La follia del dottor Tube

In this early short film from the pioneering Abel Gance, a scientist playing around with some white powder in his lab, begins either changing his body or how he sees the world, I couldn't figure out which. Regardless, this allows Gance to use trick mirrors to distort the picture. Then more people wander in, more powder gets thrown around, more distortion (until 80% of the screen is incomprehensible), until things are finally restored to normal. Then everyone sits down to champagne. This movie has no point except to fool around with technique, and since it's six minutes long, that's all right. But it's really more bizarre than cool. It can be found on the New York Film Annex's series of Experimental Films on Video under #18.

The best thing about this movie is how short it is, the second best is the over the top, clown like performance by Albert Dieudonné as Dr. Tube. After that, naming any quality would be stretching it. There's barely a plot at all. Dr. Tube invents a powder that distorts the reality/vision of the people using it. He tries it on himself and others. It wears off after they settle down, and the it's over.

As most commenters point out, it is most likely made solely to experiment with distortion of the picture, making it look like a magic mirror. The warping effect might have been a bit fun then, but now, a hundred years later, it's only annoying. It's sad though, because I'm sure a movie like this could have been a cult film amongst drug users, as it does feature a "trip", but it's just not interesting enough. Except as a piece of film history.

Although director Able Gance became world famous after producing his four-hour epic film NAPOLEON, everything he touched was not cinematic gold. In the case of this film, it wouldn't even approach cinematic lead or cardboard! It seems that the director was experimenting with camera tricks--something he put to great use in NAPOLEON--featuring a "tryptic" view on the screen of three separate scenes in this film and many odd camera angles. In the case of this short, he tried using a very, very distorted lens that made things look like of like a fun-house mirror. The final product appears totally distorted and annoying--unless you are a die-hard film historian or you are 100% drunk! Then, perhaps, you'll find SOMETHING to enjoy about this mess. I give it a score of 2 out of charity--for at least trying something different. But the film is just stupid and insults your mind and intelligence. Nice try, but NOT one of your film successes, Abel!

A 'mad-scientist' in cinema's worst bald cap scatters a powder that distorts reality (although the film implies that the powder is applied to the subject, not the viewer, undercutting the obvious assumption of a drug metaphor). Of interest only for the very early application of distorting lenses and mirrors to simulate altered states (hallucinations?). The film must have seemed very strange when first released to a public and goes on much longer than the gimmick requires.. The bald cap is so ridiculous and unnecessary that perhaps it was an inside joke.

I don't know if 11 minutes are sufficient enough to do wonderful things, save a life or find happiness, therefore I can't be much stressed about seeing this nonsense experience. I won't say I wasted my time but something was wasted on the way. I couldn't feel a thing over it, not a single burst of joy or amazement, not a tear was shed. I got nothing from here except maybe, maybe some ideas about the little importance this might have had with future generations when it comes to illustrate bad trips with drugs. "La Folie du Docteur Tube" tells about a doctor making some experiments with a powerful drug. Mr. Abel Gance provides us bizarre and twisted images, everything is completely modified, blurry and enlarged followed by the psychodelics sounds of Karlheinz Stockhausen - the latter came from a remastered version released a few years ago.

So, Gance was testing - just like the doctor in the movie - new ways to compose images, editing techniques and all. I'm fine with that. But where's the high purpose? Where's the entertainment or the higher knowledge? It's so empty and dull you watch this with a straight face thinking "Uh huh, so...? Oh that was it? What's the big deal?". I'm giving two stars. Why? Here's a little anecdote to connect with and a good answer to such question. A known director while making his earliest films at college asked his master, the great John Houseman, about his thoughts on his thesis film. Houseman, who had seen plenty of those that day and none of them moved him, replied to the young filmmaker: "Well, at least it didn't made me sleep". Case closed. 2/10