Trilby (1915?)

[akiratubo]

In Paris's Latin Quarter, a young man named Billy (who is also sometimes called BilEE in the intertitles of the version I watched), goofs around with his friends The Laird and, uh, Tom?  I think the other guy is named Tom.  Every so often, a dirty, smelly, greedy Jew - that's actually the way he's described in the film, so don't get mad at me - named Svengali comes by to play piano and then beg them to pay him for doing so.  One day, while the usual is going down, a nude model named Trilby happens to hear the ruckus and comes by to join the party.  She charms everyone there until she starts to sing.  Apparently, she really sucks at it, the extent of her ability being that she can at least do it very loudly.

This gets Svengali thinking dirty, smelly, greedy Jew thoughts.  Billy makes a habit of having Trilby model for him (not in the nude) while he hits on her.  Svengali, in turn, makes a habit of perving on them whenever he can.  It is during one of these sessions that Svengali gets his chance.  Trilby is overcome by a severe headache, which Svengali proposes to cure with hypnotism.  He does, and he also uses the opportunity to plant post-hypnotic suggestions allowing him to control her at will.  Not long after that, Billy and Trilby's romance goes awry when Billy finds out that she, as a nude model, sometimes models in the nude for art students.  *GASP*  So overcome by this, uh, scandal is Billy that he writes a goodbye note ... for The Laird and Tom.  In passing, he mentions that they might oughta maybe at some point also tell Trilby that he left.  a***ole.

Billy has second thoughts and reunites with Trilby.  Surprisingly, Trilby does not take the opportunity to bash Billy on the head with whatever heavy object is nearby.  Instead, they plan to marry, or something.  The intertitles are kind of vague.  Unfortunately, it is at this point that Svengali finally stops dragging ass and makes with the mesmerism.  He abducts Trilby, marries her, and tours her around Europe after using hypnosis to make her the best singer in the world.

Billy is a little put out by this and runs home to Mommy.  No, really, that's what he does.  Also present is another female who may be his sister or possibly an ex-girlfriend.  The intertitles had just about given up by this point so I'm not sure.  Anyway, after what is apparently a year or more, The Laird and Tom show up with hilarious news: that dirty, smelly, greedy Jew Svengali is in town, putting on a concert with his wife, singing sensation Trilby.  Amazingly, none of them seem to make the connection.  The only reason they go to the concert is because they're amused that Svengali ever made something of himself.  Of course, when Trilby takes the stage, they're all like, "Wait!  'Trilby'?  As in, that girl Billy was in love with until she ran off with Svengali under highly suspicious circumstances?  THAT Trilby?"

Anyway, Svengali picks that moment to have a heart attack or something and die, releasing Trilby from her hypnosis.  She sees Billy and they run to each other's arms.  I was highly keen on finding out how Trilby would react when she found out what had happened to her, and just how long it took, but the movie has no interest in this.  The End.

See the title in the subject line up there?  What does it say?  Right, it says "Trilby."  You may have noticed from my synopsis that Trilby is not the focus of the story at all, it's that a***ole Billy.  I think we're supposed to understand that Billy is trying to "rescue" her from her "scandalous" life of nude modeling (note that he always paints her clothed, in scenes that are suggestive of angels, or even the Virgin Mary), and that her continuing to do what she's always done is a "betrayal" of him.

Bulls**t.

Billy is an artist who has painted nude models himself.  It's not like he didn't know how Trilby made a living.  He just can't stand it that his girlfriend is not the pure, chaste lady his Mommy always wanted him to bring home, and he acts like its such an affront to him that she isn't the person he invented in his imagination.  f**k Billy and his Madonna-Whore complex.  I'd much rather have watched a movie that actually was about Trilby.  She is a much more appealing character with a much more engaging storyline.  I mean, come on, she wakes up after a year (or more) under hypnosis.  She's become a superstar without even knowing it.  She's been married to a man she despised.  That would have made a great movie.  Alas, she is nothing more than a prop to be drug around by Billy and Svengali.

Ah, Svengali.  What of him?  Well, not much.  He spends most of the movie skulking around, looking vaguely menacing and stuff, then he dies at a dramatically opportune moment.  It's mostly just depressing that the filmmakers apparently thought that describing him as "Jewish" was good enough to explain why he is a villain with mystical powers.  Everybody knows those Jews are always mesmerizing people and stuff, right?  And they don't take baths, neither!  (If anything, I have under-emphasized how much attention the movie gives to Svengali's poor hygiene.)

I'm trying to take Trilby's extremely advanced age into account but, even so, it's a pretty awful little film.