Malpertuis

My hopes were high for this film. I'd seen Kumel's Le Rouge aux levres/Daughters of Darkness, the most stylish vampire/kinky sex movie ever made, and I love its sly wit and arresting visuals. Malpertuis is not as effective, alas, and I put that down to an overly-complicated story weighed down by too many classical references taken from the novel. Lampernisse, standing in for Prometheus, just doesn't work as a character. Why introduce the Erinyes, the three women who punished offenders against blood kin, when they don't advance the story? It's not an easy thing to watch a movie with a handbook of classical mythology by your side.

Having said this, I will add that it is wonderful to watch film that shows a great visual sophistication (crowd shots that evoke an Ensor painting, or that wonderful twisting staircase in the house) and never needs F/X. We have lost a great deal by the subservience to CGI today.

Not even Orson Welles succeeds in lifting this film from a level of morbidity to any quality, although it is esthetically well made and interesting with a fascinating scenery throughout. The problem is the story. It's like a turgid novel by Balzac, all the relatives waiting for the old man to die to seize on their inheritance as soon as he is dead, while all they do while he still lives is to long for his death. That's when the interesting part of the film ends, and the rest is more or less just nonsense, as if Welles was the only pillar supporting the film. The conclusion has pretensions to be ingenious but is a disaster and just leads the film to a dead end of artistic bankruptcy. This is no film I could recommend to any audience, and although it was not a mistake to watch it, I will certainly never watch it again.

Having seen this film some years ago on television in a dark, dubbed and cut print, I had all but forgotten it. Yesterday I saw Kumel's restored cut in his own Flemish language, running 124 minutes, and my reaction was "brilliant". The picture was actually originally made in English, French, German and Dutch versions and then hacked to bits in the various markets. This film is a "must-see" for any serious film fan with its fabulous photography, stylish composition and surreal overtones - Magritte too was Belgian. It's more than a horror film as it has often been tagged, but a series of dreams or perhaps nightmares with all the illogic of dreams. I am fairly certain that Welles did his own Flemish dialog and that too makes it a must for the connoisseur.

Yes, Malpertuis is extremely impressive, in my opinion the best Euro-horror movie! I read the Jean Ray book - which is by far my favorite horror writer - and the adaptation by Harry Kumel, altough not extremely tight to the novel, is quite decent.

Sadly, this movie is nearly impossible to find...

Before seeing "Malpertuis" (1971), I was already a fan of Belgian director Harry Kümel for his mesmerizing Lesbian Vampire film "Les Lèvres Rouges" (Daughters of Darkness) from the same year. I had great expectations for "Malpertuis", because of my admiration of Kümel as a master of atmosphere, because I had heard the film was Kümel's greatest, and because of Orson Welles stared in it. Even so, it surpassed my hopes and totally blew me away. "Malpertuis" is a bizarre and hypnotic mixture of surreal Gothic Horror, macabre family drama, mad science and mythological fantasy, that no cult film lover should miss. Actually, I'd like to correct myself. The film cannot really be narrowed down by attributing it to a particular genre as such, as it is simply unique. In one sentence: The film has everything, and more than that. "Malpertuis" tells a fascinating tale and does so in a brilliantly moody manner. The film maintains a rich, eerie and foreboding atmosphere that becomes more intense with each passing minute. The sublime atmosphere comes along with breathtaking settings, brilliant cinematography, complex and demented characters and fantastic acting performances. The most fascinating thing about "Malpertuis", however, is the story, which is one of the most incomparable and gripping I ever saw in a film. "Malpertuis" is not a film that can properly compared to anything else. It is like a macabre, haunting yet incredibly beautiful Fever Dream.

The film is an adaptation of a novel by Jean Ray, which I haven't yet read, but the stroy certainly is a fascinating one. Jan (Mathieu Carrière), a young sailor, comes to his hometown and, without wanting to, visits the family mansion owned by his creepy and mysterious uncle Cassavius (Orson Welles). The mansion is named Malpertuis, its inhabitants are (equally creepy) relatives who hate Cassavius, but do everything to brown-nose him in desire of his inheritance. A mysterious palace of a mansion, bears fascinating and terrifying secrets... Though this is only a vague description of the film, I shall stop at this point. I do not want to give too much away, as the story is gripping and fascinating from the very beginning and should be experienced rather than read in a review. The set pieces are some of the greatest I've ever seen. The atmosphere is overwhelming, rich and uncanny throughout the film. Each character is fascinating, most of them creepy and demented, the performances are sublime. Orson Welles is, of course, great as always. The other performances are also magnificent. Particular praise has to go to the beautiful Susan Hampshire, who is wonderful in her triple role, playing three different female leads. The rich atmosphere profits from the Flemish /Dutch language and an ingenious score. The film was once reportedly cut to shreds, watching the uncut 126 minute director's cut is absolutely essential. "Malpertuis" is a brilliant film that should not be missed by anybody interested in cult cinema.