El Dorado is the fifth film directed by Marcel L’Herbier for Gaumont’s prestige collection ‘Pax’ which was characterised by high production quality. Its most striking aspect is the invention of new elements of the cinematographic language. L’Herbier uses distortions of the images to convey different messages or impressions: the faces of drinkers become distorted as they become drunk, Sibilla’s face becomes blurred as she thinks about her sick child, or photographs of the Alhambra are distorted to express the artistic vision of the painter intending to represent them.

In German expressionist films such as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari or Von Morgen bis Mitternacht distortions were also used, but they were only applied to the sets, which could also be done in a theatre. Here, it is done by optical means which is specifically cinematographic and opens a whole new range of possibilities. A new technique also pioneered by L’Herbier is the Point of view shot to put the spectator in the middle of the action: he shares for example Sibilla’s feelings when she is thrown out of the house by the servants of her son’s father, or those of characters locked at night in the Alhambra. Point of view shots are also used to show various characters remembering what they have experienced.

The editing is very modern. Crowd scenes are filmed from different points of view, alternating very rapidly wide shots and close-ups focusing on the expression of some of the characters: an old man, a group of women with their children. Sequences are linked in an original way e.g. by fades to white, white masks, or by blurring out.

L’Herbier innovates also with camera movements, using tracking shots or panning, sometimes very fast, to follow characters. By contrast, shots with a static camera are very carefully composed and lit. L’Herbier fully uses the opportunity he had to shoot the film on location in Spain, in Granada, Seville and the Sierra Nevada, to realise beautiful pictures of landscapes and indoor scenes, in particular in the Alhambra Palace in Granada, often with unusual camera angles and lighting. He also includes some footage of Semana Santa (Easter week) celebrations in the streets of Sevilla.

Lights, shadows and transparency create a very original atmosphere in the last scene in the cabaret with cross-cutting between on-stage and backstage, separated by a curtain which partially reveals what is happening on the other side.

The story, presented as a melodrama by L’Herbier, is an original variation on the common theme of the woman seduced and betrayed and has a rather unexpected ending. It is interpreted in a convincing way notably by Eve Francis as Sibilla, and Jaque Catelain and Marcelle Pradot, already seen in L’homme du large.

El Dorado (1921, Marcel L'Herbier - Web-dl 1080).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 34 min
Size: 	4.90 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1440x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	7 326 kb/s
BPP: 	0.188
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AAC LC @ 128 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/FF84C4A547CE9FF/El_Dorado_(1921,_Marcel_L’Herbier_-_Web-dl_1080).mkv
https://nitro.download/view/1A3392B4682F608/El_Dorado_(1921,_Marcel_L’Herbier_-_Web-dl_1080)_v2.srt

Language(s):Silent (French intertitles)
Subtitles:English

The post Marcel L’Herbier – El Dorado (1921) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Prométhée… banquier (1921)

Synopsis:
Mr. Prévoyan, a wealthy banker, is a man who is lucky. If everything he touches turns to gold, the medal on his reverse. Indeed, riveted to his desk by his business, he did not notice that an idyll had formed between the beautiful Gaby, object of his affection, and his own secretary, Toudieu.

An interesting short film in the early career of Marcel L’Herbier:
Marcel L’Herbier is unquestionably one of the most important figures in the history of French cinema. His contribution is not restricted to the films he directed, many of which are widely recognised as genuine masterpieces. He also worked actively to promote cinema as an art form in its own right, helping to ensure that France maintained its position of eminence in a medium which was becoming increasingly dominated by the Americans. Moreover, his films and his writings have inspired successive generations of filmmakers, many of whom went on to become just as influential in French cinema.

L’Herbier was born in Paris is 1888. Having studied law at the Sorbonne, he was drawn to literature (particularly the works of Oscar Wilde and Nietzsche) and he decided to pursue a career as a writer. He published his first novel, “In the Garden of Secret Games”, in 1914. He wrote a stage play “L’Enfantement du mort, miracle en pourpre, noir et or”, an anti-war piece which was not performed until 1919. He discovered cinema whilst serving in the army during the later years of the First World War, when he worked in the film department. He began making his first film, Phantasmes, in 1918, but it was never completed.

After the war, L’Herbier worked for a time with the recently formed Gaumont film company, before founding his own film production company, Cinégraphic, in 1922. Here, he began making his own films, whilst working alongside some other promising young directors, such as Jean Dréville, Claude Autant-Lara and Alberto Cavalcanti.

L’Herbier’s early film triumphs were the L’Homme du large (1920), El Dorado (1921), L’Inhumaine (1924), each a masterwork of visual poetry. His finest work was L’Argent (1929), a monumental work, based on Zola’s novel, which condemned the world of high finance. With L’Enfant de l’amour (1930), L’Herbier demonstrated his mastery of the innovation of sound cinema, despite the primitive technology. He continued making films into the 1950s, although his work would rarely ever achieve the popularity or quality of his early, silent films.

During his film-making career, L’Herbier actively promoted the rights of the filmmaker and sought to protect his country’s film legacy. In 1937, he co-founded the technician’s union, the CGT, and during the Occupation, he presided over the Cinémathèque française. In 1943, he created the first film school in France, the IDHEC, whose alumni include Alain Resnais, Louis Malle, Claude Sautet, and many other pivotal figures in French cinema. In the 1950s, as his filmmaking career declined, he influenced the direction of the comparatively new medium of television, ensuring that classic films were aired regularly. In 1978, Marcel L’Herbier published his memoirs, “La Tête qui tourne”, the final chapter in a life devoted to French cinema. In 1979, he died in Paris.

226MB | 15m 45s | 768×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/1ECB59749013212/Promethee.banquier.1921.576p.DVDRip.x264-KG.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/CA272D20236E3FB/Promethee.banquier.1921.576p.DVDRip.x264-KG.eng.srt

Language(s):None (French intertitles)
Subtitles:None

The post Marcel L’Herbier – Prométhée… banquier AKA Prometheus… Banker (1921) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
“Like his fiery study of a popular milieu in Fièvre, Louis Delluc’s early masterpiece of impressionist cinema, La Femme de Nulle Part, is almost impossible to see outside of rare archival projections in Paris. Shot in natural settings, and stripped of all that is not cinema, Delluc’s psychological drama featuring symbolist muse Eve Francis is an experiment in ‘direct style.’ A fascinating study in the relationship between past and present, memory, dream and reality, this revolutionary film would be a source of inspiration for successive filmmakers, from Francois Truffaut to Alain Resnais.” (NeilMac1971)

Summary:
A fifty year old woman, scarred by a life of disillusionment and regret, returns to the place where she lived twenty years before, to rekindle happier memories. She meets a young woman, the daughter of the current owners of the property, who is on the point of abandoning her home – just as she did, all those years ago…

from Wikipedia:

Generally considered to be his masterpiece. Although largely ignored by the public it was unanimously praised in the press: “the most beautiful French film that we have up to this day” according to L’Ere Nouvelle

https://nitro.download/view/799F76F1331964F/La_Femme_de_Nulle_Part_(1922).mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English

The post Louis Delluc – La femme de nulle part [full version 68 min] (1922) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Like his fiery study of a popular milieu in Fièvre, Louis Delluc’s early masterpiece of impressionist cinema, La Femme de Nulle Part, is almost impossible to see outside of rare archival projections in Paris. Shot in natural settings, and stripped of all that is not cinema, Delluc’s psychological drama featuring symbolist muse Eve Francis is an experiment in ‘direct style.’ A fascinating study in the relationship between past and present, memory, dream and reality, this revolutionary film would be a source of inspiration for successive filmmakers, from Francois Truffaut to Alain Resnais.

https://nitroflare.com/view/BF7043A6D9BCDF0/la_femme_de_nulle_part.avi

Language:Silent
Subtitles:French intertitles

The post Louis Delluc – La femme de nulle part (1922) first appeared on Cinema of the World.