Marcelle Charles Dullin

An extraordinary work, Maldone manages to presage so many of the dominant themes in French cinema of the following decade. The cinematography, which includes a great deal of location work, is predominantly neo-realist in style, whilst the narrative has strong elements of poetic realism. As in many of Grémillon's later films, Maldone alternates between moments of great dramatic intensity and moments of calm, poignant reflection.

In 1776, an inventor conceals a Polish nobleman in his chess-playing automaton, a machine whose fame leads it to the court of the Russian empress. (imdb)