La terre

french silent film that uses the plot of king lear as a launching pad. an old father and his wife are unable to work their farm anymore so they split their land between their children. instead of war ensuing, the children become cruel towards their parents and greed consumes them. it's filmed in a pretty straight-forward way, it uses mostly middle range and close-up shots. characters are introduced with a mid shot and then typically given a full face shot. acting is more reserved than many of the typical expressionistic silent films of the early film age. it's black and white through most of the film, but does us some tinting - blue for the night scenes and one snowfall scene (to great effect) and red for an indoor candlelit scene (again to good effect). themes such as the circularity of life, greed, love, and mother nature are addressed. it's a finely layered film with some comic elements and solid storytelling. it's not for most casual filmgoers, but for fans of silent cinema is certainly recommendable. B.

The late 1800's - early 1900's saw author Emile Zola turn the masses toward the intrigue of telling stories about the real and everyday lives of the common, and at those times, vial side of life. His slap at the over-acted and over-fantasized tales inspired both painter and film maker. Not surprising that director Antoine made this post WWI adaptation (one of two Zola film projects he brought to film) as he might be considered, through these vehicles, as the man who brought realism to the screen. Many constituents were opposed to this style.

Notice the barren and flat landscapes of France that rival even Kansas and Nebraska. Could there be a connection between the desolation and the characters' desperation and neediness? Check out the "ovalness" of the female characters and their over-layered manner of dress. As in many European silent films, facial expression and body language, at a premium.

The restoration version of this film has a concert-worthy, and an enchanting score with the balance of instruments such as the bass clarinet, violin, flute and percussion....beautifully recorded and synced tightly. Tres Bon!

André Antoine's adaptation of the Zola novel "La Terre" works very well. It is a memorable and believable adaptation, helped significantly by Antoine's naturalistic approach, excellent location cinematography, and a cast that works together very well. Just as Zola's story does, the movie reveals a great deal about the darker side of human nature, with characters well- designed to bring home its points. It is a dark, often grim drama, but for all that it is very interesting and satisfying to watch.

The adaptation keeps most of the significant characters and events from the novel, and it is able to maintain the complexity of the story and the characters' interactions much better than you might expect a silent movie to do in a normal running time. This is in large part due to the fine performances from the cast, whose acting is often restrained but quite convincing. Even the lesser characters are brought to life and made interesting.

Germaine Rouer, as Françoise, performs particularly well in what is really the only sympathetic role in the story. Armand Bour's performance as the unfortunate father Fouan is also hard to forget. Fouan is a foolish and short-sighted man who brings most of his problems on himself, yet, as Bour's performance brings out, the heartache of even such a foolish person is sad to anyone who cares about humanity.

Zola wrote so many fine novels that in one respect it is odd that so few of them have been made into movies. But the complex plots and relationships, and the large numbers of characters, present obvious challenges even to resourceful film-makers. This version of "La Terre" is quite successful in handling these challenges, and in creating a movie that is well worth seeing in itself, as well as a worthy adaptation of the original.

This is an excellent adaptation of Zola's much-debated novel about the peasants ,the 15th volume in the Rougon-Macquart saga.A lot of people thought when the book was published ,that Zola gave to the world a too pessimistic vision of the people from the country,that he showed them as beasts.It's a far cry from George Sand's pastoral works such "La Mare Au Diable" or "La Petite Fadette" .

André Antoine focused his movie on the patriarch, Le Père Fouan,whereas the novel had no central character but a profusion of cupid tight-fisted greedy men and women,each one more despicable than the one before.As the book was part of the Rougon-Macquart saga ,Zola had to introduce one member of that family into the story :Jean Macquart plays a similar part to that of Etienne in "Germinal" .And he is featured in the movie too;even Uncle Charles is showed ,in a very short sequence and there is a hint at his "sweets shop" ,in fact a brothel.

Le Père Fouan wants to retire,so he divides up his land between his two sons,Buteau -who got a girl pregnant and is waiting for his share to marry her- and Jesus -Christ -who lives with his daughter,La Trouille (=Jitters and not "Pest" as the subtitles read),by poaching ,and his daughter Fanny ,a fanatical about cleanliness.

Le Père Fouan seems at first the only positive character (with the exception of Jean,but Jean is an outsider),a victim of his offspring's ungratefulness:but he is much like them when he hides his "treasure" .Le Père Fouan realizes in the admirable scenes that the land should not have been divided ("look what the ants do with it "one of his pals says);he used to own this land ,this ocean of fields on the plains around Chartres (the movie was filmed on location),and now ,he is only looking for a place to live in .But it's too late and only the earth can greet him.

Directed by André Antoine;one of his assistants was none other than Julien Duvivier,whose legendary pessimism would show in his masterpieces .

This film is slow moving, boring, and just about incomprehensible. How audiences of 1922 sat through it is beyond me, considering all the great silents that had been and were being made before and at that time. I found no humor, no character study, no gripping narrative structure, no suspense, no remarkable photography, or any bold "naturalistic" acting. Adding up these faults amounts to what was, for me, a gigantic yawn fest. Nor did the music score help at all. In its way it was just as poor as the film. It comprised three or four instruments each vying for the spotlight, especially the slow, somber, so sad viola. Someone with a couple of washboard-type, probably homemade, instruments attempted to provide percussion but succeeded only in creating cacophony.

Apparently, this film is of no great import in the history of film. I have several film history books in which I checked for mention and/or discussion of La Terre, but found not one inclusion. Curiously, The History of Motion Pictures by Bardeche and Brasillach--who were French film historians!--contains no reference to La Terre and has perhaps three lines re its director, Andre Antoine, none of it particularly glowing.

Though I wasted 90 irretrievable minutes of my time, I am grateful that I didn't spend $29.95 or some such ridiculous amount to buy this mess, which would be hyped, I'm sure, by "Digitally restored!" and "Now you can own this long lost French classic!" and "'Marvelous!' says Joe Blow."