Le roi de carnaval

Joaquin Phoenix is unrecognizable here; I see why he won the Oscar. But, seriously, this Danish-German late silent film production from Nordisk studios, by way of adapting an English stage play, and set in Nice, France has nothing to do with American superhero comic books. Although, Henry Edwards as the eponymous Joker here does remind me of a young Liam Neeson, and the Batman comics were inspired by silent movies--namely "The Mark of Zorro" (1920), "The Bat" (1926), along with its talkie remake "The Bat Whispers" (1930), and, for the Joker antagonist, "The Man Who Laughs" (1928). But, that's another story. "The Joker" this time is the first restoration streamed for the online edition of the 40th Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

A gorgeous print it is, too. The only readily apparent decomposition occurs briefly at the end of the Joker's first scene, as if left there to highlight how beautiful the rest of the film remains. The lighting and tinting especially look good, and there's the backdrop of the Nice Carnival to liven up the melodrama. What I assume is documentary footage of the carnival is by itself of interest, but the rest of the picture looks good, too. This was at the peak and end of the silent era, after all. The narrative is another matter.

It's a lot of contrived melodrama over a blackmail plot involving love letters from the past of a now high-society married woman. The blackmailing lawyer attempts to extract pearls and, then, a marriage to her sister and the social-class-climbing that would provide in exchange for avoiding scandal. Y'know, God forbid a woman experienced love with another man before marriage. A lot of pearl-clutching and hand-clutching from the sisters here and their heads bowed in shame. The card-playing Joker, who just like Batman's foe employs the Joker playing card as his calling card and, thanks to the carnival and melodrama, has a flair for the dramatic, gets tangled up in this mess and ultimately comes to the rescue from his courting of the sister.

Ho-hum stuff for the most part. Even the supposed detectives tend to be inept, and there's not actually any mystery to solve. The carnival isn't especially integrated well with the blackmail plot, either, except for that, perhaps, one might say there's a carnivalesque nature to the melodramatic contrivances and absurd scheming of the baddie. Unexpected and unintegrated to the rest of the narrative as it is, I do rather like the meta deus ex machina here of filmmaking itself. That's one way for a lazy screenwriter to solve their plot: just invent another movie to resolve it.

The sisters are so dull I mixed them up for a while and consequently, for a time, invented a better movie plot in my mind. See, I thought the married sister was having an affair with the Joker, while at the same time trying to conceal a past affair. Letters from the past and a dead man writing the present, with an incriminating photograph in a locket, to boot. But, no, that's not what this movie is. "The Joker" also isn't done any favors by the Colossus feet in a ballroom scene being reminiscent of the superior Ernst Lubitsch film, "So This Is Paris" (1926). Yet, I like to see any quality print of an obscure silent film even if the movie is a mixed bag, so I'll count this as a successful start to the festival--a festival full of streamers from 1928 streamed for another festival in 2021. It's apt at least.