La fin du monde (1931)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Abel Gance

Writers:

Jean Boyer (writer)
Camille Flammarion (story)

Release Date:

15 April 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot Keywords:

End Of The World | Sex Orgy | Race Against Time | Comet | Religion

Cast

Abel Gance	...	Jean Novalic
Colette Darfeuil	...	Genevieve de Murcie
Sylvie Gance	...	Isabelle Bolin (as Sylvie Grenade)
Jeanne Brindeau	...	Mme. Novalic
Samson Fainsilber	...	Schomburg
Georges Colin	...	Werster
Jean d'Yd	...	M. de Murcie
Victor Francen	...	Martial Novalic
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Albert Bras
Vanda Gréville		(as Vanda Vangen)
Major Heitner	...	Doctor
Philippe Hersent
L. Laumon
Monique Rolland
Saint-Allier
Aleksandr Vertinsky		(as A. Vertinsky)

Also Known As:

End of the World (International: English title)

Runtime:

105 min | USA:54 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

L'Écran d'Art

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Heart of the World (2000)

A failed attempt but a glorious one!

It was the beginning of the talkies.Whereas lots of his colleagues were heading for the stage production style,Abel Gance tried his hand at the disaster movie."End of the world" no less.The screenplay was co-written with astronomer Camille Flammarion,author of an "Astronomie Populaire" which I own in my library.

A giant comet is to collide with our good old Earth,our days are numbered.Two brothers ,a poet (Gance himself) and his brother (Victor Francen) think that this catastrophe could help men to become brothers and put an end to war.

Alas!Gance was not really up to it.The playing is histrionic ,and Gance's ,Francen's and Colette Darfeuil's performances are so dismal it's impossible to take the story seriously.Besides,the special effects -of course ,it was 1930,and Gance had not Lang's budget for "Metropolis" - make the film sometimes look like "Plan nine outer space" Ed Wood's immortal work.The story is patchy ,inconsistent and difficult to catch up with .

But, like in every Gance movie,there are good things and it is to these that any review of the movie must address itself.The first sequence is mind-boggling,so stunning we know it will be hard to continue in that vein: it depicts the crucifixion and we really think we're in Jesus's time .Then a tracking out reveals us it's only a stage performance.The connection with the movie escapes me a bit -unless it represents the eternal evil of man- but it's so unexpected all we have to do is admire.The final scenes are relatively impressive:some of them were used again in the highly superior "J'accuse" (1938)cause Gance as it was often the case in his long career ,was running out of money.While the disaster is impending,some take refuge in prayers whereas the others give them over to huge orgies,which Gance depicts in lavish detail.

Both "La Fin Du Monde" and "J'accuse" feature similar ending .Victor Francen declares the war over and announces the "Universal Republic" for the survivors in the former,and the Universal States General are summoned in the latter.

Many Gance works were despised by critics by I must say that he took more chances than Godard and co in his life time,and even if his first and his last talkies ("Cyrano et D'Artagnan,1963) are looked upon by pretty much as failures,they were glorious failed attempts.I wish we had an Abel Gance in 2006!