Erreur tragique (1913)
** (out of 4)
Disappointing thriller from Feuillade about a husband (Rene Navarre) who goes to the movies one day and sees what appears to be his new wife (Suzanne Grandais) in the arms of another man. The husband keeps it to himself but the agony begins to build so he rigs her carriage so that she'll suffer a horrible death but then there's a twist. Going through the Gaumont Collection I've come to learn that the director is going to have everything running a tad bit too long and that trend continues here. At 24-minutes this thing goes on way too long and especially when you consider that it's not all that original even by 1913 standards. There are a couple plot twists along the way but I'm sure most people will pick up on them early on. That's not the reason this film is a major disappointment. The biggest issue is that this movie looks like it was made in 1905 and not 1913. When you consider what was going on by Griffith in America and the epics in Italy, there's really no excuse for this film to look the way it does. Just take a look at the scene where the carriage is out of control. The thing shows so little that we don't get any suspense but the director doesn't even do any cross cutting to try and build any tension. The entire ending has the husband wondering if he's made a terrible mistake and we see him ride off the save the day yet the director never goes for any tension. Instead we just see the aftermath without any build up, which really shocked me because other countries and directors were already doing so much more. The performances are good but the lack of direction really kills this thing. Even the psychological drama of the husband beating himself up over what to do with his wife doesn't work because the style is just so weak and nothing is done with it. A real disappointment in what should have been a better film.
