Invitation to a Journey
About Invitation to a Journey
A young wife, tired of a husband who ignores her, spends an evening in a cabaret got up like a cruise ship. A naval officer courts her. When he understands she is married, he drops her. She sees that the other life she wanted was a fancy.
Cast & crew
More about Invitation to a Journey
Germaine Dulac produced and directed it, adapting Charles Baudelaire's poem L'Invitation au voyage with Irène Hillel-Erlanger. Marie-Anne Malleville was assistant director. Paul Guichard and Lucien Bellavoine photographed it. Cesare Silvagni designed the sets. Dulac's opening text says she hopes the film can be followed without intertitles. Emma Gynt plays the wife. Raymond Dubreuil plays the sailor. Robert Mirfeuil plays a reveler. France, 1927, 40 minutes.
Themes
Making
Dulac told the audience, in that opening card, that she was trying to carry the idea in the images. The nautical club is a set, not a ship: Silvagni's décor and the two cameramen keep the wife inside one room.
Look
Paul Guichard and Lucien Bellavoine photographed the cabaret. The camera stays with the wife as the band and the dancers move around her.
Music
Silent. Dulac wrote the film to be read without explanatory titles.
Preservation
The Cinémathèque française holds a 35mm print. A digital copy is on Wikimedia Commons as L'invitation au voyage (1927).webm.
Notes
- The cabaret itself is named L'Invitation au voyage.
- Paul Lorbert plays another sailor. Tania Daleyme, Djemil Anik, and Lucien Bataille are also in the cast.
- Almost the whole 40 minutes stays inside the bar: a band, dancing, drinks, and men approaching women.
- The Cinémathèque française holds a 35mm print with French intertitles.
- Dulac's opening card states the aim of doing without explanatory titles.
Scenes
- She walks into the ship-themed bar and the officer begins to court her.
- He learns she is married and the interest drops.
- She is left with the band and the dancers, the voyage having stayed indoors.
Influenced by
- Charles Baudelaire's poem L'Invitation au voyage
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (L'invitation au voyage (1927).webm)
- Cinémathèque française (35mm)
