Together with Kaufman and Galitzine’s Les Halles (1927), Eugène Deslaw’s 1930 film portrait of Montparnasse belongs to a handful of Parisian “outsider” city symphoniettas made by immigrant filmmakers that focus on a single neighborhood in the French capital.
Eugène Deslaw arrived in Paris in 1922, after leaving his native Ukraine for Czechoslovakia. In 1928, he made Les Nuits éléctriques, followed a year later by his famous La Marche des Machines, both of which show parallels with the city symphony concept.
In Montparnasse, Deslaw depicts the famous quarter of artists and the avant-garde (among the celebrated residents we recognize Luis Buñuel, Tsuguharu Foujita, and Futurist artists such as Marinetti, Russolo, and Prampolini). But the filmmaker also shows the district’s everyday life, showing people working and playing. In an experimental montage, Deslaw plays with urban structures and details, rotates street scenes, and films the busy neighborhood from different and unusual perspectives. Montparnasse comprises footage of modern architecture, sculptures, and paintings, as well as sandwich-men, street artists, market women, ordinary people, and even a herd of goats. In contrast with his other silent films primarily concerned with architecture and machines, Montparnasse focuses instead on people, inspiring the camera to take on more of a handheld, personal quality.
The film was originally silent; in 1931 it was rereleased with a musical soundtrack.
Eva Hielscher
further reading
Deslaw, Eugène, Ombre blanche, lumière noire. Introduction by Lubomir Hosejko (Paris: Éditions Paris expérimental, 2004).
Juan, Myriam, “Le Cinéma documentaire dans la rue parisienne,” Sociétés & Représentations 17, 1 (2004): 291–314.
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