La revue des revues

...42ND STREET and Busby Berkeley, the Goldwyn Girls, and any other backstage musical on film that you can think of can be found in LA REVUE. What makes it so intriguing is that this is a SILENT musical. That may sound like an oxymoron but it really isn't. The lavish stagings and the incredible variety of costumes not to mention the performances of Josephine Baker, Stanislawa Welska, Lila Nikolska, and others were meant to be seen as well as heard.

This being a silent film, it's been provided with musical accompaniment, a brand new score by Taranta-Babu. Unfortunately I found the jazz style used too modern in tone which does not reflect the period and as a result I felt it detracted from the film as a whole but not enough to put me off and the quieter parts were quite effective. The plot is your typical small time girl makes good although here they literally incorporate the story of CINDERELLA as the heroine gets her big break by winning "the smallest foot in France" contest which involves trying on a slipper. Helene Hallier is engaging as the chorus girl but the male lead Andre Luguel is stiff and colorless with too much makeup although to be fair that was typical of that type of part during this period.

As the title promises though LA REVUE DES REVUES is all about the stagings of which there are over a dozen. Scenes from the Moulin Rouge, the Palais and the Folies Bergere are captured on film for posterity reflecting the Art Deco style and the bizarre tastes of 1927 Paris (see The Orgies and The Golfer numbers). According to the liner notes it took 10 years and over 7 different prints to come up with this version which is tinted and features the Pathe' hand stencilled color process although a lot of it looks as if it were computer colored. As a historical document it's priceless (seeing rows of full figured showgirls going through their paces instead of today's stick figures would make Kate Winslet proud) but as entertainment it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

The love story is routine and parts of the film are badly paced but when the curtain goes up just sit back and enjoy the show. A must for fans of early musicals, silent films, and 1920s Paris but be warned. Although prominently displayed on the cover (in a costume she doesn't wear) Josephine Baker appears in only 2 numbers with a screen time of less than 7 minutes in an overall running time of 103 so don't buy it just for her...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

I can agree that this movie now stands more as a historical document than a fully fledged fictional work. While there is a plot it's overwhelmed by the lengthy dance numbers featuring various stars of the day (i.e. Josephine Baker). This will interest anyone in costume history, early 20th century entertainment, dance or those interested in early film techniques.

It should be noted that the color is not the 2 strip Technicolor process but is either created through hand tinting or more likely through a stencil tinting process called Pathécolor/Pathéchrome. You can that it is a tint versus being a color print as you can see many scenes where the color either doesn't line up the actual outlines of the image or where only certain areas of the screen are tinted.

Wow, does this film have a horrible musical track on the DVD. Now you can't blame the original film makers--it was up to individual movie houses to provide whatever score they wanted with most silent films. Because of this, when silents are placed on DVD or shown on channels like Turner Classic Movies, they have modern composers create scores so the films aren't totally silent. Unfortunately, in the case of "La Revue des Revues" it has perhaps the most annoying and cacophonous accompaniments I have ever heard. It's like plunging knives into your ears to listen to it, so I was forced to turn off the sound part of he way into the movie. Why is it so bad? Well, part of it is because of the excessive use of electronic music--which just doesn't fit a film made in the 1920s. Another is because much of it sounds like free-form jazz sped up to twice normal speed! Yikes!

As far as the original film goes, it's quite striking to see such an early film with so much color. While the Pathé Color process was not true color, it was impressive for the time--and, in some ways, more pleasing to the eye than its competitor at the time, the Two-Color Technicolor process. Pathé Color relied on a small army of women with stencils to actually paint in the colors onto the print using rollers--a very, very time-consuming process to say the least. The biggest benefit was the color palette--you could use any color you liked. While the Two-Color Technicolor was a lot easier to use and cheaper and could be used to color the entire film (whereas the other process was usually just used in bits and pieces), it did tend to make films looks too strong of orange and green. It also usually lacked realism unless used selectively (such as in "The Phantom of the Opera"). Of the two, I still prefer the look of Two-Color if used well!

As far as the story goes, Gabrielle's story is actually just a thin way to try to connect live footage made of various acts of the time from the French stage--such as Josephine Baker. So, if you are looking for a story, keep looking--this is much better seen as a documentary of a bygone era. Overall, I'd give this film a 2 if you watch it with the sound turned on--it's THAT bad. But, without, it is a lovely historical record and a very well made film that deserves your attention and a 7.

By the way, there is a bit of nudity in this film--which shouldn't surprise you since this IS the Folies Bergère. Topless dancing sometimes was featured and I am a bit surprised more of this was not featured in the film. Since it is not gratuitous and is meant as more of a documentary, I wouldn't have any trouble letting kids see this--though I think most would be bored by it.

LA REVUE DES REVUES (1927) is a fascinating train wreck of a film. First and foremost is the HIDEOUS modern score. And I mean HIDEOUS. 106 minutes of it. Thin narrative has a little sewing machine girl who wants to go on the stage. She tries to enter a "small feet" contest but is too late to sign up. She goes to one of the clubs and attracts the attention of its male star. He gets her into the show as a dancer. She also attracts the attention of an impresario who encourages her to try on the "Cinderella" show when the "small feet" winner's feet swell and the show comes to a halt. She becomes a star.

Aside from this, the film is mainly a series of opulent, elaborate musical numbers featuring stars of various Paris clubs. Most famous is Josephine Baker, who appears in two numbers. These scenes are all hand tinted but statically shot from audience perspective. The numbers usually feature a "star" and about 20-30 others who pose or walk about the stage or dance. Most dance numbers are more dance movements of the Isadora type and many chorus girl numbers with simple dance routines. There's only one tap number. Baker does a spastic "funky chicken" dance in her first number, then redeems herself in the 2nd with a terrific post-Charleston / Shimmy sort of dance.

Throughout all the numbers, this modern cacophony drones on and on. The only numbers that they even come close to matching are Baker's 2nd dance, and a Denishawn-type Egyptian number.

Worth watching for the eye-popping stage numbers and Josephine Baker, but be prepared to hit the "mute" button.

Hélène Hallier gives up a life as an underpaid seamstress to go n the stage.

There's about 30 minutes of story in this late silent movie. The rest of it is taken up in extravagant, Folies Bergeres-style revue numbers, featuring lots of pretty girl, some contemporary performers of some renown, and two brief numbers featuring Josephine Baker, demonstrating she can shimmy like my sister Kate. For the first hour, all of the extravagant chorus numbers with their fantastic costumes are shot straight on, clearly offering a proscenium view from the expensive seats. After that, some tighter shots are edited in.

It's also a major demonstration of Pathe color, a stencil system devised twenty years earlier. Most of the examples people get to see are from the 1905-1910 era, and age has not been kind to them; chemical decomposition has rendered most of them blotchy, faded and looking like they were crayoned in by a bored five-year-old. The sharply defined borders and bright colors on view in the copy of this movie that I saw show the value and strength of the technique that was perfected by Segundo de Chomon for the Pathe Freres. Nonetheless, it was on its wa out in the face of the constantly improving Technicolor; it was tremendously expensive to use, involving a lot of skilled hand labor to produce multiple stencils for every frame of a movie. Its last major use would be in 1930's ELSTREE CALLING, although Bunuel would use it as late as 1954.

As a record of the sort of act that a tourist might see in 1920s Paris, this movie is interesting. Given its wisp of a plot, and the fact that after seeing thirty numbers, the 31st is of limited interest, it's not so good.