User Reviews

L'Atlantide is an early action, adventure movie that strongly recalls the exotic fiction of Jules Verne. Pierre Benoit, the author, clearly was following Verne's footsteps as he retailed a story of French soldiers stationed in colonial Algeria on the cusp of World War I getting lost in the desert and ending up in the kingdom of Atlantis. According to the conceit of the story, part of Atlantis survived the great flood that destroyed most of the island 9,000 years ago and became an oasis in the center of the Sahara desert.

The basic plot of the novel recounts how three French soldiers end up in this kingdom under the rule of a mysterious queen. As the filmization of the novel unfolds, the viewer discovers this queen collects and discards husbands as it strikes her fancy. The exes end up as preserved, life-sized gold statues in the queen's main chamber. Talk about trophy husbands! In the story, the queen meets her match when one of the French soldiers, a religiously pious man who's totally indifferent to the queen's charms. This maddens her and she connives through the use of drugs to get the soldier's friend to kill the man who spurned her. Eventually, the soldier who killed his friend and a female member of the queen's entourage flee the kingdom only to fall victim to the desert. The young woman dies but the soldier barely survives. In the end, the soldier, after having told his story to another friend, sets out to find the kingdom once again as all men who come into contact with the Queen of Atlantis must go back to her.

That, in a nutshell is the story. What such a cursory description cannot detail is the often striking cinematography which was actually shot on location in the Sahara under very difficult circumstances. Also, such a description can't tell how the story is a strange combination of femme fatale a la Salome, covert religious melodrama as well as exotic adventure. The set design of the queen's palace is striking and reminiscent of the elaborate painting of the Symbolist painter, Gustave Moreau.

The principal problems of the film are the overacting by the title character and the over length of the film. The narrative itself is also convoluted as the audience is treated to flashbacks within flashbacks which aren't hard to follow but add to the length of the film. Also, at the denouement, the main character simply runs away from the Queen without directly confronting her even though the movie ends with this character setting out to return to her. Such a resolution seems rather unsatisfying. Another plot line not followed through is the guilt the queen feels for causing the death of the man who spurned her. The guilt is shown but doesn't go anywhere plot-wise.

In sum, a fascinating film that according to what I read was quite successful in its day but very dated in many ways. My advice, be patient with it, laugh at the silly parts and be intrigued by the set designs.

Actually, I enjoyed Crainquebille more than Feyder's famous 1921 version of Queen of Atlantis, which is also known as "L'Atlantide"..

This movie is filmed in a very odd style, the direct opposite of the intimate approach to Crainquebille.

Long shots are favored here, while the faces of the players are often deliberately obscured.

True, Stacia Napierkowska in the title role is given the deluxe treatment, but she is not in the movie all that much and she is a very evil, totally unsympathetic queen at that.

The only other players to make any impression are Marie-Louise Iribe as the slave girl, Tanit-Zerga, and Paul Franceschi in his movie debut, as the librarian.

The heroes are both duds. The landscapes steal the show.

(To enjoy the 9/10 Image DVD turn brightness to the maximum.)

Carefully conceived and generally well-executed visually, this movie fails because it fails to take advantage of the story's structure, which is just hinted at in this movie and because of the over-the-top performance of the pudgy Stacia Napierkowska as Queen Antinea of the remnants of Atlantis which, as we all know, is in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Spoilers: the first half of the movie uses itself up in getting to the Hidden City -- which 19th century popular fiction would have us believe, are scattered across Africa like wads of chewing gum on the bottom of school desks. Mostly it works like the revelations of story within story of the Arabian Nights, However, the inmost story is of a different order. It is preceded by the two male leads' smoking Hashish -- accidentally -- and ended by the survivor heading back to the Hidden City like an addict. It should possess the air of a fever dream. Instead we are confronted with a relatively straightforward story interspersed by the hefty Miss Napierkowa throwing hissy fits and very much in need of a hairbrush.

Kudos to a beautifully designed and shot production and to excellent and restrained performances by the rest of the cast, particularly Georges Melchior. But Miss Napierkowska pretty much made the audience laugh in embarrassment.