Malpertuis

An adaptation of a modern gothic tale "Malpertuis", written by Jean Ray aka John Flanders. The acting is good and the story is full of symbolism. There are two versions of this movie: the original (in French or in English) feels more like a horror film but the longer re-edited Dutch version lacks most of the superb atmosphere created by the haunting score of Georges Delerue and is therefore disappointing.

Based on a novel by Jean Ray, Malpertuis is a "haunted" house, unescapable by those who live in it. Characters hiding their true nature, disguised as a "family" to which sailor Jean-Jacques returns unwillingly. Susan Hampshire plays 3 different characters beautifully, and Orson Welles is the perfect actor to play the dominating shadow. The film has an unreal, nightmarish atmosphere, and goes far beyond the scope of the book. Malpertuis is a labyrinth whose secrets are kept behind locked doors, and reveals itself as the film reaches its climax. We come to realize that the mind has as many labyrinths as the house itself. Full of mythology, dimly lit and spooky as dreams use to be ("what is life but a dream?"), Malpertuis is a cult. Jung would have loved it.

My hopes were high for this film. I'd seen Kumel's Le Rouge aux levres/Daughters of Darkness, the most stylish vampire/kinky sex movie ever made, and I love its sly wit and arresting visuals. Malpertuis is not as effective, alas, and I put that down to an overly-complicated story weighed down by too many classical references taken from the novel. Lampernisse, standing in for Prometheus, just doesn't work as a character. Why introduce the Erinyes, the three women who punished offenders against blood kin, when they don't advance the story? It's not an easy thing to watch a movie with a handbook of classical mythology by your side.

Having said this, I will add that it is wonderful to watch film that shows a great visual sophistication (crowd shots that evoke an Ensor painting, or that wonderful twisting staircase in the house) and never needs F/X. We have lost a great deal by the subservience to CGI today.

Having seen this film some years ago on television in a dark, dubbed and cut print, I had all but forgotten it. Yesterday I saw Kumel's restored cut in his own Flemish language, running 124 minutes, and my reaction was "brilliant". The picture was actually originally made in English, French, German and Dutch versions and then hacked to bits in the various markets. This film is a "must-see" for any serious film fan with its fabulous photography, stylish composition and surreal overtones - Magritte too was Belgian. It's more than a horror film as it has often been tagged, but a series of dreams or perhaps nightmares with all the illogic of dreams. I am fairly certain that Welles did his own Flemish dialog and that too makes it a must for the connoisseur.

From the director of 'Daughters of Darkness', and residing in the obscurity of so many of the later films of Orson Welles; in which he plays another of his patriarchs expansively presiding over the proceedings.

Although most reviewers have curiously failed to mention her, the most remarkable feature of the film has to be Susan Hampshire - her dyslexia apparent from her mispronunciation of the house's name - as three sisters; one of whom had people emerging from the screening I attended humming with disbelief that she could be so erotic.

And yes. I do mean THAT Susan Hampshire.