Le cinémathèque Française' Henri site has reorganised so that you can see everything they are offering. It's only a sheet of thumbnails, a minute fraction of their huge holdings, but there's enough there to keep a serious enthusiast busy for a month - include the entire Ivan Mozjoukine serial of which one one complete hour episode is a punch-up between him and Charles Vanel that demolishes the room, Michael Curtiz' first surviving film, titles by Ukraine's leading director, a couple of Alan Dwan westerns, Jacques Feyder's remarkable Les nouveaux monsieurs and Protéa, a 1913 film by Victor Jasset.
Victor Jasset |
The
Eclair company's Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset’s name is one that only
seems to occur in the early sections of books about film history, the
bits you skip over to get to Film Noir and Ingmar Bergman, but it turns
out that, in the nineteen tens when he was a major player, Jasset was
bridging the gap between Georges Meliés and Louis Feuillade, still using
the stage magician devices of the former but an accomplished exponent
of the episode thriller material of the latter in items like Jasset's
Zigomar serials.
Andriot & Bataille |
The
plot has fictional European country Messine sign a secret treaty which
threatens the Interests of equally non existant Celtie, so their Chief
of Police phones the country’s number one secret agent Protéa / Andriot. In silence the image cuts between the two sides of the call and gives us a good
look at the chief’s imposing candle stick ‘phone set up.
Andriot
agrees on condition that her wing man The Eel / Lucien Bataille be
released from prison and, once they get the cuffs off him he escapes the
police guard, showing up like Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher, where they
think they’ve lost him. From this point, the film offers non-stop action
melodrama.
Going into business, the pair get diplomat Viscount Osthansen, who holds the document, arrested by planting contraband in his valise. They emerge from the furniture in the the Messine Foreign Office, and are only thwarted by the night watchman (already parallel action). Further exploits offer Protéa concealed in the pillar present from the Viceroy of Numidia. She chloroforms the minister, replaces him with a lookalike dummy and goes on to present herself as the leader of an all girl gypsy orchestra at a Messine Foreign office ball. Though the Viscount recognises her, the intrepid duo still manage to set the place on fire making their escape.
The non stop scheming and switching identities holds attention even when plausibility suffers. The piece is quite elaborately staged with plenty of costumed extras and constant changes of setting. The circus material is particularly striking with the stars themselves working a small caged lion.
Title art. |
The Henri copy of Protéa is sharp and detailed if marginally dupey. It has been attractively tinted and missing sections are represented by new title cards. The captions are in French.
Barrie Pattison 2022
Barrie Pattison 2022.
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