Film Review
It was with
L'Homme aux gants blancs that Albert Capellani set an
exceptionally high standard of production shortly after being promoted to
the position of artistic director of Pathé's newly created subsidiary
Société cinématographique des auteurs et gens de lettres
(S.C.A.G.L.) in 1908. Capellani had by this time directed over thirty
short films for Pathé over a three year period (encompassing all the
genres the studio was known for) and was already considered one of the leading
filmmakers of his age.
L'Homme aux gants blancs was adapted
from a popular pantomime of the same title by Henri Berény, which
was itself taken from a stage play by Georges Docquois. A highly unusual
blend of ironic drama, black comedy and satire, the film is a masterpiece
of narrative economy, showing a level of technical and artistic sophistication
that was exceedingly rare for any film of this period.
L'Homme aux gants blancs runs to just 18 minutes in length but it
manages to tell a fully rounded story of some complexity without appearing
rushed or uneven. Every shot is meticulously crafted, with a precision
and clarity that Capellani made his hallmark. The director was known
for pioneering techniques that helped to lay the foundation for modern cinema,
and this film contains one his most startling innovations - the use of split-screen.
In the film's most striking sequence, the screen is split into three like
a French tricoleur. In the left and right panels of the shot, a hotel
employee and a glove seller speak on the telephone, their spatial separation
emphasised by the central panel showing a view down a busy French thoroughfare
(the Avenue de l'Opéra in the affluent 9th arrondissement).
It is such an unusual composition for the time that you are instantly reminded
of the fantastic triptych effect that Abel Gance would use on his epic
Napoléon almost a decade later.
Capellani had a reluctance to include editing breaks within a scene, so rarely
does he ever resort to using close-ups.
L'Homme aux gants blancs
employs just one close-up, for the sequence in which the glove seller is
seen sewing a button onto the pair of gloves that will ultimately betray
their owner and lead him to be wrongly arrested for murder. The spectator
is immediately alerted to the future significance of the gloves by the length
of the close-up, which makes it clear that Monsieur Rasta's fate may well
depend on what becomes of them in the course of the story.
Another device that Capellani uses to great effect in this film is the presence
of action at multiple depths within the frame. Partly this is to avoid
the need for cut-away shots necessitating edits (which the director was keen
to avoid), but mainly because it makes the shots more interesting, with action
progressing at various distances from a fixed viewpoint. The fact that
the spectator has to contend with multiple points of focus adds tension and
intrigue to these shots. It also allows Capellani to establish connections
between the protagonists that anticipate how they will go on to interact
with one another. One example of this is the scene in which Rasta shows
up at the restaurant to join his intended victim. Our attention is
initially drawn to a woman seated at a table with an older man (presumably
her rich husband). We then suddenly notice a car draw up in the background.
A man emerges from the car and purposefully strides towards the table next
to the woman - it is of course Monsieur Rasta, the hunter alighting on his
next prey. A similar scene is played out shortly afterwards, with the
more downmarket villain Jules sneakily spying on the rich woman's house,
lurking in the foreground as she leaves her home from the back of the shot
and says her farewell to Rasta. The effect that Capellani creates is
a sense of magnetic attraction - the characters are somehow drawn to one
another across space, by a malevolent force that none of them can resist.
What is most fascinating about
L'Homme aux gants blancs is that whilst
it is one of Capellani's darkest films it is also one of his funniest, the
humour lying in the fact that the three main characters are all piteous objects
of contempt who are more deserving of howling derision than sympathy when
fate deals them a nasty blow. The society parasite who preys on lonely
rich women, the married woman who enjoys the thrill of an illicit dalliance
with a louche stranger, and the petty villain from the gutters who robs merely
to eat - it is not the subtlest portrait of French society but, with its
clear delineation of the classes, it as grimly honest as anything offered
by Zola. What each of the three characters have in common is a need
to feed on others outside their social sphere, which they do with an abundance
of hypocrisy and seemingly no sign of moral awareness. The only one
who isn't punished for his 'crime' is the wretch at the bottom of this social
dung heap - the cur-like Monsieur Jules not only gets away with murder, he
seems to revel in the realisation that another man has been arrested in his place.
It is surely only a matter of time before this wretch - the ultimate in predatory
hypocrites - gains his comeuppance.
© James Travers 2023
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Settling into his new Parisian hotel room, Monsieur Rasta
is about to embark on his next criminal enterprise. As he dresses for
the occasion he finds he needs a new pair of white gloves. A glove
seller is duly summoned to the hotel to provide him with the required accessory,
and she even takes the trouble to sew on a loose button for her fastidious
customer. Now adequately attired, Monsieur Rasta leaves the hotel and
drops in on an upmarket restaurant, where he slips a card to an ostentatiously
wealthy young woman inviting her to join him for a secret assignation.
Later that evening, the woman collects the handsome stranger and they go
back to her luxurious residence. She seeks relief from the crushing
ennui of her empty life, he intends only to rob her of an item of jewellery.
Once they have satisfied their respective cravings, Rasta bids his victim
a courteous farewell and departs the scene, not knowing that he has unwittingly
dropped his new white gloves in the street outside the house.
The gloves are picked up by another suspicious-looking individual who has
been waiting for an opportunity to rob the house. Monsieur Jules may
not be as well-dressed and well-mannered as his predecessor but he is just
as adept at thievery. Alas, his robbery attempt is disturbed by the
unexpected presence of the unfortunate young woman. In the ensuing
confusion, Jules kills his victim and flees the scene, leaving behind the
incriminating gloves. When the police arrive to examine the crime scene
the gloves are soon noticed and would seem to be an important clue to the
identity of the killer. The woman who sold the gloves identifies the
purchaser and Monsieur Rasta soon finds himself under arrest for theft and
murder. The presence of the valuable stolen necklace in his suitcase
is irrefutable proof that he is the killer!
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.