The Crazy Ray
- Henri Rollan: Albert
- Charles Martinelli: scientists
- Louis Pré Fils: detective
- Albert Préjean: Pilot
- Madeleine Rodrigue: Hesta
- Myla sellers: niece of the scientist
- Antoine Stacquet: rich man
- Marcel Vallée: Rogue
Paris qui dort (German: " Paris sleeps" ) is a French silent film by René Clair from the year 1925.
Action
As keepers of works and lives a young man named Albert at the Eiffel Tower. When he goes up one morning to the observation deck and lights a cigarette, he finds that it is as 10 clock. However, the streets of Paris are empty. He finally gets dressed and goes surprising the steps of the Eiffel Tower down. Chance he meets a few people who seem to sleep all. On the banks of the Seine, he sees a man standing and he believes the man wanted to jump into the river and kill himself. Albert wants to stop him, however, noted that the man stands frozen. In the pocket of the man Albert finds a suicide note, stating that the man can no longer stand the hustle and bustle of modern times. Before Albert goes on, he puts the man a pack of cigarettes in the hand.
Heading Albert hits a motionless man in a car. He sits behind the wheel, drives off and met a little later four men and a woman named Hesta, like him, are conscious and also wondering about the sleeping Paris. They tell him that they had arrived in the morning with an aircraft from Marseille. At the airport, all the people were in deep sleep. You are now wondering why they are in contrast to all other conscious. As the phenomenon must have started at 3 clock 25 they conclude that they were spared because they all were at that time in the air - the four men and Hesta on the plane and Albert at the Eiffel Tower.
One of the men, a wealthy merchant, wants to become a woman he wanted to marry. When he knocks on her door, she does not give up. Another man, the door finally opened and they find the woman unconscious with a strange man before. Her fiance is angry, which is why the others to get him out of the house. They spend the following night at the Eiffel Tower. The next morning they go to a restaurant to have breakfast. Later they play on the Eiffel Tower cards. But soon, they start to get bored. The men finally realize that Hesta the only woman in her environment that is not frozen. You begin to vie for her attention, and begin to beat out of jealousy. Over the radio, talking to them, suddenly a woman's voice, asking them to come to rue Croissy number 2. Albert and the others make themselves immediately on the way.
When they arrive at the said address, open a window, followed by a young woman appears. Her uncle is a scientist and has discovered a new type of radiation that brings the world to a standstill, but only reached a certain level. Together they go into the house and fall on the scientist. This admits to have not thought to awaken the people from their artificial sleep again. For several hours he tried to set up the appropriate formula. At 3 clock 25 er operates the lever of its rays machine, to which all people awaken again. Then the scientists will send the uninvited guests from his house. Also his niece to go. This agrees with Albert. When they realize that they desperately need money, they go back and transform Paris with the radiation machine again in a sleeping city, only to steal money from the pockets of passersby. However, since the scientist flips the lever of the machine a second time, Albert and his companion were arrested and taken to a police station. There they try to officials to explain the events of the last days. You will eventually lead to a doctor, have the Hesta and her four companions already told the same story. Together they are finally released. While Hesta and the four men leave, go Albert and the niece of the scientist on the Eiffel Tower. Enjoy the view and Albert kisses the hand of his companion.
Background
Director René Clair turned the science fiction film in 1923 on location in Paris, where especially the Eiffel tower served as a frequent setting for the film. Paris qui dort was finally premiered on February 6, 1925 in France. However, Clair was not satisfied with his first cut version, which is why other abridged versions were in circulation later. The Cinémathèque française made the film in 2000, restored, resulting in a version with 61 minutes running time arose.
Reviews
Contemporary critics saw in the movie is primarily a movement study. The author and film critic René Bizet According there was René Clair "is understood to take amazing effects of this movement study". The result was " comical, dramatic surprise effects" that would account for the cinema ". Everything is image, and nothing but image without unnecessary intellectualism "
Kage Baker described the film in retrospect as " surrealistic little confection ", the " frosting of slapstick disturbing the inside" overlay them. There were a " remarkable achievement of a young director ."