Blind Venus (1941) directed by Abel Gance
Viewed on July 24, 2019
Synopsis:
As the film opens, Clarisse is visiting an eye doctor. He tells her that she is going blind temporarily. This is a catastrophe for her since her main job is as a photo editor. Clarisse also works as a model. Her face is plastered all over town on the posters for Venus cigarettes.
Her sister, Mireille, who is a cripple, is waiting for her as she leaves the eye doctor. Clarisse decides that she must break up with Madère, a seaman who has his own boat. She loves him, but she doesn't want to be a burden to him as she goes blind. First, she visits the nightclub where she used to sing. Madère has forbidden her to go there.
When she sees Madère on his boat, she makes him believe that she no longer loves him and that she has been cheating on him.
As her eyes begin to fail, she has no choice but to return to singing. She's a huge draw. During her number, she faints and is taken offstage. She is pregnant. Now, she needs to marry Madère. Unfortunately, Madère has left on a voyage.
On the boat, Clarisse's friend, Giselle, has booked passage, hoping to seduce Madère, now that Clarisse has given him up.
Madère returns from his voyage, and Clarisse is there to greet him. But she disembarks with Giselle. She turns away.
Clarisse goes to see Madère, and to tell Giselle that she must give him up. But she informs Clarisse that she and Madère married on the voyage. Clarisse demands that she divorce him. But they have a baby. Crushed, Clarisse leaves.
One of the performers at the nightclub, Ulyse, tells Madère that he is the father of Clarisse's baby, but he doesn't believe it. After all, didn't Clarisse tell him that she had been unfaithful to him?
Outside the church, Giselle is waiting with her baby, awaiting her christening ceremony. A funeral procession leaves the church. It is for Clarisse's baby.
Madère goes to see Clarisse. He tells her that he loves her. But she turns him away. Her love for him died with the baby.
The next day, she is back to singing at the nightclub.
Madère and Giselle are having marital difficulties. Giselle is told by a film producer that she should be in pictures.
Clarisse, who is living on Madère's old boat, wakes up one day to find that her vision is almost gone. Her sister faints at the news. Ulyse arrives and finds out that Clarisse has blind. (She has told no one but her sister.)
Clarisse copes by pretending that a doll is her daughter. Ulyse tells Mireille that they need to get Madère back, but Mireille tells him it will be too painful for her. She now hates Madère. Madère arrives, but Mireille keeps him quiet so Clarisse doesn't know he's there. Finally, he learns the truth: that Clarisse is blind, that she hid her blindness from him because she loved him, that the baby was his.
Ulyse comes up with a plan to restore their happiness. He tells Clarisse that she has an admirer from the club. Madère tries to disguise his voice, but she seems to recognize. Mireille tells her that Madère has left town with his wife and baby. She accepts his attentions.
Giselle has divorced Madère and left him with the baby. Madère is happy. He gets to continue courting Clarisse. He comes to dinner with his daughter. Ulyse substitutes the toddler for the doll that she treats like Violette. When she discovers that the "doll" is now real, she is told that the child is her admirer's. She puts away the doll and holds the child like it's her own.
Madère asks Clarisse to go with him on a voyage on his yacht. As the leave the boat, everyone from the nightclub transforms the boat into a "yacht." They then pretend to go on a voyage around the world. Madère eventually decides that the only way to keep the charade going is to fix the boat, so they can really leave.
Clarisse awakes to discover that her eyesight is returning. But she has already realized that the man who is with her is Madère. She has forgiven him. And after all, a story deserves a happy ending.
Commentary:
This is an astonishing film, unexpectedly so, at least to me. The reputation for Gance's sound film is not that high, but this film is, if anything, superior to his silent films. Gance is often a theoretician. His abstract ideas about editing can get in the way of the story, as in the famous railroad accident in La Roue. In that scene, the editing pace increases mathematically, shorter and shorter. It's effective, but somewhat mechanical. In this film, Gance also uses some fast paced editing, mixing shots of faces with abstract shots of churning waves, to create an emotional effect.
The plot of the film is a little hokey and contrived, but it doesn't matter. The film feels like a silent movie, telling its story with imaginative and unexpected compositions. Gance experiments with sound, too. For example, when Madère returns to Clarisse, he is asked to leave, but the boat whispers to him to stay.
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