Checking out the silent drama La tentation (1923)

If you have a lazy Sunday afternoon and don't mind reading title cards, La tentation is a decent pick. It’s basically a fancy soap opera from 1923, full of people looking very concerned in large, expensive rooms.

If you hate slow-burn dramas where everyone is overdressed, you should probably skip it. But for fans of the French silent era, it is a neat little time capsule of how people used to act on screen.

Claudia Victrix really carries the whole thing with her eyes. There is a shot early on where she just looks at a fireplace, and you can tell she is thinking about making a huge mistake. 🏠

The plot is about a woman tempted by... well, a lot of things. Mostly stuff that was scandalous back then but feels like a regular Tuesday afternoon now.

Lucien Dalsace shows up and he has that classic leading man energy. He stands very still. Almost too still.

It reminds me a bit of the tension in The Outlaw and His Wife, but way less snowy. And much more focused on indoor drama than running away into the mountains.

The costumes are actually incredible. I spent about five minutes just looking at the lace on a dress instead of reading what the characters were saying.

Sometimes the editing is a bit jerky. A character will be on one side of the room, then bam, they are suddenly standing by the window. 🪟

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of La tentation (1929) through its definitive frames.

There is this one guy, André Nicolle, who plays his role with so much gusto. He doesn't just walk into a room; he conquers it with his chin.

The writing by Charles Méré feels a bit heavy-handed sometimes. But that is part of the charm of these old French flickers. It doesn't have the grit of something like Vendémiaire, but it has its own vibe.

I noticed a vase in the background of the study that looks like it belongs in a museum. It probably is in a museum now, if nobody broke it on the set back in the day.

The movie get noticeably better once the main conflict starts to actually happen. Before that, it's a lot of people walking in and out of doors.

One reaction shot lingers so long it almost becomes funny. You keep waiting for her to blink, but she just keeps staring. 👁️

It isn't as fast as Racing Mad, obviously. This is a movie for sitting back and just letting the mood hit you.

The ending feels a bit rushed, honestly. Like they realized they were running out of film and needed to wrap up the moral lesson quickly.

Still, it is better than some of the hollow stuff we get today. It has a soul, even if that soul is a bit too melodramatic for modern tastes.

If you like seeing how people used to dress up to look miserable, give it a look. It’s a mood, as the kids say.