PICK OF THE WEEK:
If the endless parade of rehashes, remakes and reboots emanating from Hollywood get you down, here’s a nice reminder that the process doesn’t always have to be lame. French director Georges Franju’s 1963 film about a mysterious avenger seeking justice from a corrupt banker is based on the silent-era serial by Louis Feuillade, and turns out to be a tremendously enjoyable piece of pulp.
As you might expect from a film that boils a five-hour series down to 97 minutes, “Judex” is chock full o’ plot. The banker is blackmailed, then apparently murdered, by an unknown figure, but awakens trapped in Judex’s subterranean lair. Meanwhile, the banker’s daughter (Franju favorite Edith Scob) tussles with a brother-sister team of criminals, while a seemingly hapless private detective ambles through the story before helping to save the day in the end.
The movie’s elaborate story, though, is less important than the visual pleasures it provides. Judex (played by American stage magician Channing Pollock) makes his entrance at a masquerade ball, clad in a massive bird’s-head mask, performing illusions with doves. Francine Bergé, as the female half of the sibling duo, makes a captivating and sexy villainess, whether she’s scaling walls in a black catsuit or hijacking an ambulance disguised as a nun.
Franju, best known for his 1960 horror classic “Eyes Without a Face,” conjures the spirit of a Perrault fairy tale mixed with a Buck Rogers adventure. Judex’s hideout lies beneath ancient castle ruins, and is equipped (in 1914) with closed-circuit television and a variety of other scientific gizmos. The movie is a fitting tribute to Feuillade, as well as to early cinema’s master magician George Méliès.
The Criterion Collection dual-format edition includes Franju’s 1952 short documentary about Méliès, as well as another early work about a French military hospital. There are also retrospective interviews with Bergé and Franju’s co-writer Jacques Champreux, and an informative French TV documentary on Franju’s career.
(1963, 97 minutes, not rated, $39.95 DVD + Blu-ray)
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