Judex -- Georges Franju (1963)

Judex -- Georges Franju (1963)



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Franju's striking remake of the early silent by Feuillade.

Surrealist references abound and connoisseurs of Max Ernst

will enjoy the depiction of Loplop.



DVD rip (ED2K).

Spoken language: French.

English subtitles (external, srt)

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057207



For some images see:

http://freakyflicks.proboards54.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=6&thread=3232&page=1................................................................................

Writers:

Arthur Bernède 1916 screenplay

Jacques Champreux adaptation and dialogue

Louis Feuillade 1916 screenplay

Francis Lacassin adaptation and dialogue



Camera: Marcel Fradetal

Music: Maurice Jarre



Cast:

Channing Pollock... Judex / Vallieres

Francine Bergé ... Diana Monti / Marie Verdier

Edith Scob ... Jacqueline Favraux

Théo Sarapo ... Morales

Sylva Koscina ... Daisy

René Génin ... Pierre Kerjean

Roger Fradet ... Leon

André Méliès ... Doctor

Philippe Mareuil... Amaury de la Rochefontaine

Luigi Cortese ... Pierrot

Benjamin Boda ... Réglisse



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Story (IMDB)



Favraux, an unscrupulous banker, receives a threatening note, signed

by "Judex", demanding that he pay back the people he has swindled. He

refuses, and apparently dies after a midnight toast at his masked

ball. However, he is only drugged by Judex and locked away. Judex

spares his life when the banker's widowed daughter, Jacqueline,

rejects the inheritance. Meanwhile Diana Monti, the former governess,

kidnaps Jacqueline to try to get the banker's money. But Judex is hot

on her trail. (Will Gilbert)



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Comments (IMDB)



Franju's evocation of a lost innocent era of French silent cinema is a

real gem, and a much neglected film. The film creates an air of gentle

menace from the opening scenes featuring a bird-masked magician at a

masked ball. We soon learn that he is, in fact, Judex, the legendary

crime-fighter. He soon becomes engaged in a battle with a cat-suited

female criminal. The plot itself is one-dimensional comic-strip stuff,

as the above suggests, but what constantly impresses is the poetic

set-pieces Franju sets up, particularly a burglary at a country house

swathed in mists. The show is continually stolen by Francine Berge, as

the criminal - she seems a not-too-distant relation of Diana Rigg in

television's "The Avengers", at least in dress sense - and this

highlights a slight problem. The hero, played by American magician

Channing Pollock, is bland by comparison, as is Edith Scob's

heroine-in-distress. It seems that the bad girls get all the fun!

Overall, this is the type of film that doesn't get made any more, yet

doesn't seem dated. Franju's more famous "Les Yeux Sans Visage" is, in

terms of mood, very similar, as is Cocteau's breathtaking fairy tale,

"La Belle Et La Bete". The sixties British horror, "The Haunting",

also pulls the same trick of showing little by achieving everything

through mood alone. Do try to see all of these if you get the

chance. (Andrew Gareth Billings)



The first "Judex" was made in 1916 and the late French critic Roger

Boussinot was hard on Feuillade ,whose films were (I quote him)

"brainwashing". He was speaking of "Les Vampires" and "Judex" which,

for him, were hiding the atrocious reality. Back in 1963, Franju, who

had a penchant for mystery ("Les Yeux Sans Visages" "Pleins Feux sur

l'Assassin" ) made a remake. He cast a conjurer(Channing Pollock) as

the lead (which was not a bad idea after all for Judex being an almost

surrealistic hero did not demand a great actor) Franju used again his

favorite actress, Edith Scob,("les Yeux Sans Visage") whose eyes were

the most beautiful (along with Michèle Morgan's) in the French

cinema. Judex is some kind of mysterious Robin Hood, who comes to the

rescue of poor people an unscrupulous banker has swindled. Franju's

sense of mystery works wonder and creates a strange atmosphere with

this hero with a bird mask. A sequence was filmed in Château-Gaillard,

les Andelys. (dbdumonteil)



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SPECS



File Name .............: Judex.1963.DVDRip.XviD-AEN.avi

File Size (in bytes) ..: 732,069,888 bytes

Runtime (# of frames) .: 1:33:39 (140451 frames)



Video Codec ...........: XviD 1.0.1

Frame Size ............: 608x368 [=1.652]

FPS ...................: 25.000

Video Bitrate .........: 955 kb/s

Bits per Pixel ........: 0.171 bpp

B-VOP, N-VOP, QPel, GMC ......: [B-VOP]...[]...[]...[]



Audio Codec ...........: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3

Sample Rate ...........: 48000 Hz

Audio bitrate .........: 74 kb/s [1 channel(s)] VBR audio

Interleave ............: 40 ms

No. of audio streams ..: 1**********************************************************************************

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