Film Review
Sur les rails begins in the
manner of a Lumière brothers film, a banal slice of life
depicting a group of railway workers happily enjoying a drink around a
table in front of a café. By the midpoint it has switched
to something more akin to an episode in a Louis Feuillade serial, with
a gruesome attempt at murder and a miraculous escape from almost
certain death. Director Léonce Perret was a master when it
came to combining everyday incident with the fantastic, and doing so
with an almost seamless transition between the two. The first
hint that the narrative is about to switch lanes comes two minutes into
the 14 minute long film, with a dramatic cut from a shot outside a
café showing the hero (Pierre) chatting intimately with his
girlfriend (Augustine) to the reverse shot taken from within the
café showing a third character (Pierre's rival Jacques) lurking
menacingly in the background between these two characters.
Immediately, we sense there is trouble in store, and what is a more
likely way to resolve a love triangle than murder?
Murder is a serious matter and it's as well that Perret takes the time
to show us the motive for the grisly homicide attempt before he
unleashes it on us. Around the eight minute mark, when Jacques
hesitates over strangling the life out of his friend Pierre, we are
treated to a rare (for this time) use of split screen. On the
right-hand side of the screen is superimposed the image of Pierre and
Augustine kissing one another. It's clearly the thought blazing
in Jacques' head, and what better motive could he have for carrying
through his desperate deed than thwarted desire? Perret used the
same technique, for a similar purpose (i.e. to show what is in the
protagonist's head) in another film which he made the same year with
Louis Feuillade,
Le Coeur et l'argent (1912).
Now that we have a motive for murder, Perret proceeds without delay to
the gruesome act itself, and here is the film's first real shock.
Having been dumped on a rail by his homicidal friend, Pierre comes to
his senses and has just enough time to drag himself snugly between the
rails before a steam train comes hurtling over him. There's no
apparent sign of a cut or trick photography, so presumably what we see
is what was actually filmed - a man lying on a railway track as a train
passes directly over him. As amazing as this sequence is, it
is as nothing compared with the shock stunt that Perret holds back for the
end of the film. Watch it and you will be stunned.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Léonce Perret film:
L'Enfant de Paris (1913)
Film Synopsis
Pierre, a young railway worker, is in love with Augustine, the owner of
a café. Neither knows that Jacques, a colleague and
supposed friend of Pierre, also has amorous designs on Augustine.
When Pierre receives a letter from his sweetheart accepting his
proposal of marriage he cannot resist breaking the good news to
Jacques. Consumed with jealousy, Jacques gets his friend blind
drunk and attempts to murder him by dragging his insensible body onto
the railway tracks in front of an in-coming train...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.