The Man of the Sea
About The Man of the Sea
The film opens on Nolff, a Breton fisherman who has taken a vow of silence and lives alone by the sea. A novice in white brings his food. In the earlier years he built a house on a cliff, fished, and raised his daughter Djenna and his son Michel, whom he wanted as a sailor and a free man. Michel hates the sea. His friend Guenn-la-Taupe pulls him into town. At Easter, Nolff's wife falls ill. Michel goes to a bar, takes up with the dancer Lia, fights her protector, and stabs him. Nolff bails him out and comes home to a dead wife. Michel steals the savings meant for Djenna. Nolff denounces him, ties him in an open boat, and pushes it out, saying he will return the boy to God. Djenna enters a convent. Months later a letter says Michel survived and has become a sailor. When Nolff hears that his son wants to come back, he cries out to the sea.
Cast & crew
More about The Man of the Sea
Marcel L'Herbier directed, cut, and adapted Honoré de Balzac's story Un drame au bord de la mer. Gaumont issued it in the Série Pax on 3 December 1920. Georges Lucas photographed it. The length is 2,256 metres, listed as 85 minutes. Roger Karl plays Nolff. Jaque Catelain plays Michel. Marcelle Pradot plays Djenna. Charles Boyer plays Guenn-la-Taupe. A 1998 restoration by the CNC Archives françaises du film and Gaumont rebuilt the intertitles and the tinting from L'Herbier's notes. It was shown in 2001 with a score by Antoine Duhamel. Gaumont issued a DVD in 2009.
Themes
Making
L'Herbier shot the cliff house and the fishing on the south Brittany coast, then cut the town bar against those seascapes.
Look
Georges Lucas photographed the cliff house and the open boat on the coasts of Morbihan and Finistère.
Music
Silent. Antoine Duhamel wrote an orchestral score for the 2001 presentation of the restoration.
Preservation
The CNC and Gaumont restored the film in 1998, reconstructing intertitles and tinting from L'Herbier's notes. That version was presented in 2001 and issued on DVD by Gaumont in 2009.
Notes
- Claire Prélia plays the mother. Philippe Hériat plays Lia's protector. Suzanne Doris plays Lia. Pâquerette plays the bar-keeper.
- Claude Autant-Lara, later a director, plays one of Michel's friends. Dimitri Dragomir plays another.
- The English titles are Man of the Sea and Man of the Open Seas. The French title is L'Homme du large.
- Wikidata also lists 86 minutes.
- The opening is the hermit. The marriage, the stabbing, and the boat are a flashback.
Scenes
- Michel stabs Lia's protector in the bar while his mother is dying at the cliff.
- Nolff ties Michel in an open boat and pushes it to sea.
- Reading that Michel wants to return, Nolff shouts at the water.
Influenced by
- Honoré de Balzac's Un drame au bord de la mer
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-lhomme-du-large)
- Gaumont DVD (2009)
