"Prix de Beauté (Miss Europe)" (aka "Beauty Prize") (1930) is an outstanding example of where the participants - the actors and actresses, the director, and especially the cinematographer and editor - outdo the material by a very large margin. This French film was released as both a silent and a sound film; had a scene or two goat-glanded, and also was overdubbed (in the original language!) disgustingly! My version is in an okay print, but the version is a sound version with dubbing that I turned down low enough so that what I saw was a silent with minuscule jingles of sound and intrusive (but needed) sub-titles which were not "sub" but thrown up largely in the middle of the picture! I had a difficult time getting into the show for the first few minutes, and they're the few minutes that really should be the ones that WOW someone into watching. Louise Brooks peels off her outer clothes to a bathing suit, and she goes into the water. She's certainly not difficult to watch! What was surprising to me was the fact that this film was written by René Clair.
This was the third in the trilogy of films Louise Brooks made in Europe before returning to fail in a career that had been rocketing - at least it appears that way looking backwards. She'd appeared in "Pandora's Box" (1929) in Germany, then went to Poland to appear in "Diary of a Lost Girl" (1929) for a German company, then appeared in this film for director Augusto Genina in France.
Also in this film are Georges Charlia as André, the fiancé of Brooks' character, Lucienne Garnier; Augusto Bandini; Jean Bradin; Yves Glad; Gaston Jacquet; and many others. The film begins by showing the relationship between Lucienne and André. They are typical working class Parisian lovers, with André a linotype setter for a newspaper and Lucienne a typist. André is rather naïve, and figures that with marriage he can control - and that's the operative word - Lucienne and be a very dominant husband. Lucienne, on the other hand, also quite naïve, but wanting to explore the world on a much grander scale, thinks she loves André, but may have needs he can't supply. She enters a beauty contest, becomes Miss France, and then goes on to become Miss Europe. The entire complexion of the story and the relationship between the two changes. I could give away the rest of the story, but that would be spoiling the climax. Suffice it to say, that for Americans who've plodded through enough episodes of "The Closer" or "Law and Order" on television, the ending is, well...that hint should suffice...
The photography was actually manipulative. It made the eye follow every movement of the camera, and then there'd be close-ups that made the brain think, then made the viewer feel. It was quite spectacular for 1931, almost documentary style following characters in a diary-like fashion. The direction was impeccable. But, what makes this film tick is the precision editing. The cut-tos and the change of plot point to another are as professional and perfect as I've ever seen. It's the story that just cuts this from 10/10 to 7/10 or 8/10. Too bad.
Don't be disappointed, though. If you can find a silent print of this in great condition, it will be a joy to watch. Brooks is such a superlative actress and the camera absolutely loves her like a bride. She's radiant!
