Ménilmontant
1926 · 38m · France
Directed by Dimitri Kirsanoff
Genres: drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
Two young sisters are orphaned after the brutal axe murder of their parents. Years later in the Ménilmontant neighborhood of Paris, both fall for the same charismatic street thug, leading them down divergent paths of heartbreak, poverty, and survival.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
No intertitles, jump cuts in 1926, axe murders and starvation — Kirsanoff was doing French New Wave decades before anyone called it that. Real one.
Kirsanoff's title-less, montage-driven impressionism anticipates the Nouvelle Vague by three decades and remains one of silent cinema's most formally daring works. Required viewing, even if this particular link is dead.
No intertitles in 1926 was a radical formal bet — Kirsanoff trusts pure image and rapid montage to carry narrative, with editing rhythms that genuinely predate the French New Wave by 30+ years. Video is gone but the print history is well-documented.
Reviews
Menilmontant is the one impressionistic film that can definitely be labelled a timeless masterpiece — it has a reality and solidity to it that makes it an intensely absorbing human drama as well as an incredibly daring piece of cinema art.
Menilmontant falters because it strives to create an emotional connection with the characters, but Kirsanoff's chosen editing style continually keeps the audience at arm's length.
Festivals
- Il Cinema Ritrovato