Having found The Last Turning (1939-also reviewed) to be a superb adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice, I've kept a look out for other titles from the film maker appearing. Recently discovering new subtitles for a Chenal,I got set to gaze at the cinema of Paris.
View on the film:
Coming up with the idea to do a documentary behind the camera after his friend Jean Mitry had the idea suggested to him by film maker Eugene Deslaw, Pierre Chenal makes his directing debut, (he wanted to leave behind inhaling phosgene fumes in the chemical factory he worked at) with a turn into the avant-garde of disembodied hands opening the cameras and revealing the method behind the magic of cinema.
Getting a little funding from decorator Robert Gys,who also granted Chenal permission to shoot on the sets Gys was working on, Chenal layers wonderful montages across the film making departments, from going into the Pathe- Kodak development lab, to day for night shooting at Gaumont,and the painstaking patients of hand-drawn animation,to bring to life the cinema of Paris.
