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| Festival Year |
Festival Section |
| 2003 |
Mozhukhin: The Paths of Exile |
| Film Title |
CHLEN PARLAMENTA / MORFII, TEN LORDA SHILKOTTA |
| Alternative Title 1 |
PARAISOS ARTIFICIALES / LORD CHILCOTT |
| Alternative Title 2 |
[THE PARLIAMENTARIAN / MORPHIA, LORD CHILCOTT'S SHADOW] |
| Alternative Title 3 |
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| Country |
Russia (Crimea) |
| Release Date |
?1919-20 |
| Production Co. |
Yermoliev |
| Director |
Yakov Protazanov |
| Format |
|
Speed (fps) |
| 35mm |
|
20 |
| |
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| Footage |
|
Time |
| 1610m |
|
70' |
| Archive Source |
Cineteca Nazionale |
| |
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| Print Notes |
Didascalie in spagnolo / Spanish intertitles.
Film preservato nel 1995 a cura del Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale a partire da un positivo d'epoca con imbibizioni e con viraggi, in qualche caso caratterizzati da solarizzazione. Per questi ultimi è stata scelta una riproduzione su dupe negativo colore, mentre il resto del film (imbibizioni e alcuni viraggi) è stato duplicato con il sistema Desmet. /Tinted (reflecting extensive dye degeneration in the original). Preserved 1995 by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Cineteca Nazionale from a tinted and toned nitrate print, using the Desmet process. |
| Cast |
| Ivan Mozhukhin, Natalia Lissenko |
| |
| Other Credits |
| sc.: A. Litvinov(?), dal romanzo di / from the novel by Katherine Cecil Thurston, The Masquerader (1904); ph.: Boris Zaveliev; des.: Alexander Loshakov |
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| Program Notes |
The record of Yermoliev's production Chlen Parlamenta has been permanently obfuscated by the aftermath of the 1917 Revolution. Both A. Garri (Mozhukhin, Moscow, 1927) and Jean Arroy (Ivan Mosjoukine, Paris, 1927) suggest that the film was made at Yermoliev's Moscow studios shortly before the Revolution. Arroy - who was in close contact with Mozhukhin, Protazanov, and the rest of the exiled Yermoliev contingent - consolidates his assertion by reproducing a still, with a caption confirming that this was one of the first films in which Mozhukhin played a dual role. Jean Mitry (Ivan Mosjoukine, Paris, 1969) - apparently deriving his information from the Russian exiles - dates the film to 1916. However, more concrete evidence of its origins appears to be provided by an article in a Rostov-on-Don newspaper, Zhizn (Life; 20 August 1919), which reports that the film is in preparation in Yalta, and that Yermoliev has travelled to Paris to obtain the necessary raw film stock. Thus it would appear to be one of the 1919-20 Crimean productions which Yermoliev took with him into exile in France. If so, however, he appears never to have succeeded in releasing it there; the film did not reappear until 1923, when, on 7 January, it was released in the Soviet Union under the title Morphii (Morphia). The sale to the USSR at this time is hardly surprising: Russians had lost none of their enthusiasm for Mozhukhin, and in the early period of NEP, the state distribution organisation, they eagerly bought his French productions. Clearly the Soviet distributors - whether knowingly or not - were happy to accept Chlen Parlamenta as a new French release, rather than admit they were buying back a 3-year-old domestic production.
The film was released in Berlin in January 1923, and in Italy, under the title Lord Chilcott (from the name of the principal character), in June 1923: Vittorio Martinelli cites a review of the film by Alberto Bruno in Il Roma della Domenica (Naples, 28 July 1924). It must also have been distributed in Spain, on the evidence of the surviving print, with its Spanish intertitles and main title of Paraisos Artificiales (taken from Baudelaire).
To add to the mysteries of Chlen Parlamenta, the film appears in no filmography of Yakov Protazanov, though he is listed in the credits of the film in V. Vishnevski's filmography of productions by private companies between 1918 and 1921.
The published credits for the 1923 reissues, as well as the title on the Spanish print which was shown by the Giornate del Cinema Muto, unequivocally attribute the story of the film as "from a novel by John William Locke"; and in the catalogue we faithfully followed this, while noting that no known Locke novel corresponded to the story. Now however Michael Walker has identified the story as being from Katherine Cecil Thurston's The Masquerader (1904). There is no doubt of this. The complete text of the novel can be found as an e-book on www.knowledgerush.com.
The story concerns a British parliamentarian, Lord Albert Chilcott, wrecked by addiction to morphia, losing his political gifts, and cheating on his wife with the alluring Lady Gladys Astrop. One night, while seeking new drug supplies, he meets a shabby man, John Loder, who is his exact double. Chilcott devises a plan to have Loder change places with him. After some rehearsal, Loder proves to be a better politician and a better husband than Chilcott himself. Chilcott's final attempt to resume his own role proves disastrous. Loder again takes his place; but wishing to clarify his own position with Lady Chilcott, with whom he has fallen in love, he takes her to a wretched apartment, where they find the real Chilcott in the last stages of addiction.
Yermoliev's apparent failure to secure a release for Chlen Parlamenta in France may well be explained by the melodramatic story, which must have seemed outdated in post-war Paris. Moreover, Mozhukhin's performance shows him far from his best: perhaps from a lack of confidence in the material or from the perilous temptations in playing a drug addict, he is frequently guilty of outrageous overacting. Nevertheless, the double exposures are admirably staged; and Mozhukhin shows enormous skill and intelligence in establishing the visual relationship between his two characters. The film also collects new strength in the dénouement, which is admirably staged and played. In fact, Alberto Bruno's 1924 review sees strong parallels with Pirandello, and even goes so far as to call Mozhukhin a "cinematic Pirandello" - in Yuri Tsivian's words, "a curious pre-déjà-vu of his later Feu Mathias Pascal".
Cecil Thurston's novel was adapted for the stage in 1917 by John Hunter Booth (New York opening 3 September 1917). It has twice been filmed, subsequently to the Mozhukhin version, under the original title of The Masquerader. A silent version in 1922 was directed by James Young and starred Guy Bates Post in the dual role of Lord Chilcote and John Loder. A sound version in 1933 was directed by Richard Wallace, photographed by Gregg Toland, and starred Ronald Colman. The character names and story are recognisably the same in all three versions. Lady Chilcote was played by Elissa Landi, who also composed the incidental music. - David Robinson
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