of them. He does not completely abandon them either. He revisits them in untypical films like Eternal Love and The Man I Killed.