Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A Hundred Years Ago: Programme 7: A Thrill Is Born

Cento anni fa: Programma 7: Nascita del giallo. Programme and notes by Mariann Lewinsky. Wednesday 29 June 2011 at 18.15, Cinema Lumière - Sala Officinema / Mastroianni (Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato). Earphone commentary in Italian and English. Grand piano: Neil Brand. Presenta Mariann Lewinsky.

Catalogue: "Thanks to the breakthrough of Victorin Jasset’s Zigomar, the Danish film Gar-el-hama and Pathé’s Nick Winter (comedy) series, 1911 can go down in cinema history as the year of the crime thriller. The genealogy however goes further back, to a 1903 stage production, a mimodrame entitled La Main, by Henry Bérény (music) and Charlotte Wiehe (mime). This spawned a film version of the show (La Main 1908, Le Film d’Art, with Charlotte Wiehe and Max Dearly) and several other films, including Flirt dangereux (1911) and Le Visiteur (1911), with the dancer Polaire (who also starred in a mime show with the same title for the stage), as well as two films by Albert Capellani, L’Homme aux gants blancs (1908, in our first programme) and L'Épouvante (1911, programmed in Capellani’s retrospective last year). [Film cancelled: Our programme pairs The Lonedale Operator – the classic montage, cross-cutting and last-minute-rescue film – with a comparable European example], the suspenseful Un cri dans la nuit, by Victorin Jasset. Contrasted with these is a group of films in which no montage is used in the creation of suspense. Quite the contrary. Here tension is created by the expressiveness of the mime: to be effective it needs very long shots, preferably with no cuts.""

PARTE 1: MADRE MONTAGGIO / PART 1: MOTHER MONTAGE

UN CRI DANS LA NUIT / [the title of the print:] Un grito en la noche. FR 1911. D: Victorin Jasset. SC: Victorin Jasset; Op.: Ravet; Cast: Charles Krauss, André Liabel, Paul Guiché, Marcel Vibert, Marise Dauvray, Cécile Guyon; P: Éclair. 35 mm. 217 m. 12’ a 18 fps. B&w. Intertítulos en español. From: Národní Filmový Archiv. - AA: A thriller. A huge trap is set in the forest. The hunters set forth with their hounds. The night falls, and there is a horrible cry: "Help! Help!" A tramp has fallen into the trap. The hunters save him.

NICK WINTER ET L’AFFAIRE DU CÉLÈBRIC HÔTEL. FR 1911. [PC: Pathé Frères. D: Gérard Bourgeois]. Cast: Georges Vinter, Jacques Normand (il complice), Jacques Vandenne (il padrone). 35 mm. 147 m. 8’ a 16 fps. B&w. Didascalie italiane. From: Cineteca di Bologna. - AA: Thriller / action. A cat burglar hides in a trunk with a double bottom, but the cunning Nick Winter solves the case donning a disguise and hiding in the trunk himself. There is a fine sense of humour in the brisk rhythm of the action.* Print based on a Pathé Kok source, with a duped look, even a photocopy look.

[cancelled: THE LONEDALE OPERATOR. US 1911. D.W. Griffith.]

PARTE 2: PADRE PANTOMIMA / PART 2: FATHER PANTOMIME

LA MAIN. FR 1908. Mimodramma di Henry Bérény; Cast: Wiehe (la ballerina), Coquet (l’amico), Max Dearly (il furfante); P: Film d’Art; Distr.: Pathé Frêres (No. 2603). 35 mm. 252 m. 12’ a 18 fps. B&w. Intertitres français. From: CNC Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: A thriller. A fine film with a pantomime approach. A beautiful print.

[cancelled: FLIRT DANGEREUX. FR 1911.]

[added:] L’HOMME AUX GANTS BLANCS. FR 1908. D: Albert Capellani. SC: Georges Docquois; Cast: Marguerite Brésil, Henri Desfontaine, Jacques Grétillat; P: S.C.A.G.L. (Pathé No. 2588). 35 mm. L. or.: 310 m. B&w. Intertitres français. From: Cineteca di Bologna, La Cinémathèque française, EYE Film Instituut Nederland, Lobster Films. Restored in 2011 thanks to a grant by Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, combining 35 mm e 28 mm elements. - AA: A thriller. Brisk action conducted like a ballet, with a delicious sense of the pantomime. A Jan Olsson moment: a wonderful triple screen telephone scene (two persons and a road between). The print is based on sources of variable quality. The night sequence should be in blue.

LE VISITEUR / [the title of the print:] Das Angstgefühl. FR 1911. D: René Leprince, Albert Capellani. Cast: Polaire, Georges Tréville, Georges Baud, Thalès, Cécile Barré. P: S.C.A.G.L.; Distr.: Pathé Frêres (No. 619). 35 mm. 265 m. 16’ a 16 fps. Pochoir. Deutsche Zwischentitel. From: Deutsches Institut für Filmkunde. - AA: A thriller, a tragedy. "I will become your wife only if you can make me feel fear." No attempt of the man is successful. But then there is a real burglar who stabs the man. Uncanny moments. * A print with beautiful colour effects.

ROBINET INNAMORATO DI UNA CHANTEUSE. IT 1911. D: Marcel Fabre. DP: Giovanni Vitrotti; Cast: Marcel Fabre (Robinet), Gigetta Morano; P: Ambrosio. 35 mm. 146 m. 7’ a 18 fps. B&w. Nederlandse tussentitels. From: EYE Film Instituut Nederland. - AA: A comedy. Slapstick at the music hall. On Robinet's way to meet the singer there is an assault and robbery on Robinet, and his clothes are taken. Ok.

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