I still haven't been able to source the above movie which was included in the 1930 season 1930 at the Cambridge Film Guild frequented by Lowry whilst at University.
However, I can provide an update, in my previous post I had overlooked a Liverpool connection between Lowry and Cavalcanti. My friend Bryan Biggs, who curated Malc's Centenary Festival at the Bluecoat in Liverpool in 2009, has informed me that Cavalcanti was the Brazilian consulate in Liverpool in 1919/20.
I have also found a contemporary review of the film from 1927 in the N.Y. Times.
Another connection between Lowry and Cavalcanti, which I failed to mention is Michael Redgrave. Lowry was friends with Redgrave whilst at Cambridge. Cavalcanti directed Redgrave in the Ventriloquist's Dummy sequence of the film Dead of Night 1945.
We are back in Cambridge circa 1930 with Malc at the Cambridge Film Guild with the next film up being En Rade.
Cavalcanti's Sea Fever was originally released in France in late 1927 as En Rade. Catherine Hessling, better known to film enthusiasts for her work in the early Jean Renoir silents, stars as a seaport barmaid who falls in love with sweet-natured sailor Georges Charlia. When Charlia unaccountably disappears one day, Hessling is plunged into the depths of melancholia. Her sad story is counterpointed with the bizarre behavior of the local laundress' son (Philippe Heriat), who dreams of a life at sea.
I cannot yet find a copy of the film or any clips to view. I think the plot synopsis above would have appealed to the young Malc after returning from his sea voyage to the Far East.
Actress/artist's model Catherine Hessling was the last model of painter Auguste Renoir and the wife of his son, distinguished filmmaker Jean Renoir. Soon after her marriage to the latter in 1920, Hessling, born Andrée Madeleine Heuchling in Alsace, began starring in Renoir's first films. She sometimes appeared in the films of other directors as well. Though the stunningly beautiful Hessling was a noted performer, her film career abruptly ended after her marriage to Renoir broke up in the early 1930s.
While I was researching this post, I came across the above photograph of Catherine Hessling from the Jean Renoir film Sur un air de Charleston. I found this fantastic clip on YouTube:
French filmmaker Jean Renoir would later remark that he directed the sensual dance fantasy Charleston because he'd "just discovered American jazz." He also had some stock footage left over from his previous silent success Nana, and decided it would be provident to fashion a new film from these leavings. Even without the benefit of sound, one can hear the jazzy rhythms of Charleston through the exuberant gyrations of an African-American dancer whom Renoir and his star, actress Catherine Hessling, had discovered for this picture. Originally titled Sur un air de Charleston, the film was also released as Charleston Parade in English-speaking countries. In some areas of the US and Europe, the film was greeted with protests from censorship boards who simply couldn't appreciate the aesthetic value in Catherine Hessling's near-nude dance numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
I am sure Malc would have approved of Renoir's appreciation of jazz and we can only wonder whether he saw the movie.
Lowry had a life-long love of cinema which began with his childhood visits to cinemas in the Wirral area.
Paul Tiessen in his essay A Canadian Film Critic In Lowry's Cambridge has given us an insight of how that love of cinema developed when Lowry attended Cambridge University. At Cambridge, Lowry met Gerald Noxon then a Trinity College undergraduate. Noxon was a Canadian film critic and writer who helped shape Lowry's enthusiasm for film in the early part of their friendship.
Noxon was one of the founders of the Cambridge Experiment magazine which published an early Lowry story called Port Swettenham in Issue 5 of the magazine. Noxon was also the founding president of the Cambridge Film Guild.
Noxon with his wife Betty Lane
You can read more about Lowry's friendship with Noxon in Noxon's memoir Malcolm Lowry 1930 available in Malcolm Lowry: Psalms And Songs in which Noxon details their shared passion for cinema and jazz. Lowry and Noxon also exchanged letters for many years which are available in The Letters of Malcolm Lowry and Gerald Noxon, 1940-1952.
Noxon exposed Cambridge University students to the some of the best European cinema of the period - "in order to afford people interested in the Cinema an opportunity of seeing films which are otherwise unavailable to them."
Tiessen in his essay details the following films which were shown:
Some of the above films are referenced in Lowry's letters and other writings.
Tiessen in several pieces and Kilgallin in his 1973 book Lowry have written about Lowry and cinema. However, there is still considerable scope for further research and a larger piece of work pulling together Lowry's visits to cinemas on the Wirral, his Cambridge days and a visit to Germany and his love of German Expressionist cinema, the time he spent in Hollywood as an abortive screen-writer, the fact he married a film actress Margerie Bonner, his film-script for Tender Is The Night (Tiessen did a fine job on the edition published in The Cinema Of Malcolm Lowry), the many references to films in all his work including his letters as well as the impact of cinema on his writing style.
In subsequent posts, I will offer up clips, posters, photographs detailing the films in the Cambridge Film Guild between 1929-31.
I set this blog up to mark the centenary of Malcolm Lowry's birth in July 2009.
I want to use the blog to publish my on-going research into Lowry's Wirral and to document my psychogeographical wanderings around Wirral and Liverpool in search of Lowry's spirit.
I will also use the blog to document the various themes that run through Lowry's work such as his love of cinema and jazz which I share with him.
Draw up a stool and join Malc and me at the bar in the clubhouse and enjoy the night!
Colin Dilnot
colin.dilnot@gmail.com
The photograph shows the original Caldy Golf Clubhouse, Wirral (not actually the 19th hole because the course was only 9 holes when first developed!) circa 1910.
You can see Caldy in the background which was just being developed by David Benno Rappart.
The clubhouse would have looked like this when Malcolm Lowry as a youth used the course which was near to his home at Inglewood in Caldy.
The clubhouse was located to the west of the Hooton to West Kirby Railway line near a bridge crossing what is now Shore Road. The building still stands and has been converted to residential accommodation though the landscape has changed considerably in a 100 years.
I will be sharing more information and photographs detailing Lowry's Wirral both on the blog.
An essay detailing some of my research is now published in a book called Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the world.
I am currently working on a bigger project entitled 'Gutted Arcades of the Past' detailing Lowry's early life and works.
Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World Biggs, Bryan & Tookey, Helen (eds)
Malcolm Lowry described Liverpool as ‘that terrible city whose main street is the ocean’. Born on the Wirral side of the river Mersey, Lowry’s relationship to the Merseyside of his youth informs all of his writing and Liverpool itself continued to hold tremendous significance for him, even though he never returned. Published in conjunction with a festival and exhibition at Liverpool’s Bluecoat arts centre celebrating Lowry’s centenary, this beautifully produced book showcases a variety of creative and critical approaches to Lowry and his work, and includes twelve specially commissioned pieces of new writing. There is a particular focus on place and on journeys; contributors write from the UK, Europe, Canada and Mexico, and reflect both on Lowry’s ‘voyage that never ends’ and on their own journeys with and through Lowry’s work. The book also demonstrates the richness of Lowry’s influence on contemporary visual artists and includes full-colour illustrations throughout. It will be an indispensable companion for anyone interested in the creative legacy of Malcolm Lowry’s life and work.
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