Thursday, July 28, 2005

Tapahtui kaukana



Edvin Laine: Kärlek bortom polcirkeln / [Love Beyond the Arctic Circle] (1950). Kullervo Kalske, Ansa Ikonen.

Kärlek bortom polcirkeln / [Love Beyond the Arctic Circle].
    FI 1950. PC: Suomen Filmiteollisuus. P: T. J. Särkkä.
    D: Edvin Laine; winter exteriors: Topo Leistelä. SC: Topias – based on the play by Valentin (1937). DP: Osmo Harkimo; winter exteriors: Sulo Tammilehto. PD: Aarre Koivisto. M: Heikki Aaltoila. S: Yrjö Saari. ED: Armas Vallasvuo.
    Location: Enontekiö.
    C: Helena Kara (Maire Lehtinen), Joel Rinne (engineer Antti Juvas), Kullervo Kalske (engineer Eero Sarkonen), Helge Ranin (executive Filip Lehtinen), Aku Korhonen (Sotka-Jussi the lumberjack), Martta Kontula (Kerttu Laiho), Kalle Viherpuu (Uula, the old-timer of Lapland), Topo Leistelä (Kaarinen, the hermit of Lapland).
    81'.
    A fine safety print from YLE TV Archive.
    Viewed on Wednesday, 27 July 2005 at Orion, Helsinki.

Another run-of-the-mill SF production, yet even in such fast jobs the experienced production team and actors' ensemble created solid entertainment.

Among the redeeming features:
– nice style of credits with snow crystal design;
– witty dialogue from the Valentin play edited for the screen by Topias;
– great sense of humour and timing among the actors, including Helena Kara parodying the lovelorn men of the Far North;
– the parodistic attitude to Romantic Lapland, yet with a true affection to the land.

Contrary to the contemporary reviews I feel that maestro Aku Korhonen overdoes it here (maybe ill-advised by Särkkä and Laine), yet his scenes in the kitchen boasting of his exploits are great pre-Rillumarei stuff. The triple dream sequence (three men dreaming of the same woman, Helena Kara rescued at night) is a funny idea but clumsily executed. – There is an interesting similarity between Aku Korhonen and Yoda.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars Episodi III: Sithin kosto / Star Wars Episod III Mörkrets hämnd. US (2005) Lucasfilm. A Twentieth Century Fox release. P: Rick McCallum. D+SC: George Lucas. DP: David Tattersall - De Luxe - anamorphic scope 1:2,35. PD: Gavin Bocquet. FX: Industrial Light & Magic. M: John Williams. S: Ben Burtts, Matthew Wood. ED: Roger Barton, Ben Burtt. Starring Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Natalie Portman (Padmé Amidala), Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker>Darth Vader), Ian McDiarmid (Supreme Chancellor Palpatine), Frank Oz (Yoda), Jimmy Smits (Senator Bail Organa), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu), Christopher Lee (Count Dooku). MPAA 41633. 140'. 2K digital intermediate, heavy digital look. A FS Film release with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Arto Vartiainen / Markus Karjalainen. Viewed on Monday 25 July, 2005 at Kinopalatsi 3, Helsinki. (Following the Sight & Sound synopsis): Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has apparently been kidnapped by the separatist droid General Grievous and Count Dooku, but Palpatine is also Darth Sidious, a Sith lord who keeps the Clone Wars (being waged on the Republic by the separatist droid army) going to serve his own ends. Anakin and Obi-Wan save Palpatine. Anakin is secretly married to Padmé, pregnant for him. He suffers visions of her death in childbirth. Palpatine tells Anakin that followers of the Sith, which represent the dark side of the Force, can confer immortality on loved ones, and Anakin turns to the dark side. Palpatine manages a coup, transforming the Republic into the First Galactic Empire with himself as Emperor, and institutes a programme of assassinations to wipe out the entire Jedi Council. He battles with Master Yoda and Obi-Wan duels with Anakin. Padmé rejects Anakin, gives birth to Luke and Leia, and dies. Leia is adopted by Bail Organa, Luke is taken by Obi-Wan to Tatooine. Anakin, horribly burnt and maimed in the duel with Obi-Wan, undergoes cybernetic surgery and emerges as Darth Vader, a man-machine. - Now that the six-part Star Wars cycle is complete, Episode V The Empire Strikes Back is still the best, Episode IV and VI coming after, and this one is the best of the recent ones. An admirable fairy-tale adventure, with world-historical experiences in allegory form, Palpatine's progress clearly inspired by Hitler, Stalin, etc. There are good performances here, including Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman. Hayden Christensen is not quite up to the huge task of Anakin Skywalker>Darth Vader. As for the digital, the effects are wonderful, but because of the all-digital imagery, life, breath is missing. Even the fleeting glimpses of nature look plastic.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Fantastic Four (2005)

Ihmeneloset / Fantastic Four. DE/US (c) 2005 Kumar / Fox. P: Avi Arad, Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Bernd Eichinger, Ralph Winter. D: Tim Story. SC: Michael France, Mark Frost - based on the Marvel comic book & characters by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee. DP: Oliver Wood - De Luxe - Panavision. PD: Bill Boes. Special makeup: Anthony Allen Barlow. FX: Giant Killer Robots; Meteor Studios; SW Digital; Soho VFX; Composite Image Studios; Pixel Magic; Hydraulx; Spectral Motion Inc. M: John Ottman. "Whatever Happened To The Heroes". ED: William Hoy. Starring Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Michael Chiklis (Ben Grimm/The Thing), Jessica Alba (Susan Storm/The Invisible Woman), Chris Evans (Johnny Storm/The Human Torch), Julian McMahon (Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom), Kerry Washington (Alicia Masters). MPAA 41705. 106'. Digital intermediate - heavy digital look. A FS Film release with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Arto Vartiainen (good) / Patrik Edman. Public preview on Sunday 24 July 2005 at Tennispalatsi 6, Helsinki. This is a good year for films based on comics with Batman Begins, Sin City, and this. And this looks like a year when the producers have started to emphasize story and characters also when the film is a digital effects spectacle. The screenwriters Michael France (The Hulk) and Mark Frost (Twin Peaks) have created some witty dialogue (the fun is doubled for the reader of the Finnish subtitles). The characters look a bit plastic even in their "normal" incarnations. It's one of the current transitional works between animation and live-action.

Friday, July 22, 2005

War of the Worlds (2005)

Maailmojen sota / Världarnas krig. US (c) 2005 Paramount Pictures. PC: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Amblin Entertainment, Cruise/Wagner Productions. P: Kathleen Kennedy, Paula Wagner, Colin Wilson. D: Steven Spielberg. SC: Josh Friedman, David Koepp - based on the novel by H.G. Wells (1898). DP: Janusz Kaminski - 1,85:1. PD: Rick Carter, AD: Tony Fanning, Andrew Menzies, Edward Pisoni, Tom Warren, set dec.: Anne Kuljian. Visual effects and animation: Industrial Light and Magic. Models: Stan Winston Studios. More FX: Harlow Effects. M: John Williams. "Little Deuce Coupe" sung by Tom Cruise. S: Richard King. ED: Michael Kahn. Starring Tom Cruise (Ray Ferrier), Dakota Fanning (Rachel), Justin Chatwin (Robbie), Miranda Otto (Mary Ann), Tim Robbins (Harlan Ogilvy). MPAA 41830. 116'. Digital look. A Buena Vista International Finland release with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Marko Hartama / Saliven Gustavson. Viewed on Friday, 22 July 2005, at Tennispalatsi 2, Helsinki. Spielberg's first true catastrophe film, and another dystopian scifi film from him. His first scifi films were Utopian: Close Encounters and E.T. were about benevolent contacts with life in outer space. Later his views darkened: Jurassic Park and A.I. warned about human tampering with life. This film is a continuation of the 1950s military scifi trend, which resurfaced in films such as Independence Day and Mars Attacks! For the first time in a Spielberg film the aliens are evil. An expert job technically, darkly stylish visually, well-paced in its storytelling. What makes the difference is the human core. The main characters are not idealized but flawed human beings. Tom Cruise is more interesting as the dysfunctional divorced father as in his Mission Impossible roles. He and his daughter and son all face the incredible and Spielberg and his team focus on their psychological development, which makes this film stand out from many other big budget catastrophe event pictures. They don't let the digital fireworks overwhelm the human story.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Batman Begins

Batman Begins. US (c) 2005 Patalex III. A Warner Bros. release. P: Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, Larry Franco. D: Christopher Nolan. SC: Nolan, David S. Goyer - story Goyer - based on DC Comics characters - Batman created by Bob Kane. DP: Wally Pfister - Technicolor - Panavision anamorphic scope 2,35:1. PD: Nathan Crowley. M: Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard. "Folletto!... folletto!" from Mefistofele (Arrigo Boito). ED: Lee Smith. Starring Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne / Batman), Michael Caine (Alfred), Liam Neeson (Ducard), Katie Holmes (Rachel Dawes), Gary Oldman (Jim Gordon), Cillian Murphy (Dr. Jonathan Crane, director of Arkham Asylum), Tom Wilkinson (Carmine Falcone), Rutger Hauer (Earle), Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe), Mark Boone, Jr. (Flass), Linus Roache (Thomas Wayne), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox). 140'. A Sandrew Metronome Distribution Finland release with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Hannele Vahtera. Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 21 July 2005. The fifth film in the current Batman cycle started 16 years ago by Tim Burton. So far Batman Returns has been the best of them, even the best fantasy adventure of all time, but this is a great contender. Nolan and his team have really spent a lot of imagination and energy, and it shows. Most importantly this is not a CGI spectacle, but a character-based fantasy adventure like Batman Returns, and the ensemble cast is the best besides Batman Returns, Christian Bale the all-time best Batman. Throughout, the film is interestingly cast against type, with good results. Morally, this film is also above the usual standard of superhero tales. The basic stand is about Wayne's growing above vigilante attitudes, and this education with his childhood girlfriend is even more important than the ninja skills and the special weaponry that are detailed during the picture. "Justice is more than revenge". "A person should be judged by his action, not by what is hidden inside." "No, this is the mask" (referring to Bruce's "normal" face). "Maybe then I'll see him again". Of the Batman directors, Burton is still the best in fantasy, but in exploring the myth Nolan is at least as profound.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Laulava sydän


Edvin Laine: Laulava sydän / [The Singing Heart] (FI 1948) with Annika Harjus / Pikku-Annika and Tauno Palo as treasurer Aarno Harjus alias the radio singer Con Amore.

Hjärtats sång / [The Singing Heart].
    FI 1948. PC: Suomen Filmiteollisuus. P: T. J. Särkkä.
    D: Edvin Laine. SC: Toivo Kauppinen. DP: Kalle Peronkoski; Osmo Harkimo. PD: Karl Fager. M: Toivo Kärki, ”Laulava sydän”, ”Toukokuu” (lyrics: Kerttu Mustonen) sung by Tauno Palo. ED: Armas Vallasvuo. S: Yrjö Saari.
    C: Tauno Palo (Aarno Harjus), Mirjami Kuosmanen (Niina Harjus), Annika Sipilä (the baby Annika Harjus), Eila Peitsalo (nurse Rauni Verkkola), Elna Hellman (maid Anna), Ossi Elstelä (the songwriter-inspector Viljami Erä), Wilho Ilmari (doctor), Ville Salminen (Håkansson, ”author of travel books”).
    71 min
    A fine 35 mm safety print from Yle TV Archive.
    Viewed at Orion (Edvin Laine retrospective), Helsinki, 20 July 2005.

A studio-era genre cocktail produced fast on the SF conveyor belt.

The story of a singing accounting clerk who loses everything: his wife, his job, his health, and almost his daughter. A crook from his wife's past forges a check with his name on it. In an accident his pain from a war wound returns, and he gets addicted to a dangerous drug (morphine?). His daughter Annika tastes the drug, too, and gets in lethal danger. But his friend, a song-writing inspector, gives him a couple of songs, which become hits. And his admirer, nurse Rauni Verkkola, helps him save the baby. Maybe a new, better life will come out of this.

Entertainment which reflects moods of the post-war years, experiences familiar to many. The great SF studio team works well under pressure, and the great ensemble of actors saves the day.

Tauno Palo, Finlands n:o 1 star, our Vittorio de Sica, does not take the easy way out even in such a film. The character he portrays loses almost everything, including his mental health (drug addiction), yet he has something bigger to live for (his beloved daughter). From point zero he builds a new life with the help of his friends and supporters.

As a singer, Tauno Palo is unique in his natural talent: masculine yet gentle, with a soft and warm feeling, a deep sense of goodness and vitality, and a self-evident virility that needs no emphasis. His is a wonder similar to certain songs by Elvis (”The Girl Of My Best Friend”). Life has been good to him, and he returns the goodness in spades.

The Merchant of Venice (2004)

Venetsian kauppias / Köpmannen i Venedig. GB/LU/IT (c) 2004 Shylock Trading Limited and three other companies. P: Cary Brokaw, Barry Navidi, Jason Piette, Michael Cowan. D+SC: Michael Radford - from the play by Shakespeare (1597). DP: Benoît Delhomme - De Luxe - Super 35 anamorphic 1:2,35. PD: Bruno Rubeo. AD: Jon Bunker. Set dec: Gillie Delap. Cost des: Sammy Sheldon. M+songs: Jocelyn Pook. ED: Lucia Zucchetti. Shot in Venice and Luxemburg. Starring Al Pacino (Shylock), Jeremy Irons (Antonio), Joseph Fiennes (Bassanio), Lynn Collins (Portia), Zuleikha Robinson (Jessica), Kris Marshall (Gratiano), Charlie Cox (Lorenzo), Heather Goldenhersh (Nerissa). 138'. Beautiful photochemical look. A Scanbox Finland release, Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Mikko Lyytikäinen / Saliven Gustavson, referring to Shakespeare translations by Paavo Cajander / K.A. Hagberg. Viewed at Forum 7, Helsinki, Tuesday, 19 July 2005. This is the third impressive movie adaptation of the play. Orson Welles's unfinished "scenes from Shylock" is hauntingly beautiful, himself unforgettable as Shylock. Laurence Olivier's TV adaptation is excellent with himself as Shylock and his wife Joan Plowright as a definitive Portia. Radford's film covers the play's tricky duality as the bitter drama of Shylock and the wise romantic quest of Portia. Al Pacino is in the same league as Welles and Olivier in a profoundly tragic interpretation. Lynn Collins is a charming Portia and the tale of the three caskets and the two rings is wonderfully told. Radford's viewpoint to Shylock's tragedy is philosemitic, as were Welles's and Olivier's. Radford ends his film with the sad Jessica watching the family ring which she stole from her father Shylock, and the crushed Shylock, forced to convert to Christianity, shut off from his community.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Tout le plaisir est pour moi

Il on kokonaan minun. FR (c) 2004 Elzévir Films and six other production companies. D: Isabelle Broué. SC: Isabelle Broué, Hélène Woillot. DP: Christophe Offenstein. M: Eric Neveux + 1960s hits ("Sunny"). Starring Marie Gillain (Louise), Julien Boisselier (Francois), Garance Clavel (Félicie), Brigitte Roüan (Nicole), Tsilla Chelton (Gaby). Dépôt légal 108344. A Cinema Mondo release, Finnish subtitles only by Outi Kainulainen, Broadcast Text. Viewed at Tennispalatsi 7, 18 July 2005. A mild erotic comedy about a young woman used to the big O every time, then "losing" her clitoris. The rest of the film follows her in search to get it back. An anthology of contemporary erotic fads.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

A Woman of Paris

Nainen Pariisissa. US 1923. PC: United Artists. D: Charles Chaplin. Starring Edna Purviance. 89'. Copia restaurata dalla Cineteca di Bologna presso L’Immagine Ritrovata nel 2005. ♪ original, partly previously unpublished music by Charles Chaplin newly arranged and conducted by Timothy Brock, performed by Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Saturday 9 July 2005, Teatro Comunale, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The new music is a big improvement, lovingly arranged by Brock from Chaplin's unpublished material for Limelight etc. The print did not look good in this screening. Apparently Chaplin burned the negative, and it is perhaps impossible to produce a good print now.

L'uomo meccanico

IT 1921. PC: Milano Film. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed, Valentina Frascaroli. Orig. 1821 m, surviving 850 m /16 fps/ 46'. Beautifully tinted. São Paulo 1992. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Having seen this film before, I just checked the beginning of one of Deed's first feature films, the second part of a ciné-roman, a follow-up to Il documento umano (1920). It's quite ambitious and impressive film involving a robot, one of the earliest in the history of the cinema.

Paura degli aeromobili nemici

IT 1915. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti), Léonie Laporte. 320 m /18 fps/ 18'. Museo Nazionale del Cinema e Cineteca di Bologna 2005. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The war has been declared, but Cretinetti causes an even greater catastrophe in his own wedding with his excessive caution measures for the attack of the Zeppelins.

OMAGGIO AD ANDRE DEED: PROGRAMMA N. 6 (1915–1922)

♪ Marco Dalpane. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Two films.

DOSSIER CHAPLIN

A cura di Cecilia Cenciarelli (responsabile del Progetto Chaplin). Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. 1) The presentation by Cecilia Cenciarelli. 2) Kevin Brownlow's fascinating DVD extra interview from Unknown Chaplin. 3) The making of The Count: the DVD extra, Frank Scheide Presentation. 4) DVD extra: Chaplin meets Harry Lauder, ♪ Neil Brand on DVD. 5) Live presentation of David Robinson on Chaplin and the British Music Hall – the music hall of Victorian and Edwardian England 1899–1914, with fascinating images on Chaplin's early models and influences. The programme continued, but I had to leave.

[Soldats Russes]

GB 1905. PC: Charles Urban. D+DP: George Rogers. 53 m. Cin. Suisse. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna.

Japanese and Russian Peace Delegates Leaving New York City

US 5 Aug 1905. 100 m. LoC. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A simple record.

La Révolution russe

FR 1905. D: Lucien Nonguet. 45 m. Tinted. SEA 2004 from a vintage nitrate print. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Reconstructed "vue d'actualité". No text in the Pathé catalogue.

Révolution en Russie: les événements d'Odessa

Revolution i Ryssland: upproret i Odessa. FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Lucien Nonguet. 80 m. Tinted in red. SEA 2004 from a vintage nitrate print. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Reconstructed "vue d'actualité": the battleship Potyomkin.

Les Troubles de Saint-Petersbourg

Aufruhr in St. Petersburg. FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Lucien Nonguet. 69 m. SEA 2004 from a vintage nitrate print. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Reconstructed "vue d'actualité".

Atrocités antisémites russes

Russische antisemitische Greuel. FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Lucien Nonguet. 33 m with some freeze frames. SEA 2004 from a vintage nitrate print. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Reconstructed "vue d'actualité".

Reddition de Port-Arthur

Übergabe von Port-Arthur. FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Lucien Nonguet. 74 m. SEA 2004 from a vintage nitrate print. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Reconstructed "vue d'actualité".

La Catastrophe de Courrières: 1200 victimes

GB 1906. PC: Warwick Trading Co., Robert Raleigh. 130 m. Cin. Suisse 2005. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Authentic footage after a terrible catastrophe, a big funeral.

Au pays noir

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Ferdinand Zecca, Lucien Nonguet. 179 m. Tinted + b&w. Cin. Royale de Belgique. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Reconstruction: with painted sets: a short epic story of miners and a catastrophe in the mine (explosion, flood). Impressive.

CENTO ANNI FA: I FILM DEL 1905 PROGRAMMA N. 8 UN GENERE: LE ATTUALITA


Lucien Nonguet: La Révolution en Russie – Les événements d'Odessa / Revolution i Ryssland: Upproret i Odessa (FR 1905). Pathé Frères. 80 m / 16 fps / 5 min. The fourth film of a five-film suite of Pathé films on the 1905 Revolution in Russia, preserved from the legacy of the Apollo theatre by the National Audiovisual Institute of Finland.

A cura di Mariann Lewinsky. Presenta Roland Cosandey. ♪ Gabriel Thibaudeau. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna.

From Roland Cosandey's introduction in the catalogue: Today when we use the term "actualité reconstituée" we often mean that this genre of representation is inherently false. We will therefore simply use the term found in the catalogues, "vues d'actualité", an ideal definition for images filmed either en plein air or reconstructed in the studio, provided that they represent events that were reasonably recent, and reasonably sensational, and more or less relayed by other images and accounts. We show both types of film and some cases where both types of "actuality" share the same film. We examine several methods of visual information before the era of the newsreel. Three-four years later the founding of this new genre was probably the primary cause of the disappearance of what now seems so typical to 1900–1905: reconstructed or re-staged news.

Prima parte: Naturalism, Sensation, and Actuality.

Seconda parte: Combined images: Russian Revolution Images: original screening reel ordered from Pathé in 1905 by the Finnish Atelier Apollo Co. and premiered in Helsinki on 13 December 1905 in the Maailman Ympäri Cinema.

Terza parte: Living Pictures, Photographs, Drawings. (The American Mutoscope & Biograph's The Mutiny on the Potemkin, announced in the catalogue, was not shown.)

Tih Minh 12: Justice

FR 1918. PC: Gaumont. D: Louis Feuillade. /18 fps/ 33'. Da Archives Gaumont-Pathé. Presenta Francis Lacassin. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Saturday 9 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Placide, a stowaway in the spies' car, empties their gasoline canisters. The spies, knowing they've been exposed, decide to split. There is a dispute over the money, though. One of them crushes his companion with a rock, another lights a cigarette and catches fire from the gasoline leaked by Placide. Impressive image of Gilson/Marx observing the mountain road. The gasoline gone, the spies run to a mountain elevator / transporter. A thrilling action sequence, Kistna vs. Gilson in the car speeding over the valley, impressively in a majestic long shot. Also impressive: an eagle's-eye view on Gilson, reduced to a small dot among the rocks. There is a dynamite alarm, and after the detonation, Gilson's mutilated body is found amongst the debris. And from a water reservoir the dead Kistna's stiffened hand points defiantly towards the sky. Dolorès, having given her confession de sa vie, deeply troubled, bites a poison pearl on her necklace. A triple wedding is being prepared. FIN

Friday, July 08, 2005

J'accuse! (1919)

Minä syytän! I-II. FR 1919. PC: Pathé. D+SC: Abel Gance. DP: Marc Bujard, Léonce-Henri Burel. Starring: Romuald Joubé (Jean Diaz), Séverin-Mars (François Laurin), Maryse Dauvray (Edith Laurin), Maxime Desjardins (Maria Lazare), Mme Mancini (mother of Jean). 2989 m /20 fps/ 131' [the intertitles change too fast at this speed]. Cin. fr. con il permesso di Nelly Kaplan. ♪ Alain Baents. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna ("La messa in scena della guerra – La Grande Guerra"). Seen again after some 20 years, the film looks more impressive as I keep ignoring its weaknesses and focusing on the strengths. It's a personal film, an essay film in a French tradition, speaking in an individual voice about matters of great importance. Formally, it is fascinating, not taking the easy way out, starting with the interesting opening credit metamorphoses. It is an important film in the history of montage, experimenting with intellectual montage, conceptualizing with images. It takes steps beyond the Griffith school, beyond Intolerance, an obvious inspiration. The story: two young Frenchmen and a young Frenchwoman, whom they find with a baby after the war, the result of being raped by a German. Edith suffers fourfold. The film is a blend of drama (the triangle drama), non-fiction (authentic war documentary), allegory, and pacifistic propaganda. Some battle scenes are still very powerful. Memorable image in the hospital: the death of François, his hand gripping Jean's. Jean goes mad, calls himself "J'accuse", and in the final vision he is the commander of the Battalion of the Dead, in a (clumsy) superimposition, which marches in a (clumsy) double image above the victory parade by the Arch of Triumph.. The march of the ghosts is the best-remembered idea. Before the war, Jean was a poet, author of Le Hymne au soleil. The poet has lost himself, he is looking for himself, calling himself by name. He tears up his notebook of poetry and dies. – There can be no poetry after this war, is Gance's conclusion.

Une extraordinaire aventure de Boireau

FR 1914. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau). B. 6522. 272 m /16 fps/ 15'. Good AFF print. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Jean A. Gili: in some of Deed's 1914 films the comedy becomes subtler. Petr Kràl: Deed's buffoonery reveals the subversive potential of the burlesque. Joined by their backs following an accident, a rich socialite and a tramp reveal the relativity of their status by dragging each other in their respective environments. Back-to-back with his double, the tramp empties without hesitation the trays at a reception. Finally separated with a saw the characters move away from the camera showing the picture of their vertebral column, roughly outlined with chalk on their jackets. – On a building site accident, a boulder crushes two men (a rich man and a tramp) together, and they become "Siamese twins". Together they enter a fine reception and descend into the gutter.

Boireau en voyage

FR 1913. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau). B. 5708. 107 m /16 fps/ 6'. Good AFF print. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following Bulletin Pathé: Boireau with four large suitcases enters a hotel that is fully booked. He tries to enter into a room anyway, but there are two lovers there. He ends up down the stairs, knocks down the hotel bellboy, falls on the road, passes from hand to hand and finally lands in the water of a drain and falls asleep. – Wild slapstick, physically extremely demanding stunts. In his final tryst in the drain under the bridge Boireau makes his bed with a suitcase and a blanket.

Boireau s'expatrie

FR 1913. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Valentina Frascaroli (Gribouillette). B. 6186. 149 m /16 fps/ 9'. Good AFF print. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following Bulletin Pathé: On their wedding night Gribouillette finds in Boireau's pocket a compromising photo. She sulks on a chair while the annoyed Boireau falls into a deep sleep. In his dream, Boireau embarks for Canada. But she enters his dream, and under a series of disguises chases the unfaithful like living guilt. After various adventures Boireau wakes up and the newlyweds make up. – Gribouillette's parallel dream is seen in superimposition. The double nightmare is a novel innovation. Valentina's multiple guises. A largely improvised atmosphere.

Boireau sauveteur

FR 1913. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau). B. 5664. 139 m /16 fps/ 8'. Good AFF print. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following Bulletin Pathé: Boireau, busy repairing fishing nets, notices a man struggling at sea, and becomes a lifeguard. He collects some twenty life preservers, knocks over a dozen people, and puts a boat to sea. However, he cannot swim. The most difficult thing is to convince the poor victim, a common swimmer, to get on the boat. In the commotion, the boat is overturned, and Boireau is rescued by the swimmer.

Boireau cherche sa femme

FR 1913. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Valentina Frascaroli. B. 5773. 145 m /16 fps/ 8'. AFF. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. "Les Vacances de M. Boireau": gags and jokes on the beach have an impressionistic feel. Alone, without his wife, Boireau goes swimming, sees a beautiful girl, and starts to flirt with her, but her husband and his wife appear to witness him peeking through a hole as she changes clothes. Jokes with birds, beach, water, undressing.

Boireau se venge

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Valentina Frascaroli (Mlle Jane Ronchenot, colonel's daughter). B. 5370. 197 m /16 fps/ 11'. Good AFF print. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following the catalogue notes: Boireau aspires to the hand of a retired colonel's daughter. Jane returns Boireau's love but father has someone else in mind. To win over the paternal hostility, Jane and Boireau agree to ridicule the other suitor. – The main action consists of the many pranks Boireau and Valentina prepare for the unfortunate rival to ridicule him utterly in the eyes of the colonel.

Boireau et la fille du voisin

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Valentina Frascaroli (Gribouillette). B. 5484. 193 m /16 fps/ 11'. Good AFF print. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following the catalogue notes: Boireau is in love with Gribouillette, the neighbour's daughter. A dispute over the boundary hedge becomes for Gribouillette's father the excuse to unleash his anger and attack the neighbour. Boireau responds angrily, whilst Gribouillette vainly searches for pacification. To obtain parental consent, the two lovers fake suicide. Only in front of the pleas of the terrible neighbour Boireau agrees not to die and to live happily with Gribouillette. – The main action is an early instance of the great tradition of Big Business (Laurel & Hardy) and Neighbours (Norman McLaren): the war of the neighbours quickly escalates into a mini-epic. Boireau pretends to reject Valentina, thus ensuring that he gets her.

Boireau et la demi mondaine

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Valentina Frascaroli (la demi mondaine). 207 m /16 fps/ 12'. Good AFF print. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following the catalogue notes: Boireau Sr has decided to marry off his son, the hope of the family. But Boireau Jr has already made his choice for Valentina. He locks away in the spacious shelves of an old cupboard all who oppose the wedding, including father, mother, and Valentina's tutor. – Witty triple shot of the hidden ones. I understand, too, that there is a Spanish rival, and that both father and son have enjoyed relations with Valentina the demi mondaine.

OMAGGIO A ANDRE DEED – PROGRAMMA 5 (1912-1915)

Eight films by André Deed as Boireau for Pathé. ♪ Donald Sosin. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The most memorable film of this set: Une extraordinaire aventure de Boireau.

DOSSIER LA STRADA

A cura di Tatti Sanguineti e Paola Pallottino. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Discussed: the real fire-eater Savitri, set consultant and Anthony Quinn's personal trainer in La strada, himself documented on film in Dieci anni della nostra vita and Fuori le mura (1948). Discussed by Paola Pallottino: the many connections of La strada to Corriere dei piccoli (1919), including the characters Zarappa>Zampanò and Cerini>Gelsomina.

Ours blanc

FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 18 m. Lobster Films. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction: first black bears, then a white one.

La Loïe Fuller dans la cage aux lions (dompteur Laurent)

FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 18 m. Colorié en main. Lobster Films. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A wild spectacle of Loïe Fuller's serpentine dance in a lion's cage.

Lions sauteurs (dompteur Laurent)

FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 18 m. Colorié en main. Lobster Films. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A multi-colour lion-taming show, very impressive.

La Malle et l'Auvergnat

FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 18 m. Lobster Films. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: with sets: a cross-dressing sketch.

En passant l'octroi

FR 1901. PC: Parnaland. 18 m. Lobster Films. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: with sets: a "woman" forced to strip at the customs is a man with a giant consignment of smuggled goods.

Bain de pieds à la moutarde

FR 1XXX. PC: Parnaland. 46 m. Filmoteca del Generalitat de Catalunya. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: with sets: and transformations: a mustard bath for feet to cure a headache turns the feet into webfeet.

Fox terriers et rats

FR 1XXX. PC: Parnaland. 25 m. Filmoteca del Generalitat de Catalunya 2005. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction: in a fence, puppies of fox terriers chase and eat rats.

La Chasse à cour

Caza del ciervo Angleterra. FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 81 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction on deer hunting in England.

Les Bûcherons

Los leñadores. FR 1902–1904. PC: Parnaland. 45 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: with sets: workers idle whenever no one is looking; a dispute is settled with an axe on the head; a clown's head.

Petits causes, grands effets

La disputa. FR 1902–1904. PC: Parnaland. 12 m. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: with sets: a little girl and grown-ups in a park.

Mer

FR 1902. PC: Parnaland. 15 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction: the big waves of the sea.

Le Marchand de nougat et le marchand de coco

El anunciador. FR 1902. PC: Parnaland. 15 m. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Comedy: water inside an advertising horn.

Fâcheuse distraction

Distraccion seltz al sombrero. FR 1901. PC: Parnaland. 10 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Comedy: medium shot: an elegant woman and La Vie en rose soda water that lands in the hat.

Arrosage général

Riego general. FR 1901. PC: Parnaland. 19 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: with sets: the man with the waterhose and the boy (not the same prank as with Lumière).

Le Cambrioleur insaisissable

Ladron que se essurre. FR 1901. PC: Parnaland. 19 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: transformation film: the metamorphosing thief.

Les Bons payent pour les mauvais


Les Bons payent pour les mauvais (FR 1901). My screenshot from: YouTube: Filmoteca Española: Colección Sagarmínaga 92/97.

El fumador. FR 1901. PC: Parnaland. 19 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: a pipe-smoker drives everyone away.

Sieste interrompue

La siesta del portero. FR 1900–1901. PC: Parnaland. 16 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Comedy: a children's prank with a sleeping porter.

Gendarme et voleur de canards

Gendarme atascado. FR 1900–1901. PC: Parnaland. 17 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction: a boy's prank.

Le Bâteau insubmersible

FR 1900. PC: Parnaland. 20 m. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction: Expo Universelle 1900: an unsinkable boat.

Génie

Regimiento de ingenieros. FR 1900. PC: Parnaland. 18 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction: a parade.

Sauts de haies par des officiers de cavalerie

Saltos de caballeros: [...]. FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 21 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction: steeplechase.

Restitution forcée

Restitucion del vaso del vino. FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 15 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Pierrot and the drunkard with a tap installed on his side.

Pierrot buveur

Pierrot y el diablo. FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 30 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A black dream devil vs. the woman of the cross.

[Les Plongeurs]

FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 20 m. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction: a general view of a port.

Grosse tête de Pierrot

FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 17 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. An extreme close-up of Pierrot, symbol pour sa maison.

Moutons

El rebaño. FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 14 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction on a sheep pen.

Chanteur des cours

El músico galante. FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 20 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Farce: a brass band serenading a woman, the bugle player gets water in the horn.

Feu d'herbes

Quema de hierbas. FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 16 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction: burning leaves.

Cour de ferme

Corral de aves. FR ca 1900. PC: Parnaland. 15 m. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Non-fiction view of a farm with hens, fowl, cow.

Avenue des Champs-Elysées

Avenida de los Campos Eliseos. FR 1897–1899. PC: Parnaland. 20 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A street view, horses.

Bonne d'enfant et militaire

Galanteos militares. FR 1897–1899. PC: Parnaland. 19 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Fiction on two amorous soldiers and a nursemaid.

Le Chien et l'arroseur

FR 1897–1899. PC: Parnaland. 13 m. Tinted amber. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Dogs showered on the street in front of the studio.

Ecole de natation

Baño des colegiales. FR 1897–1899. PC: Parnaland. 16 m. Tinted yellow. Filmoteca Española. ♪ Marco Dalpane. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A long shot of a swimming school.

CENTO ANNI FA: I FILM DEL 1905, PROGRAMMA N. 7: UNA CASA DI PRODUCTIONE: A.–F. PARNALAND (1896–1907)


Baño de colegiales / Saut du tremplin (FR 1897-1899), Parnaland. My screenshot from the YouTube channel of Filmoteca Española.

A cura di Mariann Lewinsky.
Presenta Camille Blot-Wellens.
Selezione di film restaurati dalla Filmoteca Española, dalla Filmoteca de la Generalitat de Catalunya e dalla Lobster Films.
♪ Marco Dalpane.
Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna.

Prima parte: Film Parnaland provenienti dalla Filmoteca Española (Madrid) (25 films),

Seconda parte: Film Parnaland provenienti dalla Filmoteca de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Barcelona) (2 films),

Terza parte: Film Parnaland provenienti da Lobster Films (Paris) (5 films).

(Three further films mentioned in the programme catalogue were not screened.)

From the presentation of Camille Blot-Wellens: Ambroise-François Parnaland, one of the pioneers of animated photography, registered his patent in February 1896, and presented his first "filmed views" in 1897.

From the foundation of his first company with his brother until the premises became the Eclair company in 1907, Parnaland made more than 500 films of all genres: "actualities, historical, scientific, comedies, films to run backwards, transformations, trick films, etc." (Parnaland Catalogue, 1901). The in-depth history of the company has been published by Laurent Mannoni. The history of the Eclair company is well-known, but the Anciens Etablissements Parnaland and the films made there are almost completely unknown. Among the hundreds of films acquired 1897–1906 by Sagarmínaga, one of Spain's cinema pioneers, whose collection is being restored by Filmoteca Española, are some 30 Parnaland films.

In Bologna around 40 films, nearly all Parnaland titles recovered so far, were shown.

Tih Minh 10: Mercredi 13, Tih Minh 11: Le Document 29

FR 1918. PC: Gaumont. D: Louis Feuillade. Da Archives Gaumont-Pathé. /18 fps/ 37' + 31'. ♪ Neil Brand. Friday 8 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Auberge de la montagne: Placide guesses that Rita the dog is carrying a secret shipment from the villains. The shipment contains highly powerful sedative, replaced with plain sugar by our heroes. Fine use of extreme long shot in the image of the spies trying to find the Tih Minh basket. Counter-hypnosis unsuccessful on Dolorès. Fine instance of mise-en-scène in the kitchen as Sidonie the maid is tricked with the sedative. Followed by a beautiful sequence with the fake sleepers. Tih Minh rescued by Dolorès. Sir Grey the diplomat learns of grave danger, occult powers, secret armies, connected with Document 29. A fake mailman sent by the spies steals the secret letter revealing that the conspiracy has been made harmless; only the three spies remain to be captured. The tables turn, the spies now being the hunted ones.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

His Musical Career

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D+starring: Charles Chaplin, with Mack Swain. Chaplin Opus 31. 312 m /16 fps/ 18'. Cineteca di Bologna, BFI/NFTVA, Lobster Films – restaurato presso L'Immagine Ritrovata 2005. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The model for The Music Box (Laurel & Hardy). Charlie and Mack are piano movers with two orders: to deliver a piano to Mr. Rich and to collect a piano from another address for unpaid installments. The addresses get mixed up. After quite a commotion the piano lands in the lake with a big splash. The most memorable gag: Charlie is unable to straighten up having carried the piano on his back.

Making a Living

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D: Henry Lehrman. Starring: Henry Lehrman (the reporter), Charles Chaplin (the dude). Chaplin Opus 1. 314 m /16 fps/ 18'. Da Cineteca di Bologna, BFI/NFTVA, Lobster Films, restaurato presso L'Immagine Ritrovata 2005. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. In his first film, Charlie is at first sight unrecognizable in his dude costume, to quote David Robinson: "he wore a grey top hat, check waistcoat, stiff collar, spotted cravat and monocle. Most surprising was the long, drooping moustache of a rather dejected stage villain". The ultra-fast story is about a reporter (Lehrman) and his villainous friend (Chaplin) who wants to steal his girl and sets to flirting both with her and her mother. Following the Robinson synopsis, there is a chase, a contretemps in a lady's bedroom, and a grand finale on the cow-catcher of a moving train. "Chaplin hated the film" (Robinson); so did I.

Mabel's Busy Day

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D: Mabel Normand. Starring Mabel Normand, Charles Chaplin. Chaplin Opus 18. 304 m /16 fps/ 17'. Da Cineteca di Bologna, BFI/NFTVA, Lobster Films. Restaurato presso L'Immagine Ritrovata nel 2005. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. In this film with a highly improvised look Charlie is an annoying disturber in a race, who intrudes without paying and keeps stealing from Mabel the sausage-seller. The vicious, lady-kicking Charlie is not in his tramp costume. The slapstick is crude and violent, even sadistic and misogynistic, although Normand was the director. Yet there are some redeeming aspects of pantomime in the slapstick, and the final battle is impressive.

The New Janitor

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D+starring: Charles Chaplin. Chaplin Opus 27. 311 m /16 fps/ 17'. Da SEA, BFI/NFTVA, Cineteca di Bologna, and Lobster Films, restaurato presso L'Immagine Ritrovata nel 2005. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A step above the routine Keystone romps, this one has the same structure as The Floorwalker for Mutual. It's fast and sharp, there are dimensions of feeling beyond slapstick, the development of the storyline and gags is more mature than in routine Keystones, and the characters are more interesting. Charlie's best Keystone film?

PROGETTO CHAPLIN – THE KEYSTONE SERIES II


Charles Chaplin: The New Janitor (US 1914). PC: Keystone Studios.

Four newly restored versions of Chaplin's Keystone films. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The best of the set: The New Janitor, also good: His Musical Career.

Boireau et la gigolette

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Valentina Frascaroli. 269 m /16 fps/ 15'. B. 5195. AFF. ♪ Neil Brand. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following Bulletin Pathé: AD the bon-vivant is alerted by the noises of apaches fighting over their queen's heart, a dark-haired gigolette. Mesmerized by her as well, Boireau follows her to their underworld den, starts to sport apache wear. The fellow gangsters do everything to get rid of Boireau. But the gigolette is conquered by her suitor's perseverance. – Lots of trick gags, including one where the gangsters bury Boireau alive, but in a cross-section image we see him dig a tunnel through the earth like a mole.

Boireau fille de ferme

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Valentina Frascaroli (Gribouillette). 192 m /16 fps/ 11'. B. 5412. Fine print AFF. ♪ Neil Brand. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following Bulletin Pathé: Gribouillette, the daughter of a fat Normandy land agent, has four suitors: a fireman, a land agent, the clerk of a notary office, and Boireau the stable boy, the only one who has managed to win her heart. The father dreams of a good match for his daughter: the three other suitors have his support. Boireau dresses up as Gribouillette and receives, in his way, her suitors. – Both André Deed and his real-life wife Valentina Frascaroli are seen in drag as they change parts. AD is quite funny as the feisty "country girl".

Boireau en mission scientifique


Andre Deed: Boireau en mission scientifique (FR 1912) starring André Deed as Boireau.

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau).
    286 m /16 fps/ 16'.
    AFF.
    ♪ Neil Brand.
    Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna.

Following Bulletin Pathé: Boireau sets off for a scientific mission on behalf of a society of scholars of which he is president. They explore the bottom of the ocean for the famous sponge used to make towels. The ship, hit by an iceberg, sinks, but Boireau is saved on a raft. He reaches an island, where he puts on the diving suit. The natives see him emerge from the water and adore him as God. Tired of adulation, Boireau flees back home. – The wildly gesticulating scientists (qf Méliès), the charmingly rudimentary special effects.

Boireau au harem (version B)

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. D: Henry Gambard. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Cherifeh Hanem. 290 m /16 fps/ 16'. Restored by AFF. ♪ Neil Brand. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following the programme text: Boireau is asked to photograph the Pasha of Istanbul, but he falls in love with a harem dancer. Threatened with being decapitated he dresses up as a bayadère. The disguise is discovered, and Boireau is spared his life only because the Pasha is very happy with the portrait taken by the photographer. – Version B differs slightly from A in the fact that the ballerina Cherifeh Hanem and AD perform more scantily dressed.

Boireau au harem (version A)

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. D: Henry Gambard. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Cherifeh Hanem. 290 m /16 fps/ 16'. AFF. ♪ Neil Brand. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following the programme text: Boireau is asked to photograph the Pasha of Istanbul, but he falls in love with a harem dancer. Threatened with being decapitated he dresses up as a bayadère. The disguise is discovered, and Boireau is spared his life only because the Pasha is very happy with the portrait taken by the photographer.

Gribouille redevient Boireau

FR 1912. PC: Pathé Frères. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Valentina Frascaroli. 213 m /20 fps/ 10'. Brilliant print from Cin. fr. 2002. ♪ Neil Brand. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following Bulletin Pathé: Gribouille (Cretinetti) once in France called himself Boireau before falling in love with a Sicilian girl, but her terrible father has Gribouille run away over the border back to France. There is an incredible locomotive chase with a terrible explosion. Gribouille flies to the clouds and falls through a cinema studio roof like a meteor. He is welcomed with open arms, a number of lenses focus on him, and repatriation complete, he can become Boireau again.

OMAGGIO A ANDRE DEED – PROGRAMMA 4 (1912)

♪ Neil Brand. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Seven French films, in the first of which his Italian incarnation Gribouille–Cretinetti becomes again the original French Boireau character.

Sellaisena kuin sinä minut halusit

Come mi volevi. FI 1944. P+D: Teuvo Tulio. 102'. La messa in scena della guerra – il fronte finlandese. Presenta Peter von Bagh. English subtitles, earphone commentary in Italian. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A low contrast print. I listened to the presentation only.

Mitchell and Kenyon 324: Burnley Children Treat (3) 24.6.1905

GB 1905. PC: Mitchell and Kenyon. 24 m /16 fps/ 2'. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The frame is full of waving, running children by the Empire Theatre.

La Belle au bois dormant (1908)

FR 1908. PC: Pathé. D: Albert Capellani, Lucien Nonguet. D'après le conte de Charles Perrault (1697). Orig. 300 m, this print 200 m. Colour: tinted, toned, pochoir. NFM. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Interestingly, the second Pathé rendering of the fairy-tale is not necessarily better, at least not in this shortened print. The climax is more pronounced: the entrance of the prince to the dormant castle, through the cobweb, waking the princess with a kiss, the appearance of the good fairy.

La Belle au bois dormant (1902)

Dornröschen. FR 1902. PC: Pathé. D: Lucien Nonguet, Ferdinand Zecca. D'après le conte de Charles Perrault (1697). Orig. 300 m, "l'apothéose est en couleur". 264 m. Filmarchiv Austria. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. An effective rendering of the tale in frontal tableau style. Das fatale Spinnrad, Der 100-jährige Schlaf, Der Traum des Königssohns, the three-way crossing, Die verzauberte Hütte, Die Affeninsel, Die wunderbare Eiche, Die Feen-Grotte, Dornröschens Erwache, Im Feenland Apotheose – the climax in colour.

Mitchell and Kenyon 323: Burnley Children Treat (2) 24.6.1905

GB 1905. PC: Mitchell and Kenyon. 42 m. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Children waiting in a queue.

Rescued by Rover (versions 1+3)

GB 1905. P: Cecil Hepworth. D: Lewin Fitzhamon. 140 m. BFI/NFTVA. The special scope print for the simultaneous comparison of the two versions in fullsize. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Still an exemplary study print of two versions of a film.

Vot' permis? Cours après! Viens l'chercher!

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Charles Lucien Lépine. DP: Segundo de Chomón. B. 1241. AFF. Tinted and toned. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. At the beginning of a great development. A great chase: the gamekeeper on the hunter's trail.

Le Chemineau

De zwerver. FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Albert Capellani. Based on Les Misérables by Hugo. Originally 110 m, this print incomplete. Tinted and toned. NFM. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Jean Valjean as a tramp (chemineau) enters the bishop's house as it snows, steals the silverware and gets caught. Already an assured touch to the subject by the director, who in 1911 directed the first feature-length adaptation of Hugo's novel.

Duel scene from "Macbeth"

US 1905. PC: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co. Based on the play by Shakespeare. 34 m. LoC. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A theatrical duel against a painted backdrop.

CENTO ANNI FA: I FILM DEL 1905, PROGRAMMA N. 6: TEMPO E RACCONTO, II PARTE / TIME AND NARRATIVE II

Presenta Mariann Lewinsky. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Prima parte: Pars e toto (3 films). Seconda parte: Sincronicità: Remake II (one double projection). Terza parte: Prima – dopo: Remake III (4 films). This was the golden age of cinema for children: children were the biggest audience, and the fairytale (féerie) was a major genre.

Tih Minh 8: Sous le voile, Tih Minh 9: Le Branche de salut

FR 1918. PC: Gaumont. D: Louis Feuillade. /18 fps/ 29' + 30'. Archives Gaumont-Pathé. ♪ Alain Baents good. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Only the good doctor with his magnetic touch can cure Dolorès, the decoy of the villains. He hypnotizes her to lead the heroes to the villains' lair. Simultaneously, two villains enter Villa Luciola disguised as monks. From a speeding car, Dolorès is taken away from the heroes just like that. A great sense of the absurd and a great sense of humour in several scenes (Placide finds the wiretaps, the statue hit by a bullet, a little dog chasing the villains). The disgraced Baptiste finds the villains' lair in the mountains. The heroes' group now consists of three amorous pairs. Tih Minh wants to join the mission to the mountains à venger mon père. Unbeknownst to d'Athys, she is hidden in the bottom of the giant provisions basket. Sidonie, the new cook, is a new agent for the villains, and she alerts them via a messenger dog. Cliffhanger scene: the basket with Tih Minh in it falls and hangs on a branch.

The Way of Lost Souls

"Son dernier tango" [FR, title of the print]. Rue des ames perdues (BG). The Woman He Scorned. Langenneiden sielujen katu. GB 1929. PC: Warner Bros. P: Charles E. Whittaker. D: Paul Czinner. SC: Czinner, Whittaker. DP: Adolf Schlasy. Starring Pola Negri (Louise), Warwick Ward (Maxim), Hans Rehmann (John). 1835 m /22 fps/ 73'. A sonorized silent. Version française, intertitres français. From Cinémathèque de Toulouse. Restored by AFF/CNC. Presenta Martine Offroy. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. OK high contrast print. Czinner's first non-German-language film, after five brilliant Bergner vehicles his first without her. Stark melodrama takes place in the red-light district and the lighthouse. Pola escapes from her criminal boyfriend Maxim and marries the lighthouse keeper John, but her past life returns to the sheltered tower. Not one of Czinner's masterpieces. Memorable: strong expressionistic sense of milieu and atmosphere; Pola's funnily overblown advances (feeling his telescope); one of the most surprising instances of montage in the history of the cinema: the lighthouse keeper's boat is wrecked in a storm, and in the next shot he weds Pola in the church. This is one of the transitional films from the German silent age to the French poetic realism (Dans les rues, La Rue sans nom) and the US film noir. Some of its English and French titles connect it directly to the German street films. - Omaggio ad Raymond Borde - following Natacha Laurent: he preferred the road less travelled, never settled for reproducing what others had done before him, actively refusing any nostalgia, an explorer of the seventh art. "We look for what thrills us: freedom, poetry and love".

Gentlemen of Nerve

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D+starring: Charles Chaplin. 314 m /16 fps/ 17'. Chaplin Opus 30. LoC. Not much progress in here: Charlie is still a violent, annoying villain trying to trick his way into the racetrack. But all Keystones are exciting as exercises in speed, movement and physical gags.

The Property Man

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D+starring: Charles Chaplin. /18 fps/ 27'. Chaplin Opus 21. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Neil Brand. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Photochemical look. This film also belongs to the cinema of cruelty line in Chaplin's career. Charlie is still the heartless villain, but the film is richer than the ones directed by others.

A Film Johnnie

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D: George Nichols. Starring Charles Chaplin (The Film Johnnie), Roscoe Arbuckle (Fatty), Virginia Kirtley (The Keystone Girl). /18 fps/ 15'. Chaplin Opus 5. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Neil Brand. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Photochemical look. Following the David Robinson synopsis: at the cinema, Charlie falls for the Keystone Girl, pursues her to the studio, and causes havoc among the productions, until fire breaks out, and the fire brigade enters.

Mabel at the Wheel

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D+SC: Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett. Starring Charles Chaplin (Villain), Mabel Normand (Mabel). 441 m /18 fps/ 21'. BFI/NFTVA. Chaplin Opus 10. ♪ Neil Brand. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Photochemical look. In this brutal farce, Chaplin plays the villain in a very extreme fashion with no redeeming traits. This cinema of cruelty is not really funny at all.

Kid Auto Races at Venice, Cal.

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D: Henry Lehrman. Starring Charles Chaplin. 147 m /16 fps/ 7'. Chaplin Opus 2. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Neil Brand. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Photochemical look. The first film with Chaplin as the Tramp, it's a one-joke movie: the annoying guy keeps appearing in front of the camera, spoiling every shot of the newsreel.

PROGETTO CHAPLIN – KEYSTONE I

Five restored Chaplin films. ♪ Neil Brand. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The photochemical look of the BFI/NFTVA restorations is much more pleasant than the digital look of some other Keystone restorations. The films are usually storywise very crude but visually charming if seen in close-to-the-original prints. It's very gratifying to see new, better prints of films previously known in a highly battered state.

Il Natale di Cretinetti

IT 1911. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). Original 236 m, surviving: 132 m /16 fps/ 8'. Cineteca di Bologna, Archivo Nacional de la Imagen - Sodre 2002 (Fernando Pereda). ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Another great Christmas film by Cretinetti. He comes to the Christmas party at his fiancée's house with an overwhelmingly bigger amount of gifts that he can comfortably carry, complete with a Christmas tree, a rifle, and a wooden horse. He bumps into a postman, gifts get mixed up, and Cretinetti picks up a packet containing three bottles: ether of fear, ether of mirth, and ether of anger. He bumps into the butler, and the three ether bottles break with predictable results.

Cretinetti s'incarica del trasloco

Müller übernimmt den Umzug. IT 1911. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). 150 m /16 fps/ 8'. Cineteca di Bologna. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The Bioscope: "Cretinetti finds his fiancée and her parents very worried about the arrival of the porters that should move their furniture, but he reassures them that he will personally resolve the problem. The last of his worries is the integrity of the furniture that must be moved, so that every object is thrown out of the window or down the stairs at a faster speed than any normal porter. The cyclone of falling objects knocks over passers-by and residents". Even the maid gets thrown out together with the objects, and house walls tumble down in Cretinetti's moving zeal.

Cretinetti assiste ad un combattimento di galli

IT 1911. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). 146 m /16 fps/ 5'. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Following a cockfight, Cretinetti is inspired, even possessed by the roosters, with a disturbing intensity, liberating hens, and causing a general chaos.

Il regalo di Cretinetti

IT 1911. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). 164 m /16 fps/ 9'. Cineteca di Bologna, Archivo Nacional de la Imagen - sodre (Fernando Pereda) 2004. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Cretinetti wants to buy her lady friend a gift. The bunch of flowers is taken away, a set of dishes ends up shattered down the stairs, and the final gift idea, a piano, is hauled with results maybe topping even Laurel & Hardy. A fatal kiss leads to the final catastrophe.

Cretinetti vuol romperla ad ogni costo

IT 1911. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). 173 m /16 fps/ 10'. Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale, copia restaurata nel 2005 presso il laboratorio L'Immagine Ritrovata. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Cretinetti is engaged with a kind girl, but his previous love, an opera singer, will not stand for it. There is a trick with a false beard like later in To Be Or Not To Be.

OMAGGIO A ANDRE DEED – PROGRAMMA 3 (1911)

Presentano Sergio Toffetti (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale) e Davide Pozzi (Cineteca di Bologna), ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Five Italian films with André Deed as Cretinetti. The best ones of this set: Il regalo di Cretinetti and Il Natale di Cretinetti.

Ingrid in Italia

IT 1982. PC: Asadin srl. D: Fiorella Mariani. Incorporating Rossellini-Bergman home movies. 30'. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Beautiful colour combines vintage footage with contemporary location footage. Glimpses from 1950 onwards: the mother's footage on the babies and the family. Rare home movies with Alberto Sordi as a birthday guest. "I wanted the hard way, and that's what I got". "In Italian I can only say 'I love you'".

[Riprese per Santa Brigida]

SE 1952. D: Roberto Rossellini. Featuring Ingrid Bergman. Silent footage. 9'. Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale, from Cin/SFI. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Outtakes and rushes shot for the Swedish short film För barnens skull (For the Sake of the Children) produced by the Swedish charity organization Rädda barnen (Save the Children). Ingrid Bergman visits the Brigida nunnery at piazza Famese in Rome to help nuns distribute clothes donated to children in need.

Kort möte med familjen Rossellini

Brief Encounter with the Rossellini Family. SE 1953. PC: Europafilm. D: Gert Engström. Featuring Ingrid Bergman, Roberto Rossellini, the three babies, and George Sanders. 5'. Cin/SFI, edited in 2004 from a SVT interpositive. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Shot on the island of Capri during the production of Viaggio in Italia.

DOSSIER ROSSELLINI

A cura di Adriano Aprà, in collaborazione con Jon Wengström, Claudio Bondi e Fiorella Mariani. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. An ambitious project to screen scattered Rossellini material and to cover variants to nearly all his films was launched. I watched the three contributions on 35mm and skipped the DVD Rossellini / Pascal, un ricordo.

Mixed Babies

GB 1905. PC: Sheffield Photo Co. D: Frank Mottershaw. 47 m. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A young rascal mixes the babies in two carts. There is a wild chase, and a police at the heels.

Rescued by Rover (version 2)

GB 1905. PC: Cecil Hepworth. D: Lewin Fitzhamon. 120 m. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Mariann Lewinsky: this film, canonized as a milestone of cinema history for its editing, is not very original from a contents point of view. Cinema adopted an old literary motif, and especially around 1905 children are frequently being searched for in films, either because they were stolen, or because they themselves had stolen something.

Our Baby

US 1908. 80 m. BFI/NFTVA – Collection Joye. German intertitles. (sostituisce: Bain de Bébé, FR 1903, PC: Pathé, B. 1252). ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Educational film on baby care in precise and loving detail.

Le Bébé gourmand

Der kleine Vielfrass. FR 1903. PC: Pathé. Scène comique B. 706. 40 m. Filmarchiv Austria. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. On a black fond, a baby feeds another chocolate, but there is no end to crying.

Le Déjeuner du savant

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. Scène comique B. 1240. 40 m. AFF. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. At breakfast, the scientist senses a foul smell in his bread and puts it under the microscope. The view is like that of the ship doctor's in Potyomkin. He then decides to drink water only, but it occurs to him to examine it, as well. It is full of living creatures.

Unter dem Mikroskop: Larve der Wasserfliege

(possibly: The May Fly Larva). GB 1903. PC: Charles Urban Trading Co. D: F. Martin-Duncan. 23 m. Filmarchiv Austria. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The beauty of scientific cinema, very close to experimental film.

Our New Errand Boy

GB 1905. PC: Williamson Kinematograph Co. D: James Williamson. 109 m. AFF. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A bad dupe, paper print quality. A British remake of Les Farces de Toto gâte-sauce.

Les Farces de Toto gâte-sauce

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. Scène comique, B. 1303. 82 m. NFM. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A good sense of rhythm and movement in the story of the pranks of the young rascal Toto at the pâtisserie. His victims go after him in a wild chase, but he catches them in a trap and sets them on fire (!).

Première sortie

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. Starring Max Linder. Scène comique, B. 1254. Originally 110 m, surviving footage 66 m (incomplete). AFF / Lumière Project. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Max in uniform getting drunk. An early comedy of the future star.

Vie de Moïse

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. Scène biblique en 6 tableaux, B. 1276. 170 m. Colour. Cin. Royale Belgique / Alan Roberts. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The six tableaux: Moïse sauvé des eaux. Le Buisson ardent. Passage de la Mer Rouge. Les Hebreux au désert. Sur le Mont Sinaï. L'Adoration du veau d'or. A fascinating naive, primitive Biblical film. The parting of the Red Sea is realized with paint and reflections. Blasphemously, God is made visible. Moses breaks the golden calf with the tablets of the Law. In the final image he sports long drawn gold horns.

Hundetheater

Hunde Theater. FR ca 1908. PC: Pathé. Scène d'acrobatie. Österreichisches Filmmuseum. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Circus dogs perform in their elaborate show. Even monkeys get to help.

Le Pape Léon XIII au Vatican


Le Pape Léon XIII au Vatican (FR 1903). FR 1903. PC: Pathé. Scène d'actualité, B. 985. Cin. Royale Belgique / Alan Roberts Collection. Photo: Wikipedia.

FR 1903. PC: Pathé. Scène d'actualité, B. 985. 20 m. Cin. Royale Belgique 1994 / Alan Roberts. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The Pope is carried in his sedan chair.

Loïe Fuller

Loïe-Fuller. FR 1905. PC: Pathé. Scène de danse, Cat. Bousquet No. 1201. 28 m. Colour. AFF. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Pochoir colour fantastic. A serpentine dance at its most brilliant, a wonderful apparition.

CENTO ANNI FA: I FILM DEL 1905, PROGRAMMA 5: PROTAGONISTI ED EROI (E NIENTE DIVI)

Prima del divismo – Before Stars. Presenta Mariann Lewinsky. ♪ Maud Nelissen. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Prima parte: Protagonisti (5 films), Seconda parte: Sosia – Remake I (2 films), Terza parte: Con dedica – A Boby / Roving around Rover (6 films). – Among the discoveries of this programme: Loïe Fuller and Vie de Moïse. – The actual programme was different from the published ones on the internet and in the catalogue.

Tih Minh 6: Les Oiseaux de nuit, Tih Minh 7: Evocation

FR 1918. PC: Gaumont. D: Louis Feuillade. /18 fps/ 31' + 27'. ♪ Donald Sosin. Wednesday 6 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Grâce à la science du docteur, Tih Minh semblait de regaigner la vie. She is a tabula rasa, but her intelligence is revitalized to grow like flowers. Après des semaines de silence, les premiers paroles: "je t'aime". The villains keep lurking in the bushes with wiretaps. Le cousin Baptiste: engaged to serve the diplomat, Sir Grey. But the villains plant a decoy, Dolorès, in the adjoining room, to seduce Baptiste. Interesting touch: the thoroughly disgusted habitus of Dolorès. Still Baptiste is easy prey for her. Beautiful scene: Francis returns, and through the mirror we see the pistol of Dolorès under the bed. Another interesting Feuillade feature: long takes of faces of persons caught in a dilemma. We see them think hard. Oiseaux nocturnes dans Villa Luciola. Marquise Dolorès, une enigme vivante. Placide is the life of the film, great in love scenes with Rosette, amusing in his disappointed reaction to Baptiste. The good doctor hypnotizes Dolorès, and in her hypnotized state we now learn the backstory to everything. In 1911 in Tonkin, Laurençon, le père de Tih Minh... clair de lune... flashback... le voisin: un allemand nommé Marx. Un jour, un vieil Hindu: "je veux parler à un representant de France". The Hindu message from 1870 ("en cas d'une guerre Européenne") gives highly sensitive information for European politics. Tih Minh's memory comes back: Marx = Gilson, he is the murderer of her father, already then in search for the secret document. She senses more: "Marx est ici!". Yes, he is hiding behind the curtain, the nail marks of Tih Minh still on his chin. The villains cut the electricity, and Marx/Gilson manages to escape again.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

I delfini

(Not released in Finland). The Dauphins. IT 1960. PC: Lux Vides. P: Franco Cristaldi. D: Francesco Maselli. SC: Ennio De Concini, Maselli, Aggeo Savioli, con la collaborazione di Alberto Moravia. DP: Gianni Di Venanzo. M: Giovanni Fusco. Starring Betsy Blair, Claudia Cardinale, Gérard Blain, Anna-Maria Ferrero, Tomas Milian. 110'. Restauro realizzato dalla Cristaldi Film in collaborazione con la Fondazione Scuola Nazionale di Cinema-Cineteca Nazionale e con il contributo dell’Associazione Philip Morris Progetto Cinema, della Regione Marche – Assessorato alla Cultura e del Comune di Ascoli Piceno – Assessorato alla Cultura. In the presence of Betsy Blair (*1923) and Francesco Maselli (*1930). Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Arlecchino, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. – Betsy Blair, who recently published her memoir, The Memory of All That (2003), was honored in Bologna with a tribute of three films including this quality piece from the golden age of Italian cinema. It's Antonioni land, and the configuration resembles Le amiche. Maselli is a good director of actors, some of them here at the beginning of their careers. It's a complex web of relationships in a little town where everything seems to turn around the town square, Café Meletti, and Villa de Matteis. – The Jewish connection: the foundation of the wealth of one of the rich men of the town is the fact that he has betrayed the trust of his Jewish companion during WWII. – A seguire incontro con Betsy Blair e Francesco Maselli. Betsy Blair was blacklisted in Hollywood and went to a permanent European exile to make films with Bardem, Antonioni, Maselli, etc.

Come fu che l'ingordigia rovinò il Natale di Cretinetti

IT 1910. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). 237 m /16 fps/ 13'. Cineteca di Bologna, Museo Nazionale del Cinema. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Programme book: Cretinetti is a very greedy boy, and he eats ten cakes prepared by his parents for him on the Christmas tree all at once. He then falls asleep and has a bad dream: the ways of the heavens open up before him. After having caused such confusion in heaven that God in person has to intervene, Cretinetti finds himself in hell where some little devils cook him in the pot. – Own comments: At night the impatient boy Cretinetti robs the Christmas tree, and breaks the plates and the toys and eats up the goodies. Santa Claus gets angry, takes him to the sky, even to Heaven, but Cretinetti escapes, sits on God's chair, and takes the key from St. Peter. God gets furious, and Cretinetti lands in hell, but he is too much even for the Devil to handle. The definitive André Deed movie of the ones I have seen.

Cretinetti fra due fuochi

De vreeding van Gibrouille. IT 1910. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). 183 m /16 fps/ 11'. Dutch intertitles. NFM. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Cretinetti has double-booked a date with two beautiful women. They start a duel with swords and pistols. Cretinetti loses them both to other men.

Cretinetti distratto

Distractions of Foolshead. IT 1910. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). 168 m /16 fps/ 9'. AFI / Cineteca di Bologna. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A sleepwalker's adventures: with a dancer's grace and a pantomime's skill Cretinetti walks through the city wreaking havoc; finally a cigarette lit in the wrong place causes an explosion which lands him back to bed.

["Cretinetti ha ingoiato un gambero"]

Gibrouille heeft... [Catalogue information: IT 1909. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti)] /16 fps/ 10'. Dutch intertitles. NFM. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Not André Deed, said Jean A. Gili in the screening. Man eats lobster and transforms into a human lobster, doing everything backwards. Finally, even the carriage he mounts starts to move backwards, and the horse, too. – This film is probably an imitation of a Cretinetti film with the same title and idea.

Cretinetti ficcanaso

IT 1909. PC: Itala Film. Starring André Deed (Cretinetti). 99 m /16 fps/ 6'. Cineteca di Bologna / L'Immagine Ritrovata 2005. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A wild series of gags where Cretinetti's head becomes an anvil, he gets covered by flour, falls in a pit, and gets stuck in telephone cables.

OMAGGIO A ANDRE DEED – PROGRAMMA 2 (1909–1910)

Five films with André Deed as Cretinetti. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. In this programme, Come fu l'ingordigia rovinò il natale a Cretinetti is a seminal piece, and Cretinetti distratto another especially successful title.

COMPARISON OF TWO VERSIONS OF LAS AVENTURAS DE ROBINSON CRUSOE

MX/US 1952. PC: Tepayac. D: Luis Buñuel. 10'. Filmoteca Española. DVD, alas. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Two negatives were shot for Robinson Crusoe: an English and a Spanish original version. There are many differences between the two, mainly minor ones. The comparison footage is available as two parallel frames.

[Happy End for Los Olvidados]

MX 1950. PC: Ultramar Films. D: Luis Buñuel. 5' + 2'. Filmoteca Española. BetaSP, alas. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. First the real ending was shown, and then the happy end that was never used: Pedro kills Jaibo in the fight in the attic, gets back the money that was trusted him by the benevolent schoolmaster and stolen by Jaibo, and returns to the school at dawn.

Espagne 1936

ES/FR 1937. PC: Ciné-Liberté. D: Luis Buñuel. SC: Jean-Paul Le Chanois; Pierre Unik, LB. DP: Roman Karmen, Manuel Villagas López. Commentary read by Gaston Modot. Original in French. 35'. Filmoteca Española. BetaSP, alas, bad sound, misframed. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Buñuel worked as a cultural attaché for the Spanish republic in Paris, where he made this film, a history and defense of the Spanish Republic established in 1931 and attacked by the forces lead by Franco. There are powerful images of the Civil War. "Madrid est devenu le Verdun d'Espagne": Spain had to suffer the experience of total war with Franco backed up by Hitler and Mussolini. This film ends on an optimistic note. No pasaran!

[Fragmentos de la filmación de Las Hurdes]

ES 1933–1934. D: Luis Buñuel. (5' announced, much longer in fact). Work print, no sound. Filmoteca Española. BetaSP, alas. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Las Hurdes outtakes: bees, fiesta di alberga, grim rooster rite, a storm hits the trees, in the goat sequence the goats are coaxed to jump, school footage with deleted shots of nice kids.

[Menjant garotes]

[Eating Sea Urchins]. ES 1930. D: Luis Buñuel. 4'. Silent, no titles. Filmoteca de Catalunya – Fundació Gala-Dali. BetaSP, alas. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. While filming L'Age d'or in Cadaqués, LB shot this home movie at Salvador Dali's father's house. Climax: Dali's parents eat sea urchins, an important sexual symbol for Dali and Buñuel.

DOSSIER BUÑUEL

A cura di Ferran Alberich. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinèma Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Five shorts or excerpts, all on video, alas!

Le Langage des fleurs

FR 1905. 25 m /16 fps/ 2'. Cin. Royale de Belgique 1997. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A pochoir colour print featuring a young man and a lady of the court. The colour makes all the difference, completely transforming the film.

Le Langage des fleurs

FR 1905. 25 m. Cin. fr. 1998. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A black and white print featuring a young man and a lady of the court.

Fâcheuse méprise

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. 26 m. AFF. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Tar instead of holy water causes an unpleasant surprise for two dignified ladies in the church.

The White Caps

US 1905. PC: Edison. D: Edwin S. Porter. 255 m. LoC. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Vigorous action and strong visualization from the director of The Great Train Robbery. Wife and daughter escape a violent husband. Men in white hoods chase the man and punish him with tar and feathers. The film is surprisingly ambiguous, as the white-hooded men are exactly like a KKK lynch mob. The matter-of-fact presentation of violence is still effective. Certainly a high point in Porter's career.

Le Nègre gourmand

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. 25 m. AFF. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A simple vignette in the Edison style: black man eats cake, drinks champagne.

Le Roi des dollars

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Segundo de Chomón. 34 m. A colour print from NFM. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A beautiful Chomón vignette with extreme close-ups, dominated by the colour of gold: a magician conjures big gold coins from the mouth.

Erreur de porte

Ein grosses Malheur. FR 1904. PC: Pathé. 35 m. Filmarchiv Austria. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A man mistakes a telephone booth for a toilet.

La Lotion magique

Die Verhängnisvolle Wirkung. FR 1905. PC: Pathé. 122 m. Filmarchiv Austria. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The marriage broker brings together a man and a woman who find each other lacking. The broker provides them with wonder lotions, but the bottles are changed, and the woman's breasts start to grow hair and the man's bald head to sport large breasts.

La Confession

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. 27 m. AFF. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The priest is obviously aroused by the voluptuous confession of a young maid.

Les Martyres de l'inquisition

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. D: Lucien Nonguet. 221 m. A fine print from Cin. fr. 1998. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A veritable anthology of the torture methods of the Inquisition, horrible in its laconic style.

[Men In a Swimming Pool]

DE 190X. Coll. Joye X121. 16 m. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A view of swimmers much like those by Edison.

[Ski Running]

FR ca 1907. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Ski racing with a lot of falls.

[Two Fashion Models in a Garden]

FR 19XX. 16 m. Pochoir colour. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Modelling in a colourful garden.

Latina Contortionist

US 1905. PC: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co. 34 m. LoC. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Amazing body contortions through a ring performed by a very full-figured Latina lady.

CENTO ANNI FA: I FILM DEL 1905 4: CORPI

Presenta Mariann Lewinsky. ♪ Alain Baents. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Parte prima: Corpo e chiesa (6 films). Parte seconda: Comic Relief (3 films). Parte terza: Bianco e nero (5 films). This program contained two unforgettable films of laconic horror (Les Martyres de l'inquisition and The White Caps) and a remarkable comedy (La Lotion magique).

Tih Minh 4: L'Homme dans la malle, Tih Minh 5: Chez les fous

FR 1918. D: Louis Feuillade. /18 fps/ 30' + 27'. Archives Gaumont-Pathé. ♪ Neil Brand. Tuesday 5 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Having been exposed, the crooks undergo a metamorphosis and go on with their villainous ways in a new villa under new guises. But the clever Placide has followed them hidden in a trunk. Tih Minh has regressed to the mental state of a baby, and Placide entices her to follow him with the help of a dog. D'Athys employs the services of two British experts: Dr. Cleuzel, "célèbre psychiatre Anglais", and Sir Francis Grey, a top man in the diplomatic hierarchy. The villains hijack Sir Grey to a mental hospital, "L'Asile Bon Repos" and wiretap the garden of the good guys. Still a great sense of mystery, action and rhythm in these episodes.

Monday, July 04, 2005

Milioni di lettori – centomila diffusori

IT 1950. PC: Partito Comunista Italiano. 10'. Theme: "Cinema di propaganda: 1947 – 1962. Democrazia Cristiana – Partito Comunista Italiano". Monday 4 July 2005, Piazza Maggiore, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Documenti provenienti dall'Archivio del Movimento Operaio. Video, alas! I didn't stay.

Two Arabian Knights

Tuhat ja yksi kujetta. US © 1927 United Artists. D: Lewis Milestone. ♪ Robert Israel for 2004 edition. NTSC Digital Video, alas! Flicker Alley for Turner Classic Movies. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The unknown discoveries of Bologna's Lewis Milestone tribute (Two Arabian Knights, The Garden of Eden, The Racket) were shown on video only! I left the room quickly.

Verdun, visions d'histoire

FR 1929. PC: Gaumont-Alliance Cinémat. Européenne. D: Léon Poirier. Starring Jeanne-Marie Laurent, Suzanne Bianchetti, Albert Préjean, Antonin Artaud. 1822 m /18 fps/ 89'. AFF. The dialogue as subtitles. ♪ Alain Baents. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The master director of La Brière and La Croisière jaune tackles a big subject, the epochal WWI bloodbath where 600.000 died. There are powerful images here, but somehow it doesn't work, maybe because the silent original was transformed into a sound hybrid. Now shown as a silent with unsuitable piano music.

Une douzaine d'œufs frais

FR 1908. PC: Pathé Frères. D+starring André Deed. 150 m /16 fps/ 9'. AFF. ♪ Donald Sosin. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. AD as a character with oversized, sharply pointed shoes in a nightmare of endlessly breaking eggs. Everything breaks in his hands. Finally he returns home with the eggs; by the morning they turn to chicks.

Boireau a mangé de l'ail

FR 1908. PC: Pathé Frères. Starring André Deed (Boireau). 123 m /16 fps/ 7'. Cin. fr. ♪ Donald Sosin. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Having eaten garlic Boireau wreaks havoc with his breath felling a dog, a caretaker, a window cleaner at the top of a ladder, and a newspapeer seller. With his breath he fells the passengers of the subway car, defeats two crooks and two policemen, has a horse gallop backwards and a dog run backwards. Finally, even his own walking stick, his hat, and his mirror image escape his garlic breath.

Boireau fait la noce / Boireau Parties


Photo not from the film: André Deed (1879–1940).

FR 1908. PC: Pathé Frères. D: André Deed. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Aurèle Sydney. 165 m /16 fps/ 10'. AFF. ♪ Donald Sosin. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Escaped from his parents' guard, Boireau invites two beautiful girls to lunch, spends recklessly in a chambre séparée, is thrown out, takes the girls to a ride on a stolen car, causes an accident, and is taken to home by two guys who take advantage of the situation and rob his parental home. (Following the catalogue text). "During his parents absence, Boireau dresses like his father and goes out to party." (GP Archives, 1908PFIC 00031).

Les Apprentissages de Boireau

Jim's Apprenticeship. FR 1907. PC: Pathé Frères. D: Albert Capellani. Starring André Deed (Boireau), Aurèle Sydney. 205 m /16 fps/ 12'. Colour: toned. AFF. ♪ Donald Sosin. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The no good Boireau is thrown out of school, beaten at home by mum and dad, and set to work to a hatter, a grocer, a barber, a baker, and an innkeeper, with catastrophal results everywhere.

Les Débuts d'un canotier

FR 1907. PC: Pathé Frères. D: Georges Hatot. Starring André Deed (Boireau). 109 m /16 fps/ 6'. Cin. fr. 2002. ♪ Donald Sosin. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. From an open-air dancing stage on the Marne Boireau starts to learn rowing wreaking havoc among swimmers, other boatsmen, and fishermen, negotiating a waterfall and being angled with a hook.

La Course à la perruque

FR 1906. PC: Pathé Frères. D: Georges Hatot. Starring André Deed. 130 m /16 fps/ 8’. AFF. ♪ Donald Sosin. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. In his first film for Pathé, AD plays the unfortunate man who desperately chases the wig that some childred have swiped from his head (Catalogue). – The wild chase brings him to the Eiffel tower, to the banks of the Seine, aboard a ship. A remarkable breakthrough.

JEAN A. GILI: ANDRE DEED, OMAGGIO A ANDRE DEED – PROGRAMMA 1 (1906-1908)

Jean Gili e Sandro Toni presentano il libro André Deed. Boireau, Cretinetti, Gribouille, Torbio, Foolshead, Lehman… (Edizioni Le Mani, 2005). Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. From Gili’s introduction: André Deed is one of the great characters of French and Italian burlesque. He distinguished himself above all for his use of surreal elements. Starting with the basic chases, falls and destructions he launched into more refined gags. He is at once material and immaterial, allowing himself to be hit one moment and becoming an invulnerable body the next. Fragila and indestructible, he strikes and penetrates; no walls can resist his assaults. A fusion of Méliès’s inventions, de Chomón’s tricks and Pastrone’s visions, he doesn’t hesitate to bring into the narrative the Itala goddess or the Pathé rooster. – Comments of mine: at his most unforgettable, Deed is a genius of chaos. Often he starts with carrying an impossible burden of luggage, then breaking everything trying to reach for his hat. The scenario of destruction escalates to metaphysical levels. Santa Claus takes him to the sky, where he enters heaven and manages to upset St. Peter and even God himself (interpreted by an actor one step more awesome than Santa). Deed’s wild manner proves intolerable even to Satan, and he is banished from Hell. – Deed belongs to the realm of myth: he is an incarnation of Shiva, the principle of destruction. – AD started with Georges Méliès and became a star with Pathé.

The Battle of Midway

US 1942. PC: U.S. Navy. D: John Ford. 18’. In colour. MoMA. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 2, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. WWII was a turning-point for many American directors, including Ford. This screening was a good way to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Eine Blume der Kasbah

IT 190X. PC: Ambrosio Film. 10 m. BFI/NFTVA. ♪ Alain Baents. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. In a circle-form mask the odalisque greets us good night in her see-through negligée.

La Joueuse enragée

FR 1905. 19 m. AFF. ♪ Alain Baents. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. Full female nudity with Venus covered.

L’Indiscrét mystifié

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. 50 m. NFM. ♪ Alain Baents. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. The image is divided, the Peeping Tom by his hole grimly surprised.

L’envers du théâtre

FR 1905. PC: Pathé. Orig: 60 m, this print 36 m. Cin. fr. ♪ Alain Baents. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A comedy from behind the stage of the theatre.

Quadrille des clodoches


IMAGE: Le Quadrille des Clodoches au bal de l'Opéra. Autor: Numa Fils (vers 1800 - après 1880), photographe. Fecha: Entre 1870 et 1890. Denominación: Photographie. Materiales y técnicas: Tirage sur papier albuminé. Institución : Museo Carnavalet - Historia de París. Número de inventario: PH48586.
NOT FROM THE FILM: Quadrille des clodoches (FR 1903), Pathé frères N° 980, Danses & Ballets (7ème série).

Quadrille Tänzer. FR 1903. PC: Pathé frères N° 980, Danses & Ballets (7ème série). 35 m. Cin. Suisse. ♪ Alain Baents. Monday 4 July 2005, Cinema Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. A dance for four, with ample sights of petticoats.