I saw 'Seraphin; or, The Naked Legs' in October 2007 at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy. The festival screened a print on loan from Cinémathèque Française, Paris.
Georges Biscot (who stars in this crude comedy) became a film comedian by an unusual route: he started out in the movies as a film technician (for Pathé), then worked as a music-hall projectionist before France had purpose-made cinemas. While watching the live acts in the Bobino music hall, Biscot caught the stage bug and became a variety performer. In 1916, while impersonating Chaplin's tramp(!), Biscot was discovered by Jacques Feyder and given a film contract. Between May 1921 and February 1922, Louis Feuillade starred Biscot in six comedy shorts, all filmed in Nice. These movies were popular and financially successful, but Biscot played an entirely different character in each film ... thus he failed to develop the momentum of film comedians such as Chaplin -- or Biscot's compatriot André Deed -- who sustained a recognisable characterisation through a series of movies.
In this one, Biscot plays Seraphin, the very proper and dignified manager of an accident-insurance company. Unfortunately for Seraphin (but fortunately for us), he suffers a series of accidents which not only humiliate him but also require his company to make payments to beneficiaries.
Feuillade (who wrote the script as well as directed) and Biscot do a fine job of escalating the indignities in this 37-minute comedy, so that Seraphin's humiliations get steadily worse. Unfortunately, this film's title gives away the ending: as his crowning indignity, Seraphin loses his trousers! (Only four years later, Harold Lloyd -- while shooting 'The Freshman' -- had to be persuaded by his writers to do a similar gag; Lloyd considered the joke a very corny one indeed.)
What lifts Biscot's performance above the work of Brian Rix and other trouser-losers is that Seraphin undergoes the semi-novelty of losing his trousers in the middle of a public street, rather than indoors. Still, it was already a VERY old gag in 1921, and the 'climactic' gag of this comedy is something of an anticlimax. I laughed at this comedy -- Feuillade's and Biscot's talents are clearly displayed at this early point -- but I don't believe that it deserves better than a rating of 6 out of 10.
Georges Biscot (who stars in this crude comedy) became a film comedian by an unusual route: he started out in the movies as a film technician (for Pathé), then worked as a music-hall projectionist before France had purpose-made cinemas. While watching the live acts in the Bobino music hall, Biscot caught the stage bug and became a variety performer. In 1916, while impersonating Chaplin's tramp(!), Biscot was discovered by Jacques Feyder and given a film contract. Between May 1921 and February 1922, Louis Feuillade starred Biscot in six comedy shorts, all filmed in Nice. These movies were popular and financially successful, but Biscot played an entirely different character in each film ... thus he failed to develop the momentum of film comedians such as Chaplin -- or Biscot's compatriot André Deed -- who sustained a recognisable characterisation through a series of movies.
In this one, Biscot plays Seraphin, the very proper and dignified manager of an accident-insurance company. Unfortunately for Seraphin (but fortunately for us), he suffers a series of accidents which not only humiliate him but also require his company to make payments to beneficiaries.
Feuillade (who wrote the script as well as directed) and Biscot do a fine job of escalating the indignities in this 37-minute comedy, so that Seraphin's humiliations get steadily worse. Unfortunately, this film's title gives away the ending: as his crowning indignity, Seraphin loses his trousers! (Only four years later, Harold Lloyd -- while shooting 'The Freshman' -- had to be persuaded by his writers to do a similar gag; Lloyd considered the joke a very corny one indeed.)
What lifts Biscot's performance above the work of Brian Rix and other trouser-losers is that Seraphin undergoes the semi-novelty of losing his trousers in the middle of a public street, rather than indoors. Still, it was already a VERY old gag in 1921, and the 'climactic' gag of this comedy is something of an anticlimax. I laughed at this comedy -- Feuillade's and Biscot's talents are clearly displayed at this early point -- but I don't believe that it deserves better than a rating of 6 out of 10.
