Who's William Wilson? When I look at him, I want to call him Dmitriev. . .
This tape of the forgotten classic, Marcel L’Herbier, mysteriously echoes the Hitchcock tape of the same name. And there is no doubt that the maestro was familiar with this famous silent film. Surprisingly, they have a similar plot canvas - along the course of the tape, something amazing happens, an illusion is created that a dead person comes alive.
So, an emigrant from Russia has a crisis when she meets her murdered lover’s “doppelganger”. Their relationship history, which is dedicated to the tape is touching and sad. She cheats on her husband, formally repeating the fate of Karenina, but the husband kills her love. And her lover is coming alive. A very similar man comes to her. Everything in this story has to repeat itself. . .
Complements the drama of the scene of revolution and emigration, which share the appearance of two significant men in the life of the heroine.
A generalized assessment of this tape is difficult to give. Marcel L’Herbier has his own charm, unique, measured style. He skillfully inserts mysticism and a well-known decadence into the tape. But to my taste, the film is overly refined and lacks tension. On the other hand, it’s all about the similarity of the tape with Rebecca and Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Who knows, if his work was not, it is possible that the film Marcel would be taken as a sample of style.
6 out of 10