O Patinador Desastrado

Max goes ice skating. Although he appears confident, he has no idea what he's doing and is a complete menace on the ice--knocking folks down as he tries, in vain, to skate.

According to IMDb, this is the first Max Linder film where he appears as his rich dandy--a character he perfected and played for years--much like Chaplin's 'little tramp'. Unfortunately, while this makes it an important film, it doesn't mean it's all that funny. It's a very simple setup and not much more than that--though it is nice that they actually filmed it outdoors during winter. However, just watching Linder fall and knock others down isn't funny when seen today--though perhaps audiences were less demanding in 1907 and thought this was hot stuff. After all, he DID go on to make several hundred films!

There's some debate of who truly was the first star in movies. Early film studios wanted to depress their actors' salaries by not promoting them. But French actor Max Linder is cited by most as cinema's first int'l star because of his reoccurring Max character, a dapper, rich guy always getting into jams because of his womanizing and his pompous attitude. As the Max persona was repeatedly seen, so was his popularity. The 1st Max film was 1907 "The Skater's Debut." The director of this film, Louis Gasnier, saw Lake Daumesnil in Paris frozen over and thought the ice would be a good backdrop for Linder's physical comedy. Dressed up in his soon-to-be trademark attire, Linder improvised all his stunts on ice skates. You can see the influence Linder had on Charlie Chaplin just in this 5-minute film, as seen here by Max's whirlwind skating legs, which is reminiscent of The Tramp's "The Rink" made 9 years later. Both were good friends during Chaplin's early screen days.

I've only seen a few of early French comedian Max Linder's films - and one of them was more a fantasy than a comedy - but what I've seen of him so far is extremely funny. As the other reviewer to date on this film has mentioned, most articles compare Linder with his most famous fan, Charlie Chaplin, but as you watch this sometimes hilarious farce, you can see Chaplin mimicking - and, to be fair, often improving upon - Linder's actions here. Given how early this film was made, Linder can considered to be a genuine comic trailblazer: nobody else had committed such naturally funny moves to celluloid as this funny Frenchman. Be sure to give this one a viewing if you get the chance.