French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1928

This set presents the DVD debuts of five silent classics from Films Albatros (a French studio founded by Russian artists) that were restored by La Cinémathèque Française in 2009. Three of the productions star Ivan Mosjoukine, the great Russian actor who fled the revolution and landed in Paris, while two are directed by the innovative Jacques Feyder; all are examples of the sophisticated filmmaking coming out of France in the 1920s. Mosjoukine directs, writes, and plays 11 roles in The Burning Crucible (1923), a wildly inventive romantic comedy by way of a surreal mystery, and he portrays the great 19th-century stage actor Edmund Kean in the dramatic biopic Kean (1924), directed by Alexandre Volkoff, based on the play by Alexandre Dumas. Feyder's Gribiche (1925), with Jean Forest in the title role, is a simple but lovingly made tale about the young son of a war widow and the changes in his day-to-day existence after he's adopted into high society. Marcel L'Herbier directs Mosjoukine in The Late Mathias Pascal (1926)—reviewed on Blu-ray in VL-5/13—a lavish fantasy epic about a man who receives a second chance at life and love when he's mistakenly pronounced dead. And Feyder turns a boulevard stage comedy into a cutting social and political satire in The New Gentlemen (1929), in which a count (Henry Roussel) and a union leader (Albert Préjean) vie for the attention of a ballerina (Gaby Morlay) as the story's gentle humor eventually gives way to the cynical turn of power politics and its corrupting influences. All five films are beautifully restored and tinted and feature superb original scores. While not well known to American audiences, these masterpieces of silent filmmaking will make a worthy addition to any library of classic and international cinema. Extras include a booklet. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)