Film Review
Cagliostro was one of the few
films made in France by Richard Oswald, a leading pioneer of German
cinema and a visionary filmmaker of the silent era. Oswald was
not only one of the most prolific film directors of his time (he made
around a 100 films), he was also one of the most daring, his subjects
embracing such controversial themes as prostitution and homosexuality
(the latter explored in his 1919 film
Anders
als die Anderen). His most notable films include
adaptations of
The Tales of Hoffmann
(1916),
The Picture of Dorian Gray
(1917),
Peer Gynt (1918) and
Around the World in Eighty Days
(1919), although he is perhaps best known for his 1932 anthology horror
film
Unheimliche Geschichten
(a.k.a.
The Living Dead).
Cagliostro is one of Oswald's most ambitious works, a blockbuster
historical epic which originally had a runtime of over two hours.
The film is credited as being based on the 1927 novel
Cagliostro by Johannes von
Guenther, a lesser-known German author of historical fiction. It
offers a romanticised account of the fantastic exploits of the
real-life Italian adventurer and occultist Count Alessandro di
Cagliostro. Much of the same story is related, in a slightly more
digestible form, by Alexandre Dumas in his 1850 novel
The Queen's Necklace (a.k.a.
Le Collier de la reine), which has
inspired several films, including Marcel L'Herbier's
L'Affaire du collier de la reine
(1946) and Gregory Ratoff's
Black
Magic (1949).
In common with all too many films of the silent era, the original
negative of
Cagliostro has
long been lost, along with all of its complete commercial prints.
By the late 1980s, all that existed of the film was a truncated
negative that was used to create prints for the Pathé Baby home
film system and a few excerpts, including sequences removed at the
request of the censors. In 1988, the Cinématèque
Française pieced together a shortened version of the
film, which runs to just under half of the film's original
length. With some additional inter-titles, this abridged version
of the film is remarkably coherent, a compelling piece of silent cinema
in its own right and a tantalising glimpse of a lost masterpiece.
Recently, the film has been released on DVD, with a score composed by
the pianist Matthieu Régnault.
Cagliostro was a Franco-German
production, one of the last films to be recorded at the Paris studios
of the prestigious French film production company Albatros.
Oswald's assistant director on the film was a young Marcel
Carné, who would become one of the most important French
filmmakers of the following decade. Another prominent future film
director, Jean Dréville, worked as Oswald's technical
assistant. The cast and crew included various nationalities -
French, German and Russian - prompting Carné to remark that the
studio seemed like a real Tower of Babel. The popular German
actor Hans Stüwe was given the title role, in a cast that consists
predominantly of French actors. Suzanne Bianchetti reprises the
role of Marie-Antoinette which she had previously played in Abel
Gance's
Napoléon (1927), the
same film in which Edmond Van Daële had played Robespierre but now
finds himself in the guise of Louis XVI. Other notable actors in
the impressive cast list include the renowned French stage actor
Charles Dullin and the German film star Alfred Abel, best known for his
role as Joh Fredersen in Fritz Lang's
Metropolis (1927).
Assisted by the legendary cinematographer Jules Kruger and a team of
talented set designers, Richard Oswald creates a striking epic to rival
the other great cinema masterpieces of the time in its narrative
ambition and visual impact. Even though half of the original film
has been lost, what remains is a gripping story of court intrigue and
villainy redeemed by love. The lavish sets of the royal palace
make an effective contrast with the more expressionistic
representations of the dungeons and scaffold, the juxtaposition of
privilege and cruelty anticipating the bloody revolution which will
come after the events depicted in the film. The film's most
memorably brilliant sequence is an extreme close-up of one of the eyes of Marie-Antoinettte; the
queen's iris serves as a crystal ball in which we see the terrible
fate that is in store for her, her death on the guillotine. Just
as memorable is a scene of extraordinary bravado, one in which Jeanne
de la Motte poses topless in the cursed necklace. Somehow the
jewels appear cheap and tawdry draped over the exposed breasts of the
sizzling actress Illa Meery, a potent visual metaphor for the deadly
association of sex and politics.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In the late 18th century, Joseph Balsamo, alias the Count of
Cagliostro, finds fame throughout Europe as a magician, alchemist and fortune
teller. In France, he is requested to perform before the royal
court of King Louis XVI. Queen Marie-Antoinette is anxious to
have her future told, but she is far from pleased when Cagliostro
foretells that she is destined to die in ignominy on the
scaffold. Banished from the court, Cagliostro prepares his
revenge by enlisting the help of Jeanne de la Motte, a young
adventuress who has managed to win the confidence of the Queen.
With Jeanne's help, the magician manages to steal an expensive necklace
that was intended for Marie-Antoinette, creating a scandal that will
ultimately result in the overthrow of the monarchy. His treachery
exposed, Cagliostro is arrested, but he manages to escape the
guillotine with his faithful wife Lorenza. Shortly after the
couple arrive in Italy, hoping to start a new life, they are captured
by the Inquisition...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.