Here's a very ambitious, very early feature from director Albert Capellani. Thirty-six minutes may not seem like much time for a feature in 2021 -- and indeed, it isn't -- but in 1908 it was as long as any movie anyone would see, divided into three chapters. In 1908, eight minutes was a long movie, so to go four times that long, it needed to be a major subject, and in Emile Zola's novel about the curse of drinking, Pathe Freres thought they had it.
Alas, they did not. A feature requires a lot of work and intermingled plots, and while Hugo's work had that in plenty, it required words to explain what was going on; in the silent movies, there were never enough words. So while the opening sequence, when Jacques Grétillat abandons the straight-laced Eugénie Nau for the harum-scarum Catherine Fonteney, we get it. When Mlle. Nau finds consolation and happiness with Alexandre Arquillière, we get that too. When Mlle. Fontenay tries to kill Arquillière every four or five years.... well, I don't get that.
I'm sure it's in Zola's book, and in the stage presentations, and that the people who saw this movie were familiar with it, or had friends who were happy to explain. That means, however, that this is not a self-contained work of art, and so it was back to shorts for another four years for Capellani. Eventually he would get it right, and continue to direct movies until 1922. He would die in Paris in 1931, at age 57.
Alas, they did not. A feature requires a lot of work and intermingled plots, and while Hugo's work had that in plenty, it required words to explain what was going on; in the silent movies, there were never enough words. So while the opening sequence, when Jacques Grétillat abandons the straight-laced Eugénie Nau for the harum-scarum Catherine Fonteney, we get it. When Mlle. Nau finds consolation and happiness with Alexandre Arquillière, we get that too. When Mlle. Fontenay tries to kill Arquillière every four or five years.... well, I don't get that.
I'm sure it's in Zola's book, and in the stage presentations, and that the people who saw this movie were familiar with it, or had friends who were happy to explain. That means, however, that this is not a self-contained work of art, and so it was back to shorts for another four years for Capellani. Eventually he would get it right, and continue to direct movies until 1922. He would die in Paris in 1931, at age 57.
