I don't know if 11 minutes are sufficient enough to do wonderful things, save a life or find happiness, therefore I can't be much stressed about seeing this nonsense experience. I won't say I wasted my time but something was wasted on the way. I couldn't feel a thing over it, not a single burst of joy or amazement, not a tear was shed. I got nothing from here except maybe, maybe some ideas about the little importance this might have had with future generations when it comes to illustrate bad trips with drugs. "La Folie du Docteur Tube" tells about a doctor making some experiments with a powerful drug. Mr. Abel Gance provides us bizarre and twisted images, everything is completely modified, blurry and enlarged followed by the psychodelics sounds of Karlheinz Stockhausen - the latter came from a remastered version released a few years ago.
So, Gance was testing - just like the doctor in the movie - new ways to compose images, editing techniques and all. I'm fine with that. But where's the high purpose? Where's the entertainment or the higher knowledge? It's so empty and dull you watch this with a straight face thinking "Uh huh, so...? Oh that was it? What's the big deal?". I'm giving two stars. Why? Here's a little anecdote to connect with and a good answer to such question. A known director while making his earliest films at college asked his master, the great John Houseman, about his thoughts on his thesis film. Houseman, who had seen plenty of those that day and none of them moved him, replied to the young filmmaker: "Well, at least it didn't made me sleep". Case closed. 2/10
So, Gance was testing - just like the doctor in the movie - new ways to compose images, editing techniques and all. I'm fine with that. But where's the high purpose? Where's the entertainment or the higher knowledge? It's so empty and dull you watch this with a straight face thinking "Uh huh, so...? Oh that was it? What's the big deal?". I'm giving two stars. Why? Here's a little anecdote to connect with and a good answer to such question. A known director while making his earliest films at college asked his master, the great John Houseman, about his thoughts on his thesis film. Houseman, who had seen plenty of those that day and none of them moved him, replied to the young filmmaker: "Well, at least it didn't made me sleep". Case closed. 2/10