La sirène des tropiques

During the 20's, the Weimar nights were fabulous, full of exciting and decadent cabarets in which this German count spent many glorious soirées but it is fair to say that also in Paris, the Parisians knew how to have fun.

Dame Josephine Baker, Amerikan from birth, French by adoption, was the indisputable queen, a legend of the Parisian nights during the 20's, an enormous singer and entertainer that did delight the French bourgeoisie during the past century.

Dame Josephine Baker had a short film career, appearing from time to time in some films and, as it happens, in "La Revue Des Revues" recently reviewed by this German count. "La Sirène Des Tropiques, a film directed hand-in-hand by Herr Mario Nalpas and Herr Henri Étiévant, was her first full-length film as leading actress.

The most important aspect of "La Sirène Des Tropiques" is that it is a film with Dame Baker and this is the perfect excuse to watch this film. For Dame Baker fans or for ignorant longhaired youngsters who still don't know her, that's the most attractive aspect of the work because, in artists terms, the film it is an absolute failure.

The plot's topic about the tropics; engineer Berval ( Herr Pierre Batcheff ) is sent to Monte Puebla by his boss the Count Severo ( Herr Georges Melchior ) in order to study the possibilities of mineral extraction from the mines that belongs to his chief. But the wicked Count ( a classical reiteration… ) inner intentions is that Berval never return to France. In this way he doesn't have any obstacle in order to get Denise's love ( Dame Regina Thomas ). Meanwhile in Monte Puebla, Berval will meet Papitou ( Josephine Baker ) who is a sparkling indigene that will fall in love with him. She doesn't hesitate to pursue Berval to Paris where finally she will find out that he loves Denise but on the other hand she will become a music-hall star. The film is full of intrigues and satires (but this is too formulaic and with simple characters ). The result is an unwise mixture of genres in one film ( adventure, drama, musical, ) with plenty of bad performances including Dame Baker. This in spite of the fact that she plays a kind of free spirited girl, but similar to a cartoon character, a "pecata minuta" in itself. Our heroine was more interested to dance the Charleston than properly act. This is demonstrated at the end of the film, which includes an excerpt of her talented dancing. That's enough for Dame Baker fans and dissipated German aristocrats.

And now if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German count must unknot his knees before dancing Charleston.

What a treat to see Josephine Baker in her film debut at age 21, and what a significantly better role than what Hollywood was offering relative to African-Americans at the time. Baker's character is exoticized and unfortunately speaks broken English, but she's also smart, alluring, and talented. She got top billing and is magnetic every time she's on the screen. We're treated to her looking cute in flapper outfits, her dancing on the stage, and her splashing around topless in a tub. What I was impressed by most was that this was a human portrait of a young woman who is vibrant, joyful, and in love, which was many decades ahead of its time compared to American films.

The film is not without its flaws, starting with the colonial scenes which, while not awful, are off-putting. On the other hand, the colonizers are shown to be evil, and in parallel scenes we see a woman fending off the advances of a rich man in France, and another (Baker) fighting off his right-hand man in what seems to be the West Indies. They are the cruel ones, exploiting the land and moving people around like pawns on a chessboard. It's not a very deep plot though, and it drags in places when Baker is not in the scene (and even when she is, it gets a little silly, e.g. the chase on the steamer). I was more than happy to be patient with those scenes to see Baker shine though. It was pretty interesting to see Luis Buñuel listed as assistant director in the opening credits too.

Though I had read John Baxter's Luis Bunuel biography some years back, I only recalled while leafing through it again the other day that the Spanish Surrealist had served as Assistant Director on this exotic romance intended as a showcase for legendary black performing artist Josephine Baker – hence, its belated viewing in this segment in my ongoing Bunuel retrospective dedicated to his formative years. Anyway, having acquired this and already owning another of the star's vehicles i.e. ZOUZOU (1934), I decided to also add to my collection the third film of hers – and the most famous – PRINCESS TAM TAM (1935) which was released first separately and then re-packaged in a Baker-related Box Set by Kino.

Though I was not particularly enthused by the prospect of watching the title under review, being essentially a melodrama with interpolated dance routines, it turned out to be harmless enough – more importantly, it was delightfully typical of its period (including a couple of sequences which feature the shapely star in the nude!). As I said, the film's settings – high-society Paris, the tropics and even the ship-board section – were much in vogue in cinema of this era; hence, for someone who loves Silents as much as I do, they certainly evoked a pleasant air of nostalgia. Even so, these do not really jell together and the picture basically feels like three shorts pasted together!; predictably, the island sequences (with the obligatory hissable villain looking quite a bit like the great Lon Chaney!) prove the most engaging – while those at sea, featuring rampant politically Incorrect comedy relief (with Baker repeatedly chased all over the liner by virtually the entire crew and passenger list simply for being a stowaway!), make up its least appealing component.

Bunuel cannot have been much inspired by the film (save, perhaps, for its notion of unabashed lechery on the two heavies' part) but he did retain its leading man, Pierre Batcheff, for his own notorious debut UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929); at one point, the latter is even made to break the fourth wall by suddenly interacting with the audience –something which Bunuel himself would have the lead character do a quarter of a century later at the very end of his DAUGHTER OF DECEIT (1951)! To get to Baker's presence, which is the reason the film got made in the first place, she manages to exude star quality despite being surprisingly relegated to a secondary Other Woman role (Batcheff's relationship with his true love is plagued by the misplaced affection of her Godfather, the hero's unscrupulous employer – a situation eventually resolved by Baker's own timely, albeit clandestine, intervention); while undeniably an accomplished dancer (highlighted first in a native jig during an island festivity and, later, a full-blown Charleston number on stage at the "Folies Bergere"), I liked her best when displaying great affection towards animals (her large pet dog and a cat she has rescued from a well, which the canine amazingly helps in drying up!).

Finally, I could not help noticing the choppiness of certain scenes – the key moment of Batcheff's attempted murder on a bridge suffers the most in this regard – but this appears to be the result of footage lost to the ravages of time (in fact, it was long thought that all of three reels had survived from SIREN OF THE TROPICS!). Having said that, the print I watched was attractively tinted from time to time.

The film itself has an interesting plot and is well-acted by most in the cast. Baker is enjoyable to watch, although I don't think this film lets you in on why Baker was considered so talented in her day. She does a sort of athletic Charleston and a couple of shimmies, but I didn't see what the fuss was about. Perhaps she was someone you needed to see live. Also, this is her debut film, so perhaps it is not a great showcase for her dancing talent. Still, the plot is followable, and Baker has some funny bits including pushing her way into a boat ticket line by using her fanny.

The musical accompaniment, new for this DVD, is excellent. If it were available on CD, I'd buy it.

There's some interesting extra footage in the Extras section on the DVD, but skip the so-called documentary with the dance experts. Instead of showing clips of what the talking heads are nattering on about, the camera focuses on the talking heads as if we care what they look like. Dull, dull, dull. And they're the kind of talking heads that refer to their subject by her first name as if they all knew her intimately.

SIREN OF THE TROPICS was the first of a series of French films featuring legendary dancer and entertainer Josephine Baker and her only silent feature. It is part of a three film set released on DVD by Kino International to honor the legendary performer . SIREN was long thought to have been lost but, like a number of silents in recent times, a copy has turned up and proved to be in good condition which can be witnessed on this DVD.

The image quality is very good and it has been tinted to 1920s style specifications. There are a few brief portions where the film jitters or throbs due to shrinkage and judging from the trailer which is included, some footage seems to be missing but it doesn't detract from the overall presentation. "La Baker", as the French called her is a sensation in her debut essentially playing herself as she appeared at the Folies Bergere. The latter parts of the film display her stage act and enable us to see her as Paris saw her in 1926 making it not only entertaining but a valuable historical record as well.

Unfortunately the rest of the movie is not very good with the rest of the performers coming nowhere near Baker's ability. Like another film recently released on DVD featuring an exotic star (PICCADILLY with Anna May Wong), SIREN has yet another tired melodramatic plot with the exotic star there as icing on the cake. As well made as it is with some beautiful art deco settings and extremely racy footage of Josephine Baker sans clothing, SIREN ultimately illustrates what was happening to silent films everywhere (except in the Soviet Union) just before sound arrived. The pictures look great but the use of cinema technique and especially the storytelling just weren't there. Even in Europe the mindset of Hollywood was taking over.

Nevertheless I recommend this DVD for the chance to see one of the great cabaret performers of the 20th century in what is her best film along with plenty of extras including a 20 minute documentary on Josephine Baker produced by her son and an incredibly risque' short featuring an inebriated fireman who sees nude chorus girls everywhere. Donald Sosin's musical accompaniment is fine as usual ranging from solo piano to tropical sounding melodies which enhance the action...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.