Inhuman Woman, The
Entry updated 6 November 2023. Tagged: Film.
French silent film (1924); original title L'Inhumaine, subtitled Histoire Féerique ["Fairy Story"]. La Société des Films Armor, Cinégraphic. Directed by Marcel L'Herbier. Written by Marcel L'Herbier, Georgette Leblanc and Pierre Mac Orlan. Cast includes Jaque Catelain, Philippe Hériat, Georgette Leblanc and Léonid Walter de Malte. 135 minutes. Black and white, but with colour filters.
"Rich, independent" and "inaccessible to those with ordinary ambitions", singer Claire Lescot (Leblanc) holds a party attended by international celebrities – politicians, poets, boxers, industrialists and "Kranine (de Malte), 'The Apostle', theoretician of the 'Humanitarian' movement", which, apparently, is doing well in Mongolia. Claire's servants all wear identical smiling masks that also keeps them from overhearing the guest's conversations. She announces her intention to travel the world alone, unless "something" should keep her here. Einar Norson (Catelain) a young engineer and Scientist, passionate about sports, science and her, wants to find out what that "something" is. He watches as Claire bathes in the attention of the other guests as they try to win her; she rebuffs them, then him. Cut by her indifference to his threat of Suicide ("if you can destroy your life so easily it is not worth very much") he storms off and drives his car off the edge of a cliff: his body is not found, presumed washed out to sea. Claire faints on hearing of his death; but, after some reflection, decides to go ahead with her next concert. Popular opinion blames her for Einar's death – and Kranine, burning from his own rejection, has his supporters start arguments in the audience against this "inhuman" woman, temporarily bringing the concert to a halt. However, she begins to sing and everyone calms down, with the event considered a triumph.
Claire is informed that Einar's "horribly mutilated" body has been found and taken to identify it. Entering a strange building alone, she hears unpleasant music as a wind blows inside; crouching by the corpse, his ghostly face materialises before her: she breaks down and weeps. Einar now appears and reveals the "body" is a dummy. Shocked, Claire initially tries to leave, but Einar persuades her to let him reveal how the illusions were performed, taking her to a laboratory filled with Technology. He admits he had originally planned to kill himself, but remembered her words about destroying his life and decided to fake his death "in order to understand you better ... [to] KNOW – what you were hiding". He shows her around his futuristic house, warning her to avoid an Invention labelled "Danger de Mort". Claire then leaves, but all the "magical science" she has seen has – along with Einar – enchanted her. Returning next day, she is shown his latest invention, which can not only broadcast her singing throughout the world (see Communication) but also allow her to see her audience's reaction on a screen (her voice is sent to remote speakers, though it is not clear how the filming is done): she tries it out and we see people in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere listening. Before she leaves for a concert, there's a Chekhov's Gun moment: Claire is shown one of Einar's untested inventions, which he hopes can revive the dead.
After the concert Claire travels to Einar's house but is Poisoned en route by a snake left in a bouquet by jealous Indian Prince Djorah (Hériat), another rejected suitor. Einar and his black-plastic clad assistants combine "in a symphony of work" – shown as a dizzying montage of activity – to use the resurrection device to revive her (the invention with the warning label is a component); they succeed on the second attempt. The film ends with Claire and Einer holding hands and staring into each others eyes.
Reviews at the time were mainly negative and the film was financially unsuccessful, though it is now seen as an important early example of the French avant garde. The first half has its surreal moments – particularly the unnerving masked servants – but is sometimes dull; it livens up and moves into sf territory just past the halfway point. Einar's house is a laboratory, but most of his equipment has the style of well-lit art installations, as opposed to the gloomy banks of dials and switches, with rows of test tubes and beakers, that would become the movie Cliché. The plot and acting (there is much gazing intently with fixed expressions) comes across as melodramatic and often unintentionally funny; but the story is mainly there to hang the visuals on, and these are the film's strength. The sets, the architecture and machinery reflect contemporary art movements – Expressionism, Impressionism, Modernism, Art Deco and so forth; red, blue and green filters are used in many scenes, and L'Herbier hired some of the big names in the French art world to provide designs, including Fernand Léger, Darius Milhaud and Robert Mallet-Stevens. It does not all work – at least from the perspective of a century later – but much of it impresses, particularly the look of the technology and some of the sets. [SP]
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