[Albanie. Proclamation du Roi Zogou 1er]

[Albanie. Proclamation du Roi Zogou 1er] (FR 1928).

(FR 1928) prod: Pathé-Gaumont-Métro-Actualités. copia/copy: DCP, 1'32"; did./titles: FRA. fonte/source: Gaumont-Pathé Archives, Saint-Ouen, Paris.
    Grand piano: Donald Sosin.
    Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Serata inaugurale: Ruritania 2, 7 Oct 2023

Jay Weissberg (GCM 2023): " On the cover of the paperback edition of Jason Tomes’ excellent King Zog. Self-Made Monarch of Albania (2003) is an endorsement from popular historian Simon Sebag Montefiore: “Utterly exotic, gripping, magnificent.” Exotic? Why is an Albanian king “exotic,” when the word would never be used for his French or German counterpart? The question lies at the heart of this exploration of Balkan royals, who were frequently treated in their day as orientalized hothouse ornaments and now dismissed as quaint yet irrelevant characters from some forgotten operetta. King Zog of Albania, the only Muslim royal in 20th-century Europe, was a flawed leader who tried and failed to play the game of realpolitik with far more powerful neighbors just when fascism extended its grip to the east. If he’s “exotic,” it’s because that’s how the world treated the Balkans, even its former overlords. When Mustapha Kemal Atatürk heard about Zog’s self-promotion to the title “king,” he reportedly asked a diplomat, “What’s going on in Albania? Are you performing an operetta?” "

" Ahmed Bey Zogolli (1895-1961) was descended from north Albanian chieftains, and maternally the great Albanian hero Gjergi Kastrioti Skanderbeg. First educated in Bitola and then Istanbul, he was a mere 19 and the chieftain of Mati when he swore allegiance to Prince Wilhelm of Wied (some say thanks to Austrian gold), but like everyone else soon abandoned that hopeless cause. Following a brief inglorious stint in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I he spent time in Vienna, where he added German and tango dancing to his list of accomplishments. Returning to Albania in 1919, he involved himself in the politics of his newly independent nation, rising to Prime Minister before being elected as President Zogu in 1925. As the leader of a small country frequently riven by feuds and beholden to its neighbors, Zogu brought fierce ambition and a flair for the theatrical, leading to his assuming the mantle of King of the Albanians on 1 September 1928. "

" It’s been suggested that Zog took Wilhelm’s uniform for his investiture, but clearly that’s not the case: Zog’s is whiter, with significantly more decorative frogging and a rather extraordinary set of white leather boots. Hergé admitted to having Zog in mind when he was conceiving the 1938 Tintin adventure Le Sceptre d’Ottokar (King Ottokar’s Sceptre), set in Syldavia, but even he didn’t go quite as far as his model. Ironically, it was said that Zog ordered his glamorous sisters, the Princesses Adile, Nafije, Senije, Myzejen, Ruhije, and Maxhide, not to be photographed too often in Albanian national dress, for fear that foreigners would be reminded of The Merry Widow. As Tomes writes, “The outside world had never taken Albania very seriously, but King Zog would have been the last person to realise that the sudden elevation of a spivvy-looking man with a bizarre name had not helped.” "

" This fragmentary newsreel contains a final intertitle, “Mesdames, il ne manque plus qu’une Reine.” (“Ladies, all that’s missing is a Queen.”); given the unwillingness of Europe’s royal families to align themselves with the upstart Muslim house of Zogu, it took ten years for the king to find a wife, but in 1938 he finally married the Hungarian Countess Géraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony (1915-2002). They had one son, Leka, born just two days before his parents were forced into exile by Mussolini’s army; he became an arms dealer in South Africa and reportedly displayed his wares even at society events. " – Jay Weissberg

AA: A Gaumont newsreel item showing King Zog I of Albania inspecting his troops and greeting cheering crowds of his people. It is amusing to register the Le Sceptre d'Ottokar and The Merry Widow connections mentioned by Jay Weissberg in his program note. The footage is duped, and the DCP is far removed from the camera original.