Au Bonheur des Dames (1930)
Posted: March 28th, 2008, 11:39 am
This is Julien Duvivier's last silent film. It just came out on DVD in France from Arte Video. I purchased it and I was not disappointed: this is a beautiful print of a great picture!
I should add that the film is encoded in NTSC, Region Free with English/German subs as well. Anybody in the US can watch it on their DVD player.
The film's script is an adaptation of Emile Zola's novel. The title refers to the name of the department store: Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Paradise). Young Denise Baudu (Dita Parlo) arrives in Paris to work for her uncle who owns a small fabric shop. Alas, her uncle's business is crashing because an enormous department store just opened nearby. Desperate for a job, Denise becomes an employee at the department store. She discovers the petty managers, the jealousy between shop girls. The store's owner and creator, Octave Mouret (Pierre de Guingand) immediately spots her......
The film shortens quite bit Zola's novel and transposes it to the 20s rather than the XIXth century when the first ever department store opened in Paris. But, the film is an immense visual feast! The camera moves around the crowd, goes up in the air: it's so mobile, it's just mind-boggling!!! On top, we get Dita Parlo's marvellous performance as the young Denise. This young German actress made later many French films such as L'Atalante and La Grande Illusion; here, she is a fresh 20 years old, extremely well photographed by Armand Thirard. I found the actor playing Octave Mouret, Pierre de Guingand, less interesting and a bit wooden, but Dita just shines from beginning to end. Duvivier makes here another fabulous picture like his later talking masterpieces.
The DVD contains a small presentation by Serge Bromberg, the head of Lobster Films who produced this DVD; a small documentary from 1930 about La Samaritaine, one of Paris' big department store -sadly closed now-; and a small doc about the recording of the new score. All of the supplements are subtitled in English.
A real treat for any silent movie lover! the same editor has released another silent Duvivier: Poil de Carotte (1925). I'll certainly buy it soon.
Just a little aside: I was watching recently Kevin Brownlow's Cinema Europe and I was struck in the episode about France by the huge number of Zola adaptations produced in the 20s:
Henri Pouctal's Travail (1920)
André Antoine's La Terre (1921)
Jean Renoir's Nana (1926)
Jacques Feyder's Thérèse Raquin (1928)
Marcel L'herbier's L'argent (1928) (soon out on DVD in France!!!)
and Duvivier's Au Bonheur des Dames (1930)
It look as if directors found Zola's socially conscious novels extremely relevant in the troubled 20s......
I should add that the film is encoded in NTSC, Region Free with English/German subs as well. Anybody in the US can watch it on their DVD player.
The film's script is an adaptation of Emile Zola's novel. The title refers to the name of the department store: Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Paradise). Young Denise Baudu (Dita Parlo) arrives in Paris to work for her uncle who owns a small fabric shop. Alas, her uncle's business is crashing because an enormous department store just opened nearby. Desperate for a job, Denise becomes an employee at the department store. She discovers the petty managers, the jealousy between shop girls. The store's owner and creator, Octave Mouret (Pierre de Guingand) immediately spots her......
The film shortens quite bit Zola's novel and transposes it to the 20s rather than the XIXth century when the first ever department store opened in Paris. But, the film is an immense visual feast! The camera moves around the crowd, goes up in the air: it's so mobile, it's just mind-boggling!!! On top, we get Dita Parlo's marvellous performance as the young Denise. This young German actress made later many French films such as L'Atalante and La Grande Illusion; here, she is a fresh 20 years old, extremely well photographed by Armand Thirard. I found the actor playing Octave Mouret, Pierre de Guingand, less interesting and a bit wooden, but Dita just shines from beginning to end. Duvivier makes here another fabulous picture like his later talking masterpieces.
The DVD contains a small presentation by Serge Bromberg, the head of Lobster Films who produced this DVD; a small documentary from 1930 about La Samaritaine, one of Paris' big department store -sadly closed now-; and a small doc about the recording of the new score. All of the supplements are subtitled in English.
A real treat for any silent movie lover! the same editor has released another silent Duvivier: Poil de Carotte (1925). I'll certainly buy it soon.
Just a little aside: I was watching recently Kevin Brownlow's Cinema Europe and I was struck in the episode about France by the huge number of Zola adaptations produced in the 20s:
Henri Pouctal's Travail (1920)
André Antoine's La Terre (1921)
Jean Renoir's Nana (1926)
Jacques Feyder's Thérèse Raquin (1928)
Marcel L'herbier's L'argent (1928) (soon out on DVD in France!!!)
and Duvivier's Au Bonheur des Dames (1930)
It look as if directors found Zola's socially conscious novels extremely relevant in the troubled 20s......