Life, live from Lambeth... Faces of Children (1925), with Meg Morley, Kennington Bioscope

Back home to the Cinema Museum for one of the great films of the French silent, and one accompanied with consistently inventive Verve, the odd delicious Blue Note and Stax of syncopated stamina from Meg Morley; two hours of emotive, compelling improvisation with hints of period classical as well as Meg’s diverse jazz chops. She won’t agree but she made the evening and was so in tune with Jacques Feyder’s tale of childhood grief.

The film was critically-acclaimed yet a commercial failure and for a long time this it only circulated as a two-reel 9.5mm condensed version – available on YouTube and worth watching! – and as Christopher Bird said in his excellent introduction, this encouraged the young Kevin Brownlow to seek out more complete versions. The film was finally restored over a twenty-year period starting with the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique in 1986 and ending with Lobster Films in 2004 but it is still rarely screened which is exactly why we need the Kennington Bioscope more than ever!

Never work with animals or children unless, that is, the children are exceptional actors… was my observation of first watching this film on DVD. My cold shrivelled soul had prepared me for the worst with this tale of youthful anguish but, once again, I was so wrong as it is a naturalistic marvel and one that at almost a century’s years’ distance, it was made in 1923, rings true with unflinching honesty and the director’s iron grip on the dimensions of love and pain. Children are childish, but also easily desolated and whilst Feyder’s players are casually cruel, they learn their lessons hard.

Jean Fores and Victor Vina

A good deal of this is attributable to the film’s remarkable lead Jean Forest, who was just 12 at the time and plays with the controlled intensity of someone twice his age; that’s direction but also a natural talent. The director had featured him in his previous film, Crainquebille (1922) and probably wrote Faces… with him in mind – you can only make this kind of story work with such a freak of acting nature. He is not alone though, with the actor playing his stepsister, Arlette Peyran also remarkable.

Feyder hits us hard right from the opening, showing the funeral of the boy’s mother; ten-year old Jean is numb but expected to stand with his father Pierre Amsler (Victor Vina), the local mayor, through the ceremony as his five-year old sister Pierrette (Pierrette Houyez) is distracted by play. In ten potent minutes, the director introduces the main players and the situation against a stunning backdrop of Saint-luc, a village nestled high in the Swiss Alps. It is a beautifully location for a sad occasion and the worst of all situations: a mother dead leaving her young children all too early.

Amongst the serious adult mourning, Jean looks on in shocked silence as the funeral process unfolds and his mother’s coffin is lowered down the stairs in their chalet. Pierette is too young to understand and is told that Mama has gone away for a while, but Jean is old enough to understand that he’ll never see his mother again. The procession extends out of the house and through the snow-covered streets to the cemetery at the edge of the town. Jean follows alongside his weeping father whilst we keep cutting to see Pierrette playing with a neighbour… The boy braves the entire ceremony before finally collapsing in sadness… you’d need a heart of stone not to be moved but Feyder isn’t just creating a melancholy drama; these are well-drawn characters showing natural grief.

Rachel Devirys and Victor Vina

The months pass with father and son paying due respect to the departed but Pierre begins to worry about his children’s’ care with no mother. He starts to court a milk maid Jeanne Dutois (Rachel Devirys) but hasn’t the heart to tell Jean of his intentions. There doesn’t appear to be anything calculated in this new relationship as events will bear out… and what we see of Pierre, is what his children see, a man subdued by responsibility and grief.

Jean mourns his loss intensely, saying his prayers in front of a portrait of his mother each night. The portrait comes to life and his mother (Suzy Vernon) smiles down at him. This is one of only a couple of moments of magic realism in a film otherwise anchored so much in reality but again this is not just the faces of children but their imagination

The new couple agree to marry but Pierre cannot tell Jean and sends him away with his godfather, Canon Taillier (Henri Duval) who is to break the news as best he can… As Jeanne and Pierre marry the priest tells Jean who resolves to support his father and make the best of things. Things get off to the worst possible start as Jean returns home to find himself locked out; he cannot convince his new stepsister, Arlette (Arlette Peyran) that this is his home too and, having got off on the wrong foot, their relationship swiftly deteriorates.

Jean returns to the village

Jean is relegated to a small back room as his sister shares his old room with Arlette – he resents everything that moves the family on from how they were. Jeanne is unrelentingly kind and fair minded never giving Jean a real reason to dislike her but he doesn’t need one as he works through his anger at the nearest targets: the symptoms of his mother’s absence and not the cause. It’s a film in which a lot happens even as not much happens, the audience has to connect the emotional dots; intuit emotional states and route for simply everyone!

The battle between the children hots up as Arlette tries to involve herself in the others’ games. She invades their little island where they are trying to roast chestnuts only to be repelled and pushed into the water by Jean: whatever she dishes out he sends back with increasing spite. Jean is tormented a boy trying to process adult grief and lashing out at anyone who even inadvertently increases his sadness.

Through it all his parents remain patient and Arlette – as we grown-ups can see – makes every allowance. Of course, this only makes things worse as Jean finally begins to push things too far and lives are put at risk. The closing segments of the film see Feyder rapidly pick up the pace and torture the audience with the prospect of unbearably unhappy endings: you’ll just have to sit through these moments yourself because I can say no more without spoiling things…

The Battle of Boiled Chesnuts

As controlled film making, Faces of Children ranks with the best of French (and indeed Belgian) silent cinema. The leads are all superb and whilst the three children are the obvious standouts it’s also worth highlighting the performances form those adults forced to work with them… and Rachel Devirys is especially nuanced as Jeanne.

The cinematography from Léonce-Henri Burel and Paul Parguel is also superb, especially in the later nighttime scenes whilst they capture the majesty of the background locations as well as the intimacy of the children’s interior lives. Both had worked with Gance and it shows in the snows, day and night during the desperate torch-lit search as the whole village spreads out on the snow looking for a missing child.

And, throughout the full drama Meg Morley produced nuance and emotionally sophisticated narrative accompaniment of her own. I haven’t been going to the KB enough over recent months but I was glad to be back ,,, there is indeed, no place like "home"..

 

David Wyatt: There was a tribute to Bioscope stalwart and multi-talent Dave Wyatt who recently passed away. Dave was one of the core group at the Bioscope and had a fascinating career in film before becoming a collector and contributor to this priceless south London enterprise. Rest in silence Mr Wyatt and thank you for all the joy you brought!