Film Review
Before being lured away by Alexandre Kamenka's promise of greater artistic
freedom at his own film production company Albatros, Jean Epstein concluded
his brief stay at Pathé with this charming adaptation of Alphonse
Daudet's 1886 novella
La Belle Nivernaise. Whilst the film is
easily the most conventional of the four that he made for Pathé -
it lacks the experimental ambition of both
L'Auberge rouge (1923) and
Coeur Fidèle (1923)
- Epstein still brings to it his unique aesthetic, combining a lyrical naturalism
with some bold impressionistic flourishes that have the effect of humanising
his protagonists and drawing us into their inner world. Not long before
this, Pathé had produced a similar barge-centred melodrama
L'Hirondelle
et la Mésange, directed by André Antoine in 1920.
Concerned that this film was looking too much like a documentary, Pathé
pulled the plug on it and it was never distributed.
Whilst it pales in comparison with the director's subsequent masterpieces,
over which he had far greater artistic control (
La Glace à trois faces,
La Chute de la maison
Usher),
La Belle Nivernaise is still an engaging piece that
was ahead of its time, both technically and aesthetically. It has none
of the forced sentimentality that was commonplace in film melodramas of this
era and the style of acting appears surprisingly modern, without the excessive
gesticulating and face-pulling that we tend to associate with silent cinema.
In many ways, the film is strongly evocative of Jean Vigo's later film
L'Atalante (1934), which shares
its canal setting and achieves a similar captivating blend of realism and
poetry.
With its cast of ordinary working class characters whose personal dramas
are played out not on land but on water,
La Belle Nivernaise feels
like a precursor to the films that Jean Epstein would make in Brittany during
the last phase of his career, beginning with
Finis terrae (1929).
Like the mercurial ocean in the director's Breton poems, the canal becomes
an ever-present protagonist in the film, and the gentle passage of the titular
barge down this majestic waterway accords perfectly with Epstein's impressionistic
philosophy of cinema as a means of capturing life in motion.
The long tracking shots of the barge gliding slowly down the canal, the surrounding
landscape slipping past with an indefinable grace, are imbued with a soothing
harmony that reflects the mood of the two young lovers, Victor and Clara,
as they embark on their romantic idyll. Contrast this with the jagged,
oppressive brutality that takes over in the latter part of the film, when
Victor is separated from his beloved and placed in an institution that looks
more like a prison for hardened criminals than a boys' school. The
young man's torment is succinctly expressed when, in a state of delirium,
he sees in da Vinci's portrait of Saint Anne the face of his sweetheart -
the pain of separation and sense of loss are poignantly evoked in a dazzling
superimposition sequence.
In an earlier scene, an attempt by a hideously fashioned bargeman (the most
vivid of the dramatis personae) to rape Clara is given a shocking immediacy
through Epstein's manic use of large close-ups and rapid editing. Similarly,
the very different characters of the barge owner and his wife are expressively
shown to us through close-ups - one is a creature of extraordinary compassion,
the other a vile shrew.
La Belle Nivernaise may be a minor work
in Epstein's oeuvre, one in which the 26-year-old director is still clearly
developing his art whilst honouring his commercial commitments, but it is
a film that appeals to both the heart and the eye, transcending the conventional
melodrama by connecting with the true essence of human experience.
© James Travers 2016
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Next Jean Epstein film:
Le Lion des Mogols (1924)
Film Synopsis
Louveau is the owner of an old barge,
La Belle Nivernaise, which ships
coal along the Nivernaise canal in central France. One winter's day,
he is in town on business when he comes across a solitary stray boy named
Victor. Louveau's paternal instincts get the better of him and without
delay he makes arrangements to adopt the boy. Returning to his barge,
Louveau introduces Victor to his infant daughter Clara, who is delighted
to have a playmate, and his surly wife, who is none too pleased with having
another mouth to feed. Ten years later, Victor has grown into a fine
young man, a hardworking apprentice to his adopted father, deeply in love
with Clara. By this time Victor has gained a dangerous enemy in Louveau's
barge-hand L'Équipage, who has long lusted after his boss's daughter.
Victor's prospects of future happiness are threatened when he discovers the
identity of his real father - a wealthy coal merchant named Maugendre.
With Victor and his father away, the lecherous L'Équipage tries
to force himself on Clara, but her sweetheart returns just in time to save
her honour and prevent the barge from colliding with a lock. At Maugendre's
insistence, Victor has no choice but to leave his adopted family and complete
his education in a boys' private school. Unable to adapt to his new
life, Victor falls ill and suffers from hallucinations. Realising how
much a life on the river means to his son, Maugendre relents and buys him
his own barge, on which Victor and Clara may continue their life together...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.