Film Review
L'Hirondelle et la mésange is assuredly the most groundbreaking
film that André Antoine directed but, considered too documentary-like
to be a commercial proposition by producer Charles Pathé, it was shelved
immediately after it was filmed (in the late summer of 1920) and was all
but forgotten for the next sixty-two years. It wasn't until 1982 that
the film's remarkably well-preserved rushes were rediscovered by the Cinémathèque
française. Edited by Henri Colpi from notes left by
its director, the film was first screened in March 1984 and was hailed as
a recovered masterpiece.
André Antoine had already made his mark as a theatre director of considerable
renown when he began working for Pathé's subsidiary SCAGI (la Société
Cinématographique des Auteurs et Gens de Lettres) in 1915. He
was motivated to bring about a similar transformation in the art of cinema
that he had brought to the French stage, achieving a greater degree of realism
though the use of extensive location photography, subtle mise-en-scène
(including use of the close-up) and naturalistic acting. Whereas most
of Antoine's films for Pathé were literary adaptations (
Le Coupable (1917),
La Terre
(1921)),
L'Hirondelle et la mésange is unusually a slice-of-life
contemporary drama, and an opportunity for its director to push film realism
to its limit. Here, we can clearly see the origins of neo-realism and
poetic realism, as well as the modern realist drama, and Charles Pathé's
decision to veto the film's release now seems to be as tragic as it is woefully
short-sighted.
It is easy to see why Pathé had such strong reservations about this
film. For its first two-thirds,
L'Hirondelle et la mésange
is indistinguishable from a documentary, one offering the most authentic
depiction of the life of a barge-working family of this time. Beautifully
photographed by Pathé's star cinematographer Léonce-Henri Burel
(who later worked on several Abel Gance films, notably
Napoléon (1927)), the film
presages subsequent barge-themed dramas - Jean Epstein's
La Belle Nivernaise
(1924), Jean Renoir's
La Fille
de l'eau (1925), Jean Vigo's
L'Atalante
(1934) - but it stands apart and serves as a striking visual record of its
era. The lasting after-effects of the Great War are visible, as much
in the characters struggling to eke out a meagre existence as in the sorry
ruins that lie in discomforting neglect on the banks of the canals.
Life is a struggle but it goes on, days of drudgery alternating with days
of contented repose, the world lazily drifting by as the barges wend their
way down the quiet waterways of Belgium. A town carnival provides a
welcome distraction - despite the miserable weather the streets are thronged
with ordinary folk intent on making the most of what life offers them.
It is only in the film's final third that anything resembling a plot becomes
noticeable, but even here Antoine refuses to opt for the safe course and
stick to the conventions of film melodrama. The indecent desire that
the villain of the piece - a rat-faced young schemer named Michel - has for
his employer's wife has a sickening reality to it that provides the film
with its first shock moment when Michel attempts to rape the object of his
desire after spying on her with lecherous intent. Antoine makes
us a willing partner in Michel's seedy voyeurism by fixing the camera on
the sight that arouses him - that of the wife wrapping her fleshy naked body
in a sheet of lace. From hereon, the
mood of the film darkens relentlessly, slowly drawing us to its grim climax
with a sense of inevitability that finds an eerie resonance in the slow passage
of the barges down the canals. When the denouement comes it is sudden,
wicked and horrifying in the extreme - and you can't help but wonder if this
is what
really prompted Charles Pathé to withhold the film's
release. It is hard to recall a film prior to this in which man's inhumanity
to man is so unashamedly exposed before a cinema audience.
L'Hirondelle
et la mésange is a remarkable film that takes us on a memorable
journey through the idyllic landscapes of Belgium and then into the darkest
place known to man - his inner being.
© James Travers 2017
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Film Synopsis
Assisted by his wife Griet and sister-in-law Marthe, Pierre van Groot earns
a modest wage shipping coal and building materials between northern France
and Belgium on his two barges, L'Hirondelle and La Mésange.
In the aftermath of WWI, times are hard and Pierre is forced to supplement
his meagre income by smuggling precious jewels into France. He engages
a young man, Michel Geneven, to help him in his arduous work, not knowing
that Michel is a petty criminal who knows about his smuggling activities.
Michel quickly gains the confidence of his employer and it seems that he and
Marthe will soon be married. But it is Griet that Michel is most attracted
to, and when the others are away he makes his feelings for her apparent.
Shocked, Griet repels Michel's advances and later recounts the incident to
her husband. Fearing that Michel may betray him to the customs men,
Pierre bides his time, waiting for a suitable moment to dispose of the man
who has become a dangerous enemy...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.