Max Takes a Bath

Max Takes a Bath (Max prend un bain), also known by the title By the Doctor's Orders, is a French silent film directed by Lucien Nonguet and produced by the Pathé Frères company in 1910. This approximately seven minute long film was released in France and marks the beginnings of many trends that would become increasingly popular for cinema, such as the optical effect of the vertical vantage point. It also illustrates the start of Max Linder's popularity. Max Linder is one of the earliest, widely recognized and popular French film stars. Additionally, Linder was the first actor whose name could be used for advertisements which helped launch the success of what would become one of the most popular film genres of all time; the comedy.

Plot

Profile Max Linder from the Photoplay Magazine Publishing Company

Max is in a doctor's office where he gets a prescription to take a cold bath every day for one month in order to treat his nervous twitching. After this, it cuts immediately to Max leaving a shop with a new bathtub that he struggles to carry. He attempts to call a carriage but is denied, and forced to carry the bathtub himself back to his apartment. Once he has the tub in his apartment, he begins to use a pitcher to fill it with water, however when he carries it back into the room he trips, spilling the water, and stands back up throwing the glass pitcher to the floor in frustration and shattering it. He then attempts to use a decanter and drinking glass to fill the tub. Ultimately, he gives up and drags the tub into the hall, once he has it filled it is too heavy to bring back into his room so he undresses and gets in the tub while it's still in the hallway. Another tenant tries to get in the bath, prompting other tenants to realize Max is bathing in the hallway. The authorities get involved, them and the tenants carrying the tub, with Max still in it, to the station where an argument ensues. The tub gets flipped over in the disagreement and Max flees the scene carrying the tub on him similarly to how he transported it in the beginning scenes, and a comedic chase scene begins. A trope that would become commonplace in the comedy genre of early silent films. During this sequence, viewers watch the famous scene of Max scaling a building still under the tub and the authorities subsequently following. Ultimately, Max reaches roof and escapes through a hatch, throwing the tub down and knocking all of the authorities down.

Optical effects

In this film, Lucien Nonguet uses two optical effects one being a vertical vantage point for the scenes where the bathtub and people are moving up and down a wall, and the other being a close-up of Max's face. The close-up happened first when Max was taking his bath in the hallway and the camera is up close to Max to the point where the audience could only see Max's face. A close-up is helps display the most detail possible and in this case it allowed the audience to get a very detailed look on Max's face.This close-up was used to see Max's emotions and reactions when taking his bath to get rid of his problem of twitching. At the end of the film, a vertical vantage point was used when Max was trying to escape the police. A vertical vantage point is where the camera is held directly vertical from the ground, making it seem like the ground is actually a wall facing us. The vertical vantage point was first used in the film “L’Homme-Mouche” or “The Human Fly” where Méliès has an acrobat dancing and doing tricks on the wall. In “Max Takes a Bath”, Nonguet uses a vertical vantage point first when the police is chasing max and his bathtub up the wall and finally when the bathtub is falling from the top of the building and in the process taking out the police trying to catch Max.

Theme of class structure

During this time period, many of the films Max Linder were a part of contained themes of class structure. As Linder's films were comical, they typically had Linder playing a character that belonged to social structures that reflected the petit bourgeois or bourgeoisie, and Max Takes a Bath showcases these themes clearly with Max pursuing the pleasures someone in those social classes would want. With Max playing the main character in the film Max Takes a Bath, he is tasked with fixing his hiccups through the use of taking baths. By getting this order from a doctor, Max originally did not own a bathtub, so he goes out and purchases a new porcelain bathtub. Historically, the time this film released it was a new feasible endeavor for members of the working class and middle class to obtain bathroom related fixtures. In the film, Max places the bathtub in his room as it appears there was not an actual bathroom within the apartment, and he obtains the water for the bath from a water spout outside of his apartment. This was not uncommon for the working class or middle class to have just one or an incomplete set of bathroom fixtures at the time. Many of the homes/apartments already built lacked a room devoted for an actual bathroom as it would be expensive to build a new room and buy all the needed bathroom fixtures all at once.

Costume design

This time period began the Modernism of previously established fashion trends. Department stores and shopping centers began catering to men's potential as consumers. Men during this time period began experimenting more with clothing and finding their own style.

In this film, the costume design is very accurate to how French men actually dressed in 1910. Men during this time typically wore suits and hats if they could afford them. In the film, Max is seen wearing a top hat for the majority of the time, even when he is being chased by the police. Men back then would always wear a hat, even if they could not afford the nicest one. During this time, clothing was used to classify a person's role or position in society. Max's top hat is significant because it informs the audience that Max is a part of the upper-class as the silky fabric was more expensive than others.

Balmoral boot

Men's dress trousers during this time period were more high-rise than the modern day. Due to this, their waist coats or vests were cut higher just to cover the waistband. This is evident in the film, especially in the scene where Max gets undressed to take his bath. Men during this time period typically wore Morning Coats, which is what Max wears throughout this film. In addition to this, Max can be seen wearing the Balmoral boot, which was laced high above the ankle and popular for men to wear back then. Due to the amount of horse manure on the streets, the Balmoral boot had a higher heel than they do in the 21st century.

Set design

This film was shot at Pathé Studios, and used several sets throughout the film. Ultimately, this led to the film's success because by 1911, the annual cinema attendance in Paris, France reached more than three million.

In the beginning of the film, Max receives his diagnosis from the doctor in his office. In this shot, the mise en scène includes a lot of texture on the walls, trinkets on the desk, and an unusual pattern on the chair. These elements give the viewer more to look at by adding different points of interest to the scene. The mise en scène also creates a realistic set with great attention to detail.

The majority of this film takes place in Max's apartment, specifically in the hallway. The only waterspout in Max's apartment is in the hallway, which is why he is forced to bathe in public. The scene is shot facing the side of the bathtub, allowing the audience to see the stairs that go up and down. Eventually, Max's neighbors use the stairs to find him hiding in his tub. As a result, the police are called to retrieve Max and his bathtub.

When outside of the police station, Max can be seen running down the streets of Paris, France to escape the police. First, we see Max exiting the station, which is identified by a "police" sign and cells on the inside. After passing an iron fence and brick wall, Max is seen scaling the side of a building to reach the roof in order to successfully escape the police.

Silent film acting

In this time period, silent films were a unique art form of storytelling that was encapsulated by the elaborate form of silent film acting that required actors to convey exaggerated physical gestures and to convey complex emotions and narratives without the usage of dialogue. With limited intertitles, it was important for actors to portray the wide range of emotions through excessive facial expressions and body language. This era created a form of stylized acting with grand gestures and melodramatic expressions to enable the audience to understand the character's expression of feelings and context of the scene that is being portrayed.

In this film, the actor does small excessive body movement of shrugging his shoulders for the narrative that he has a nervous trait that he is attempting to cure. His movements in certain instances seem almost mechanical with the way he attempts to fill up his bathtub and through his usage of raising his eyebrows and moving his arms in a wide range movement. These are prime examples of a methodical way of acting that enabled the viewer to see what range of emotions the character is experiencing and interpret the context to what they might be thinking. When Max is arrested, the arm movements he expresses are those of confusion and panic as he feels he is being wrongfully arrested while he is carried out in the bathtub to the police station. The Police officers as well display exaggerated movements through their arms to showcase the disagreement that is taking place in the film in order to convey the discourse that is transpiring between Max, the other tenants, and the Police. Even with consistent head turning and hand gestures, these were all imperative techniques that were executed to get the context of the scene across to the audience.