Brilliant Dumbness

Marcin Giżycki

Abstract

Three stories, two taken from real life and one fictional, all already exploited by film makers, can be seen as splendid metaphors of the beginnings of cinema. The first is about Minou Drouet who in 1955, as an eight-year-old girl, stunned the world with her book of poems. She was born almost blind and autistic and was proclaimed a helpless case by doctors. When Minou became famous, starred in a feature film Clara et les Mechants ou Bourreaux d’enfants (dir. Raoul Andre, 1958). The second tale is about twin girls, also eight-year-old, Grace and Virginia Kennedy, who had been falsely diagnosed as mentally retarded but made a sensation in 1977 when it was discovered that they communicated with each other in a language of their own invention. Jean-Pierre Gorin made a documentary about the twins titled Poto and Cabengo (1980). The third story has been told by Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! (1976). The protagonists are another twins, Wilbur and Eliza, who were considered abnormal when they were born (and consequently deprived of any education) but secretly have learned how to read and talk in several languages. The film based on the book (Slapstick of Another Kind, dir. Steven Paul, 1982) is unfortunately commonly regarded as one of the worst films ever made. There is a certain analogy between these three cases and the early history of cinema. The cinema was born as an ugly duckling, mute and primitive. Ridiculed and rejected by high society, nevertheless it developed its own highly sophisticated language. And then it started to talk!