Un ménage divisé

Daft comedy in which a couple who each mistakenly believe the other is having an affair agree to 'live separately together.' Much writing of notes follows. Leading man Fraunie "Who?" Fraunholz clearly believes that pulling faces and ruffling his hair is the height of humour.

In this 13 minute short from pioneering director Alice Guy-Blaché, a married couple stop talking to one another because they each mistakenly think the other is carrying on with someone else, based on the slimmest of evidence. It's a fun premise, something you'd see decades later on TV sitcoms, and seeing the notes they exchange is amusing (e.g. "I need a new hat" / "Keep needing it"). The mannerisms of the actors, including the one playing a secretary, are very cute as well, and probably the best part of the film. It's pretty simple and the story or characters are not at all fleshed out, but I see that as a limitation of the film's length. Consider it a light little amuse-bouche.

I wasn't going to review this Solax production from Alice Guy, "A House Divided," as I don't find it particularly interesting. Despite reviewing what some might consider a lot of old silent movies, I don't write on all the ones I see. There are just too many relatively routine one-reelers during the transition period and before when the feature-length film had yet to fully dominate production. But, the actress playing the woman at the typewriter in the office scenes here, a minor character otherwise, is captivating in her mannerisms--her facial expressions, the way she puts her hands on her hips and in between her eye-catching faux operations of the typewriter. Moreover, her position in the frame for the office scenes (always the same camera positions, as part of Guy's continued insistence on the even then increasingly-dated tableau style) places her in a more prominent and central position than the husband character whose actions one would think we're supposed to be paying the most attention to. Initially, I missed the plot point of him meeting the perfume salesman that leads to the main thrust of the story, of the married couple's mutual jealousy, because I was watching his office mate instead. Plus, she's a welcome working-woman counterpart to the comparatively unremarkable housewife in the picture and a technological one to the hand-written letter motif of the couple's living "separately together."

The usual commentary on "A House Divided" is that it's a comedic reflection of Guy's real life problem with her philandering husband (and also a filmmaker and co-owner of Solax), Herbert Blaché, but I find that rather uninteresting. It's nice, though, I suppose, to see such examples of situational and domestic comedies--even a proto-comedy-of-remarriage--not in the slapstick tradition that some might still stereotype silent film comedy as. Still, besides the typist, who is just the right amount of emphatic, the acting here tends to be overly so. The husband needs to wipe that annoying smirk off his face, too; it's as though he's holding back laughing at his own mugging. The same actors who play the husband and wife here are better in the subsequent Solax production "Matrimony's Speed Limit," and the comedy, with the exception of a racist gag, is better, as well. Ultimately, I'd prefer to think the main story here is merely the musings being written by the typist.

I watched this short as part of the TCM Women Film Pioneers series, and I was enchanted with its sprightliness, comedy, and the naturalness of the actors. While there were slapstick elements, the actors heeded Guy's credo "Be Natural!", and the arm-flailing and mugging is kept to a minimum. Lots of fun!

Farce comedy portraying the troubles of a married couple. A lawyer draws up articles of separation, which are shown on the screen duly signed. Then the husband and wife sign their names. There is a stenographer in this picture who will cause more rage than laughter; she chews gum and operates in a style peculiarly her own. The picture will make some fun in some houses. - The Moving Picture World, May 10, 1913