1897. Cinema anno due [5]: Joly-Normandin: Maggio 1897: Proiezioni al Teatro D. Maria Pia di Funchal /1897. Year Two of Cinematography [5]: Joly-Normandin: May 1897: Screenings at the Teatro D. Maria Pia di Funchal (2005 restoration Cinemateca Portuguesa)

Creanças no Bosque de Vincennes / Enfants au bois. Director: [Henri Joly]. 1896. Photo cropped to Academy from the original "cadre plus grand en hauteur" of the five-sprocket Joly-Normandin frame.

1897. Cinema anno due [5]: Joly-Normandin: Maggio 1897: Proiezioni al Teatro D. Maria Pia di Funchal
1897. Year Two of Cinematography [5]: Joly-Normandin: May 1897: Screenings at the Teatro D. Maria Pia di Funchal

Introduce Camille Blot-Wellens
Grand piano: Gabriel Thibaudeau
From: Cinemateca Portuguesa.
Restored in 2005 in 35 mm by Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema e Filmoteca Española, with the support of Photographia Museu Vincentes (Funchal, Madeira).
No intertitles.
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna
Sala Mastroianni, 28 June 2017

Camille Blot-Wellens (Il Cinema Ritrovato): "Amongst the numerous cinematographic devices that circulated in 1896 figures the Cinématographe perfectionné, patented by Henri Joly on March 17, 1896 and marketed by Ernest Normandin beginning in the autumn of 1896. Presented as “the only one which doesn’t damage films” and “without any vibration or flickering”, what later became known as the Cinématographe Joly-Normandin seduced several exhibitors in France and abroad (United States, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal) despite its peculiar square format (35mm, five perforations per frame)."

"Unfortunately for Henri Joly and Ernest Normandin, their cinematograph was the one used the day when the terrible fire at the Bazar de la Charité occurred in Paris on May 4, 1897. Even if it was acknowledged that the cinematograph was not the origin of the fire, it seems nevertheless to have made life difficult for their apparatus and led the two engineers to change the name of the device."

"No catalogue of films made with the Joly-Normandin system seems to have survived, but we can state with some certainty that (at least) a hundred films were made with this system, most of these shot before the Bazar de la Charité disaster."

"Thanks to several collections that rediscovered in Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, about sixty films produced with their system have been identified and preserved."

"The most important collection (forty-two films) comes from the Cinemateca Portuguesa which, in 2005, received as a deposit from the Photographia – Museu Vincentes the collection of João Anacleto Rodrigues, a businessman and amateur photographer from Funchal (Madeira), who purchased a cinématographe Joly-Normandin in March 1897. Between May and December the same year, he organized sessions in Funchal and in the archipelago."

"In this collection not only films were saved, but also original programmes, such as those from the first screenings organized in mid-May 1897 at the Teatro D. Maria Pia of Funchal." Camille Blot-Wellens (Il Cinema Ritrovato)

1. Chegada d’um comboio à gare de Bel-Air [arrivée d’un train]. Director: [Henri Joly]. Year: 1896-1897. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1' - AA: Pordenone number 36.

2. Sahida da igreja de Notre-dame-des-victoires / Sortie de l’église Notre-Dame-des-Victoires. Director: [Henri Joly]. Year: 1896. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1' - AA: Pordenone number 3.

3. O mar em Dieppe / La Mer a Dieppe. Director: Ernest Normandin. Year: 1896. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1'. - AA: Pordenone number 13.

4. O Jardineiro / L’Arroseur arrosé. Director: [Henri Joly]. Year: 1896. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1'. - AA: Pordenone number 2.

5. Hussards inglezes, desfilando / The 13th Hussars on the March Throughout Dublin Streets. Year: 1897. Country: Irlanda. Lenght: 1' - AA: Pordenone number 39.

6. Dança hespanhola / Danse espagnole. Director: Eugène Pirou. Year: 1896-1897. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1' - AA: Pordenone number 34.

7. Assalto ao boxe / Assaut de boxe entre deux champions de Joinville. Director: Henri Joly. Year: 1896. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1' - AA: Pordenone number 14.

8. Oficina de ferreiros / Les forgerons. Director: Eugène Pirou. Year: 1896. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1'. - AA: Pordenone number 24.

9. Creanças no Bosque de Vincennes / Enfants au bois. Director: [Henri Joly]. Year: 1896. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1'. - AA: Pordenone number 5.

10. Avenida do Bosque de Boulogne e Arco do Triumpho / Avenue du Bois de Boulogne. Year: 1896. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1'. - AA: Pordenone number 25.

11. Carga de dragões / Charge oblique. Director: Eugène Pirou. Year: 1896. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1'. - AA: Pordenone number 27.

12. A prisão d’um ébrio / [Scène d'ivrogne]. Year: 1896?. Country: Francia. Lenght: 1'. - AA: Pordenone number 29.

AA: These fascinating views were also included in the magnificent Joly-Normandin program at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in 2013, where I blogged about all of them. Before the pioneering Sagarmínaga and Joly-Normandin shows seen since 2005 it was almost impossible to see these beautiful films because of their special format and aspect ratio with "un cadre plus grand en hauteur".

The great privilege in this Bologna show was being able to view an original cinema programme of 1897: the variety of subjects from the archetypal arrivals of trains, showered gardeners and surging seascapes to fictional crime scenes, Spanish dancers, blacksmiths, and boxing champions.

Enfants au bois (1896), D: [Henri Joly?]; filmed: summer 1896; 35 mm, 15.4 m. (Rodrigues: Creanças no Bosque de Vincennes; Sagarmínaga: La familia / Los niños). Photo in the Joly-Normandin aspect ratio. Photo: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (2013).