Émile Cohl: Bewitched Matches

Émile Cohl: Bewitched Matches (1913). Photo: IMDb.

Émile Cohl: Bewitched Matches (1913): the windmill. Photo: Rate Your Music.

Émile Cohl: Bewitched Matches (1913). The Star Spangled Banner made of matchsticks. My screenshot from YouTube.

Émile Cohl: Bewitched Matches (1913). The man smokes a pipe, and the pipe smokes him. My screenshot from YouTube.

Émile Cohl: Bewitched Matches (1913). The skeleton dance. My screenshot from YouTube.

BEWITCHED MATCHES / Les Allumettes ensorcelées (Éclair-Universal, US 1913)
    Dir: Émile Cohl; rel. 4.5.1913.
    16 mm, 61 m /18 fps/ 7 min, Cineteca del Friuli.
    No intertitles.
    Grand piano: Donald Sosin.
    Viewed at Cinema Ruffo, Sacile, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Fort Lee, 15 Oct 2004

Richard Koszarski (GCM): "Émile Cohl arrived in the United States in September 1912 and established what was probably the first animation department in the country at Éclair’s Linwood Avenue studio. Cohl produced the “cartoon” element of Universal’s Animated Weekly, and beginning in November 1912 “The Newlyweds”, cited by Donald Crafton as “the first modern animated cartoon series”. In addition to his drawn animation, Cohl was also a pioneer of stop-motion model animation. Unfortunately, Bewitched Matches is his only stop-motion film of this period known to survive." – Richard Koszarski (GCM)

AA: The great pioneer of animation Émile Cohl had been inspired by J. Stuart Blackton's stop motion trick film The Haunted Hotel (1907). Cohl focused on animation and mastered many approaches (drawing, puppets, folded paper, objects, engraving). Having been inspired by Americans he came to America and established the first American animation department and the first modern animated cartoon series.

It is a pity that Bewitched Matches is Cohl's only surviving stop-motion film of this period. It has flair, style and touch. The minimalist device of matches serves the fantasy well, and there is an engaging and irresistible drive of fantasy and imagination in this series of transformations. From the magic fountain of Méliès to Blackton to Cohl. It's a joy. ****

Print viewed: very soft, bad image.