La Folie du Docteur Tube (1915)
Directed by Abel Gance

Film Review

Newly recruited by the film company Film d'Art in his mid-twenties, Abel Gance shocked his employers with this fantasy short which demonstrates the penchant for wild experimentation that would become his trademark.  The cameraman Leonce-Henry Burel and lead actor Albert Dieudonné (minus the domed forehead) would later collaborate with Gance on his most famous work, the silent masterpiece Napoléon (1927).  Gance and Burel created the film's bizarre images with the use of distorting mirrors (of the kind that would be familiar to fairground goers), the intention presumably being to simulate a drugs trip (the white powder thrown by Dr Tube no doubt being a mind-altering substance).  La Folie du Docteur Tube is most probably the weirdest of Abel Gance's films, and testifies to his determination to transgress the social and cinematic conventions of his day.

Film Synopsis

Dr Tube is at work in his laboratory when he makes a remarkable discovery.  By throwing a white powder at an object, he finds he can change its appearance.  The affected object elongates until it becomes completely unrecognizable.  Having tried out the powder on his dog, he subjects himself and his serving boy to its mysterious effects, just before two young ladies turn up and experience the same magical transformation.  Fortunately, the process is reversible and Dr Tube and his visitors are soon restored to their former selves, allowing the doctor to begin his next experiment...