Germaine Dulac's earliest surviving feature -- albeit in an erratically chipped copy -- is a story about the old man Gabriel Signoret (41, albeit in a white wig) married to a young woman, Andrée Brabant. He's an archeologist working on a new display of the mummy of a young Egyptian princess whose elderly husband grew jealous and had her killed with a poisoned seedcake. Signoret grows suspicious that Mlle Brabant is carrying on with Jules Raucourt, whose twin professions are dancing and golf. Determined to kill himself, he poisons a cigarette, puts it in his case, and writes a note to be discovered after he uses it at random. Immediately people start bumming smokes off him, including the innocent missus.

I first encountered Mme. Dulac's movies in the winter of 2003-2004, when a program of them played at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Each film was preceded by a lecture by an earnest young woman. Reading from notes, at each showing she informed the audience that Dulac was a Lesbian and a woman, and that was why she was an important film maker. I preferred to look at the movies instead of being told they were important. I discovered she was a highly competent film maker whose male characters behaved stupidly, often selfishly, occasionally villainously. viewed as. a corrective to the vamp movie, it might be considered turbabout in fair play. However, she had a propensity for dragging out the big scene past my patience. In short, I found her movies tiresome.

Perhaps it is bumptious of me, but this one strikes me as more of the same. Dulac fills the screen with images of Mlle Brabant's innocence. She kisses white doves around the house's fountain.She plays with a white dog. She is vivacious and flirty, but she's fond of the old fellow, little though he deserves it. Just like all men.

Let's be honest - those interested in the work of Germaine Dulac have probably only seen 1928's surrealist masterpiece La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman). I have only been fortunate enough to see 3 of her films and The Cigarette, while being her earliest surviving film, really does not have much to recommend it other than that trivial designation. Like many early silents, the pace is slow, the story slight and the picture quality is extremely poor. I'd say a good 20% of this film is so damaged and eroded that it is almost impossible to see what is going on. But it hardly matters as the story is fairly easy to follow even with occasion degraded images. If you're really interested in Dulac for her feminist stance, see 1923's La Souriante Madame Beudet (The Smiling Madame Beudet). Or if you want to see her true surrealist masterpiece see La Coquille et le Clergyman. But this film is really for completists only. Oh - and if you happen to see this and are befuddled by the French title cards, try turning on Closed Captioning; the version I saw had the title cards translated into English with CC on.

Oh, who cares?!

Here we have the story of a mismatched, May-December couple -- fiftyish museum scholar Gerard (Gabriel Signoret) and his vapid wife, Denise (Andree Brabant). When a dandy named Herbert starts to flirt with Denise, Gerard plans a highly dramatic suicide -- inspired by a legend linked to a mummy he nerdily displays in their bedroom.

Gerard's histrionics become tiresome. I kept thinking, "Grow up, man, and talk to your wife!" Instead, we have to watch this self-involved egghead's reverse-Othello machinations -- in this version, the supposed cuckold plans his own demise, and not his wife's.

The spectacularly attired Denise's characterization is also poor. With little to do but complain that Gerard works too much -- "On ne peut jamais s'amuser aupres de toi" -- and play with doves in their yard, she seriously lacks substance. This is surprising, given that the director, Germaine Dulac, was an early feminist.

I caught this oddity on TCM. It's in very poor condition, with tornado-like scribbles marring the picture quality and title cards only in French. (The story and dialogue are easy enough to follow, though, and anyone with college-level French should be able to get by with only a couple stops at Google translate.)

One thing I will say for "La cigarette" is that it does a decent job of showing the nature of addiction. Every little thing that upsets Gerard sends him reaching for a smoke.