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THE FRENCH FILM
were spent on the film for the Societe Generate de Films, and despite its demerit the film will ever be memorable.
The style of Jacques Feyder, who is a Belgian, appears to change with each of his interesting productions. It would seem he is naturally assimilative. He has adapted from the Germans and from the Swedes, but he has always adapted correctly and with sincerity. In his list of films are to be found, U Image (from a scenario by Jules Romains); L'Atlantide; Gribiche; Crainquebille, from the Anatole France novel; Visages d'Enfants; Carmen, with Raquel Mellor; Therese Raquin, from Zola, and a comedy, Les Nouveaux Messieurs. It is, however, in the two latter films that Feyder demands attention. He is essentially a director of dramatic situations, of heavy conflict between disturbed emotions, and for such handling the material of Zola's Therese Raquin was admirable. It was made in German studios for the Defu firm, and its lighting and treatment were typically Germanic. But pre-eminent was Feyder's remarkable direction of Gina Manes, an actress who can be as good (as in Therese Raquin) or as bad (as in Molander's Sin, from the Strindberg play), according to the mind controlling her playing. Feyder's treatment of Therese, her inner mind, her suppressed sex, her viciousness and her sensuality was an amazing example of dramatic direction. By the smallest movement, by the flicker of an eyelash, by a sidelong glance at Laurent, by her partly opened mouth, by her calm composure at the Raquin home, and by her passion in the studio of her lover, the spectator was forced to share the mind of this remarkable woman. In the handling of Wolfgang Zelzer, as Camille the husband, with his adjustable cuffs and cheerful bonhomie, Feyder was equally brilliant, bringing to the surface the pitiful desolation of the little man's life. Feyder built his film by the use of selected detail, by indirect suggestion, and by symbolism into a strong emotional realisation of a dramatic theme. He was inclined, it is true, to exaggerate the melodrama of the closing scenes by too heavy a contrast in lighting and by a sequence of double and triple exposure which disturbed the smooth continuity that was so well achieved in the first two-thirds of the picture. Nevertheless, Therese Raquin was a great achievement of dramatic direction, an example of the use of emphasis of detail to reinforce the content. The following Feyder picture was in direct contrast to the depression of Zola, for Les Nouveaux Messieurs was a comedy of politics adapted from a stage play, demanding satirical
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