C'est pour les orphelins (1916) Online

This is definitely a one-joke film, and it's not a very good joke at that. I'd say it's probably more likely to warrant an indifferent shrug than a laugh. Still, at three minutes, why not watch it? It is a completely painless experience and somewhat interesting watch to watch in addition to the Les Vampires DVD (which is probably where those of you who have watched this have seen it). Marcel Lévesque, who was wonderful as Mazamette in Les Vampires, delivers a good comedic performance here as well; easily the best of the entire cast. René Poyen also does a decent job playing Bout de Zan, the character he played time and time again in the comedic film series directed by Louis Feuillade.

For some reason, it was a delight to see the actors from Les Vampires just goofing around and having fun. This feels like something shot to be a DVD extra, even though such a concept did not exist at the time.

By itself it's not a particularly fun short. It's based on a rather pointless premise (burst of inspiration) and ends with a gag that I'm not quite sure I got (turnips...).

But still, it's obvious that these actors are just playing around and having a good time - and it also gives you a tiny peek on what it must have been like on Feuillade's sets. Perhaps there are other accounts that document this more clearly, but if not, this is much better than nothing.

This early silent comedy short seems like a completely pointless one. It has got a very weak and simple story, that doesn't even feature good comical moments and a weird ending.

The movie features most of the cast members of the 1915 movie-serial "Les Vampires", also directed by Louis Feuillade. It's perhaps the only redeeming quality of this movie. René Poyen plays the comical character Bout-de-Zan again and the main role is being portrayed by Marcel Lévesque, who certainly had a great talent for comedy, although that doesn't completely fully shows in this movie.

The movie is just plain weird and halve of the time you really don't understand what is going on, or what the movie is even about. It took me awhile before I understood who all the characters were and what they were doing.

The movie tries too hard to be funny with as a result that the humor in it feels very forced, which causes it to be not funny and it just doesn't work out. Toward the ending the movie definitely gets better and the movie starts to take more form. It really seems like they shot this movie without a script and just came up with things, as they went along with filming. Of course not a thing that was uncommon for comedy shorts made in the 1910's.

The movie is also too short to say anything more negative or really positive about it.

A pointless to watch silent comedy short, that barely entertains enough.

5/10

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