Armand Bernard Movies

Originally released in 1924 as Le Miracle des Loups, this French costume adventures finally made it to the States in 1930. Set during the 15th century, the film boils down to an "Uncle Tom's Cabin" chase across a frozen lake. The pursuers are a battalion comprised of the enemies of France: the pursue-ee is the patriotic heroine. The "miracle" comes to pass when the girl manages to negotiate her way through a pack of hungry wolves without suffering a single injury -- a scene that plays far more convincingly than it reads. Highly praised by the intelligentsia in France, Miracle of the Wolves was treated derisively by American critics. This assessment was grossly unfair: One of the most spectacular French productions of its era, the film was also brilliantly edited, anticipating the breathless cross-cutting of Abel Gance's Napoleon." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The chef d'ouevre of legendary French filmmaker Abel Gance, the 235-minute Napoleon was supposed to have been the first installment in a multipart film study of the French military hero. Each of the film's set pieces is treated like a movie in itself: the opening pillow fights and snowball battles, staged while Napoleon is still a schoolboy (played by Russian youth Vladimir Roudenko), are choreographed on a scale worthy of D.W. Griffith. The plot proper begins with Napoleon's adult years. From home island of Corsica, Lt. Napoleon (played as an adult by Albert Dieudonné, and old friend of Gance's) decides to side with the Republic during the French Revolution. He quickly proves his mettle in a preliminary skirmish with the British. Offered the office of commander of Paris, Napoleon declines: he does not subscribe to Reign of Terror, nor does he believe in doing battle against Frenchmen. He is thrown in prison, where he meets his wife-to-be Josephine; thanks to a series of governmental upheavals, both are set free. For the next few years, France's bureaucratic bean-counters and pencil-pushers constantly thwart Napoleon's dreams of glory. The film's climax is Napoleon's rallying of the dispirited French troops and his subsequent advance into Italy.
Beyond its patriotic content, Napoléon was largely designed as a showcase for the revolutionary "Polyvision" process. Simply put, Polyvision utilized multiple images for dramatic effect. Sometimes this was accomplished in a fragmentary manner similar to the multiscreen techniques utilized in such 1960s films as The Thomas Crown Affair and The Boston Strangler. Polyvision could also manifest itself into a Cinerama-like "triptych": three screens, side by side, sometimes offering a panorama, sometimes displaying three separate but thematically linked images. Napoleon's spectacular triptych finale was the crowning touch to the remarkable camera pyrotechnics seen throughout the film; Gance hated static scenes, so he mounted his camera on pendulums, horses, gyroscopes, et al., masterfully placing the spectator in the thick of the action. The film also boasts some of the silent era's best color tinting, with special emphasis on the red, white, and blue of the French flag. Except for limited European showings, Napoleon has not been displayed in its original form since its 1927 Paris premiere. At least 19 different versions of the film exist, some horribly mutilated (cut from 17 reels to eight) and scrambled, others haphazardly reedited by Gance himself. Filmmaker/historian Kevin Brownlow's 1968 book The Parade's Gone By renewed public interest in Gance's lost masterpiece, sparking a 15-year campaign to restore Napoleon, spearheaded by Brownlow and American director Francis Ford Coppola. The resultant restoration job is not perfect -- the triptych scenes had to be reduced to postage-stamp size because no existing screen can accommodate them -- but this Napoleon is probably the closest we'll get ever get to the original. The music for the restored version was composed by Francis Ford Coppola's father Carmine Coppola. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Carmen Boni plays La Femme en Homme (The Woman Dressed as a Man) in this Gallic romp. The real star of the show, however, is Andre Dubosc, cast as a misogynistic old nobleman. Told that he is to take charge of his grandson, Dubosc is taken aback when he discovers that "he" is actually a "she." At first rejecting the girl, the old coot finally comes to love and accept her. Only the pronounced Italian accent of leading lady Carmen Boni detracts from the comic credibility of the tale. But after all, Boni was the wife of director Augusto Genina, whose impressive list of credits allowed him leeway to indulge in a bit of favoritism now and then. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in Berlin, the French-language Le Femme de Mes Reves (My Dream Woman) stars Suzy Vernon as the title character. Impoverished gigolo Fred (Roland Toutain) tries to weasel out of paying his hotel bill by attaching himself to wealthy Eveline First (Vernon). After professing his love for Eveline for several reels, Fred ends up falling in love with her for real. He kicks over the traces of his shady past to "rescue" the heroine from a pair of predatory older millionaires. Le Femme de Mes Reves was also simultaneously filmed in a German-language version; miraculously, both versions came in for a combined cost of only $100,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide