Jacques Feyder's 1928 adaptation of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin is the next film featured in my review of films shown at the Cambridge Film Guild in 1929/30 while Lowry was a student.
Jacques Feyder's 1928 adaptation of Emile Zola's Therese Raquin was also released in Germany as Du Sollst Nicht Ehe Brechen and in the U.S. as Shadows of Fear. Produced in Berlin, with Gina Manes in the title role, the film is regarded by many cineastes as Feyder's best effort. The director perfectly captured the bourgeois stuffiness of the Raquin household and the unspoken passions of the faithless Therese, who despises her small-minded husband and wishes him dead. In concert with her lover, Therese arranges for Raquin to "accidentally" drown in a boating accident. Subsequently, Therese marries her paramour, but their union is forever blighted by the memory of their horrible deed. Upon stumbling onto the truth, Therese's mother is shocked into muteness, but the couple knows that she knows. And in the end, it is the mother who is the sole and silent witness to the couple's downfall. All Movie.com Again, I couldn't find a clip of Therese Raquin to show with the post so I fell back on Feyder's classic 1921 film L'Atlantide.
The actress in the above film was called Renée Claire Angèle Élisabeth Napierkowski usually known as Stacia Napierkowska, who was a French film actress and dancer.It struck me as a coincidence that I chose this clip before I knew her name and the similarity to René Clair of the previous post.
Back at the 19th Hole after a break including a trip to Lowry's burial place in Ripe Sussex. More about my trip later, in the meantime, René Clair's Les Deux Timides 1928is the next in a series of posts on the films shown by the Cambridge Film Guild in the season 1929/30 while Malc was a student at Cambridge.
An Albatross Film produced by Alexander Kamenka at the Gaumont Studios in Billancourt, France. Directed by René Clair and based on a play by Eugene Labiche.
Running time of 62 minutes when released in 1928.
The cast includes Pierre Batcheff, Jim Gerald, Vera Flory, Maurice de Feraudy and Yvette Andreyor.
"Les Deux Timides" revolves around petit-bourgeois puppet characters consisting of a young marriageable daughter, a timid wooer, his blustering rival and a complacent father-in-law.
Our story begins with Fremissin (Pierre Batcheff), a timid young lawyer, pleading his first case and attempting to defend his client, burly wife beater Garadoux (Jim Gerald). Garadoux was charged with beating his wife, trashing his dingy apartment when he had returned to his sparse, dingy home after having one too many drinks.
Lawyer Fremission gives the court the version of the incident that he was given by Garadoux in which Garadoux states that he had actually returned home and, kissing his wife, he gave her a bouquet of flowers. He then entertained her with a violin concerto. Fremission repeats the story over and over again and bores all of the spectators in the court including the judges. Then chaos occurs when a mouse runs through the court room. Garadoux is none too pleased with his lawyer's defense and constantly interrupts the proceedings which annoys the judges and amuses the court spectators. Fremission, thoroughly confused by the proceedings, pleads to the court that his client should be given all of the sternness of the court. The judges give Garadoux three months in jail, and he angrily attempts to beat Fremission until he is set upon by the spectators and Fremission's aunt who is one of the spectators.
Two years go by, and Fremission, who is still timid, is courting a timid young lady, Cecile Thibaudier (Vera Flory), who lives in the countryside. Garadoux, now a widower, has made the small town his home, and, having seen Cecile, he arranges to encounter her wealthy father, Mr. Thibaudier (Maurice de Feraudy) outside a commercial building. Garadoux gives Thibaudier the impression that he owns the building. The persistent Garadoux gets himself invited to Thibaudier's home to court Cecile, and, glancing out of a window, he sees Fremission approaching the house, who also is coming to court Cecile.
Garadoux recognizes Fremission as his incompetent lawyer who bungled his case and had him serve three months in jail. Realizing that Fremission is also courting Cecile, he begins a campaign to frighten Fremission. Garadoux, wearing a mask, surprises Fremission on a lonely road in the vicinity where Cecile lives. Fremission receives a letter that his life will be in jeopardy if ventures out of town. A Mack Sennett chase for Cecile's hand begins with the timid lawyer being constantly foiled by the blustery Garadoux. Fremission has to decide if Cecile's hand is worth the danger.Rare And Obscure Films The film was René Clair's last silent movie. You can read a review of a showing of the film at the 2008 Tribeca Festival.
I couldn't find a clip to show of Les Deux Timides so I opted for the clip below from À Nous la Liberté to demonstrate the talent of Clair.
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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