Cento anni fà: i film del 1908: 12: Visions du réel - visions d'art

Charles Decroix: Dans l'Hellade / In Ancient Greece (FR 1909). 

Presenta Mariann Lewinsky. Grand piano: Alain Baents. Viewed in Bologna, Cinema Lumière 1, 5 July 2008.

VISIONS DU RÉEL

L'Enfance charitable. FR 1908. PC: Gaumont. 6 min. - Visions of poverty as children come to the help of the poor.
A Day in the Dog's Home. FR 1908. PC: Pathé. 3 min. - A rich lady selects a dog in the dog shelter, where we meet an old woman in the yard. Documentary look.
Une noce en Bretagne. FR 1908. PC: Pathé. 5 min. - A documentary on a country wedding in Brittany, with banquet tables, musicians, and dances, and separate tables for the poor. Beautiful AFF / CNC print.
Le Culture des huîtres / The Oyster from Bed to Table. FR 1908. PC: Pathé. 7 min. - A documentary account on the cultivation of oysters, ending with a shot of a gourmand. Low contrast, heavily duped BFINA print.
Ich habe keinen Frack. FR 1908. PC: Pathé. 8 min. - A funny comedy about the alcoholic pianist and the "Roman officer" sculptor's model.
RECONSTRUCTING THE PREMIERE OF L'ASSASSINAT DU DUC DE GUISE
VISIONS D'ART (SALLE CHARRAS, 17 NOVEMBER 1908)
1. LE SECRET DE MYRTO (REGINA BADET)
Dans l'Hellade. / In Ancient Greece / Hellaassa / I Hellas. FR 1909. PC: Pathé. Starring Stacia Napierkowska. 4 min. - Ancient Greek dance scene. Finnish premiere 30 Aug 1909. See below.
2. SERIE VENETIENNE DE PLAQUES AUTOCHROME
Venice, Reine de l'Adriatique. FR 1912. PC: Gaumont. Widescreen (ca 1:2), Tricromia colour. 3 min. - Venetian scenes very beautifully photographed, composed, and in pleasant colours. From Archives Gaumont-Pathé.
3. M. LE BARGY, LECTURE DE VERS D'EDMOND ROSTAND
Benoît Constant Coquelin dans Cyrano de Bergerac. FR 1900. PC: Phono-Cinéma Théâtre. Starring Ainé Coquelin, Desjardin. With synchronized sound. 2 min. Digibeta, alas. Print: Lobster. - A very moving scene from the legendary original performance of Edmond Rostand's play.
La Valse chaloupée. [A scene from L'Empreinte.] FR 1908. PC: Le Film d'Art. D: Paul Henry Burguet. Starring Mistinguett, Max Dearly. 2 min. Print: AFF / CNC. - A startling performance by the stars of the Moulin Rouge.
L'Empreinte / L'Empreinte ou la Main Rouge. FR 1908. PC: Le Film d'Art. D: Paul Henry Burguet. Based on the pantomime Conscience. Starring Gaston Severin (Pierrot). Print: AFF / CNC. 14 min. - A "mimodrame cinématographique" on the murderer Pierrot's rise into high society, his nightmare, and the voice of his conscience.

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CATALOGO

PROGRAMMA 12 / PROGRAMME 12: VISIONS DU RÉEL – VISIONS D’ART

Popular Opposites: High and Low

Film historians watch films to school themselves in belle epoque cinematography; if they choose a ‘panoptic perspective’ (A. Gaudreault), they can place the cinematic images within the synchronic panorama of belle epoque cultural production in their ‘cultural order’, linking them with photography, music hall, painting and juvenile literature.

Conversely, cinematography transports current contents, fashions and imaginations. When looking at the films made in 1907, I was struck by the genuinely looming presence of hunger and poverty in the scènes dramatiques (think of La lutte pour la vie and Le bagne des gosses); this inspired the first part of the programme. An image as unforgettable as a photograph: the old woman in the yard of the dog shelter (where the rich lady visits to choose a dog).

Given our experience nowadays, when media mix, scarcely an opera production dispenses with the projection of moving images on stage and the most interesting theatre directors have their actors dance silently one moment and sing a cappella the next, we would not make a bad audience for the historic gala premiere of L’assassinat du Duc de Guise on 17 November 1908 at the Salle Charras. It consisted of filmed dances in the fashionable ancient Greek style (Le secret de Myrto) to a poème musicale by Bérardi, a “Venetian Series” of projected autochrome images with music by Scarlatti and Monteverdi, the recitation of a poem by Rostand illustrated with a (filmed) pantomime and the two films L’empreinte ou la main rouge (“mimodrame cinématographique”) and L’assassinat du Duc de Guise (“Piece cinématographique”), each accompanied by original compositions. Both films rely on body performance. Alongside the mime Gaston Séverin, who plays the leading role of Pierrot, the highlights of L’empreinte are the valse chaloupée by the music-hall stars Mistinguette and Max Dearly (who had been causing a sensation with this Apache dance at the Moulin Rouge since 27 July 1908) and the performance of the dancer Stacia Napierkowska. The tension and coherence of L’assassinat du Duc de Guise are rooted in the powerful presence of Charles Le Bargy as the black perpetrator and Albert Lambert as his white victim; the quality of the performance is immediately apparent to us. Thankfully, film historians have stopped measuring the quality of a film by the number of shots and the movement of the camera.

Mariann Lewinsky

Visions du réel

MARCHÉ AU VILLAGE ! FRANCIA, 1908 ! PROD.: THEOPHILE PATHÉ ! 35 MM. L.: 94 M. D.: 5’ A 16 F/S. COL ! DA: CNC-ARCHIVES FRANÇAISES DU FILM

L’ENFANCE CHARITABLE ! FRANCIA, 1908 ! PROD.: GAUMONT ! 35 MM. L.: 111 M. D.: 6’ A 16 F/S. BN ! DA: CNC-ARCHIVES FRANÇAISES DU FILM

A DAY IN A DOG’S HOME ! FRANCIA, 1908 ! PROD.: PATHÉ ! 35 MM. L.: 50 M. D.: 2’44’’ A 16 F/S. BN ! DA: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE

CLIFF CLIMBING; THE EGG HARVEST OF FLAMBOROUGH HEAD ! GRAN BRETAGNA, 1908 ! PROD.: CRICKS AND MARTIN ! 35 MM. L.: 132 M. D.: 7’ A 16 F/S. BN ! DA: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE

NOCE EN BRETAGNE ! FRANCIA, 1908 ! PROD.: PATHÉ ! 35 MM. L.: 153 M. D.: 5’ A 24 F/S. BN ! DA: CNC-ARCHIVES FRANÇAISES DU FILM

LE CULTURE DES HUÎTRES ! FRANCIA, 1908 ! PROD.: PATHÉ ! 35 MM. L.: 127 M. D.: 7’ A 16 F/S ! DA: BFI NATIONAL ARCHIVE

ICH HABE KEINEN FRACK ! FRANCIA, 1908 ! PROD.: PATHÈ ! 35 MM. L.: 135 M. D.: 7’22’’ A 16 F/S. BN E IMBIBITO. DIDASCALIE TEDESCHE / GERMAN INTERTITLES ! DA: DEUTSCHE KINEMATHEK ! RESTAURATO NEL 2008 PRESSO L’IMMAGINE RITROVATA A PARTIRE DA UN POSITIVO NITRATO IMBIBITO / RESTORED IN 2008 AT L’IMMAGINE RITROVATA FROM A TINTED NITRATE PRINT

Visions d’art (Salle Charras, 17.11. 1908) : 

1. Le secret de Myrto (Régina Badet)

DANS L’HELLADE ! FRANCIA, 1909 ! INT.: STACIA NAPIERKOWSKA; PROD.: PATHÉ ! 35 MM. L.: 74 M. D.: 3’30’’ A 18 F/S. BN ! DA: NEDERLANDS FILMMUSEUM

2: Série vénetienne de plaques autochrome:

VENICE, REINE DE L’ADRIATIQUE ! FRANCIA, 1912 ! PROD.: GAUMONT ! 35 MM. D.: 3’. TRICROMIA ! DA: ARCHIVES GAUMONT-PATHÉ

3: M. Le Bargy, lecture de vers d’Edmond Rostand

BENOÎT CONSTANT COQUELIN DANS CYRANO DE BERGERAC ! FRANCIA, 1900 REGIA: CLÉMENT MAURICE ! PROD.: PHONO-CINEMA THÉÂTRE; INT.: AINÉ COQUELIN, DESJARDIN ! DIGIBETA. D.: 2’. COL ! DA: LOBSTER FILMS

LA VALSE CHALOUPÉE ! FRANCIA, 1908 REGIA: PAUL HENRY BURGUET ! ESTRATTO DA: L’EMPREINTE OU LA MAIN ROUGE; INT.: MISTINGUETT, MAX DEARLY; PROD.: LE FILM D’ART ! 35 MM. L.: 51 M. D.: 2’ A 18 F/S. COL ! DA: CNC-ARCHIVES FRANÇAISES DU FILM 

L’EMPREINTE OU LA MAIN ROUGE ! FRANCIA, 1908 REGIA: PAUL HENRY BURGUET ! SOG.: DALLA PANTOMIMA “CONSCIENCE”; INT.: GASTON SÉVERIN (PIERROT), MAX DEARLY, MISTINGUETT, STACIA NAPIERKOWSKA, HENRI ETIÉVANT, ALBERT DIEUDONNÉ; PROD.: LE FILM D’ART ! 35 MM. L.: 265 M. D.: 14’ A 16 F/S. BN ! DA: CNC-ARCHIVES FRANÇAISES DU FILM

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR ! FRANCIA, 1908 ! FONOSCENA CANTATA DA: ENRICO CARUSO, MARCELLA SEMBRICH; PROD.: GEORGES MENDEL ! 35 MM. L.: 118 M. D.: 4’18’’ A 24 F/S. BN ! DA: LOBSTER FILMS