June 20, 2010

77. L'inhumaine (1924)

L'Inhumaine is a gem. A beautiful blend of modernism and sci-fi.
It was directed by Marcel L'Herbier, who was 34 at the time.

You can read about the film's interesting background here.


Philippe Hériat (26) as Djorah de Nopur

Georgette Leblanc as Claire Lescot, the heroine -

- and her magnificent servants in papier mache masks





Jaque Catelain (27) as Einar Norsen, a daredevil inventor


Garbo Jaques again









this cat had revolutionary dreams but I can't recall his name




John Lennon and his pal wanted to join in on the grinning

Marcelle Pradot (23) played a peasant girl who witnesses a car crash

She was sweet. And also the wife of the director.

Claire's outfits and accessories were out of this world.
I want them all.


a beautiful anonymous boy on the left, next to Mr Revolutionaire


Philippe without his turban


Claire's moth antennae head dress











A pleasant cameo by Kiki !
She also appeared in La Galeria des monstres with Jaque and Philippe on the same year, 1924.



This scene is similar to the one in L'Herbier's El Dorado , which he directed three years earlier.
In that one it is Philippe who dances on the other side of a screen.


a poisonous snake in a beautiful basket, hidden amongst flowers




having suffered from back trauma last year, I tend to feel deep empathy towards all these men who have to carry fainted ladies in films







The film is well worth seeking out.
It does run for 2 hours and 10 minutes but offers a lot of grand visuals.

ps. does anyone know where I might find L'Herbier's Le vertige (1927) ?

7 comments:

  1. This looks so amazing, i wish i could find it somewhere!!! Thanks for all the lovely screen captures, they're beautiful! xxxxxx

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  2. There are no votes on IMDB and no reviews either, so I doubt that Le vertige is available anywhere, which is a real shame.

    Nice blog, by the way. You've inspired me to see Broken Blossoms. Thanks :)

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  3. Hi thomscase !

    The Internet Archive has a good quality version of Broken Blossoms (http://www.archive.org/details/brokenblossoms1919).

    I recall having read somewhere that Le Vertige was shown at some film festival some time ago, but I'm not absolutely sure. I have to research it again (:

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  4. Oh, i'm glad to hear that! Please, let me know if you find it.

    I'd recommend you L'Herbier's Feu Mathias Pascal, if you haven't seen this film yet. Pierre Batcheff has a small part in it :)

    And thank you for the link! x

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  5. Damn, I spent about an hour trying to find information about the status of Le Vertige but only reached a dead end.
    But still I refuse to believe that the film has been lost for good. Hopefully it will turn up somewhere during my lifetime.

    I also looked around for Feu Mathias Pascal but only found it as a torrent file.
    My apartment building keeps a close watch on torrent downloading, it's strictly forbidden.
    The MundoSilente.com website is a place where I go drool over all the titles that I can't have.

    My main source of films is Universo Äcido.

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  6. Eh, let's hope. Also I'd like to see his Don Juan et Faust someday :)

    Too bad you can't download Feu Mathias Pascal from eMule. Maybe I'll try to upload it somewhere. The version I got has Italian intertitles and lasts only 114 minutes while IMDB says it should be 56 minutes longer (I believe, the scenes with Philippe Hériat and Jaque Catelain were cut out), but overall the quality is not so bad, I think.

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  7. Thanks for poosting this

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speak now !