This quietly stunning film is operatic but not quite the
simplistic melodrama I had expected it to be, with a skilfully woven narrative
that foreshadows events throughout whilst pushing repeated beats concerning love,
duty, innocence and the almost mystical connection between nature – ours and
that of location. Filmed in the gorgeous city of Arles and the surrounding countryside
of the Camargue, it’s almost entirely shot outdoors, featuring the images of
locale and rural practice you’d expect from André Antoine, the director of L'hirondelle
et la mésange (1920) and La Terre (1921). Sadly, it was to be his
last film as studio interference curtailed his instincts too much and he
focused on writing, but what a legacy he left.
This 4k restoration is a thing of beauty completed in
2020 by Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé and La Cinémathèque française from two
unique diacetate prints preserved at the latter and this streaming version benefited
mightily from musical accompaniment based on orchestral arrangements by Gabriel
Diot from the score edited by Pathé in 1922. Günter Buchwald rearranged the
score, which features compositions from Bizet (who incidentally wrote an opera
based on this story), Gillet, Rachmaninov and others. He also added his own Impressions
d’ Arles and conducted L’Octuor de France to create a perfectly
synchronised emotional narrative that not only pull at present day
heartstrings but also recreats the sound of the contemporary silent experience.
L'Arlésienne began as a short story, later a play (which
Antoine directed), written by Alphonse Daudet and first published in his
collection Letters from My Windmill (Lettres de mon moulin) in
1869 and Antoine shows us the man and the mill as if to say that he’ll be doing
his best to pay respect to the source material. Having not read the story I can’t
judge the director’s faithfulness but there are certainly many rich characters
all of whom are explained and who contribute to the wholeness of the story… it’s
very diligent storytelling.
Arles itself is a very important character here and
having stayed there in the past, this film brings back memories of the town we
visited chiefly on a Vincent van Gogh location spot. Whether by intention or
design, Antoine features Alyscamps Cemetery, the Langlois Bridge, Saint-Trophyme
Cathedral and other places painted by the Dutch master, but then he left few vistas
un-catalogued in this uniquely atmospheric place of magical light. Just as it
attracted the painters so the Camargue with its Roman heritage, wild horses and
micro-climate, was ideal for film making and Antoine’s camera men, Pierre
Trimbach and Léonce-Henri Burel, had an absolute blast from the evidence here.
Marthe Fabris and Gabriel de Gravone
From the opening shots of the city, its people and the family farm at the centre of the tale, the focus is on the sense of place as well as the transitory drama of the human lives. We meet Rose Mamaï (Lucienne Bréval) the matriarch of Castelet Farm, a large stone building set atop a rock with a view of the Arles skyline some miles away. Widowed young she runs the show with the help of her energetic elder son Frédéri (Gabriel de Gravone, later in Gance's La Roue) along with her father and a wise old shepherd, Balthazar (Louis Ravet of L'hirondelle...).
Her younger son has what we would now term special needs
and is referred to as The Innocent (Jean Fleury). I’m always interested in how
such characters are portrayed in early film and here he is seen as “good luck”
by Balthazar who expends far more love and attention than the boy’s mother who
has less time for a mind that will never “awaken”. Needless to say, the boy
will prove important to the story and is very much a key component as one of
the most sympathetic characters.
Maguy Deliac
Another is Vivette (Maguy Deliac, also on board for L'hirondelle…)
Rose’s goddaughter and, it is assumed, Frédéri’s intended. Vivette lives
with her grandmother, La Renaude (Berthe Jalabert) who rarely leaves their
farm, her heart broken long ago by an unspecified liaison, these are passionate
folk, for whom their sense of duty is as important as their sense of truth.
Later on, Rose’s brother will mock the Camargue sensibilities, a jaded modern
voice removed from the land, literally, as a river boat man fond of wine and
appearances; the eternal push and pull of the new and the old is here too.
On a trip into Arles to see Vivette working in the vegetable
market, Frédéri has an instant connection with a striking dark-haired woman. In
Daudet’s story she is never named and here she is simply the Girl from Arles, L'Arlésienne,
played by Marthe Fabris as a worldly-wise woman, possibly on the make. These City
Girls are everywhere from Sunrise to the South of France… ready to distract men
at the drop of a hat but, in fairness to this film, L'Arlésienne has nuance,
she’s not just in it for the good time and good prospects, she just goes for
what she wants even if it means throwing rose petals at him or faking a twisted
ankle to get Frédéri to help her home.
 |
| Luis Ravet |
Frédéri is besotted and soon starts seeking every
opportunity to visit his new love, leaving Vivette bruised and on the backburner;
he’s as keen as his new girl to make the match. He begins staying overnight,
which surely would not happen in a British film of this vintage and is keen to
marry his new love. Two problems emerge though on a visit to the bullfighting
at the Roman arena, a “sport” that still takes place there to this day. Rose’s
brother, Captain Marc (Jean Jacquinet) is disturbed to see that his nephew’s
new girl is wearing a petticoat (I know!) whilst a handsome but tough-looking
horse handler, Mitifio (Charles de Rochefort) looks daggers in L’Arlésienne’s
direction.
Rose being insistent that no son of hers will marry
anyone other than a maiden, she gets Marc to investigate the family background
only for him to get drunk and lose the plot but far more severe are the revelations
from the fearsome Mitifio… these devastate Frédéri and set out the far darker final
third of the film as the film’s key questions get answered.
Charles de Rochefort
L’Arlésienne (1922) for all it’s light touches and
scenic beauty earns its dramatic finale through force of storytelling logic,
and fierce performance; love has to be honest and true and Antoine knew this
just as much as Alphonse Daudet, writing perhaps broken-hearted from his
windmill, fifty years before. Certainly, one of the best films in this year’s Ritrovato
digital stream and one you still have a few days left to enjoy.
It’s on until 3rd August so you better be
quick.
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