A WOMAN OF PARIS

US, 1923, 84 minutes (93 original version), Black and white.
Edna Purviance, Carl Miller, Adolphe Menjou, Betty Morrissey, Clarence Geldert, Charles K. French.
Directed by Charles Chaplin.

A Woman of Paris is a sophisticated drama of the early 20s. Not popular at the time (Chaplin did not appear and people were expecting something more humorous than this drama), it was not well reviewed. It was re-released in the 1970s with a musical score by Chaplin himself.

The film is a sophisticated story of relationships and betrayal. Edna Purviance, Chaplin’s leading lady, is cast as Marie St Clair who is jilted by her artist fiancé. She goes to Paris, takes up with an older man (played by Adolphe Menjou whose career took off from this film). When the artist comes back and wants to resume his relationship with her, there are difficulties and ambiguities in the relationship leading to the artist’s killing himself.

Chaplin directs the film with great skill, bringing his comic talent to bear on serious topics. His later attempts at more sophisticated dramas such as A King in New York and, especially, his last film, The Countess from Hong Kong with Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando were not nearly so successful. He did combine the serious with the comic in his 1947 film Monsieur Verdoux as well as one of his masterpieces, 1953’s Limelight.

1. The reputation of this film in its time? Charlie Chaplin's status as a comedian and audiences accepting him an a serious writer ? his note to the audience at the beginning of the film? The moral tone of the film and its reputation, the establishment of the Hayes Office and Chaplin's own reputation and links with scandalous events in
Hollywood? The success of the film in the twenties and its subsequently disappearing from circulation? The rehabilitation in the seventies and its impact?

2. Chaplin's skill in filmmaking? The contrast with his comedies? His use of silent film techniques? his skill with the fixed camera, his using the techniques of drawing room comedy and yet enlivening them with the editing of medium shots and close-ups to give them a continual sense of movement and drama? The quality of the captions - for plot, character, moral comment? The appropriateness of his musical score added in the thirties?

3. The plausibility and credibility of the plot? The basics of melodrama in so many plays? The quality of Chaplin's handling of potentially clichéd material?

4. How much feeling was there in the film, how much humanity? Shrewdness of observation of characters, social situations and manners? Sympathy with characters and their being victimized by circumstances? How much sentiment, the danger of sentimentality at the end?

5. How well was the basic situation established: the father and his overbearing nature, Marie and her love for Jean, her being locked out etc.? Jean's parents and their hostility? The supplying of information, the eliciting of sympathies? The irony of the effects of parental hostility and what was to happen?

6. The irony and melodrama of the station sequence? The phone? The father's death? Fate and Marie going on the train? Jean remaining? The evil consequences of fate?

7. How credible was the one year gap - and the transition to restaurant, the introduction of the elderly wealthy spinster and her gigolo? Comic and shrewd observation on society? The first impressions of Pierre as a man-about-town, his behaviour in the restaurant, the liaison with Marie, his exit to the kitchen and his knowledge, wealth? The incidental comment via the patrons of the restaurant? The behaviour of the head waiter and his snobbery and fawning?

8. The presentation of Marie in her affluent way of life, her bedroom and the visitors, Gigi and Paulette and their style? Their visit, gossiping, the paper with Pierre's engagement. the sequence with the masseur and her listening to all the gossip and the ironic comment through her reactions?

9. The comparison with Pierre in his bedroom and. conducting his business in bed, his flippant attitude towards the engagement, ringing Marie for her reaction, taking it lightly etc.?

10. The presentation of the rich world and the style of the twenties, drinking, the striptease etc.? The contrast with Jean and his apartment and Marie’s searching him out?

11. The irony of the coincidence of the meeting between Jean and Marie? The effect on each of them after a year? The presence of Jean's mother and her love for him, interfering, her attitude towards Mare? The portrait sequences and the irony of the way that Marie wanted to be painted and the way that Jean painted her as at the station a year earlier? The development of the romance, Marie overhearing Jean's mother and her threats and Jean's defence?

12. The consequent melodramatics, especially with the gun? Was Jean’s behaviour credible especially in the restaurant and his death?

13. Marie and her grief? The melodramatics with the mother attempting to shoot her? The bonds between the two?

14. How credible was Marie’s retiring from Paris and looking after the orphans? The sentiment of the final scenes?

15. How well was the irony pointed with Pierre and his car passing, the cart? The comment on what had gone before?

16. Comment on Chaplin's attention to detail comedy of manners, his critique of manners via incidental characters and their reactions?

17. The moralizing point of view of the twenties about this way of life right and wrong?