Le Brasier ardent is a 1923 French film directed by Ivan Mosjoukine. It combines elements of comedy, mystery, romance and psychological drama. The title has been variously translated into English as The Blazing Inferno, The Burning Crucible, The Burning Brazier, The Burning Cauldron, and Burning Embers.
Plot
A woman, known only as Elle ("She"), has a nightmare in which she encounters a man chained to a tree above a blazing pyre into which he tries to pull her by the hair, an elegant gentleman in evening dress who pursues her into an opium den full of dazed women, a bishop who instructs her to return to her home, and a ragged beggar who attempts to embrace her before stabbing himself. Upon waking she realises that they each had the features of Z, a detective and master of disguise whose memoirs she has been reading in bed. Her wealthy husband, whom she married after he had saved her from drowning, is concerned about her mental state and her diminishing affection for him. He wants to take her away from the temptations of Paris, back to his home country in South America, but his plan is impeded by her resistance and by a burglary in which some important documents have been stolen. The husband hires a detective agency to recover the documents and to find the means of restoring his wife's affection; the detective assigned to his case is Z.
Z quickly works out that the burglary was faked by Elle in order to obstruct her husband from taking her away from her beloved Paris. While pretending to continue his search for the documents, Z extends his acquaintance with Elle and realises that they are falling in love with each other. In order to fulfil his contract with the husband, Z goes to a nightclub with Elle and stages a contest of endurance dancing for women, in which the winner seemingly dances herself to death. Elle is so distraught by this that she rushes home and begs her husband to take her away from the odious city.
The husband arranges their immediate departure on a transatlantic liner. Z hands over the missing documents and stoically makes his farewell to the couple. At the port of Le Havre, the husband tells his wife that he has forgotten to give Z his promised fee and he asks her to travel quickly to Paris to deliver it in person. As Elle and Z are re-united, a letter from the husband tells them that he has understood his wife's change of affection and he gives them his blessing, as he departs alone.
Cast Ivan Mosjoukine as Detective Z Nathalie Lissenko as the woman ("Elle") Nicolas Koline as the husband as the President of the Club (credited as Madame A. de la Croix) as Z's grandmother
Production After a group of Russian film technicians and actors left the new Soviet Republic and established themselves at Montreuil in Paris in 1920, Ivan Mosjoukine became not only their leading star but also wrote scenarios and had the opportunity to direct his first film, L'Enfant du carnaval, in 1921. In 1922 Mosjoukine wrote and directed his second film, Le Brasier ardent, as one of the first productions for Films Albatros, and he again drew upon many of his Russian compatriots for his team: the actors Nathalie Lissenko (Mosjoukine's wife) and Nicolas Koline, the set designers Alexandre Lochakoff and Edouard Gosch, and the cameraman Nikolai Toporkoff, who shared the filming with Joseph-Louis Mundwiller. The setting however was entirely French with much location work done in Paris and some in Marseille.Programme notes for Le Brasier ardent at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 2003. (Archived at the Wayback Machine, 17 April 2019.) Retrieved 29 July 2020.Le Brasier ardent in: Catalogue des restaurations et tirages de la Cinémathèque française. (Archived at the Wayback Machine, 21 December 2019.) Retrieved 29 July 2020.
In his preparatory notes for the production, Mosjoukine wrote that his subject was the love between a man and a woman, and it made no claim to originality or to moral or philosophical significance. It was an old theme which remained eternally fresh: "It is She and He, caught by surprise by the camera lens at the moment of their unexpected meeting. A presentiment separates them against their will, to give way in the end to a mutual attraction." He also indicated that he wanted to construct the film upon contrasts, alternating dramatic highlights with "the comedy of life"."Ce ciné-drame, cette étude de la vie de Paris, n'a aucune prétention d'avoir une signification philosophique ou morale et l'auteur ne croit point d'avoir créé une œuvre frappante par l'originalité ou l'imprévu. On y traite un vieux thème qui reste, pourtant, éternellement jeune: c'est l'Homme et la Femme (textuellement : le principe masculin et le principe féminin); - c'est l'amour. Ce sont «ELLE» et «Lui», surpris par l'objectif de l'appareil au moment de leur rencontre imprévue. Un pressentiment s'empare d'eux contre leur gré pour céder, enfin, la place à une attraction mutuelle.... L'auteur aurait voulu construire ce drame sur les contrastes faire alterner les moments forts avec le comique de la vie...." ["This cine-drama, this study of Parisian life, has no pretension to having a philosophical or moral significance and the author does not claim to have created a work striking by its originality or the unexpected. It deals with an old theme which remains, however, eternally young: it is Man and Woman (literally: the masculine principle and the feminine principle); - it is love. They are "HER" and "HIM", surprised by the lens of the camera at the moment of their unexpected meeting. A presentiment takes hold of them against their will to finally give way to a mutual attraction.... The author would have liked to build this drama on contrasts to alternate the strong moments with the comedy of life...."] Le Brasier ardent in: Catalogue des restaurations et tirages de la Cinémathèque française. (Archived at the Wayback Machine, 21 December 2019.) Retrieved 29 July 2020.
The mixture of styles made the film difficult to label with any specific genre but it placed it firmly among the avant-garde trends of French cinema, perhaps drawing on developments in current American and German films, as well as imitating French genres of the serial, the melodrama, and fantasy.Richard Abel, The French Cinema: the First Wave, 1915-1929. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984. pp. 367-371. "The film thus juxtaposes, like so many bravura episodes, various 'styles' (the smoky dream of the opening scene, the dark streets with sparse street-lamps, the farcical comedy of a detective agency, the sentimental scenes, etc.) as demanded by the plot-pretext."Article on Ivan Mosjoukine in Dictionnaire du cinéma français des années vingt, in 1895, vol. 33, 2001: "Le film juxtapose de la sorte, comme autant de morceaux de bravoure, des « styles » différents (le rêve fuligineux de l'ouverture, les rues sombres aux rares réverbères, le burlesque d'une agence de détectives, le sentimentalisme, etc.) au gré d'une intrigue-prétexte."
The film features two sequences of rapid editing, a practice then in vogue among French avant-garde film-makers (following Abel Gance's notable demonstrations of it in La Roue, released early in 1923). One is used in the first section of the opening nightmare scene, conveying the woman's sense of panic as she is pulled ever closer to the flames of the burning pyre. The second occurs in the dance contest, as the accelerating pace of the music and dancing is reflected in the impressionistic fragments of the editing rhythm.
Reception The film was first released in an exclusive run at the Salle Marivaux in Paris beginning on 1 June 1923.Marcel Silver, "Le Cinéma" (reviewing Le Brasier ardent), in Le Gaulois, 1 juin 1923, p. 4. It attracted considerable attention and admiring responses from a number of critics and commentators. Jean Mitry was one who judged that Mosjoukine, hitherto known as a great actor, had now shown himself to be capable of becoming a great director as well; and while his film did not offer novelty of technique or visual style, he had taken his inspiration from what was best in present-day film-makers, such as Abel Gance, Marcel L'Herbier, Louis Delluc, and Léon Poirier.Jean Mitry, review of Le Brasier ardent, in Ciné pour tous, no. 114, juillet 1923, pp. 5-6: "... Aucune technique nouvelle, aucun nouveau moyen d'expression visuelle. Il s'est seulement inspiré - mais quelle inspiration! - des meilleurs cinéastes actuels. Prenant dans chacun d'eux ce qu'il y avait de meilleur, il a formé un 'tout' qui est Le Brasier ardent; 'film' dans toute l'acceptation du mot c'est l'aboutissement en une œuvre des techniques de Gance et de L'Herbier, de l'atmosphère et de l'ambiance si souvent cherchées par Delluc et de l'irréel qui hante Léon Poirier." ["... No new technique, no new means of visual expression. He was only inspired - but what inspiration! - by the best filmmakers of today. Taking from each of them what was best, he formed a 'whole' which is Le Brasier ardent; 'film' in the full meaning of the word is the culmination in a work of the techniques of Gance and L'Herbier, of the atmosphere and ambiance so often sought by Delluc and of the unreality which haunts Léon Poirier."]
The film theorist Ricciotto Canudo praised the freshness and ambition of Mosjoukine's conception, and his ability to construct a genuinely symbolic drama, but he expressed reservations about the mixture of visual styles ("visionary and magnificent" at the beginning but lapsing later into "an often irritating realism" of sentimental comedy). Nevertheless, he asserted the significance of Mosjoukine's achievement: "This Slavic film is as astonishing as the first ballets of Diaghilev."Ricciotto Canudo, "Symbolisme", in Paris-Midi, 1 juin 1923, pp.1-2: "Malheureusement, [Le Brasier ardent] présente deux styles plastiques qui ne s'accordent pas à la fin. Visionnaire et magnifique au début, il tombe au beau milieu dans un réalisme de comédie sentimentale souvent agaçant." ... "Ce film slave est étonnant comme les premiers ballets de Serge de Diaghileff. La pureté du sujet, la profonde assimilation des tentatives décoratives les plus neuves du cinéma, enfin le mouvement passionnée de tout le film, font de celui-ci une manière de chef-d'œuvre qui va de la vision imaginée à la réalité imagée avec une puissance toujours égale, d'où le symbole ardent se dégage avec aisance." ["Unfortunately, [Le Brasier ardent] presents two visual styles that do not ultimately match. Visionary and magnificent at the beginning, it falls right in the middle into a sentimental comedy realism that is often irritating." ... "This Slavic film is as astonishing as the first ballets of Serge de Diaghileff. The purity of the subject, the profound assimilation of the newest decorative attempts in cinema, and finally the passionate movement of the entire film, make it a kind of masterpiece that goes from the imagined vision to the imaged reality with an always equal power, from which the ardent symbol emerges with ease."]