The Inhuman Woman
About The Inhuman Woman
Singer Claire Lescot, living outside Paris, is courted by the maharajah Djorah de Nopur and the young Swedish scientist Einar Norsen. She takes their attention and stays cold. She announces a world tour. Norsen stages a suicide. When she finds he is alive, he shows her a machine that can broadcast. Djorah kills her with a snake bite. Norsen brings her back in his laboratory.
Cast & crew
More about The Inhuman Woman
Marcel L'Herbier directed. The subtitle is histoire féerique. Georgette Leblanc, who plays Claire, put up part of the FF130,000 cost. Cinégraphic paid the rest. Robert Mallet-Stevens designed the architecture. Fernand Léger, Alberto Cavalcanti, and Claude Autant-Lara worked on the sets. Georges Specht photographed it. Darius Milhaud wrote the music. It opened in France in December 1924.
Themes
Making
L'Herbier hired the decorative-arts circle to build Claire's house and Norsen's lab: Mallet-Stevens for the architecture, Léger and Cavalcanti and Autant-Lara for the sets, Milhaud for the music. Leblanc's money kept the production at Cinégraphic.
Reviews
On release the film drew insults, refund demands, and fistfights. Critics called the story old-fashioned and the acting flat, and said the sets and the machines had crowded out the characters.
Look
Georges Specht photographed the picture. Man Ray shot material in the laboratory, where the machines and the painted sets carry the scene.
Music
Darius Milhaud composed the score for the 1924 release. Aidje Tafial wrote a new score for the 2015 Châtelet screening of the Lobster restoration.
Preservation
A 1972 restoration was followed by Lobster Films' 4K restoration in 2014, timed at 122 minutes against a recorded original of 135. That print was shown at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2015.
Notes
- Jaque Catelain plays Einar Norsen. The cast also includes Philippe Hériat, Marcelle Pradot, Léonid Walter de Malte, and Fred Kellerman.
- Man Ray is credited with photography alongside Specht.
- Audiences insulted the film, asked for their money back, and fights broke out at screenings.
- Complaints at the time named an old-fashioned scenario, blank performances, and a film that spent its energy on the sets and the machines.
- Lobster Films made a 4K restoration in 2014, running 122 minutes. It played the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2015 with a new score by Aidje Tafial.
- An earlier restoration dates from 1972.
Scenes
- Norsen's death is announced, and Claire shows nothing.
- The audience boos her at the next concert.
- Djorah's snake kills her, and Norsen revives her among the laboratory machines.
Also available
- Internet Archive (l-inhumaine-the-inhuman-woman-1924-by-marcel-l-herbier)
