A Woman of Paris-A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923)

Directed by: Charles Chaplin | 78 minutes | drama, romance | Actors: Edna Purviance, Clarence Geldart, Carl Miller, Lydia Knott, Charles K. French, Adolphe Menjou, Betty Morrissey, Malvina Polo, Nellie Bly Baker, Henry Bergman, Charles Chaplin, Frank Coghlan Jr., Harry d’Abbadie d’Arrast Stella De Lanti, Jean de Limur, Charles Farrell, Bess Flowers, Karl Gutman, James A. Marcus, Harry Northrup, Granville Redmond, Philip Sleeman, Arthur Stibolt, A. Edward Sutherland, Wilhelm von Brincken

‘A Woman of Paris’, the second feature film – after ‘The Kid’ – that Chaplin made as director has a special place in the oeuvre of the legendary filmmaker and comedian. It is the first (and last) film in which he does not play the lead himself and in which humor is practically absent. He even begins the film with the warning that this is his first attempt at a serious drama and that, apart from a brief moment, Chaplin himself will not be seen in the film. After all, otherwise the viewer could have been unnecessarily disappointed because of unrealized expectations based on Chaplin’s earlier work. Despite all of Chaplin’s precautions, audiences were indeed unenthusiastic at the time of the film’s release. However, chances are this has had little to do with the futile hopes of comedy or Chaplin’s passing as the “Tramp”. As a standalone (melo)drama ‘Woman of Paris’ is not particularly compelling.

It starts off quite provocative, for a melodrama. Marie (Edna Purviance) is locked in her bedroom by her father, but a moment later, when she looks out the window, it becomes clear why. She calls out to a man who is waiting on the corner of the street. She explains her problem, after which, like a true Romeo, he climbs on the roof and up to her window, and helps her out. This turns out to be Jean (Carl Miller), the man of her dreams, and they want to get married in Paris as soon as possible. However, her father, for reasons that are unclear, does not accept this, and completely shuts her out of the house. They cannot go to Jean’s parents either and are therefore doomed to live together on love and they are about to board the night train to Paris. But first Jean has to go home to pack his suitcase.

From this point on, the film loses the viewer. Jean’s father has a heart attack that prevents Jean from being at the station on time. The strange thing is that Jean and Maria even have a phone call after this incident, but Maria, somehow thinking that her fiancé doesn’t love her anymore, decides to go to Paris on her own. He tells her that he is delayed because something terrible has happened and that she needs to stay on the line for a while. However, she does not wait, but gets on the train alone with tears in her eyes. This puts a big dent in the viewer’s involvement.

Then a year jump is made and poor Maria has suddenly ended up in the rich jet set. It would have been nice to find out exactly how she managed this. In any case, she now often appears to be in the vicinity of the desirable bachelor Pierre (Adolphe Menjou), which is mainly a “marriage of convenience”. The entanglements that take place in Marie’s rich life are of little interest, and even when she runs into her old flame again, there is hardly any energy or heart in the film. For a while it seems to be going well, but then an artificial misunderstanding throws a spanner in the works.

Another problem is that most Marie seems to be doing little. Only at the end of the film does she show emotion, but then it is already too late. Perhaps this was Chaplin’s point; that she does not allow her emotions and prefers to be seduced by superficialities, but even in that case the effect of this is not very deep or fascinating. She is torn in her feelings in few moments, yet mostly comes across as indifferent or bored. Even when she says that life has nothing to offer her.

Nice is the character of Pierre, which is designed in a delightful way and with light sarcasm by the charismatic Adolphe Menjou. He looks at everything from a distance and with light irony, and yet mostly laughs at the melodramatic behavior of his companion and her (ex-)fiance. In one scene, when Marie chases after a chain just thrown out of the window by herself and snatched up by a passer-by, he literally laughs it off. And when Marie talks about her problems, at the same time he plays a little mockingly on a small saxophone, the sound of which is also reflected in the soundtrack at that moment. This soundtrack, full of sensitive strings, is also quite thick, and eventually gets on your nerves slightly.

But there are interesting moments, including the last shot, which is somewhat reminiscent of the last shot of ‘The Third Man’, in which the main characters also pass each other on a long way. There is also an amusing moment at a party, in which a woman wrapped in a cloth is placed on a rotating plate, and is slowly stripped of her interesting piece of clothing by a man pulling this cloth, until – out of sight – she is completely naked in front of the screaming audience.

Chaplin’s first serious drama has unfortunately turned out to be a disappointing film, with the story that develops too easily and artificially and the lack of involvement with the central characters in particular kills the film.