Mater dolorosa

A completely forgettable melodrama where the best part of the film happens at the beginning.

A liberal application of nicely-done chiaroscuro gives things a certain stylistic edge (and makes me wish I were watching a better print), but this is otherwise pretty run-of-the mill stuff.

Being used to seeing Abel Gance's grand multi-hour epic films, it's interesting to see what he made on a normal day. And here comes the melodrama as a husband finds out his wife cheated on him and it becomes a question if the child is really his. The wife won't tell him and he wont tell the mother if the son is alive. Isn't always exciting being a very silent silent film, but it has some nice psychological touches to the story which gives the ordinary family crisis a nice little effective twist.

For a movie, the subject matter of this early Abel Gance was considered daring at the time. In truth, it is an uninspired family melodrama, with uneven acting from the leads; the male subtle, the female hopelessly hammy.