La hantise

La hantise (1912)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely bizarre film that's pretty hard to judge because it's difficult to make any sense of it. A mother (Renee Carl) goes to see a palm reader who informs her that a loved one is about to die. The woman doesn't know if it's her son or her husband (Rene Navarre) but history buffs will know who it is as it's April 10, 1912 and the husband is about to board Titanic. This film was released in France in October so it was just a few months after the real tragedy so I'm really curious as to how people took this film when it was released. While watching the film it's hard to know if they were just exploiting the tragedy or if they were trying to show that palm reader was a major scam. In a way I feel that they were trying to show palm readers as frauds but if so why on Earth rub salt in what was probably still a tender subject for many people? The entire bit with the palm readers being brought down is sadly lost so the Kino disc just gives us some text as to what happened in the third act. I really didn't have a problem with this but you still scratch your head as to the Titanic stuff being used. We even get actual footage of the Carpathia bringing survivors back and even this is added into the plot of the movie. Personally, I think it was in pretty bad taste to use the Titanic subplot but then again, had they not used it then it's doubtful this film would be remembered today. The performance by Carl is a pretty good one and the supporting cast isn't too bad either. At 24-minutes even without the missing footage, the thing runs a tad bit too long and the psychological drama that the director goes for is never really captured. With that said, it's hard not to recommend this movie simply because of the strange story and what it uses a real tragedy to push it's message.

An early attempt to make capital out of the Titanic disaster, this Louis Feuillade drama was released just six months after the ship went down. The plot concerns a wife who is informed by a fortune teller that either her husband or son will shortly die, just weeks before hubby books a cabin on the shiny new liner. It's a decent enough tale for the era, but the use of the disaster as a plot device so soon after the event is distasteful to say the least. Only an incomplete print survives, with key scenes replaced by a descriptive intertitle.

Though very old-fashioned in that most scenes are set as for stage viewing, that is, with the camera locked down and not moved, this 107-year-old motion picture is pretty amazing.

It's well acted and the intertitles do not intrude too much.

It's French and seems rather advanced for 1912, but then I need to be reminded the Lumiere Brothers were considered co-inventors of the motion picture.

And the "special effects" must have intrigued, if not shocked, audiences of that era, and genuine footage of one of the ships involved in rescuing survivors of the Titanic is also inserted.

Very well worth the time to watch, if only for the historical value.