Robert Macaire and Bertrand (1907) User Reviews

Historic interest only

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 7/10 · 13 November 2003]

The reign of France's king Louis Philippe (1830-1848) was a turbulent era. Louis initiated all sorts of social reforms which were allegedly 'progressive', but which achieved little actual progress. For example, France's Child Labour Act of 1841 mandated that children aged 8 to 12 could not be used in manual labour for more than 8 hours a day, whilst children up to age 16 could not be forced to work for more than 12 hours a day. In theory this was a reform; in fact, it achieved precisely nothing because Louis Philippe's labour inspectors were all corrupt. Interestingly, Louis Philippe did relax France's previous laws against Jews ... but this appears to be his only reform that actually accomplished something.

'Auberge de Adrets' was a French stage play depicting the exploits of two French rogues during the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe. Robert Macaire (his name rhymes in French) and Bertrand begin the play as galley slaves; they meet in prison and, after escaping together, decide to pool their criminal talents. Their relationship is remarkably similar to that of Blackadder and Baldrick (from the British sitcom), with Macaire as the master and Bertrand as his incompetent assistant and henchman. 'Auberge de Adrets' was originally a satire on French society in the time of Louis Philippe. In the late 19th century, this play was revived and revised by the French actor Frederick Lemaitre, who cast himself as Macaire in a new version which satirised the political excesses of 'modern' France.

Georges Melies's film 'Robert Macaire et Bernard' is a crude slapstick version of this story. We see two actors depicting Macaire and Bertrand as baggy-trousered tramps. They have no difficulty breaking into an international bank (with bilingual signs) and various other buildings, and escaping with booty. At every turn, they are pursued by four carabinieri who travel in a bizarre lockstep marching gait.

This is one of the very few Melies films containing genuine exterior shots (intercut among his more typical painted backdrops filmed indoors), but these locations are given Melies's usual tableau treatment, with his static camera rooted to the ground instead of nailed to the floor.

SPOILERS COMING. Eventually, the two rogues climb into the gondola of a hot-air balloon and escape into outer space!

I'll rate this movie 7 out of 10, more for its historic value than for any entertainment or narrative qualities. Georges Melies did his best work in his famous 'stunt' films that relied on trick photography. Here, attempting to tell a straightforward story, he's much less effective ... and he seems almost rellieved to be lapsing into cinematic trickery for the final sequence.

Macaire?!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 September 2011]

Robert Macaire was a figure from 14th century France who, supposedly, committed a crime and the only witness against him was his dog. Now here is where it gets weird. He and the dog face off in combat and the dog wins--proving that Macaire was guilty. Now this film has NOTHING to do with this, but according to Wikipedia, Macaire was a common character in plays--and always as a criminal. In other words, while the name is the same, this isn't really supposed to be the Macaire from the 14th century.

In this case, Macaire and his friend, Bertrand, run about stealing (first at a restaurant and later robbing a safe)--after all, they are villains. When the police give chase, the pair find some costumes and disguise themselves. Then, you see a train arrive at the station. Which of these folks are the criminals? And, what happens to them? Well, see this short film for yourself if you'd like to know.

When you see the film, you see something pretty typical for a Georges Méliès production. The film was obviously filmed on stage and the props look like props from a play--very flat and cartoon-like. This may look pretty cheesy today--but it was common in 1907. The earthquake sequence is particularly quaint--as is their strange journey through the sky. You just have to see this one to know what I mean. Likewise, you really have to see the death scene! The film is cute, funny and silly--but certainly not one of the director's best. Genuinely odd!

Mostly Slapstick

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 18 November 2017]

We have a couple of ne'er do wells who steal food and run and then a poorly guarded bank. They take off on a train. Their adversaries are the French version of the Keystone Kops. The do all manner of shenanigans, causing damage and hurting people and mugging their way along. They end up in a balloon as the police continue to make fools of themselves. They are not the least bit heroic. The film is pretty well crafted, however, and maintains some interest.

Strange Film for Melies

[Michael_Elliott · 27 August 2011]

Robert Macaire et Bertrand (1907)

** (out of 4)

aka Robert Macaire and Bertrand

This is a rather strange subject matter for someone like Georges Melies to be telling and the end result is certainly disappointing. The film tells the famous French play of criminals Robert Macaire and Bertrand who go on a major robbing spree while four policemen try to catch them. That's pretty much the entire story as we see the men rob one bank/location, the police show up late and chase them and then we happen to the next location where the same thing keeps happening again and again. I'm really not sure what attracted Melies to a story like this but I think he deserves every bit of the blame because of what he does with the story. The film runs just over 10-minutes and for the majority of the running time the police look as if they influenced the Keystone Cops. They are played for complete fools as they fall over one another and in all reality they can't do a single thing right. The crooks really aren't any better but I think this aspect has more to do with some of the weak performances rather than just the director going for some sort of slapstick. The film even manages to turn into a bit of science-fiction with the ending, which I won't ruin here. I must admit that this film bored me from the first minute and things sadly never picked up any. It is worth noting that Melies shot some of this on an exterior location and I believe this is the first film that I've seen where he did that.

Robert Macaire and Bertrand review

[JoeytheBrit · 8/10 · 10 May 2020]

Méliès temporarily forsakes his trademark trick photography for this highly entertaining tale of a pair of inveterate thieves pursued by a quartet of outraged soldiers whose lunch they have purloined. Nothing new, but it's briskly edited and avoids the customary overlong shots of pursued and pursuers that plagued the films of lesser filmmakers of the time.

Méliès's Contribution to the Chase

[Cineanalyst · 17 August 2013]

From 1906 through 1908, Georges Méliès's productions consisted of various films of the genres that other filmmakers had made popular, including the melodrama (see "A Desperate Crime" (1906) and "Not Guilty" (1908)) and comedic chase ("The Chimney Sweep" (1906), "How Bridget's Lover Escaped" (1907) and this film). Comedic subjects especially seem to have taken up more of his oeuvre in later years beside his usual trick films and a declining number of fantasy adventures. As the other IMDb reviewers have already mentioned, "Robert Macaire and Bertrand" had a long history in French theatre, too, as did most of the narrative films that Méliès made.

Among Méliès's comedies, this one is probably the most centered around the chase formula. From the first scene, when the two thieving hobo clowns steal from a restaurant, a group of bumbling, but dedicated, policemen are in pursuit. There are a few excursions from this chase, though, to not allow for much of the continuity editing that one sees in the early chase comedies from other filmmakers--beginning in the U.S. with the American Mutoscope and Biograph films "The Escaped Lunatic" and "Personal" (both 1904). The entirety of the film, indoors and "outdoors", are settings within Méliès's Montreuil studio, which further establishes the film's theatrical roots and the preference of Méliès, the owner of the Robert-Houdin Théâtre, to make cinema an extension of the stage. Even the "special effects", including the earthquake and the moving backdrop as the characters are launched through the sky, are largely theatrical tricks. Nevertheless, the chase genre demanded Méliès replace his usual cumbersome dissolves with direct cuts for transitions between scenes, and this particular film features 18 shots in under 11 minutes, which actually results in a considerably shorter average shot length than in just about every other Méliès film (where there are often fewer scenes than there are minutes of screen time).

Incomplete Farce Comedy

[Tornado_Sam · 1 August 2018]

As evidenced by Georges Méliès's Catalogue of Genuine and Original Star Films, several scenes of "Robert Macaire and Bertrand" are not with us today and remain missing from the surviving print, although the movie does feel complete enough to be watchable and tells a complete story more or less. Missing scenes such as the ending, (where the criminals escape in the balloon, and the police attempt to catch them by climbing a tower only to still fail) and the stage of the theater scene, (where the thieves find themselves behind the scenes after climbing out the bank window and escape through a trapdoor without being noticed by the performers), really don't add much else to the movie. Since the original ending doesn't add very much to the overall plot, the film is fine without it; and outside from wondering why the thieves come into a costume room after escaping through a bank window, the stage scene can also be easily missed.

It goes without saying that this is a very different film from Méliès's catalogue. Since the story was a French theater play, he must have thought it would've appealed to his audiences, but it is a different type of play for him and not at all a fantasy like "A Trip to the Moon" and others were based off of. The film begins with the two thieves of the title robbing a cafe and then escaping before some idiot cops show up to arrest them. As the chase progresses, the thieves continue to steal and hide, until eventually their hideout is destroyed by an earthquake. While it is a lot less magical than usual and even has a few scenes shot outdoors (as well as one taken outdoors with a set), Méliès sometimes just can't resist adding in a few interesting effects, such as for the scenes where both the crooks and the policemen are hurled through the air by the explosion. This effect obviously involves some superimposing against a moving backdrop, with a very good and comical result. Outside this, some flashes of lightning for the storm, as well as superimposition to show the thieves in the balloon. Compared to Méliès's other effects years before, these all look very good.

Outside from this, it is pretty theatrical looking, with no real closeups except for a brief shot at the end which is a closer cut to the thieves in the balloon. It's obvious that Méliès was almost to that point in his career where he had to begin imitating other filmmakers' styles in slapstick and drama, and later results of this period in his career such as "How Bridget's Lover Escaped" are even less like him than this. But "Robert Macaire and Bertrand" does include enough fantastical elements to make it a Méliès work, and at almost eleven minutes (for the incomplete surviving print) it's pretty full-length for the time.