Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2005 Sommario / Contents

scaturita dal restauro diretto da Philippe Esanault l’anno successivo
per conto della Cinémathèque française risulta priva di alcune
inquadrature, con intertitoli riscritti e alcune inquadrature rigirate.
LUCIANO DE GIUSTI
After the positive reception of his first two films,Antoine decided to bring
to the screen Victor Hugo’s powerful novel Les Travailleurs de la mer
(Toilers of the Sea), which had the added attractions of its maritime
setting and the prospect of filming in the neighbourhood of Camaret-sur-
Mer, where the director owned a villa.
Even though the adaptation of a novel so vast and articulated could only
result, as in so many similar cases, in abridgement, the film respects the
original’s narrative structure and conception of the characters. In this
respect, in the films of Antoine we find the most complex psychological
portrayals, achieved by using actors who had developed and been formed
through theatrical experience with him. Charles Mosnier brings great
truth to the characterization of the ship-owner Mess Lethierry. Marc
Gérard is equally clever at conveying, through his body language and
facial expressions, the treacherous duplicity of Captain Clubin.
Outstanding, however, is Romuald Joubé, one of the great actors of the
Antoine circle, who had already starred in Le Coupable and would
appear again in Mademoiselle de la Seiglière. Here he plays the
protagonist Gilliatt, a kind of innocent “idiot” whose solitary existence
arouses among the people of the neighbourhood such a mistrust – Hugo
writes – that they consider him a witch or a cambion, fathered by the
Devil.When Lethierry is ruined by the theft of his money by his partner
Rantaine, followed by the wreck of his ship the Durande, caused by
Captain Clubin, it is the tenacity of the generous Gilliatt which mends
matters and miraculously restores his ship to him. Les Travailleurs de la
mer is the story of a man who sacrifices himself to the point of total selfdenial
for the happiness of others, renouncing marriage with Déruchette,
with whom he is secretly in love, and yielding to the mortal embrace of
the sea.
Antoine mitigates the melodramatic elements of the plot by his strong
handling of a mise-en-scène characterized by his truth to detail, to
which as always he dedicates minute care. However, some difficulties
occasionally result in compromising his demand for truth, like some
painted backgrounds, for example. For the sequence of Gilliatt’s battle
with the octopus, a symbolic incident in Hugo’s novel, Antoine fails to
make it appear sufficiently large and dangerous, having had to resort to
simulation. To compensate for such “artifice”, Antoine dedicates ample
space to the solitary work of the protagonist, who repairs wrecked
vessels, a point in the narration of quasi-documentary description. In his
efforts to realize the psychological complexity of his characters, Antoine,
more often here than in his other films, turns to the use of the close-up
and subjective shots: from the oscillating shots of the boat in the sea, to
the reciprocal double subjectivity of the protagonist vis-à-vis the pastor,
his rival in love, which become glances into the camera, like Gilliatt’s
enigmatic look as he closes the shutters of the house, which seems to
interrogate the spectator on the very mystery of his soul.
59
The film was believed to be lost until the rediscovery in 1988 of a tinted
print at the Nederlands Filmmuseum. The version resulting from the
restoration carried out by Philippe Esnault for the Cinémathèque
Française in 1989 lacks some shots, while others have been rearranged
and the intertitles remade. – LUCIANO DE GIUSTI
LES GRANDS (S.C.A.G.L., FR 1918)
Re./dir: Georges Denola; dalla pièce di/from the stage play by Serge
Veber & Serge Basset (1909); cast: Jean Silvestre (Surot), Maurice
Lagrenée (Jean Brassier), Maxime Desjardins (Lormier, il direttore/the
principal), Emile Milo (guardiano/watchman), Albert Bras (Monsieur
Brassier, il padre di Jean/Jean’s father), Simone Frévalles (Hélène, la
moglie del direttore/the principal’s wife), Herman Grégoire (Bron,
l’economo/the bursar), René Hiéronimus, Jeanne Brindeau (Madame
Brassier); riprese/filmed: 1916; anteprima per stampa ed esercenti/trade
show: 3.9.1918; ppp/rel: 4.10.1918; lg. or./orig. l: 1430 m.; 35mm, 1405 m.,
69’ (18 fps), Národní filmovy´ archiv.
Didascalie in ceco / Czech intertitles.
Dobbiamo alla cineteca di Praga il film misterioso della rassegna su
Antoine e il realismo francese: Les grands, una delle rare pellicole
ancora esistenti dirette da Georges Denola, principale collaboratore
di Antoine in tutti i film del maestro, tranne uno. Ciò che rende la
proiezione alle Giornate ancor più interessante è il fatto che fu girato
nel periodo della collaborazione Antoine-Denola – la data di
lavorazione effettiva è incerta, visto che alcune fonti citano il 1916,
altre il 1918 – e che può svelare qualcosa dell’influenza diretta di
Antoine sui suoi colleghi.
Les grands (“I grandi”) è la prima versione per lo schermo di un
popolarissimo testo teatrale, allestito per la prima volta nel gennaio
del 1909 al Théâtre de l’Odéon proprio da… André Antoine. Non
solo la pièce segnò uno dei più duraturi successi commerciali del
futuro cineasta durante il tormentato periodo che lo vide alla guida
del famoso teatro parigino, ma godette di un tale favore che in appena
due decenni fu portata sullo schermo almeno tre volte. Dopo quella
di Denola, una seconda versione muta fu diretta nel 1924, con
l’eleganza che gli era consueta, da Henri Fescourt, mentre nel 1936
una versione sonora venne realizzata dall’ormai dimenticato Félix
Gandera, un attore divenuto regista. Dopo di che il testo sembrò
cadere nel dimenticatoio.
Scritto a quattro mani da Serge Veber, un affermato drammaturgo
dell’epoca, e Serge Basset, scrittore e giornalista che aveva in
precedenza ricoperto incarichi di insegnante e preside, si tratta di un
facile ma avvincente melodramma ambientato in un collegio di
provincia durante le vacanze pasquali, quando tutti gli studenti, tranne
alcuni dei più anziani, sono tornati a casa. La trama ruota attorno ai
crescenti tormenti amorosi di uno dei ragazzi rimasti a scuola, il
diciannovenne Jean Brassier, che scalpita per dichiarare il suo amore a
Hélène, la giovane moglie del direttore di mezz’età. La faccenda si
ANTOINE