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Credits
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Summary
Sigognac, a penniless young aristocrat, lives alone in his ruined castle. One day,
a troupe of travelling actors arrive at his door and ask for shelter for the night.
Glad of the company, Sigognac invites them in, and forms an instant bond of friendship
with them. He falls in love with the young ingenue, Isabelle, but a sense of duty
to his ancestors prevents him from accepting an offer to travel with them to Paris.
Later, he changes his mind, and he hastens after his new friends. When one of the
actors dies, Sigognac takes his place, and becomes the Captain Fracasse...
Review
This first full-length film adaptation of the celebrated Théophile Gautier novel
has only recently been recovered and restored. It was an early film by the Brazilian
born director Alberto Cavalcanti, who made over a hundred films during half a century.
Although Cavalcanti is not usually rated as highly as some of his contemporaries, many
of his films display an artistic flair which goes way beyond conventional film-making.
There is ample evidence of this in his Le Capitaine Fracasse.
Making a film of such a well-known novel, with its plethora of action scenes alternating with moments of poignant reflection, must have been an ambitious undertaking, but Cavalcanti manages to pull it off with surprising skill and panache. He is served by some sublime acting talent, which includes Pierre Blanchar and Charles Boyer, who would become major film stars in the following decades. The lack of dialogue makes this a curiously eloquent silent film; so much is conveyed by facial expression and the sombre photography that the spoken word is rendered superfluous. Cavalcanti’s use of colour tinting to distinguish interior scenes from exterior scenes is a little off-putting at first but seems to work well to create contrasting moods. One major, major fault with the newly restored version of the film is the addition of a soundtrack composed by Michel Portal. The music, a bubbly synthesis of what sounds like aboriginal chant and barrel organ piping, is completely unsynchronised with the film's action. It is simply an appalling distraction from the film, one which effectively ruins the spectator's enjoyment of the film. This is criminal artistic vandalism of the worst kind. It is interesting to compare this film with Pierre Gaspard-Huit’s 1960 version of the same title, which started Jean Marais in the role of Fracasse. The later film is certainly a more lavish production, but its reliance on spectacle and comedy does diminish the poignant human dimension of the Fracasse story, which Cavalcanti’s version manages to capture much more effectively. © James Travers 2001 Write a review for this film... |
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