A Film Canon

A far more limited engagement with the serial than Feuillade's efforts, The Perils Of Pauline largely neglects the extended narrative play that is its most potentially distinctive feature, instead presenting a series of  self-contained episodes, which, drawn from a variety of disparate genres and media (Western, melodrama, slapstick, maritime adventures, the racetrack, the circus) exhibit little tonal continuity, and occasionally verge on the heterogeneity and aesthetic paucity of a particularly sensational newsreel. That said, the construction of each episode is, on its own terms, quite tight, frequently centred on a machine (balloon, submarine, bathing suit, yacht, gunship), or exotic group of people (gypsies, Indians) and their animals (dogs, snakes), along with the various forms of technical ingenuity to which they give rise. There's also a certain idiosyncrasy to the implicit identification of Pauline's "life full of excitement and adventure" with pre-marital life, although this is somewhat offset by that self-contained, episodic quality described, which gives the impression that resolution and marriage are both inevitable and imminent.