Kino has released a DVD boxset of early French Gaumont films, Gaumont Treasures (1897–1913).
As extreme as the plotting may be, “The Child of Paris” achieves an openness and airiness (most strikingly, when the action moves to Nice from Paris) that anticipates the expansive humanism of Renoir and Truffaut. Perret did not invent the feature form (which began to appear in 1912), but it could be said that the feature form invented him, giving his talent the time and space it needed to prosper.
Somewhat related to the previous entry, but historically interesting in its own right.
