Pierre Batcheff by josh cohen

Pierre Batcheff was well known during the years of French avant-gard cinema during the mid-to-late 1920s. He is most well known to me as the main character in Salvador Dali's Un Chien Andalou.  His other works include Gance's 1927 film, Napoleon, and Les Deux Timides from 1928. I particularly like Batcheff because he reminds me of a period in cinema where directors were still exploring techniques of story telling. Looking specifically at Un Chien Andalou, it's such a strange film looking at it from a modern Hollywood standpoint. As an actor, especially when film itself is still a relatively new medium, has got to be real difficult. Acting styles haven't been perfected as well as directing styles. Under Dali's direction, Batcheff was probably scratching his head more times than the audience. One particular scene where Batcheff is riding a bicycle and around his neck is a box, and what’s inside is revealed later to be a tie. It’s with this device that Dali and Bunuel inject a kind of dream like quality into their film. Batcheff falls over and dies, carrying this mystery box around his neck. The woman, although crying about, seems to know just what to do in order to bring him back to life. The woman character has some kind of precognizant knowledge that, by laying the clothes and the box’s contents on the bed would eventually bring the man back to life. This is another example of the filmmakers’ unique cause and effect logic. Batcheff, i imagine decided at some point not to ask any questions about what he was being asked to perform. Another particular scene Batcheff had to deal with in Un Chien Andalou was the chase around the room. Dealing with the constant cuts so add in the various items in the shot truly takes a patient actor. To me, Pierre Batcheff defines a hard working actor. It's too bad he overdosed on Veronal.