Intertitles of the Century
We have a winner! Jacques Feyder’s L’ATLANTIDE, AKA QUEEN OF ATLANTIS, has maybe the most beautiful intertitles I’ve ever seen. And the film itself is worthy of them, a hypnotic, erotic, melodrama/fantasy set in the lost kingdom of Atlantis, which is located, we are told, behind inaccessible mountains in the Sahara (!)
It’s an incredible film, too — expect more on it soon. Pierre Benoit’s weird novel has a long and mostly honourable cinematic history, sucking in such assorted adaptors as GW Pabst, John Brahm, Douglas Sirk, Edgar Ulmer and Bob Swaim (remember Bob Swaim?).
This first adaptation of Pierre Benoit’s piece of literary exoticism has everything except a compelling Queen — Stacia Napierkowska, despite the impressive name, isn’t really my idea of an irresistible temptress. But Feyder conjures such an incredible atmosphere around her (any woman looks alluring and sophisticated with a lynx by her side), aided immensely by the costumes and sets of Manuel Orazi. I’d go so far as to say this is the best film for patterned costumes and wall hangings outside of Fritz Lang’s KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE. And the best film for cushions EVER.actually projects one character’s fantasy of Antinea, the Atlantean monarch, on a throw pillow. They’re so perfect, those soft furnishings, that they actually contain dreams.
OK, one more intertitle. Couldn’t resist this one: an intertitle with kitties!
shadowplay 
May 24, 2009 at 5:19 am
And here’s the Ultimate Queen of Atlantis
May 24, 2009 at 11:22 am
I’ll have a little more to say about MM’s version on Thursday…
May 24, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I got to see Lang’s DIE NIBELUNGEN on the big screen back in the Eighties, I remember how somber yet stately KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE was, something I’ll have to try and revisit. All the grabs you’ve displayed in your post look pretty amazing, the last intertitle with the cats definitely shows a Gustav Klimt influence. Love their stylized simplicity, like cave drawings.
May 24, 2009 at 2:13 pm
In that regard, David, I trust you’ve read Gore Vidal’s “Myron.”
May 24, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Alas poor Bob Swaim. From La Balance to Half Moon Street-was there ever a swifter fall from grace? Was his L’Atlantide any good I wonder? Ironically it seems to be easier to get the 80 year old Feyder version
And what of the 1961 Ulmer version? Did Borzage film anything? contribute any ideas? I rather hope not, a Borzage/Ulmer cocktail is a terrible mix
May 24, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Actually, my Vidal reading is woefully sparse. I liked Lincoln, and I’ve ready plenty of his essays.
I haven’t seen Half Moon Street for years, and can’t really recall what was so terrible about it, except it was dull. Like a lot of Michael Caine’s lesser works. You’d have thought a nude Sigourney would have got it some attention, but it’s a far from erotic experience. Thinking of that, I can’t imagine his L’Atlantide being a success.
Borzage and Ulmer is certainly a weird combo. As Sirk said, “i have no interest in these part-works,” although the Montez Atlantis is surprisingly enjoyable — and not just on a campy level.
May 24, 2009 at 5:26 pm
At least “Half Moon Street” namechecked A.I. Bezzerides, which gives it “good intentions” points. The road to “Half Moon Street” is paved with …
May 24, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Where does Bezzerides get referenced? I just checked the cast list and he’s not down as a character. I’ll give credit to any movie that drops his name.
May 24, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Sigourney Weaver and the Arab heavy are both movie buffs. They’re always quoting movie lines and stars at each other IIRC he seduces her by giving her a rare vhs of “Beat the Devil” (the 80s were a golden age)
There are a lot of little smart bits like that (Swaim has a cameo as an enthusiastic escort customer) but the whole thing goes way beyond dull-it’s really shoddy. Scenes are lifeless and go nowhere, it’s unerotic and the characters are always saying what they’re thinking.-it’s the anti Belle de Jour
It suddenly comes to life at the end, when Sigourney Weaver gets attacked, with lots of really good kinetic editingm, you remember that this is the guy who directed La Balance. Why he decided to do a character piece, I don’t know.
I’m interested in his Atlantide purely because it seems like the kind of story you couldn’t really tell after the 70s, without it appearing deliberately kitsch or outre -Ken Russell’s Atlantide anyone?
May 24, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Alright!..Maria Montez!..I was gonna post a Cobra Woman video but I’ll wait and see what you do thursday..
Those are great title cards…the orgins and ideas of Atlantis have always fascinated me.
May 24, 2009 at 8:25 pm
“Myron” is one of Gore’s very very best — and extremely important to film fanatics. It’s a sequel to “Myra Breckinridge>’ As you’ll recall that masterpiece ended with Myra returning to his Myron form and happily marreid Mary-Ann. In the sequel, Myron is watching a late night movie when suddenly his Myra self pushes him through the TV screen and thus into a parallel universe. He’ s in Hollywood in 1948. But everyting that’s going on around him keeps repeating like a movie loop — save for the lives of a group of select alternate universe refuguees — who can go anywhere in town except past a movie theater playing Call Northside 777. One of the refugees is an obvious parody of Truman Capote (Gore’s perpetual enemy), here incarnated as a silly hairdresser. Eventually Myron finds his way to the set of Siren of Atlantis and merges with Maria Montez. He steps right into her and becomes her.
Clearly the dream of far too many to mention.
May 24, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Ken Russell could totally do L’Atlantide! Anybody who can do Salome can do L’Atlantide.
I’m only going to touch upon the Montez Atlantis (my copy, confusingly, is called Atlantis the Lost Continent, also the name of an unrelated George Pal movie).
Ulmer’s sounds intriguing, and I’m imagining a colour version of Beyond the Time Barrier. I hope I’m right.
Myron sounds delirious! I do have a copy somewhere…