In a year where Oscar-nominated movies sport titles like The Phantom Thread, The Shape of Water, and Call Me By Your Name, you have to go back over century for something as straightforward as Hypocrites.
A 50-minute melodrama with as much nuance as its title, Hypocrites is a capital-A Allegory concerning the effect of the naked truth on believers and heathens alike. And when I say "naked truth," I'm not exaggerating. For the concept is represented here by a nude woman. Since this was before the time of plastic surgery, implants and collagen injections, she really can pass herself off as the real thing.
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| Save your breath, Rev. |
Rev. Gabriel is having a devil of a time keeping the congregation's attention during his sermon on hypocrisy, mainly because it hits a little too close to home for all of them. Falling asleep afterwards, he dreams that he is a friar named Gabriel the Ascetic, living in an abbey where God is absent and good times prevail. Considering our local grocery store carries strong ale made in abbeys, that explains everything.
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| "Pay no attention to that naked woman in double-exposure, folks!" |
Gabriel has been working on a work of art that no one has yet seen, and not just because he's modest -- one friar who tries sneaking a peek is momentarily blinded. When later unveiled, the nude statue called "Truth" is greeted by laughter, anger, and the townsfolk's overwhelming urge to kill Gabriel. And you thought the New York Times had tough critics.
The statue of Truth comes to life, accompanying Gabriel's spirit to political rallies, rum-soaked parties, and godless homes, where, kind of like a spiritual Romper Room hostess, she holds up the (literal) mirror of truth. This little trick results in riots, shame, and death. Well, jeez, no wonder nobody wants them around. As the dream ends, Rev. Gabriel dies in church, perhaps having been killed by Hypocrites' sledgehammer approach.
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| Rapture... or gas? |
Which is not to say Hypocrites is a bad movie -- far from it -- just one made not long after the turn of the 20th century. The acting, as typical of melodramas of its day, is often over the top. (More than one cast member was born in the 1840s, a little before the Method era, wouldn't you say?) Courtenay Foote, as Gabriel, spends much of his time gazing upward with his arms outstretched, wearing an expression that appears to register a strong need for Pepto-Bismol.
Then there's the symbolism, which runs through Hypocrites like a driverless freight train on full throttle. Near the beginning of Gabriel's dream, he's climbing a steep, rocky hill to search for truth. The unveiling of the statue is accompanied by a subtitle reading, "The people are shocked by the nakedness of truth." When interrupted by Gabriel and Truth at a boozy party, a society woman remarks, "Truth is welcome if clothed in our ideas." Get the point?
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| Kids gotta learn these things sometime. |
Still, this was tough stuff in 1915, and it makes sense that it was the work of someone who was not only an evangelist, but a woman -- Lois Webber, America's first major female movie maker. It was her involvement that probably inoculated Hypocrites from the official censor board when she decided to use a real woman, Margaret Edwards,to portray the Naked Truth, who walks throughout Hypocrites in double-exposure -- or, perhaps more accurately, triple exposure. And what's really shocking is that she was 37 years old. No studio would allow such a thing today.
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| No competition. |
The trick photography works well, both symbolically and artistically, as is an arresting close-up of a woman's eyeball -- which, if you look carefully, captures not only the reflection of Gabriel, but the cinematographer operating the hand-cranked camera. This was one time in Hypocrites when the truth was captured accidentally.
That woman with the eyeball close-up is the only congregant who loves Gabriel. But because she sees only him and not The Truth, she, too, gets the bum's rush.
Hypocrites, then, reminds us that the Naked Truth is not only no fun, but difficult to discern. One hundred years later, there are still plenty of people who could learn that lesson. Thank God I'm not one of them!
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