Watch The Crazy Ray For Free

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Captivating movie !

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

"Paris qui dort" is a French science fiction drama movie from over 90 years ago. It is a very early career effort by René Clair, who is considered among France's most influential filmmakers of all time. It is of course black-and-white and also still a silent movie. I have to say I liked it early on when it really focused on the mad scientist putting (almost) the entire city of Paris into stasis. When the police officer walks around and sees all the people who are apparently stunned. Unfortunately the film later on loses itself in pointless conversations and people randomly playing cards instead of convincingly elaborating on that interesting plot idea. Also the ending did not really do too much for me. As a whole, I would not recommend it, although this 34-minute film certainly has a couple interesting moments.

This is a super-inventive silent film from the same director (René Clair) who later made the highly original "À nous la liberté!". Oddly, despite being a terrific film and me being a huge fan of silents, I have never heard about it. It certainly deserves to be better remembered.The film begins with a man coming home from his job at the top of the Eiffel Tower. He is amazed to see that everyone has stopped dead in their tracks and are immobile. For a while he thinks he's the only living and moving person, but soon an airplane lands with some others just like himself--mobile and alert. For days the small group cavorts, though after a while tempers flair--after all, they are hour guys and only one woman! Just before they can kill each other, they receive a wireless communication from another woman in Paris, so they run to her address. According to the new lady, her crazy father is an inventor and made a "crase ray" that has literally stopped everyone in their tracks. The guy in the tower and people in the airplane were not effected because the ray had a limited height. The new girl was unaffected because the scientist made the house crase ray-proof! While there is more to this story, I need to point out for a silent it was well written, acted and directed and has aged very well as a result. This fantasy/sci-fi film is so unique and charming, I encourage all lovers of the silents to look for it--you won't be sorry.

During the '30s, René Clair was considered one of the cinema's most stylish innovators and satirists… Now, however, both the 'poetic realism' and the exuberant humor on which his reputation once rested seem shallow and dated… A critic, and a poet and actor in the serials of Louis Feuillade, the young Clair aligned himself with the French avant-garde of the '20s… Indeed, his silent work may be seen as offshoots of the Dada movement: his debut, "Paris Qui Dort" ("The Crazy Ray"), was a bizarre comic fantasy in which a mad scientist uses a magic ray to render the city immobile; only a group of strangers, safe atop the Eiffel Tower or in a plane, remain conscious to search for the culprit and bring Paris back to life

It's always nice to watch various films from a relatively long time ago in order to get a grasp of what set the standards for the discourses of today. "Paris qui dort" is a science fiction short which establishes several motifs of today's science fiction fancy.Paris sleeps. People who were high above the ground, either in the Eiffel Tower or in an airplane come down to find a city almost frozen in time. Water, machines, regular things move, it's just that all the people are asleep. The characters then get to live their wildest dreams of freedom and riches until it just starts to not work out for them.Some images, such as the initial main character's approach to a fountain, are immediately recognized as used in 28 Days Later... The sleeping people are often set in the same sort of not-quite-frozen, not-quite animated set-up that's later used in Dark City. It's interesting to see such images become inspiration for entire other works we recognize today.Unfortunately, the short itself hardly feels able to stand on its own anymore. The initial shot of a static Paris has cars moving at the edge of the frame. The characters' own boredom unfortunately connects well with the modern audiences own. However, it's still creative and interesting enough to be worthy of recognition and to be respected for what it's done.--PolarisDiB