1900 Anno Cinque: Gaumont Chrono de Poche (2020 restoration in 4K of seventy home movies on 15 mm by Giancarlo Stucky)

 

Giancarlo Stucky: Ring a Ring o’ Roses on the Beach (Gaumont Chrono de Poche home movie n. 11, IT 1900). Bologna 2020 digital transfer from 15 mm.

 
Gaumont Chrono de Poche Home Movies
IT 1900. Director: Giancarlo Stucky. 45 min
    Bologna: Il Cinema Ritrovato (2020): Century of Cinema: 1900 / Il secolo del cinema: 1900 – I fantastici Stucky
    DCP from Cineteca Bologna
    Restored in 4K in 2020 by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, from original 15 mm and 9,5 mm prints held by Rosanna Chiggiato.
    Accompagnamento alla batteria de Frank Bockius e all'arpa di Eduardo Raon.
    Viewed at Teatro Comunale di Bologna, 30 Aug 2020.

Andrea Meneghelli (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020): "If taken as a compact body of work that needs no cutting or mending, Stucky’s films remind us that memory is splintered, visionary, diaphanous and intermittent. Close your eyes for a memory. Open them. Close them again for another. Or vice versa. Stucky’s images are revelations of a memory we thought foreign but suddenly we perceive as our own. Hanging from a trembling thread that looks like it could break at any moment, seemingly fragile, exhausted and yet so precise, sharp and uplifting. Stucky’s shots are dizzyingly dense. There is no hierarchy or distinction between centre, background and contour. Each detail is an allusion, a potential spell. Even the small gesture of a hand that reaches a hat, a twisting wind, a small foot rising, a merry-go-round in the distance. You could watch them again and again, and each time you would see a new ghost, a new story to lose yourself in. Stucky’s films make us aware of the presence of the movie camera. We see it in the quick comic sketches staged here and there by the kids at home, a constant attraction to that black hole called a lens, where eyes often land with joyful or stealthy glances. Two ragged little girls sitting in front of the doorway even imitate the actions of filmmaking, that turning of the hand that seizes the cameraman’s crank, visible and invisible all at once. It’s a game of reflexes. What’s in that box? And what’s outside of it? In Stucky’s world two themes reappear constantly: children and water. We suspect they have a powerful, hidden and reciprocal force of attraction. They are pictures in motion from a time that cinema can make move in any direction. You throw yourself in as a challenge to the abyss, in a moment that stops the world and makes it explode in splatters. Some knowledge of the facts helps, of course. Giancarlo Stucky (1881–1941) was a descendant of Giovanni, the ‘mill king’, Venice’s own Scrooge McDuck. In 1900, at the Paris Exposition, young Giancarlo was enchanted by the Gaumont-Demenÿ Chrono de Poche, the first amateur cinematograph (15 mm with centre perforation), and he got himself one. At home he started filming scenes of family life, city views, fishermen’s boats, moments of everyday life, parties, markets, work and leisure, rich people and proletarians… Today, a little more than 70 of his lightning films, which run about 30 seconds each, survive. Andrea Meneghelli" (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020)

[Scene, at School (n. 01);

Villa Exterior, Children Playing and Maids (n. 02);

Villa Exterior, Children and a Little Airplane (n. 03);

On the Street, Children Carding Wool (n. 04);

Diving from the Pier (n. 05);

Women Chatting on a Vaporetto and Children Sitting on a Pole (n. 06);

In the Square, Children and Passersby (n. 07);

In the Garden, Woman with Baby and Woman Spinning (n. 08);

Children and Chocolate (n. 09);

Girl Winding the Crank (n. 10);

Ring a Ring o’ Roses on the Beach (n. 11);

Girls and Chickens (n. 12);

Trieste, Carriages on Riva Tre Novembre (n. 13);

Bath in Tub and Candies (n. 14);

Bath in Tub, One Girl Washes Another (n. 15);

Canal Grande, Gondolas and Vaporetto (n. 16);

The Letter (n. 17);

Vacationers on the Lido (n. 18);

Kites and Roller Skates (n. 19);

Vegetable Shopping at the Market (n. 20);

Children’s Games on the Lido (n. 21);

In the Garden, a Magazine and Small Flowers (n. 22);

In the Lagoon, on a Stairwell (n. 23);

Scene, the Suffering Artist (n. 24);

Rowboat on the Canal (n. 25);

Comings and Goings in St. Mark’s Square (n. 26-1);

Girls in Giudecca, Ponte Lungo in the Background (n. 27-1);

Scene, the Contested Object (n. 29);

Religious Procession on Pontoon Bridge (n. 30);

Gondola and Vaporetto from Riva degli Schiavoni (n. 32);

Diving from the Ponte Lungo Fondamenta (n. 33);

Girl and Pigeons (n. 34);

Rowboat on Rio del Ponte Lungo (n. 37);

On the Island of Torcello (n. 38);

Boat Docking, Arsenal in the Background (n. 39);

Children Filling a Bucket at Campo San Piero di Castello (n. 40);

Scene, You Can’t Sleep in Peace! (n. 36-2);

Rough Sea and Passersby on a Bridge (n. 41);

Sailboat at the Dock (n. 42);

Throwing Shrubs in Giudecca (n. 43);

Men Working on Docked Boats in Giudecca (n. 45);

Coal Load (n. 46);

The Puppet (n. 47);

Children and Rabbits (n. 50);

A Boat Trip (n. 51);

Fishing Boats and Vaporetto (n. 53);

A Large Boat Pulling a Small One (n. 54);

Playing with the Cat (n. 56);

The Pontoon and the Rough Sea (n. 57);

Fishing (n. 58);

Passersby on a Bridge and Vaporetto (n. 60);

Children at the Pond (n. 61);

Children and Pigeons in St. Mark’s Square (n. 62);

Little Washerwoman, Skipping Rope, Lace, Coal and Chocolate (n. 63);

Leisure Time on a Tree-lined Avenue (n. 66);

Line of Oxen (n. 67);

Five Women on the Beach (n. 68);

Scene, Catch the Thief, Catch the Thieves! (n. 69-2);

Girls and the Little Washerwoman (n. 70);

A Busy Street (n. 71-1);

Draught Horses (n. 72);

Merry-go-rounds, Skipping Rope and Snowballs (n. 73);

Children and Lace (n. 74);

Children at the Fountain (n. 75);

Splashing Water and Children (n. 76);

Comings and Goings on Fondamenta de Canaregio (n. 77);

Breaking Waves (n. 78);

Washerwomen on the Shore (n. 52-2);

Sea Waves Crashing on Rocks (n. 79);

Elegant Ladies and Children at the Park (n. 82);

Children Feeding Chickens (n. 83);

Children at the Edge of a Pond (n. 84);

Children Sitting on the Street with a Wicker Basket (n. 85);

A Girl Embroidering (n. 88);

Children Throwing Stones in the Sea (n. 89);

Children Skipping Rope (n. 90-1);

Fishing Boats (n. 91);

Girls Skipping Rope (n. 90-2)]


AA: Many early cinema views belong to the realm of the home movies, such as those private views of the Lumière brothers that were not intended for public showing.

But the Chrono de Poche by Gaumont-Demenÿ was the first home movie format proper.

A collection such as this marvellous Giancarlo Stucky cycle has been very hard to view because of the rare gauge of 15 mm and the special perforation in the middle.

Now a restoration has been achieved by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata, and a rich and vivid survey of the world around Anno 1900 comes to life again.

We see many views of children at play guarded by mothers and nurses, pranks by children, children with rabbits, beautiful gardens, visions of Venice, Piazza San Marco, huge flocks of sparrows, gondolas, boat rides, sailboats, huge waves, seaside promenades, fishermen untangling their nets, shopping at the market, tying garlands, and visiting a Punch and Judy show.

Mostly upper class life is documented, but also children of poor families washing clothes are seen, also skipping the rope and playing in the boats. Children are also seen playing with snow and by a hydrant. Stucky also records the bustle of the city, and a gorgeous car parking. Five poor children have a lot of fun with a wicker basket. Children are also seen embroidering. Boys throw stones into the water by the sea. Skipping the rope is a favourite subject.

There are no title frames in the movies. The subject listing above, published by the Festival, is very valuable in identifying the rich variety of children's plays documented in this collection.

The musical interpretation by Frank Bockius at the percussions and Eduardo Raon at the harp completed and enriched this unique experience memorably.