What is the plot - in one sentence? A man who was mutilated as a boy to have what looks like a permanent grin, and the blind but beautiful woman he is with, travel around as part of a freakshow in wig-wearing-era France*
I don't have time, just spoil it for me? So... it turns out that the boy was mutilated as a political punishment for his dad - a nobleman- 's betrayal of some royal or other. This is discovered when he's a now-mutilated man, and after some political wrangling, he's made a lord and forced to marry some evil noblewoman. However, there's some civil unrest in the city, and he's a figurehead against the unfairness of the society, and he's able to use the crowds to escape on a boat with his mates and his true love, the blind gal.
What is the meaning of the title? It's a mildly ironic thing- as although his face is permanently in a grin, he's often very sad, and he's rarely laughing.
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| This is his 'permanent smile' - and he reminded me a little of Lin-Manuel Miranda. However, our grinning man wouldn't be so cocky to cast himself in a movie he's directed, so I prefer him. |
Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? No one gets slapped around, but this is another appearance of a blind person. There have been a few on this list already. I wonder why it's so prevalent in movies? I'm also too lazy to put any more thought into it now. The whole thing has aged pretty interestingly, which I think is because it was already pretty weird when it came out.
Any thoughts? It starts off with the torture of a nobleman, and the promise of the mutilation of his kid. Cut to a mutilated kid shuffling around in the snow, abandoned by his people. He passes a few corpses, takes what must have been a bone-breaking tumble, and picks up a girl from the corpse of her mother. That child will be his love interest when they are adults later on. They are lucky to meet a kindly freakshow operator or they'd have starved and frozen. It's a hell of a start.
The hero of the story, the smiling-man, known as Gwynplaine, has been hacked up to be in a permanent rictus smile. This is something which evidently brings him great shame and which he hides whenever he can. For whatever reason though, audiences find it hilarious.
Be it in a freakshow, or in the 'House Of Lords' when he's installed there for various reasons, the audience is besides themselves laughing at him. Weird reaction there guys. He's taken from the freakshow to high society for reasons too French and stupid to even consider here, but the division between the 'freakshow' / carnie crew who care for each other, and the backstabbing, hate-filled affair-having upper-crust is an obvious one.
Later on, the same midget from the Unknown arrives. I hope that he had a good life, and wasn't just forced to be in a bunch of movies against his will.
So, let's ignore the fact that Gwynplaine and the baby he adopted when he was a child (she's called Dea), are probably too close to marry. If they've been together since birth in her case, that would be a brotherly love by the time of adulthood, surely? And let's instead focus on the fact that her job in the fair is to be both pretty and blind. She's also acting (their father figure guy is a playwright), but no one is there to see her act. She is pretty, in a 1920s sort of way, and reminded me of Celene Dion, but prettier.
Gwynplaine worries that Dea doesn't love him because of how he looks (ignoring the closeness of their relationship anyway), but as a blind woman, she would neither know what he looks like, or care about it if she did.
Contrasted to Dea is
a horrible Duchess who Gwynplaine eventually has to marry
(seriously, there's a load of bloodline, betrayal and inheritance and
coincidental meetings in this movie which I, and it seems the movie
itself, took no interest in). She looks weirdly like Madonna (before
all the botox), and in a surprising moment, we see a sliver of her
buttocks while she bathes. In an even more surprising moment, she,
heartbroken at something or other, and weeps on a pet monkey for a very
long time. She's meant to be a villain, but seems a little crushed by the system she's been born into.
Would you recommend
this? Read the previous sentence about the monkey. That's a yes already. Anything else was a
bonus, as this was a very strange, though overlong, little parable.
There were a lot of freaks, a lot of weird intrigue - I've not
mentioned the 'comedy' scenes in the royal court for a reason, they
were a drag, but quite entertaining.
With the plot involving intrigue, coincidences, bloodlines, and interlapping with a human drama about a young couple trying to get by, it was quite intersting. The performances were quite affecting and effective. I was very happy that it all ended well, with the main villain drowned and mauled by a dog.
Also interesting is that this movie (according to wikipedia) added a few sound effects to it, to compete with 'the Jazz singer' which was released a year or so before. There were sounds of crowds and background noises built in - once to trick a blind girl into believing that her true love was still alive when they think he's dead - which wouldn't have been possible before, instead we'd have had to listen to some orchestra, or some bozo playing a piano. It didn't make much of a difference to my viewing here, and I wonder if it would have at the time.
Final thoughts? The wolf in this, who is shown to be a particularly large and loyal dog, is called 'Homo' - and title cards with his name in it never failed to make me chuckle. The dog belongs to the kindly freakshow operator / playwright / warlock who takes the two main characters in, and adds them to his stage show. He's just another unsung hero in art who took in foundlings and seems a genuinely good guy despite his humble life. The contrast to the main bad guy, who isn't well defined, but has breeding and wants our main characters dead, is also clear. Anyway, this movie goes out of its way to show that Homo the dog could get back on the boat that they're escaping on, and that makes it a happy ending in my book.
Also, I just found out that the main, grinning guy was also in Casablanca as that German officer who gets ratty in the bar, and the main skinny bloke from the Cabinet of Cagilari. Amazoing to think they're all the same guy. Amazing.
Anyway, hope you're enjoying these. If you want more, click here!
*American movie, based on a French novel, seemingly set in England - let's split the difference and move on with our lives?
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