User Reviews

The great French film director Herr Louis Feuillade is well-known by silent film connoisseurs as the director of three fundamental, essential classic fantasy serials, "Fantômas" (1914), "Les Vampires" (1915) und "Judex" (1916). He was an innovative, fascinating and imaginative film pioneer who directed films of all genres during his prolific career.

"L'Agonie De Byzance" (1913) is a historical film that depicts the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, an event that marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. Though this was a primitive era for the silent cinema, Herr Feuillade directs with great skill.

In the early 10's of the last century, the most basic film techniques as we know them nowadays were not developed and most of the silents were filmed with a static camera in what could be described as little more than "filmed theater." Initially this seems to be the case with "L'Agonie De Byzance" too but Herr Feuillade's mastery shines through.

For example, this oeuvre has a lavish artistic design that recreates in an astounding way the historical facts that the film describes; it was certainly a very important film production with a considerable budget for those old days. There are many extras and stunning sets.

The picture was filmed with a variety of long and medium shots and thus avoids the static stage play effect that this Herr Graf mentioned earlier. For example, when during the Turkish assault on the city of Constantinople, consecutive medium short shots give the sequence emotion and motion that makes a considerable difference in comparison with other early silent films of that time.

"L'Agonie De Byzance" is the confirmation of Herr Feuillade's talent directing any early film production in spite of the technical limitations of that era; these were defeated by the imagination of the one of the most resourceful film directors in cinema history.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must worry about the fall of one of his rich Teutonic heiress' empires.

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

By the way, 'Byzance' is the French term for Byzantium or Constantinople--the old capital of the Byzantine Empire. This film is about an even seldom ever mentioned--though it's one of the most important dates in human history. It's about the fall of this empire in 1453 to Muslims--and the Ottomans wiped out this Christian empire that had lasted about 1200 years. I knew about this because I am a history teacher and love reading about the Eastern Roman Empire (another term for the Byzantines)--but few others would understand the significance of all this.

The film shows events leading to the conquest from both the point of view of the doomed emperor as well as the Ottoman Turks. Some of the scenes are quite impressive--such as the courtyard scenes as these Christians pray for deliverance. However, some scenes are odd just because the costumes seem to be an amalgam of whatever the director found on hand--with some dressed like Vikings (about 200-300 years after they stopped having Vikings), 15th century and even ancient clothing--sort of a hodgepodge of styles.

Overall, despite the film being a bit odd and superficial, I really respected Louis Feuillade's attempt to enlighten the audience with a history lesson. While the facts weren't always right, it was interesting nonetheless (where are the huge cannons that caused the walls of the city to give way leading to the invasion--they aren't even mentioned). Also, it's interesting that all this conquering was done in the film is a rather sanitized way (not making the Ottomans out to be blood-thirsty or evil) and there is no blood--just a scene of a few women being sold into slavery and you know they cut the head off the dead Emperor--but they don't show the act (thank goodness). the film ends with the poor Emperor's head being shown off to Muhammed II and his court!

L'agonie de Byzance (1913)

*** (out of 4)

Epic, 30-minute film about the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. The war pretty much boils down to Christians, who have ran things for hundreds of years, losing out to the Muslims and their fearless leaders. As is to be expected, the film takes a lot of liberties with the actual history of things but it's doubtful anyone is going to be checking this out for a history lesson. There are many flaws throughout the film, including the too laid-back direction but in the end we're treated to some great visuals, nice battle scenes and some great sets. The main reason to check this thing out are for the battle scenes, which contain dozens of extras and really pack a nice punch. The majority of the battle scenes just show the men fighting without too much purpose but you can't blame the film too much for that especially when you remember this was 1913. I think the scenes work simply because there's so much going on within the frame and this helps keep things moving. I was also extremely impressed with all the sets and even the costumes looked very good. I think there are some pacing issues that really keep thing from being better but I think fans of early epics should really enjoy this.