Barrabas (1919)

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Movie
Original title Barrabas
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1919
length 525 minutes
Rod
Director Louis Feuillade
script Louis Feuillade,
Maurice Level
production Gaumont
camera Maurice Champreux ,
Georges Lafont ,
Léon Morizet
cut Maurice Champreux
occupation

Barrabas is a twelve-part silent film serial filmed in 1919/20 by Louis Feuillade about the fight between a young lawyer and a journalist against a criminal banker.

action

The reformed criminal Jacques Rougier has hardly been released from prison when a secret criminal organization called "Barrabas" tries to force him into their service. Since he refuses to commit a murder for her, he is drugged and arranged for the police to find him and the body, whereupon he is sentenced to death by the guillotine. The lawyer Jacques Varèse, with whom Rougier has left a will in which he asserts his innocence, is now trying to find out the secret of Barrabas with the help of some friends. The head of the organization turns out to be the unscrupulous banker Rudolph Strélitz, a true devil in human form.

Episodes

Prologue (18 min.)

  1. La maîtresse du juif errant (49 min.)
  2. La justice des hommes (29 min.)
  3. La villa des glycines (41 min.)
  4. Le stigmate (34 min.)
  5. Noëlle Maupré (34 min.)
  6. La fille du condamné (34 min.)
  7. Les ailes de Satan (34 min.)
  8. Le manoir mystérieux (34 min.)
  9. L'otage (34 min.)
  10. L'oubliette (34 min.)
  11. Le revenant (34 min.)
  12. Justice (34 min.)

background

The scenes are set in Paris , Marseille and the Côte d'Azur , in addition to action segments such as fighting on a moving train and the climbing scenes typical of director Louis Feuillade on roofs in the city and on country estates, the film also shows views of Nice and Cannes .

The Barrabas series is said to have been the first for which Feuillade had a complete script before shooting began, whereas he had worked out the plot of earlier series from day to day. Before Feuillade turned mainly to the Dickens-style melodrama in his last creative phase , he once again followed up on his early crime series Fantômas and Les Vampires . Also in Barrabas it comes to the fight against a "maître du crime", this time led by the lawyer Jacques Varèse and the journalist Raoul de Nérac. While there is no shortage of murders and kidnappings, the criminals have become more subtle and have managed to give their international organization (which has its own hotels and clinics) a touch of respectability. According to the motto “What is a pick against a share? What is breaking into a bank versus founding a bank? ”Is the picture of a war-torn society that is defenseless against the sinister machinations of the banker Strélitz, who is ultimately punished.

Despite all the thematic proximity to Feuillade's early crime series, Barrabas differs in the cinematic means: “Of stylistic interest is Feuillade's movement away from the commanding use of depth we find in Fantômas and other of his previous masterworks. Here the staging is mostly lateral, stretching actors across the frame. Very often characters are simply captured in two-shot and the titles do the work, as if Feuillade were making talking pictures without sound. "

Music for the film

The Portuguese composer Júlio Almada wrote a Foxtrot “Barrabás” on the film, which he dedicated to the director Louis Feuillade in the sheet music edition. It was published by Sassetti in Lisbon in 1920 and also appeared on gramophone records, e. B. at Homokord 9582 (A 25 2 22) Barrabás, Foxtrot (J. Almada), Orquesta, and Beka 48607-2 (mx. 31569) Barrabás, Foxtrot (J. Almada). January 19, 1922.

publication

The Cinémathèque française has a 35 mm frame, which was shown as part of the great Feuillade retrospective in 2006. A version restored by Jacques Champreux in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Gaumont and the Cinémathèque française exists in the Paris collection of the Forum des images. The series is not yet available on DVD.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the words of his victim Noëlle Maupré: “On peut ne pas croire en Dieu, mais quand on connait Strélitz, on est bien obligé de croire en Satan.” Quoted from Ann Harding's Treasures: Barrabas 1920 . annhardingstreasures.blogspot.com, accessed February 7, 2012.
  2. ↑ The script is printed in full in: Cinéma Muet. Materials on the French silent film. Volume 2: Ute Wiegand (Red.): Louis Feuillade. The fantastic realism. Filminstitut der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf undated [1980], 95–194.
  3. ^ Bertolt Brecht: Die Dreigroschenoper (print version 1931), III, 9 (Mac). In: Bertolt Brecht: Selected works in six volumes. Volume 1: Pieces 1st anniversary edition for the 100th birthday. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-518-40945-X , p. 267.
  4. ^ Kristin Thompson: The ten best films of ... 1920 . davidbordwell.net, accessed February 7, 2012.
  5. ↑ cf. Ken Wlaschin, The Silent Cinema in Song, 1896–1929 An Illustrated History and Catalog of Songs Inspired by the Movies and Stars, with a List of Recordings. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 2009. On line at epdf.tips , p. 159: “Barrabas, a 1919 French serial, includes the song“ Barrabas ”by Julio Almada. The sheet music (Lisbon: Sassetti) says it is dedicated to Louis Feuillade who directed the film. Barrabas is the name used by a villainous mastermind who heads a worldwide crime syndicate. "
  6. ↑ The sheet music title with the drawing of a bearded man, which was also used for the book title, cf. IMDb.com , is pictured at Museo do Fado ; it is with "D. Rodriguez ”signed.
  7. ↑ cf. Chr. Zwarg, PARLOPHON Matrix Numbers -30173 to 34999: German, PDF , p. 175
  8. ↑ Cinémathèque française, Feuillade retrospective 2006