L'Inhumaine

One of the sumptuous sets of  L'Inhumaine

Marcel L'Herbier's L'Inhumaine, from 1924, is a diverting mishmash: half romantic melodrama, half screwball science fiction. The film breathes art with a capital A. L'Herbier was a decadent aesthete who took up filmmaking amidst the bacchanal of Paris in the Jazz Age. L'Inhumaine boasts Art Deco sets by Leger, Autant-Lara and Alberto Calvalcanti. Which is a good thing because the direction is alternately inert and frantic. The fast editing is suited to the frenzy of the sci-fi bits, but the salon melodrama, despite surreal asides, is unredeemable due to the deficiencies of the film's two leads. 

L'Herbier was inspired by the melodramas of De Mille, but, instead of the deft Gloria Swanson, opera star Georgette Leblanc is the female lead. She must have had something going for her besides her pipes, not only was she the longtime lover of Maurice Maeterlinck, but she also helped finance L'Inhumaine. Unfortunately, her performance here is little more than a series of diva poses. Male lead Jaque Catelain is even worse. An unrelentingly wooden presence, Catelain served as a muse for L'Herbier, but his acting ability resembles that of Carole Dempster rather than Lillian Gish. Silent film fans will enjoy this eye-popping folly, however the casual viewer may want to think twice before watching a spectacle that is dotty fun, but emotionally uninvolving.