Film Review
Le Diamant noir is one of the
more noteworthy films that Alfred Machin directed during his term as
artistic director of Pathé's Belgian subsidiary. Machin's
first assignment for Pathé was to shoot footage of wildlife and
hunting expeditions in Africa, but he was given a far more important
role in 1912 when he was tasked with developing the fledgling film industries in
Netherlands and Belgium.
Le Diamant noir has two
notable stars. The first is a young Albert Dieudonné, who
would later become famous for his portrayal of Napoléon
Bonaparte in Abel Gance's great biopic
Napoléon (1927).
The second, and arguably more photogenic, is a leopard named Mimir,
whom Machin adopted as a baby and who starred in many of his
films. The other animal to steal the limelight in
Le Diamant noir is an incredibly
well-trained magpie - by contrast, the human members of the cast are a
pretty dull bunch.
Machin wasn't just one of Pathé's most prolific film directors
(he made over a hundred films in twenty years), he was also one of the
company's most committed. Technically,
Le Diamant noir is on a par with
any film being made by Pathé's rival company Gaumont at the
time, and uses the camera and editing more stylishly than Gaumont's
leading director Louis Feuillade. (There is a pace and fluidity
to this film which Feuillade's own films of this time lack.) The
story isn't much to write home about but Machin keeps us interested and
maintains the tension by cross-cutting between the Belgian and African
settings (guess which is the more interesting of the two). The
one let down is that you never forgive Dieudonné for killing
Mimir, but that's professional rivalry for you. Can you imagine a
leopard in the role of Napoléon Bonaparte?
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Luc Ogier is dismissed by his employers when a valuable black diamond
mysteriously goes astray. Dishonoured and rejected by his
fiancée, he accompanies the explorer Santher on an expedition to
the Congo. In Luc's absence, his employers discover that the
diamond was stolen by a magpie that he had befriended. Meanwhile,
Luc saves Santher's life when he is attacked by a fierce
panther...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.