Film Review
La Tare (a.k.a.
The Defect) looks as if its
director, Louis Feuillade, conceived it primarily to showcase the
talents of his favourite actress, Renée Carl. For eight
years, Carl was Feuillade's most loyal collaborator and featured in
some of his most important works, including, notably, the
Fantômas series, in which
she played the strangely alluring Lady Beltham. Carl was also
famous for playing the mother of infant star René Dary in
Feuillade's popular
Bébé
films and gave what is probably her finest performance in the
director's
Mater dolorosa
(1910). In
La Tare, the
actress excels in one of her most substantial screen roles,
sympathetically playing a 'fallen woman' (dancehall habitué
being an obvious euphemism for prostitute) who redeems herself only to
be rejected by a heartless society that cannot forgive her past.
A dark commentary on bourgeois morality,
La Tare is among Louis Feuillade's
bleakest film, one that mocks society's tendency to judge individuals
without understanding their personal circumstances, or even allow for
the possibility of redemption. It is a very different kind of
film to those for which Feuillade is now remembered, his ebullient
comedies and stylised thrillers. It is an early example of social
realist drama, offering a realistic portrait of an ordinary woman
coping with a precarious existence in an unforgiving and hypocritical
society.
La Tare ends
with the heroine poised to throw herself through the window of her
pokey garret flat. It is probably the most devastating and
poignant scene in Feuillade's entire oeuvre, and it serves as a
powerful indictment of a society that is governed by deeply flawed
notions of morality.
Today, Feuillade is too easily criticised for relying almost
exclusively on long takes with immobile camera set-ups, something that
makes his films often appear static and theatrical.
La Tare is typical of Feuillade in
this respect, with most of the film consisting of long takes in which
the camera is rigidly fixed, usually just to the left of centre.
Watching the film is like watching a stage play, but, when there is a
such a compelling central performance from Renée Carl, this is
no bad thing. Only in one scene does the camera move, with an
unusual (for Feuillade) tracking shot which follows the heroine as she
moves from one room to another (in an employment agency) and back
again. One likely reason why Feuillade shoots this sequence in an
unbroken taken is to retain the continuity of his lead actress's
performance, allowing the spectator to take in the full extent of the
heroine's despair as her last chance of salvation is brutally snatched
from her. It's an intensely moving scene and you only have to
watch it once to recognise Renée Carl as one of the subtlest
screen actresses of her generation. No wonder Feuillade adored
her.
© James Travers 2015
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Next Louis Feuillade film:
Le Trust, ou les batailles de l'argent (1911)
Film Synopsis
Anna Moulin works as a waitress in a bustling brasserie in Paris' Latin
Quarter, a place frequented by students and loose women. One of
her customers is a hard-up young medical student named Alphonse
Marnier, to whom she makes a habit of giving money out of her meagre
earnings. One day, Dr Paul Perrin drops in on the brasserie and,
moved by Anne's plight, offers her work helping to manage a charitable
hospital he runs. Eager to turn over a new leaf, Anne gratefully
accepts the offer and is soon an indispensable addition to Dr Perrin's
hospital. When the good doctor falls ill, Anne takes over the
running of the institution and within no time she has gained the respect
and admiration of all who know her. Then comes the fateful
day when the recently graduated Marnier shows up looking for
work. Taken by surprise, Anne sends him away, and Marnier takes
his revenge by revealing her sordid past in a local newspaper...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.