Fièvre

How much credit belongs to filmmaker Louis Delluc or his cinematographers, and how much to the efforts of restoration in recent years, is a question I leave to those with more particular knowledge. One way or another this film looks incredible on a fundamental level - sharp and pristine, popping with a vividness that many of its contemporaries and successors lack. Thus does the production design, costume design, and hair and makeup appear all the more terrific as it greets us, and the stark cinematography all the easier on the eyes. The cast give fine performances of nuance, only occasionally reflecting the more exaggerated facial expressions or body language that we sometimes saw in the silent era, and these too benefit from the crispness of the presentation.

I'm not saying that 'Fièvre' is an essential must-see, and it may well be that this appeals primarily or only to those who are already enamored of the silent era. The sequence in which we've given intertitles to name all the background characters of no import, for example, seems excessive, and likewise the one to follow shortly after in which intertitles identify all the souvenirs that sailors picked up in "exotic" far-off lands. These seem all the more excessive considering how simple the story is at large, and how abbreviated the length. One might also bear in mind outdated language, tinges of racist sensibilities, or echoes of outmoded cultural values - though in fairness this is hardly a matter exclusive to this film, or to the silent era generally. Still, the picture wants only to entertain, and to tell a story, and it does so quite well.

Modest as the narrative is, it's engaging and enjoyable as an old love reconnects with the wife of a barkeep and drama ensues. Modest as the film-making is compared even to other examples from the same timeframe, Delluc nevertheless illustrates swell capability, certainly in his orchestration of scenes and not least with some excellent shot composition. With all this having been said 'Fièvre' may not specifically stand out in any major fashion to be distinguished from among its brethren. All the same, it's well made and satisfying just as it is, with recognizable and admirable care, skill, and intelligence underlying the craftsmanship in every capacity. It isn't necessarily a title one needs to go out of their way to see, but if one does have the chance to watch it's fun and worthwhile on its own merits, and as a small slice of French cultural history from 1921. 'Fièvre' is slight but superb, and earns a solid recommendation.

So little French material from the early twenties is accessible that an hour's worth of the celebrated Louis Delluc gets more attention than this minor melodrama really deserves.

A Marseilles bar piece, of the kind that directors Epstein, Cavalcanti and Pagnol would later try, details of the story remain impenetrable in the American copy without intertitles. The thin plot re-unites Eve Francis, who we must consider the Juliette Binoche of her era for want of another contender, with Van Daële (later impressive in "Coeur Fidele") as her lost sailor lover, upsetting her bar owner husband, the admirable Gaston Modot. It would have been nice to see more of Modot here, in one of his youngest sustained appearances.

Best scene has the the dreary bar fill with sailors who, in turn, draw a hoard of floozies, displaying for them the souvenirs of their travels - a live monkey, shawls, an Asian doll, the beak of a sword fish.

Running near an hour at fourteen images a second (anything else destroys the performances), this one holds attention well enough. It's technique and particularly playing are still adequate to make us to take things seriously.

The name of French critic-turned-film director Louis Delluc (1890-1924) is all but unknown nowadays; he was the contemporary of such French cinema luminaries as Jean Epstein, Abel Gance and Marcel L'Herbier and is credited with founding the first cine'-club. Indeed, the French have instituted a "Prix Louis Delluc" which has since been awarded to many renowned native film-makers. Even so, he is best-remembered for two of the seven films he made but, unfortunately, only one of them seems to be readily available – on "You Tube", of all places! – (albeit in a 31 minute-version, as opposed to the "official" 50…but one is never too sure about the correct length of Silent films!); for the record, the other one is entitled LA FEMME DE NULLE PART (1922). Having said that, not even the exhaustive "Films De France" website has much at all to say about Delluc so scarce is the exposure of his work!

The story is a set in a seaside town that seems straight out of Marcel Pagnol's famous "Marius" trilogy: the barmaid of the local tavern (played by Ève Francis, the director's wife) is married to jealous tavern owner (Gaston Modot – earning another feather in his distinguished cap since he would later be starring in the apogée of French avant-garde cinema, Luis Buñuel's L'AGE D'OR {1930}, and French cinema itself, Jean Renoir's THE RULES OF THE GAME {1939}) but her mind wanders to her absent sailor lover (Edmond Van Daële) – cue copious irises of sailing ships. Their clientele is the expected company of indolent card-players, tipsy drunkards, sensitive spinsters and devious prudes.

Before long, Van Daële's ship does indeed dock in the port and he makes his way to the tavern with his rowdy crew and Asian wife (who had recently nursed him back to health)! Francis does not take kindly to this intrusion, nor does Modot to his wife's excessive attentions to her former beau. Soon a kind of fever takes over Francis (who, aided by her sluttish flunkies, violently attacks the Asian girl) and Modot (who fatally assaults Van Daële and, anticipating the aforementioned Buñuel classic, tramples underfoot the dying man's head!); once tragedy strikes, the sailors beat up Modot in his cellar and drag him away, as Francis mourns her dead lover. The Asian girl has meanwhile found refuge with a lonely spinster and the local authorities arrive to take Francis away. Another significant asset here was the beautiful piano-led score that turns into a synth-based chorale once all hell breaks loose.

Herr Louis Delluc was one of the most important silent pioneers in France and probably one of the first persons in that country who thought of the cinema as an Art. He was part of longhaired group called the"French Impressionist School" ( which also included Herr Epstein, Abel Gance and Marcel L'Herbier ) and was himself one of the first and most influential French film critics ( that group of persons who criticize unscrupulously and without remorse much like any German fat heiress in a ball ). He also came up with the term "Ciné-Club", denoting those suspicious longhaired meetings during which a film is exhibited and when it ends, the audience talks about anything but the film itself. Unfortunately Herr Louis Delluc had a short career dying very young at the age of 33 from tuberculosis, denying the French and the rest of the whole world, including Germany, his mastery of film and future accomplishments.

"Fièvre" it is one of his most significant films in which we can see Herr Delluc's previously mentioned talents put to good use. It is a melodramatic story that happens in one of those typical and dangerous harbour bars ( the aristocracy has enough risk drinking the ball's beverages ) , and in which a gallery of misfits will pass an evening that will end up in a tragic way. Two remarkable aspects in this film are Herr Delluc's efficiency displaying in that small and unique décor ( the film includes harbour images and some flashbacks ) such different characters perfectly harmonized in the same sequence and many times, in the same shot. The visuals involving the different stories are skilfully composed. The film is also very well paced with an "in crescendo" film narrative that will have its climax when at the end of the film the bar atmosphere becomes unbreathable ( and not due to non-stop smoking clients… ) as the resentments, jealousies and thoughts of vengeance build to a feverish pitch among those bar customers.

The film stars Herr Delluc's wife, Eve Francis ( who starred in most of the films of her husband ) and Herr Gaston Modot, an important French actor even during the talkie era.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count is in a rheumatic fever due to the Schloss humidity.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

'Fièvre' is from a young, ambitious, artistic Louis Delluc. While it is his directorial debut, there's a mature understanding of shot composition and creating atmosphere.