The Chess player = Le Joueur D'echecs

Based in historical fact, this silent costume drama is set in 1776 and concerns a German engineer at the Viennese court who created a chess-playing automaton to entertain the Empress Maria Theresa and other royalty. Such was the machine’s track record (Napoleon lost a game to it), suspicion grew that a human being was concealed inside. This material allowed Bernard, whose first film was the sumptuous spectacle ‘Le Miracle Des Loups’(‘The Miracle of the Wolves’) (1929), to again demonstrate his pictorial invention and his knack for not letting spectacle swamp his fine cast of actors. Music plays an important part throughout in sustaining the film’s sweep. This restoration, sourced from prints found in Luxembourg, Germany and Holland, revives the atmospheric original score composed by Henri Rabaud, director of the Paris Conservatoire from 1920 to 1941 and a master of orchestration. Cast includes Pierre Blanchar, Charles Dullin, Edith Jehanne and Camille Bert. From the novel by Henry Dupuy-Mazuel, with full orchestral score. This video edition produced by David Gill and Kevin Brownlow. Music performed by the Symphony Orchestra of Radio-Television-Luxembourg. WITH MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK.