The Rat (1925)

Ivor Novello as The Rat. Photo: BFI National Archive, London

Ivor Novello as The Rat. Photo: BFI National Archive, London

Pariisin rotta / (Il sorcio di Parigi)
    (Gainsborough Pictures – GB 1925) D: Graham Cutts; P: Michael Balcon; SC: Graham Cutts, from the play by “David L’Estrange” [Ivor Novello, Constance Collier] (1924); DP: Hal Young; AD: C. Wilfred Arnold;
    C: Ivor Novello (Pierre Boucheron, The Rat), Mae Marsh (Odile), Isabel Jeans (Zélie de Chaumet), James Lindsay (Detective-Inspector Caillard), Marie Ault (Mère Colline), Julie Suedo (Mou-Mou), Robert Scholz (Hermann Stetz), Esme FitzGibbon (Madeline), Hugh Brooke (Paul), Lambart Glasby (America), Iris Grey (Rose), The Tiller Girls (Folies-Bergère dancers);
    filmed: 5-6.1925; trade show: 7.9.1925 (Alhambra Theatre, London); première: 6.12.1925 (New Gallery Kinema, London); orig. l: 7325 ft.; 35 mm, 5820 ft, 78' (20 fps), b&w + col.; titles: ENG; print source: BFI National Archive, London.
    Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.
    Viewed at Teatro Verdi, with e-subtitles in Italian, grand piano: John Sweeney, 9 Oct 2015

Geoff Brown (GCM catalog and website): "Though a British feature of modest ambition, securely based on a popular play, Graham Cutts’ production of The Rat has a lineage and resonance not always matched by the more obviously “significant” product of the 1920s. One of its godfathers, albeit an unwitting one, was D. W. Griffith: Ivor Novello, the film’s star and progenitor, partly developed its story on the rebound from playing the anguished, guilt-riddled clergyman in Griffith’s The White Rose (1923). B ac k in Britain, Novello was anxious to plunge into a role that allowed him to be devilishly dangerous and charming, and show off his magnetic allure: hence the Parisian “Apache” Pierre Boucheron, alias the Rat, a character first aired in public in 1924 in the theatrical version created by Novello and Constance Collier."

"Another figure lurking in the film’s background is Rudolph Valentino, who tussled hard for the play’s film rights just as Cutts’ production for Gainsborough got underway in the spring of 1925. Gainsborough stood its ground and Cutts forged ahead, importing Mae Marsh, Novello’s White Rose co-star, to portray the Rat’s worshipful young ward Odile, whose innocence falls nastily under threat from a lecherous German villain. Griffith’s former heroine plays the role with her usual impetuous naturalism, which even lends an endearing note to the scene where the Rat force-feeds her bacon. Trade reviews were universally positive when the film emerged: the Kinematograph Weekly said, “If any ingredient is lacking to make this a first-class popular picture, we cannot think what it can be.”"

"Given Cutts’ cramped pigeonhole in history as the Hitchcock mentor outclassed by his pupil, spectators might wonder where the Great Alfred is here. Physically Hitchcock is nowhere: during production Cutts’ former assistant was abroad, making his first feature, The Pleasure Garden, in Munich. On the evidence of the visual sweep and bustle of The Rat, Cutts got along easily without him. A visionary shot conjuring a guillotine aside, The Rat is not a drama of much psychological depth; yet as a display of surface attractions, confidently delivered, the film remains continuously plausible and engaging. Contemporary press reports made much of the serpentine travels of Hal Young’s camera, mounted on a platform, moving along rails – something hailed as a “new technical device”. It was hardly that in 1925; but the dollying camera certainly gives extra life and fluidity to the scenes in Montmartre’s “White Coffin”, a night-club locale instantly memorable with its coffin-shaped apertures, split-level floors, and riff-raff clientele."

"The cast play a major part in the film’s parade of pleasures. Profile to the fore, with generous make-up applied round lips and eyes, Novello exudes exceptional charisma in a role custom-made to showcase the thrills of knife fights, the warmth of his smile, and the wonder of his soulful eyes. Mae Marsh’s performance is winningly emotional, but brief compared to the space allotted the slumming aristocrat Zélie, so decoratively portrayed by Isabel Jeans. In British cinema of the time, none could beat Jeans at extending an elegant arm or lying suggestively on a sofa, cradled in cushions and pearls. At such moments, Cutts reveals a trait that he passed on to Hitchcock: making the camera and spectator voyeurs. Cutts’ fondness for suggestive spectacle also appears in the fascinating Folies-Bergère footage, shot on the spot, and the dazzling opening display of Montmartre’s electric lights. With images like that and the street locations it’s easy to feel that we’re in the authentic Paris, not locked in a London studio next to a canal. After The Rat, Cutts made two sequels, weaker and stiffer, though with points of interest; then producer Herbert Wilcox stepped in with a remake in 1937. He needn’t have bothered. This is the Rat to watch, to learn from, and above all enjoy." – Geoff Brown

AA: Ivor Novello was a unique songwriter, composer, and actor still known today for the Ivor Novello Award for songwriters. Novello features as a character in Robert Altman's Gosford Park on whose soundtrack many of his songs are heard. I know Novello's performances as an actor in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger and Downhill and in D. W. Griffith's The White Rose. From the Griffith production Novello brought with him Mae Marsh, a true Griffith veteran who had starred in The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance but had also already worked with Graham Cutts in Flames of Passion and Paddy the Next Best Thing. Isabel Jeans repeated her stage role as the woman who has seen it all; she was already an experienced actress of the stage but only at the beginning of a long film career including several roles for Alfred Hitchcock (starting with Downhill and Easy Virtue) and Vincente Minnelli's Gigi. The German veteran Robert Scholz had worked with Graham Cutts in his previous film, Die Prinzessin und der Geiger / The Blackguard. As Geoff Brown says above, it is good now to see a film of Cutts without Hitchcock with whom he had worked in his five previous films.

Let's state for the sake of fairness that Hitchcock has been obviously influenced by Graham Cutts's The Rat at least in The Lodger, Downhill, and Easy Virtue, but also still in Blackmail. It is interesting to compare the attempted rape sequences of The Rat and Blackmail and especially the performances of the characters played by Mae Marsh and Anny Ondra, both deeply shattered both by the rape attempt and the killing of the potential rapist with a knife. Here it is Pierre Boucheron "The Rat" (Ivor Novello) who saves Odile (Mae Marsh) by killing Hermann Stetz (Robert Scholz) but the police suspects Odile who is arrested and acquitted first in the conclusion.

The Rat is a Jazz Age drama incorporating aspects of Belle Époque fictions about the Parisian underworld. Spectacular centerpieces include a showy knife-fight and an electrifying Apache dance. Two days ago in Pordenone we saw similar scenes parodied in Louis Feuillade's comedy Bébé apache (1910) made 15 years earlier. Already then films were made of high society folks "slumming" in underworld hangouts, just like the decadent Hermann Stetz and Zélie de Chaumet do here. "The bored woman looked at her luxurious world and found it wanting". The account is impressive but perhaps just a little bit tired with dialogue such as "Absinthe at once". Settings include a dubious Montmartre hangout called The Coffin and the legendary Folies-Bergère with gorgeous spectacles of nude female flesh and bare breasts. The show culminates with a view of an almost naked woman climbing on top of the golden calf.

The film is star-driven, based on a legendary performance by Ivor Novello, himself a characteristic Twenties figure, to be compared with Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro, Enrique Rivero, and, in Finland, Teuvo Tulio. The nickname "The Rat" is based on the fact that the master burglar Pierre Boucheron knows how to move in the sewers of Paris. (Not a cat burglar but a rat burglar. Hitchcock associations run also to To Catch a Thief, starring Cary Grant, also set in France). Novello is seductive and androgynous, powdered and lipsticked, irresistible to women. Together with Odile they are "driftwood on life's ocean". But they are not nearly as dangerous as Stetz, a ruthless and vampire-like sexual predator. Rather, they are characterized as "only a couple of kids".

As always, the performance of Mae Marsh is startlingly plain and anti-glamorous, here in contrast to the powdered male lead, the vampiric predator and the decadent Zélie.

The cinematography of Hal Young has obviously been influenced by the contemporary German revelations of Karl Freund in films such as Der letzte Mann. (Varieté was released in the same year as The Rat). His previous film Graham Cutts had made in Babelsberg with Theodor Sparkuhl, and he had first hand know-how of how Germans did it.

There is a beautiful toning (including blue) in this print which seems to be based on sometimes worn and battered sources but providing a very enjoyable general overall visual experience.

Beginnings of the Western Prog. 3: Early Cowboy and Cowgirl Films

Brinsley Shaw and Gladys Field in The Sheriff's Chum. At first, he is the nice guy. Photo:  Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.

Viewed at Teatro Verdi, with e-subtitles in English and Italian, grand piano: GCM Masterclass alumni: Koeraad Spijker, Ilyess Bentayeb, 9 Oct 2015

THE SHERIFF’S CHUM (Essanay – US 1911) D, P: G. M. Anderson; C: G. M. Anderson (Sheriff Will Phelps), Gladys Field (Jessie Phelps), Brinsley Shaw (George Arden), Fred Church (escapee), Harry Todd, Victor Potel, Chick Morrison, John B. O’Brien; rel: 8.4.1911; 35 mm, 750 ft, 11' (18 fps); titles: ENG; print source: Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA.

Richard Abel (GCM catalog and website): "In October 1911, Essanay began running trade press ads that staked its claim as the “indisputable originators of Cowboy Films.” G.M. Anderson produced, directed, and starred in nearly all of those films, and Essanay soon promoted him as the “most photographed man” in the business."

"In the opening, Jessie (Field) chooses Will Phelps (Anderson) over his rival, Brinsley Shaw (Arden); the couple goes west to his ranch, and he becomes sheriff. When Shaw visits and is warmly welcomed, Phelps is called away to pursue an escaped prisoner whom he re-captures. In his absence, Shaw makes subtle advances to Jessie, who rejects him. On his return, Phelps confronts Shaw, which leads to a rousing fight. Beaten in the fight and no longer a “best friend,” Shaw slinks away."

"The trade press was conflicted about the film. While a Billboard reviewer found it “entirely lacking in plot,” with “the chain of events ... poorly connected,” Motography’s critic praised its narrative construction and “expressive” acting, notably the effective restraint in the scene where the sheriff “went into the hut of the desperado and brought him out hand-cuffed without any fuss or ado.” All agreed, however, with the New York Morning Telegraph: the fight was “as dramatic and well-worked up as any heretofore seen in motion picture plays.”"

"Shortly after the film’s release, an experienced cowhand wrote to the New York Dramatic Mirror, describing Anderson, for this and other roles at the time, as by far “the best cowboy character delineator of any film concern.” Essanay’s own promotion of Anderson that autumn was timely, making him one of the first recognized movie personalities or stars, just as Majestic Pictures was exploiting Mary Pickford’s departure from Biograph and promoting “Little Mary” as its own." – Richard Abel

AA: While the sheriff (G. M. Anderson) is away to chase an escaped prisoner his chum (Brinsley  Shaw) flirts with his wife (Gladys Field). The progress of the flirtation is in touching pantomime, turning from the humoristic to the embarrassing. There are impressive moments in the parallel chase action story, ending with the fight where the sheriff beats his ex-chum. There is a lively atmosphere in the direction of G. M. Anderson, a vitality in the performances. In long shot. Though with a duped look the visual quality is pleasant all the same.

G. M. Anderson in A Pal's Oath. In jail he swears vengeance. Photo: Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA

A PAL’S OATH (Essanay – US 1911) D, P: G. M. Anderson; C: G. M. Anderson (Jack Manley), Brinsley Shaw (John French), Harry Todd (U.S. Marshall; minister), Arthur Mackley (doctor), Gladys Field (Marie Wentworth); rel: 18.8.1911; 35 mm, 895 ft, 13' (18 fps); titles: ENG; print source: Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA.

Richard Abel (GCM catalog and website): "In late 1911 and early 1912, some theater managers took to calling G. M. Anderson “Bullets” in newspaper ads promoting “Essanay’s Great Western Thrillers.” By then, Anderson often appeared as a “good badman” (which soon came to typify his Broncho Billy character), an outlaw with enough conscience to finally turn away from crime and lead a more or less honorable life."

"A Pal’s Oath, like The Sheriff’s Chum, begins with two pals, Jack and John, cowboys working on a Wyoming ranch. When John falls ill, Jack goes for a doctor, who demands payment in advance. Returning to the ranch, Jack decides to rob a Pony Express rider so the doctor can treat his friend. Later, both fall in love with Marie, a neighboring ranch owner’s daughter. When she accepts Jack’s proposal, John, who has been told about the robbery and promised to keep it secret, betrays his pal, and Jack is arrested. In prison, Jack swears to get revenge, and years later, after John has courted and wed Marie, he slips up to their cabin. Through an open window he spots his pal and is about to fire his revolver, when John lifts a baby girl into his arms."

"Startled, Jack lowers his gun but then raises it again. Now Marie throws her arms about the baby’s neck, and John embraces both. In despair, Jack steals away, leaving the “happy little family” unaware of what has happened. "

"Moving Picture World described A Pal’s Oath as “a sermon picture with as strong a moral and as human a story as has recently been released.” This followed Essanay’s report of a pastor who had written Anderson, “complimenting him for the uplifting and ennobling influences of his productions.” That partly explains why Anderson’s westerns appealed not only to boys but also to a much wider audience. Perhaps that also is why Motography put a production photo from the film on the cover of its August 1911 issue." – Richard Abel

AA: The cowboy Jack Manley (G. M. Anderson) saves his pal John French (Brinsley Shaw again) by bringing him a doctor for whose services he pays via robbing Pony Express. When both of them fall in love with the same woman, Marie Wentworth (Gladys Field again) John betrays Jack who lands in prison, swearing vengeance. Back in freedom, Jack is about to shoot John but at the very moment the family, including baby, is in happy embrace. G. M. Anderson's way of storytelling is fast and economical, in stark pantomime, with effective recurrent devices (crucial revelations seen through the window: first John seeing Jack embracing Marie, and finally, Jack witnessing the happiness of the family of his ex-pal). Visual quality: a duped look, not good, but still pleasant.

A Range Romance. The ranch owner has strange feelings towards the cross-dressing "cowboy". Photo:  Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA

A RANGE ROMANCE (New York Motion Picture Company / Bison-101 – US 1911) D, P: [Fred J. Balshofer?] or [Thomas H. Ince?]; C: Madeline West? (Mary), J. Barney Sherry? (Clark, the ranch owner); rel: 8.12.1911; 35 mm, 825 ft, 12' (18 fps); titles: ENG; print source: Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA.

Laura Horak (GCM catalog and website): "Bob leaves his cranky wife, Mary, and heads West, bringing along their young daughter, Bessie, disguised as a boy. Ten years later, Bob and Bessie (still disguised) get work at Clark’s Ranch, where Bessie and the foreman become friends. The ranch cowboys kick out an ethnically stereotypedChinese cook; and Mary, who has come West in search of her family, gets hired to replace him. The foreman guesses Bessie’s secret, and the two declare their love. Bob soon discovers Mary’s presence, and the family is reunited. Three years later, we see Bessie and the foreman, now married, showing off their glowing child, as Bob and Mary look on contentedly."

"A Range Romance crystallizes fantasies of the West – where a broken middle-class family could be revitalized, and a girl could spend her adolescence as a boy, but then move smoothly into the role of wife and mother. In reality, many of the “men-women” of the West lived their whole lives as men and even took wives, but these stories never made it to the silver screen. This film also represents the homoerotic nature of the frontier. Cowboy songs and stories often described friendships that blossomed into romance when cowboys discovered their best pals were female."

"A Range Romance was produced during a transitional period for the New York Motion Picture Company (NYMP). Filmmaker Fred J. Balshofer and exchange owners Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann had founded the company in 1909. NYMP released westerns under the brand name “Bison” and quickly became one of the most successful independent firms. In November 1909, Balshofer set up shop in Edendale, California, and shot films throughout Southern and Central California. "

"Two years later, however, Kessel and Baumann hired Thomas Ince away from IMP and sent him to California to take over from Balshofer. A Range Romance was shot by either Balshofer before he left or by Ince when he arrived. In contrast to the ambitious films that Ince later pioneered, A Range Romance is a compact drama that nonetheless embodies the gendered and sexual upheavals of the frontier." – Laura Horak

AA: Bessie, disguised as a boy, and the ranch foreman become friends and, "her sex discovered", more. Meanwhile, mother has recovered and joins the family in the West. Visual quality: tending towards high contrast, detail missing, yet watchable.

A WESTERN GIRL (G. Méliès Manufacturing Company – US 1911) D: William Haddock; DP: William Paley; C: Mildred Bracken (Mary Brown), William Clifford (Dick), Francis Ford (Hartley), Richard Stanton (Mr. Brown), Fannie Midgley; rel: 7.12.1911; 35 mm, 928 ft, 14' (18 fps), col. (tinted); titles: ENG; print source: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.

Matthew Solomon, David Pfluger (GCM catalog and website): "After a fight with a local bully, Hartley, a chivalrous Easterner named Dick struggles to find gold. He perseveres with the help and encouragement of Mary Brown and her father, eventually making a lucky strike, but Hartley and his gang contest Dick’s claim. Through “pluck and desperate riding,” however, the female protagonist “thwarts the villain.” (Plot summary from Moving Picture World, 2 December 1911, p. 771)"

"Filmed during the summer of 1911, shortly after the Gaston Méliès Manufacturing Company relocated from San Antonio, Texas, to Santa Paula, California, A Western Girl was part of an early western sub-genre of gold mining films. It was also one of more than 90 films that Gaston Méliès made in 1911-1912 in Southern California, where “The G. Melies [sic] Company ... confined itself largely to Western subjects in which the interest is not gained through crimes or promiscuous shooting.” (Moving Picture World, 3 February 1912, p. 388)"
 
"Advertised as “American Wild West Films” in Europe under a trademark horseshoe bearing the name “G. Méliès,” Gaston Méliès’ films were often mistakenly credited to his younger brother Georges, who remained in Paris and received royalties from the sale of prints. Though surviving royalty statements are incomplete, at least 13 prints of A Western Girl had been sold in the United States alone by 17 July 1912. (Cinémathèque Méliès #26 [1995], p.35)"

"By that date, however, Gaston Méliès’ filmmaking activities in the United States had dissolved. He and what remained of the so-called Méliès Stock Company embarked on a long sea voyage to Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Java, Cambodia, and Japan, where they made a series of “Méliès ‘Round the World’ Films.” Gaston Méliès died in Corsica in 1915 at the age of 63."

"Georges Méliès later harshly criticized his older brother’s westerns, calling “the famous ‘Méliès Indians’ the worse [sic] in the World!” (letter to Merritt Crawford, 6 December 1930). Subsequent commentators have often endorsed this dismissal. A few surviving Gaston Méliès films (from around the 240 he made overall) provide us with an opportunity to reassess this judgment." – Matthew Solomon, David Pfluger

AA: Dick (William Clifford) finds gold but gets badly wounded. Mary (Mildred Bracken) helps him although she has found a signed photograph of another woman in Dick's pocket. The bully Hartley (Francis Ford) tries to register the claim to Dick's mine but thanks to Mary Dick wins and the sheriff arrests Hartley. "I did it for your wife and boy". Dick laughs and shows the missing bit of the torn photograph signed "sister Mary". The narrative is a bit confusing after the scene where Mary discovers the photograph and cries (footage missing?). There is a subtle toning in this print.

The Loafer. The leader of the horsewhippers and the loafer's wife. Photo: BFI National Archive. London

THE LOAFER (Essanay – US 1912) D: ?; SC: ?; C: Arthur Mackley, Julia Mackley, Harry Todd, Margaret Joslin, Marguerite Todd, Kite Robinson; rel: 20.1.1912; 35 mm, 840 ft, 12' (18 fps); titles: ENG; print source: BFI National Archive, London.

Charlie Keil (GCM catalog and website): "Filmed in San Rafael, California, The Loafer probably has received more attention for its formal prescience than its contribution to the conventions of the western. Both Barry Salt and Kristin Thompson have remarked on the film’s deployment of an extended shot/reverse-shot sequence, all the more notable because it may be the earliest extant version of the technique in American cinema. The dexterity with which The Loafer handles the technique prompted Salt to speculate that “this variety of the reverse-angle had begun earlier,” since its appearance already suggests familiarity with the device. Thompson, for her part, observes that the film is “generally remarkably advanced in its application of classical principles,” and notes that it also features modified multi-plane staging and strategic exterior back lighting; additionally, it may be an early instance of two lines of narrative action that come together in the film’s conclusion."

"Those two lines of action converge to fashion a morality tale that Moving Picture World labeled a “western story built on lines different enough to make it novel and interesting.”"

"A layabout is humiliated by a group of concerned citizens, who horsewhip him in an attempt to effect a change in his behavior. The loafer swears that he will kill the disguised leader of the group if he ever discovers the man’s identity. The next day, the leader, his identity still unknown to the loafer, gives the man two horses as an incentive to improve himself. Later, the loafer, having turned his life around, refuses a loan to another; in spite, that man reveals the identity of the leader of the horsewhippers. The reformed loafer goes to the man’s house with vengeance on his mind, but has a change of heart when he overhears a threat of foreclosure. Instead of revenge, he offers thanks by way of paying off the man’s mortgage. Here the revenge motive and the reform narrative run up against each other, the latter prevailing."

"The Loafer’s “novel” approach to the western favors character transformation over action, and channels it through editing patterns that would soon become customary for rendering point-of-view shots into a building block of character-based storytelling." – Charlie Keil

AA: The reformed loafer [in Finnish: lorvi] swears to kill the man who had had him whipped but when he realizes that the man who had also generously helped him is now facing foreclosure he changes his mind and helps him out. A lively sense of atmosphere: first we see the world. There are several layers in depth in the shot. Medium shot is in use. It would be interesting to learn the name of the director of this movie. I confess I had a moment of fatigue and missed the famous shot / reverse-shot sequence. From a worn source with a duped look.

HOW STATES ARE MADE (Hoe men in de Verenigde Staten grootgrondbezitter wordt) (Vitagraph – US 1912) D: Rollin S. Sturgeon; C: Fred Burns (the homesteader), Anne Schaefer (his wife), Robert Thornby (the intruder), Mildred Harris (their daughter?), Charles Bennett (the witness?); rel: 8.3.1912; 35 mm, 231 m, 11' (18 fps), col. (tinted); titles: DUT; print source: EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam.

Laura Horak (GCM catalog and website): "Like Tumbleweeds (1925), How States Are Made dramatizes the Cherokee Strip Land Rush of 1893. Of this film, Moving Picture World wrote: “It stands out like a leaf of true American history as compared with a page from a cheap novel. A land rush! Who has not heard of such a thing? Yet, how few have any idea of the way it is done, or the great excitement that pervades it. ... This picture is in the nature of a revelation.” The film starts a few days before the race, with a demoralized family on a covered wagon. They are jubilant to learn of the land rush, but danger lurks. An intruder harasses the wife while her husband is away and later shoots and injures the husband. Riding in his place, the wife discovers an ideal plot, but the intruder finds it, too. They struggle, then race back to the Registration Office. She beats him, but he disputes her claim. Luckily, a witness identifies the shooter, and he is arrested. In the final shot, we see the couple years later, on their fertile farm, surrounded by exuberant children."

"The Opening of the Cherokee Strip was the last big land rush in the United States. More than 115,000 people raced to claim one of 42,000 lots of land, encompassing more than 6 million acres. Ironically, the U.S. Government had pushed the Cherokee from their verdant land in the East to the arid Oklahoma Territory in the 1830s, a journey that came to be known as the “Trail of Tears.” Much later, the Government bought back the land they had forced the Cherokee onto, offering it to homesteaders."

"The film’s happy ending was not typical. The first winter after the land rush was hard. Of those who filed claims, only 20 to 30 percent stayed on their land for the six months required to acquire a deed."

"In October 1911, Vitagraph sent director Rollin S. Sturgeon and a company of actors, including Schaefer, Thornby, and Bennett, to Los Angeles to form the company’s Western branch. This, their first film, was widely praised, and it was one of many to show an athletic woman standing in for an incapacitated man."

"Singled out for her “great intensity” and for this and later “strong womanly characters,” Schaefer even inspired an “Anne Schaefer Society,” whose members were young California girls."

"Another, slightly longer, print of the film (with English intertitles) is held at George Eastman House." Laura Horak

AA: This short belongs to the same tradition with Tumbleweeds and Three Bad Men. The family arrives in their covered wagon. "Cherokee Strip is open for sellers". While father (Fred Burns) gets a doctor for the sick daughter, an intruder (Robert Thornby) harasses mother (Anne Schaefer) and when father returns, shoots him, injuring him. Anne gets to ride in his stead in the land rush and stakes a plot but the villain intrudes even there. Anne has to race and fight with him until the Registration Office, but the intruder is finally arrested. An impressive film about the Western woman, a character familiar also to Nordic viewers. There is an epic approach to the land rush sequence. Visual quality ok to good.

Gosudarstvennyi chinovnik / [The State Official]

Photo: Gosfilmofond of Russia, Moscow

Государственный чиновник. Сатир в 6ях частях / Держ. чиновник [Ukrainian title?] / Gosudarstvenny tshinovnik / Goschinovnik / [L’impiegato statale] / [not released in Finland] (Soyuzkino, Moscow – SU 1931) D: Ivan Pyriev; SC: Vsevolod Pavlovskii; DP: Aleksei Solodkov; AD: Viktor Aden; ass. D: Galina Kapriznaya, B. Burov, Nikolai Soloviev; C: Maksim Shtraukh (Apollon Fokin, cashier), Liubov Nenasheva (his wife), Naum Rogozhin (Aristarkh Razverzev, his chief), Leonid Yurenev (Von Meck, superior), Aleksandr Antonov (Board Chairman of the Railroad), Ivan Bobrov (“true Russian man”), Tatiana Barysheva (nun), Georgi Agnivtsev (clerk), Nina Vasilieva; filmed: 1930; orig. l: 1946 m; 35 mm, 2120 m, 88' (21 fps); titles: RUS; print source: Gosfilmofond of Russia, Moscow.
    Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.
    Viewed at Teatro Verdi, with e-subtitles in English and Russian, grand piano: John Sweeney, 8 Oct 2015

Peter Bagrov (GCM catalog and website): "Watching or writing about the films of Ivan Pyriev (1901–1968) – one of the most popular and controversial directors of Soviet cinema – is as if you are dealing with two directors who couldn’t possibly have anything in common. There are carnivalesque “kolkhoz comedies” – or should we say “idylls” – the standard for socialist realism in cinema: Tractor Drivers (Traktoristy, 1939), The Swine Girl and the Shepherd (Svinarka i pastukh, 1941), Kuban Cossacks (Kubanskie kazaki, 1949). And there are grim, colourful, hysterical adaptations of Dostoevsky: The Idiot (Idiot, 1958) and The Brothers Karamazov (Bratia Karamazovy, 1968) – preceded by The Party Card (Partiinyi bilet, 1936), a truly Dostoevskian drama of “a man from the underground” – diplomatically disguised as a typical Stalinist spy story.

His first two comedies – the now-lost Strange Woman (Postoronniaia zhenschina, 1929) and the rarely seen The State Official might be the “missing links”. The State Official is a witty eccentric comedy – and anything but an idyll. Pyriev wanted to achieve an Expressionist feeling, as is evident not only in some of the sets and camerawork (for instance, a Russian Orthodox church proved an excellent subject for Expressionist lighting), but also in the film’s casting. Two sinister actors discovered by Abram Room – Naum Rogozhin, “a Soviet Nosferatu”, and Leonid Yurenev, a massive creature with no neck – were rarely given an opportunity to play comedy, but are here shown off to their best advantage. Not to mention Maksim Shtraukh, who was soon to become one of the screen’s famous Lenins (he played the part in five pictures, including Sergei Yutkevich’s “nouvelle vague” film Lenin in Poland [Lenin v Polshe, 1966]). At this time, though, Shtraukh was a leading actor in Meyerhold’s theatre, an ambitious intellectual with a taste for the pathological and a talent for extracting charm from these pathologies. Eisenstein was dreaming of making a comedy with Shtraukh; and Pyriev – Eisenstein’s former pupil and constant green-eyed competitor – must have been proud to win at least in this little field.

Initially The State Official was intended to have no protagonists whatsoever – all the characters were to be either crooks of various breeds or idiots. And it is important to point out that the story was not set in the “bourgeois western world”, nor in the “doomed tsarist past”: everyone was working in a typical Soviet state-run office.

The main character, Apollon Fokin, is a humble cashier. He is law-abiding, and works honestly and dutifully for the Soviet powers which he secretly despises. While carrying a huge sum of public money, he is robbed by a crook defined in the intertitles as a “true Russian man”. During their fight the bag of money falls down a flight of stairs. Later Fokin discovers the bag again and embarks on a double life. After work, together with his wife, they play with the money, arranging it in varying stacks as they plan how they are going to spend it “when better times come”. Meanwhile, during work he is acclaimed as the hero who tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to save the property of the state. The clandestine millionaire is about to enjoy a big Party career. He is even elected a deputy of the Mossovet (Moscow Soviet of People’s Deputies). Late at night he approaches a statue of Lenin with a question: “What a career you’ve made for yourself! And for me? A free fare in the city tram?” After that he tears up his deputy mandate – and wakes up. He is no deputy, just a cashier who stole state money and is now about to be punished for the crime.

This version of the film was immediately banned – the first and last time Pyriev experienced such a blow.

“Pyriev and ideology” might be an exciting topic for a novel, let alone a big research study. Member of the Communist Party, Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, laureate of every prize and order a Soviet artist could get, and later on the artistic director of Mosfilm and the founder and head of the Union of Filmmakers (an organization that could both control and defend), he was nevertheless capable of saying (and doing!) the most unexpected things. In 1947, walking through the corridors of the Ministry of Cinema after an official meeting, he suddenly exclaimed: “I am of Meyerholdian descent, after all! I’d rather play tricks!” It took a lot of risk and bravado to mention in public the name of Meyerhold, an “enemy of the state”, executed in 1940. Pyriev’s apparent anti-Semitism was common knowledge. Yet, during the anti-Semitic campaign of 1949 he instructed his Jewish colleagues how to behave in the face of the authorities in order to escape further persecution. In his own accusatory speech he refrained from mentioning a single name of a living person. Finally, he assigned one of the campaign’s victims, the celebrated composer Isaak Dunayevsky, to write the music for his Kuban Cossacks: it turned out to be one of the most famous scores in the history of Soviet cinema.

In the case of The State Official, finding himself in a difficult situation, Pyriev did not try to struggle. He waited several months, until he got permission to re-edit his film. He had to insert a storyline involving enemies of the Soviet government who are organizing sabotage on the railroad (a new, political purpose for robbing the cashier); he excluded the wonderful sequence with Lenin’s monument. But luckily the overall atmosphere did not change. Yes, he had to sacrifice a few delicious intertitles, as when Apollon Fokin’s little daughter asked, “Daddy, what is Lenin?”, to which he replied, “Lenin is a good boy who never disturbed grown-ups.” That went, to be replaced with a less elegant but finally even more risky exchange: “Daddy, what is a saboteur?” – “Saboteurs, honey, are bolshevist fables.” What’s more, the ill-fated and now exposed Apollon arouses nothing but sympathy – he is another in the long succession of “little men” immortalized by classic Russian literature. No wonder Pyriev ended up making Dostoevsky." – Peter Bagrov

AA: Ivan Pyriev was a towering phenomenon in Soviet cinema, and I have a hard time in relating to him. Six O'Clock In the Evening After the War and The Tale of the Siberian Land I can understand, but the Stalinist model operas I find impossible to stomach, although I find the deep currents of unrest intriguing in a film such as The Cossacks of the Kuban. I love Dostoyevsky, and a true Dostoyevsky spirit for me means full insight in characters whose feet are deep in the mud yet whose souls are pursuing heaven, with a gentle sense of humour in the approach to the outlandish narratives. In Pyriev's adaptations so much of the substance is missing that I do not recognize Dostoyevsky in them.

In his program note above Peter Bagrov reveals the devilish circumstances in which The State Official was made. Stemming from a great tradition of Russian satire of bureaucracy, Pyriev's approach to the grotesque tale reminds me a little bit of Skvernyy anekdot / [A Nasty Story] (1966), the Dostoyevsky adaptation by Aleksandr Alov and Vladimir Naumov, and Zvanyy uzhin / [Dinner Party] (1953) by Friedrich Ermler, both of which were initially shelved. Associations run even to Vadim Abdrashitov's Ostanovilsya poyezd / [The Train Has Stopped] (1982), a metaphor of the stagnation era of the USSR.

Whereas the heavy-handed satire on the Church is reminiscent of Eisenstein and Prazdnik svyatogo Yorgena / [The Feast of St. Jorgen] (1930) directed by Yakov Protazanov.

The montage sequences (the railway, the city, the office, the coins) are striking. In the film's dealing with the first five year plan and the celebration of work it is sometimes difficult to tell where the satire ends and the political message begins.

The eccentric performances have an affinity with the FEKS school. The State Official is a difficult film to digest, and after a long day which had started with the almost four-hour German epic Helena I confess I was no longer alert enough to truly appreciate it. Undoubtedly it's a film worth revisiting.

A good print.

Richard Williams: Prologue (2015)

PROLOGUE (Imogen Sutton – GB 2015) D+AN: Richard Williams; DP (live action): Nick Beeks-Sanders; ED (live action): Julie Wild; S des: Adrian Rhodes; compositor: Bram Tthweam; technical advisor: Tom Barnes; special thanks: Aardman Studios; DCP, 6', colour, sound, no dialogue; source: Imogen Sutton, Richard Williams, Bristol.
    Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.
    Viewed at Teatro Verdi, 8 Oct 2015

David Robinson (GCM catalog and website): "“We have just witnessed animation history,” declared Peter Lord, co-founder of Aardman Studios, following the first screening of Prologue in Summer 2015. “Nobody else alive could have created hand-drawn animation of this intensity and quality...” Other commentators have hailed it as “one of the best hand-drawn films of all time”."

"Its 6 minutes describe an incident in the Spartan-Athenian wars of 2400 years ago. A small girl is witness, as warriors battle to the death. It has no dialogue, but natural sounds. Richard Williams has worked on the film for many years, between other projects. Begun in Canada on a small island near Vancouver, the work continued in West Wales and was completed this year in Bristol, at Aardman Studios."

"Drawing and animating the film alone, Richard Williams has taken hand-drawn animation to a new level of expertise and impact. Breaking animation conventions, the film has an innovative mastery of movement and space, at the same time achieving dramatic and emotional intensity. Williams and producer Imogen Sutton acknowledge the inspiration of Kurosawa but also of the language of silent films, many of them seen at Pordenone over many years. (Williams created and donated the Giornate’s logo trailer, with its morphing portraits of great silent stars.) It was in fact in Sacile that the structure of Prologue was decided."

"Williams says, “I’ve gone back to 1900 and drawn each shot on a new sheet of paper. Then it’s polished with state-of-the-art technology. It has taken over 6,000 complex animated life drawings to create this film.” Each of them astonishes with Old Master precision. Richard Williams is a great draughtsman as well as a uniquely gifted, multi-Oscar-honoured animator." – David Robinson

AA: This morning in Pordenone we saw an old epic of almost four hours about Helen of Troy, and now we get a new six-minute animation of stark and reduced compression about the Troyan war by the animation master Richard Williams who has also created the Pordenone trailer of silent film stars' morphing faces.

There was a sense of urgency in Manfred Noa's German epic from 1924 because the film-makers had painful memories of the recent massacre of World War I. Richard Williams's animation has no less topical a resonance because of today's several prolonged wars in various corners of the world which have caused the worst refugee calamity since WWII.

There is a meta-filmic framing story. The artist's work with pencils and watercolours is not hidden. There is a vibrant quality in images of nature. From a monochrome starting point colour emerges, such as red for blood. The violence is graphic. Four men are killed. The little girl who has witnessed everything runs to the broken-hearted mother whose grief no one can tell.

The film is called Prologue as Richard Williams is perhaps planning to film the entire saga of the Troyan war. We look forward for more.

Richard Williams: Greta Garbo in the trailer for Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone).

Sherlock Holmes (1916, William Gillette) (2015 restoration La Cinémathèque française, San Francisco Silent Film Festival)

Theatrical poster (US 1900) - from the play that premiered on 23 October 1899 at Star Theatre, Buffalo, New York. Charles Frohman presents William Gillette in his new four act drama, Sherlock Holmes. Lithograph, 103 x 77 cm. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540. D6400 U.S. Copyright Office. Created by "The Metropolitan Print., 222 to 232 W. 26th St., New York." Part of: Theatrical Poster Collection (Library of Congress).  No known restrictions on publication. From: Wikipedia: Sherlock Holmes (play). Please click on the photo to expand it. Bookmark: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/var1994001376/PP/.

Arthur Berthelet: Sherlock Holmes (US 1916) with William Gillette (Sherlock Holmes) and Ernest Maupain (Professor Moriarty). Please click on the photo to expand it.

Arthur Berthelet: Sherlock Holmes (US 1916)  with William Gillette (Sherlock Holmes) in the opening credit portrait shot. Photo: La Cinémathèque française, Paris. Please click on the photo to expand it.

Arthur Berthelet: Sherlock Holmes (US 1916)  with William Gillette (Sherlock Holmes). Photo: La Cinémathèque française, Paris. Please click on the photo to expand it.

Arthur Berthelet: Sherlock Holmes (US 1916)  with William Gillette (Sherlock Holmes). Photo: La Cinémathèque française, Paris. Please click on the photo to expand it.

US © 1916 The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company [as Essanay Film Mfg Co.]. Copyright Number LP8239, date: 5 May 1916.

    D: Arthur Berthelet; ass D: William Postance; SC: H. S. Sheldon, based on the play (1899) by William Gillette + characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle;
    cast: William Gillette (Sherlock Holmes), Marjorie Kay (Alice Faulkner), Ernest Maupain (Professor Moriarty), Edward Fielding (Doctor Watson), Mario Majeroni (James Larrabee), Grace Reals (Madge Larrabee), William Postance (Sidney Prince), Stewart Robbins (Benjamin Forman), Burford Hampden (Billy), Chester Beery (Craigin), Frank Hamilton (Tim Leary), Fred Malatesta (“Lightfoot” McTague), Leona Ball (Thérèse), Hugh Thompson (Sir Edward Leighton), Ludwig Kreiss (Baron von Stalburg), Jack Milton (Alfred Bassick);
    DCP (from 35 mm, 2088 m), 117 min (transferred at 16 fps); titles: FRE, subt. ENG; print source: La Cinémathèque française, Paris.
    Restoration and reconstruction: 2015, Céline Ruivo, La Cinémathèque française, Robert Byrne, San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
    Gillette's play was based on the stories "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Final Problem", and "A Study in Scarlet" by Arthur Conan Doyle. According to AFI Catalog Online: "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Sign of the Four".
    Studio: Essanay Studios (Chicago). Loc: Chicago.

    Release date: 15 May 1916.
    Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.
    Viewed at Teatro Verdi, with e-subtitles in Italian, live music: Neil Brand, Günter Buchwald, Frank Bockius, 8 Oct 2015

Robert Byrne (GCM catalog and website): "On 7 February 1916, actor and playwright William Gillette signed a contract with the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company granting the studio rights to bring his play Sherlock Holmes to the screen, and to “secure the services of the Actor to play the leading role.” Production commenced right away, given that Gillette required no preparation to play the part that he had written and the role he had embodied since 1899. Indeed, it is Gillette’s characterization as much as Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary description that shaped the persona we ascribe today to the great detective. Doyle gave birth to the character, imagined his adventures, and furnished him with the most worthy of nemeses; but it was Gillette who brought him to life, developed his stature and mannerisms, stuck a curved briar pipe in his mouth, and placed a deerstalker hat upon his crown. Thankfully, Essanay’s production of Sherlock Holmes is considerably more cinematic than what might be expected from a filmed stage play, especially for an interpretation that hews so closely to the theatrical staging. The settings are identical to Gillette’s stage specifications, the only variation being the addition of exterior shots, which director Arthur Berthelet used to depict on screen what had been necessarily related on stage via dialogue."

"Conversely, there are points in the film where an additional title or two would be most welcome, particularly at times when the action on screen faithfully reproduces odd bits of stage business that are not explained through text. One of the many examples occurs at the end of the third reel, after Holmes leaves the Larrabees’ lodge. There is a knock at the door, but the criminal Larrabees and their safe-cracking associate, Sidney Prince, are shocked when the butler reports there is nobody at the door. In the play, dialogue reveals that the phantom knock is part of a ruse perpetrated by Holmes to make the criminals believe they are under surveillance. On the screen this is simply a confusing bit of business lacking any logical explanation."

"Actually, there is one very likely reason for the unexplained stage business, and that is because the titles in the film are not the originals. The only version of Sherlock Holmes that we have today is a serialized French version of the feature, which premiered in Paris in December 1919. In fact, until early last year not a single frame of any incarnation of the feature was known to survive. That situation changed in March 2014, when a dupe negative of the French version was identified in the collection of the Cinémathèque française. As research by Russell Merritt and Céline Ruivo has revealed, the Great War delayed the entry of Sherlock Holmes to Europe until March 1919, when a dupe negative was finally shipped to Paris. This was not the same version as released in the U.S. in 1916, but a new version featuring (poorly) translated French titles and divided into four weekly chapters, aimed at capitalizing on the French passion for installment-plan adventure."

"As evidenced by the 1919 KODAK edge code printed in the film margins, the well-used negative that surfaced in the vaults of the Cinémathèque française is undoubtedly the very same that was dispatched by George Spoor from Essanay’s Chicago office. Formatted in preparation for printing and tinting, the film negative is physically subdivided into 45 small rolls, but there is every indication that the film is whole and complete. There are no gaps in the sequentially numbered shots and rolls, and the film length is consistent with what was released in 1916 as a 7-reel feature. Based on the evidence, it is clear that with the exception of the translated titles and newly inserted chapter introductory text, the pictorial elements of the 1919 serial completely represent the 1916 original."

"In the summer of 2014, the Cinémathèque française and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival undertook a collaborative project to restore the film. In addition to image restoration, the single-frame French flash-titles present in the negative were restored to an approximation of their original lengths, and the orange and blue tinting re-applied according to the notations in the film leaders. In order to make the film more widely accessible, a translated English-language version of the restoration was prepared in consultation with Gillette’s original manuscripts. The titles of this English version retain the style, design, and typeface of the original French language titles." – Robert Byrne

AA: In 2009 in Pordenone we saw a series called "Sherlock and Beyond: The British Detective in Silent Cinema" curated by Jay Weissberg based on Laraine Porter and Bryony Dixon's crime series at the British Silent Cinema Festival. Today a key missing link was added to that story. The film adaptation of William Gillette's legendary Sherlock Holmes interpretation has been restored this year by La Cinémathèque française and San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

William Gillette's stage performance as Sherlock Holmes became definitive. Gillette fixed the bent pipe and the deerstalker cap as key accessories to the detective. Gillette established Alice Faulkner as the Sherlock Holmes Woman and finally even elicited from Conan Doyle a permission to have Sherlock fall in love. Gillette was the one who called Sherlock's pageboy Billy for the first time. Gillette also was the one who edited the phrase "Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow" (later edited by others into "elementary, my dear Watson"), but this is not used in this film adaptation, a precious record of a legendary performer in a legendary performance.

This is a royal blackmail story. The love letters of a future emperor are now in the possession of Alice Faulkner (her sister, the prince's lover, having died), and criminals are after them sensing a possibility to make a fortune. When the criminal Larrabees fail, they engage nobody less than Professor Moriarty, "the emperor of crime".

We do witness Sherlock examining evidence and drawing ingenious conclusions (his "gray brain cells at work"), but mostly this is an action film.

"A Scandal in Bohemia" is a story of Sherlock Holmes meeting an opera singer, Irene Adler. She keeps the future king's souvenirs but not for blackmail, and in the finale both Sherlock and the future king are impressed by the brilliant Irene Adler who has outwitted them both. William Gillette's Sherlockian woman is much more conventional and traditional, a damsel in distress.

Thinking about Fregoli, the wizard of transformations, whose films we saw yesterday in Pordenone, it was interesting to observe many Fregolinades in Sherlock Holmes: first Sherlock is made to meet a fake Alice Faulkner, later, Billy gets to perform as a newspaper boy, and finally both Moriarty and Holmes impress us by their unrecognizable impersonations. (Sherlockian masquerades also impressed a young Víctor Erice when he saw The Scarlet Claw as a child).

In the finale Sherlock gets to display tact and diplomacy in his gentle ruse to have Alice Faulkner hand over the real letters to the representatives of the empire in danger. He confesses his trickery to Alice immediately and is absolved.

I know nothing of the director Arthur Berthelet. This is a story-driven film, and his approach is plain, matter-of-fact, and fast - sometimes very fast. Intertitles still predict the action. Much of the film is in long shot, but medium shot is also used, and there are occasional close-ups.

The simulation of toning is beautiful, including successful blues for night scenes, difficult in contemporary restorations.

Neil Brand, Günter Buchwald, and Frank Bockius provided a brisk and enthusiastic live music performance, without neglecting the Sherlockian violin.

The reconstruction feels complete. A quite gratifying experience.

Helena – Der Untergang Trojas I-II / Helen of Troy / The Downfall of Troy (2015 Filmmuseum München restoration)

Manfred Noa: Helena – Der Untergang Trojas I-II / Helen of Troy (DE 1924). Photo: Filmmuseum München. Please click on the image to expand it.

Manfred Noa: Helena – Der Untergang Trojas I-II / Helen of Troy (DE 1924). Albert Steinrück (Priam), Vladimir Gaidarov (Paris), Edy Darclea (Helena).  Please click on the image to expand it.

Manfred Noa: Helena – Der Untergang Trojas I-II / Helen of Troy (DE 1924). Carlo Aldini (Achilles).  Please click on the image to expand it.

HELENA – DER UNTERGANG TROJAS. Klassischer Grossfilm in 2 Teilen / [The titles of the two films in Finland:] [1] Helena, [2] Troijan hävitys / (Il ratto di Elena – La caduta di Troia; GB: Helen of Troy; US: The Downfall of Troy).

    DE 1924. PC: Bavaria-Film A.-G. / Emelka. P: Erich Wagowski.

    D: Manfred Noa; SC: Hans Kyser; DP: Gustave Preiss, Ewald Daub; C: Edy Darclea (Helena), Wladimir Gaidarow [Vladimir Gaidarov] (Paris), Hanna Ralph (Andromache), Carlo Aldini (Achilles), Albert Bassermann (Aesacus), Fritz Ulmer (Menelaus), Carl de Vogt (Hector), Adele Sandrock (Hecuba), Albert Steinrück (Priam), Karel Lamac (Patroclus), Karl Wüstenhagen (Agamemnon).

    Première: 21.1.1924 (Pt. 1: Der Raub der Helena), 4.2.1924 (Pt. 2: Die Zerstörung Trojas), Mozartsaal, Berlin-

    Orig. l: 2189 m (Pt. 1), 2904 m (Pt. 2)-

    DCP (from 35 mm), Pt. 1: 98' (20 fps), Pt. 2: 119' (20 fps), col. (tinted); titles: GER, subt. ENG; print source: Filmmuseum München.

    Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.
    Viewed at Teatro Verdi, with e-subtitles in Italian, live music by Günter Buchwald (grand piano etc.) and Frank Bockius (percussions), 8 Oct 2015

Stefan Drössler (GCM catalog and website): "German silent film historians tend to focus on Berlin production companies, mainly Ufa, founded in 1917. Little is known about the second-largest German production company of the 1920s, the Munich-based Emelka, founded in 1919. The more than 100 silent feature films produced by Emelka are more or less forgotten, or lost (the most famous example is Hitchcock’s The Mountain Eagle). Only very few are known to exist, and just a handful of these have been restored. The most spectacular Emelka productions were two great epic films directed by Manfred Noa, Nathan der Weise (1922) and Helena. Der Untergang Trojas (1924). Both films were box-office hits. They were exported to countries all over the world and re-released several times in different cuts until the early 1930s."

"The shooting of Helena took place from June to November 1923, in and around Munich (Wolfrathshausen, Wörthsee, Steinebach). The international cast included popular actors from the theatre in Munich (Albert Steinrück, Fritz Ulmer, Ferdinand Martini) and Berlin (Carl de Vogt, Adele Sandrock, Albert Bassermann, Hanna Ralph), as well as well-known film actors from Italy (Edy Darclea, Carlo Aldini), Russia (Vladimir Gaidarov), and Czechoslovakia (Karel Lamac). It was a time of inflation, and the German film industry was blooming because the costs of a super-production with hundreds of extras and impressive sets could be covered by a single foreign sale."

"Hans Kyser’s screenplay cleverly adapted Homer’s Iliad for a two-part movie, with a structure similar to Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen, which was shot at the same time in Berlin: the two parts can be watched separately, and are of different mood."

"Part 1, The Elopement of Helen, shows the dream of Paris, his flight with Helen, Achilles winning a chariot race, Hector’s fight with a lion, and Menelaus leading the Greeks against Troy. "

"Part 2, The Fall of Troy, depicts the endless battle from a perspective obviously inspired by the German experience of the recent Great War: the battlefields are covered with dead bodies, mothers weep for their sons, all the heroes are broken characters, and the film doesn’t end with the destruction of Troy, but with the Greeks plundering the city’s treasures, including prisoners and women."

"The talented director Manfred Noa (1893-1930), whose name was erased from film history by the Nazis because of his Jewish descent, keeps the balance between impressive battle scenes, lavish production design, and beautifully photographed intimate scenes. His work received international praise. After a screening in London in January 1925, Variety’s critic wrote: “There is a tradition here to the fact that should a picture be mediocre everybody concerned is starred, the name of the producing company is printed In large caps and everything possible is done to throw sand in the eyes of critics and exhibitors. But, on the other hand, should the nature be of sterling worth, although of foreign birth, then the system is ‘hush-hush,’ and all are robbed of their legitimate kudos. "

"Helen of Troy, shown at the Palace by Cosmograph, is one of the latter. Of mixed Italian and Teutonic origin, it is a brilliant production in every way. As a spectacle carrying the imprint of truth and realism it would make D. W. Griffith sit up and consider his laurels, while the acting has never been bettered from the anonymous leads to the tiniest small part.”"

"Only fragmentary export prints in different cuts have survived, but no screenplay or German censorship files exist. So the reconstruction of the film became a jigsaw puzzle. Scenes had to be put together shot by shot. In some portions, especially at the very beginning of Part 1, inferior-quality shots had to be used because no better material has survived. Since at least two slightly different camera negatives were used for the foreign versions and since at least one reel with outtakes and alternative shots surfaced, in some cases the restorers had to select the material."

"The restoration of Helena began in 1999, using prints from the Cinémathèque Suisse, the Cineteca Nazionale, the Filmoteca Española, Gosfilmofond, and Filmmuseum München. Late additional material was found at the Bundesarchiv, the Deutsches Filminstitut, and in a private collection. The analogue printing was done at Haghefilm in Amsterdam, and the digital scanning at Alpha-Omega Digital in Munich. The newly created intertitles use the font style of Nathan der Weise, Noa’s previous film for the same production company, with framing design from the Spanish titles because they were similar to the style used in the film’s original programme booklet. The text is based on the foreign titles; the wording is taken from contemporary sources." – Stefan Drössler

AA: This is the best film I have seen about the fall of Troy. Ten years ago at Le Giornate, then in Sacile, we saw a splendid restoration of La caduta di Troia (IT 1911, Giovanni Pastrone and Romano Luigi Borgnetto, 34 min) with impressive vignettes in tableau style. Robert Wise's Helen of Troy (US/IT/FR 1956) is a dependable big budget epic starring Rossana Podestà. Wolgang Petersen's Troy (MT/GB/US 2004) is a turbo-charged re-telling of the epic with Brad Pitt as Achilles and Diane Kruger as Helen.

Somehow in Weimar Germany there was a fruitful atmosphere to film the greatest tales of mankind with huge budgets, and most importantly, with enthusiasm and inspiration. Helena – Der Untergang Trojas belongs to the same league with Manfred Noa's other masterpiece Nathan der Weise (Le Giornate 1997), Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (filmed in Berlin at the same time as Helena was shot in Munich), and F. W. Murnau's Faust.

In the cast and the crew everyone had a fresh memory of the recent WWI which lends a special sense of conviction to scenes of carnage, conflagration and mourning. And profound fatigue in a seemingly never-ending war.

The screenwriter Hans Kyser wrote, besides Helena, also Nathan der Weise (his first screen credit) and Faust. His other screenplays include Manon Lescaut, Grossstadtschmetterling, and the last film adaptation of Der Student von Prag.

Although Homer's Iliad (ca 710 BC) is the most prominent source for the Troyan story, none of the films are based on it. As we know, the Iliad only covers passages from the the ninth year of the Troyan war, starting with the decision of Achilleus to withdraw and ending with Hector's funeral.

I have read the Iliad in Finnish, translated by Otto Manninen in authentic hexameter. It is not a piece of (good) storytelling: it is a grand song epic, a masterpiece of poetry and language which lives as a word treasure. Little details of the action are extended, and main events are covered so fleetingly that they may get lost in all that word magic.

The gods play such a major role that it is hard for a modern reader to relate to the psychology of the protagonists.

Hans Kyser recreates the epic completely, partly with the Iliad as a source, but much more from many other sources of ancient Greek tales relevant to the saga of Helen and the fall of Troy. Hans Kyser and Manfred Noa based their version on characters that we can understand psychologically. Gods have not lost their standing, but they remain much more in the background.

One can think of this film from the viewpoint of Helen, the Queen of Sparta. She is afraid to participate in the feast of Aphrodite because she knows herself too well. But the vain king Menelaus wants her to go, certain of her victory as the most beautiful woman in the world. In the finale Helen saves Menelaus from the arrow of Paris, and Menelaus saves Helen in turn and takes her back to Sparta.

One can think of this film as the story of two bad kings. Besides the vain Menelaus there is Priam, the king of Troy, who ends up sacrificing all his children. The last fatal moment is when Achilles wants to retrieve the wreath of Cythera that belongs to the conqueror of the chariot race of Aphrodite. Priam promises it to him if he comes to the wall of Troy unarmed. But at the same time Priam promises his men that whoever kills Achilles with a poison arrow can have Helen. Paris is a man of honour, but Priam's promise puts him in an impossible position from which there can be no way out. Paris kills Achilles (hitting his heel with the poison arrow) and loses Helen's love forever.

Both kings, especially Priam, are warned, but they do not listen. In Priam's final nightmare there is an affinity with the writing on the wall in the Book of Daniel ("you have been weighed and found wanting", 5:27).

In Wolfgang Petersen's Troy I was amazed at the openly gay character of the love between Achilles and Patroclus. But the same goes already for Manfred Noa's version. There is true tenderness and passion in the male love story; I find Manfred Noa's account even more impressive. The passion and the fury of the death of Patroclus carries the narrative until the death of Achilles.

The crowd scenes, the chariot race, the action in general, the sea war, the sieges, Hector's funeral, and the Troyan horse chapter are marvellous.

There is some stiff acting. The performances of Vladimir Gaidarov and Carlo Aldini are not particularly good. The women are better, and Albert Bassermann is impressive as the sage. There is such a compelling drive in the narrative that the weaknesses of casting are not fatal.

We heard an exciting and inspired musical interpretation to the epic by Günter A. Buchwald and Frank Bockius.

A wonderful restoration with a visual quality generally very good, sometimes (as in the beginning) from challenging sources, with fortunate colour choices in toning and tinting.

Fregoli, superstar e mito / Fregoli, Superstar and Myth (1898-1899) (2015 digital restoration AFF / CNC)

Fregoli: Bianco e nero (IT 1898-1899). Photo © La Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale – Collection CNC.

Fregoli donna (IT 1898-1899). Photo © La Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale – Collection CNC.

Fregoli e signora al ristorante (IT 1898-1899). Photo © La Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale – Collection CNC.

Fregoli: Giochi di prestigio (IT 1898-1899). Photo © La Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale – Collection CNC.

Fregoli: segreto per vestirsi (IT 1898-1899). Photo © La Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale – Collection CNC.

Fregoli trasformista (IT 1898-1899). Photo © La Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale – Collection CNC.

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone.
Introduced by Arturo Brachetti.
Viewed at Teatro Verdi, with subtitles, grand piano: John Sweeney, 7 Oct 2015

William Barnes: Fregoli – Superstar and Myth (GCM catalog and website)

"Although his total film output did not exceed half an hour, Leopoldo Fregoli (1867-1936) deserves a place alongside the great European pioneers, Lumière, Méliès, and Paul. He pioneered new styles of exhibition, using film both in his stage act and independently as film-only shows. He brought his own ingenuity and humour to Méliès-style tricks. He anticipated associational montage. He used hand-applied colour creatively. He pioneered sound synchronization, providing his own voice from behind the screen. Above all, he was cinema’s first named star."

"On stage, Fregoli was the earliest great international popular superstar, packing theatres and earning millions in North and South America and in all Europe as far east as Russia. Fregoli was a “protean actor”, alone on the stage, playing innumerable roles in the course of his act, with instantaneous changes of costume and make-up effected behind minimal screens. It was not a new genre, but Fregoli’s energy, charm, vocal gifts, and the acute psychology he brought to each of his briefly-seen characters were unique. This solo show was not achieved easily: he travelled with 370 crates, weighing 30 tons, in four railway wagons, with 800 costumes, 1200 wigs, and 23 backstage assistants."

"Fregoli’s first encounter with film was in London. On 8 March 1897 he made his first appearance at the Alhambra, Leicester Square, where Robert W. Paul was still presenting his Animatographe, premiered on 25 March 1896. Paul persuaded Fregoli to let him film his Maestri d’operetta – impressions of Rossini, Verdi, Wagner, and Mascagni conducting the actual theatre orchestra. Fregoli’s Famous Impersonations of Composers (1898) was 400 feet long, and was available as ten 40-foot films, which were later reissued as five 80-foot films. It remained a big attraction in Paul’s catalogue for several years, and was no doubt the first film to have a cue sheet: “Accompanied by the proper music (particulars of which may be had on application), the series is entertaining to an educated audience, and quite suited to high-class concerts or Sunday exhibition” (cited in John Barnes, in The Beginnings of the Cinema in England, volume 3). Another film, of Fregoli in his dressing room, seems to have been shot around the same time, and was shown at the Crystal Palace – to the annoyance of the Alhambra management, who made a public announcement warning the public that this was a film and not Fregoli in person, but that he would soon return to the Alhambra. Both these films have disappeared, along with Méliès’ L’Homme Protée, who was almost certainly not Fregoli."

"Between his Alhambra appearances, he made a new South American tour, and in late 1897 appeared at the Théâtre Célestins in Lyon. Backstage he met Louis Lumière, who was enchanted by his performance: “How can you have so many souls in one body?” Fregoli was invited to spend two days at the Lumières’ factory, learning to use the Cinématographe, which fascinated him as it did so many other stage magicians, including Méliès himself. Lumière also took the opportunity to film Fregoli in Partie de cartes and Danse serpentine, and arranged for him to acquire a Cinématographe – which Fregoli cheekily rechristened the “Fregoligraph” (sometimes rendered as “Fregoliograph”, with or without a final “e”)."

"He evidently took delivery of the apparatus when he was en route for London, to open at the Alhambra on 20 June 1898. By 25 July he was ready to add the Fregoliograph [sic] as a new attraction, constituting the third part of his programme. There was still only one film, described by The Era as “a series of Cinematograph views by which Fregoli’s methods of quick changing are vividly depicted. We see the artist, with the assistance of his attendants, slipping off certain garments and assuming others in the ‘twinkling of an eye’”."

"Fregoli’s London engagement ended on 13 August, but “The Exposure of Fregoli by THE FREGOLIOGRAPH” was retained on the programme. To build the single film into an act in its own right, it was supplemented with unrelated films, including views of the war in the Sudan. The “Fregoliograph” remained on the Alhambra bill for eight weeks after Fregoli’s departure."

"Fregoli was meanwhile distracted by a Berlin season, and by furnishing his palatial new villa in Asti (which included a photographic studio), where most of his subsequent films were probably made. He introduced the Fregoligraph to Italy on his triumphant return to Rome, after years of absence, in late 1898, at the Valle and Costanzi theatres. Now he announced “10 quadri”, which constituted the fourth and final part of his act. The films were back-projected on a screen measuring 4 x 5 metres, framed in coloured lights. To enliven the screening they might be projected backwards and upside-down."

"By 1899 he was also exhibiting the Fregoligraph as a pure cinema show. Aldo Bernardini has traced a programme of 15 Fregoligraph films (plus Grafofono) at the Olympia caffè-concerto in Rome, at the same time as Fregoli himself, with Fregoligraph, was playing in Genoa. Clearly, then, he had more than one projector: two were recorded as being destroyed along with all Fregoli’s stage equipment in the conflagration of the Théâtre Trianon in Paris in 1900."

"By the early years of the century, one-minute films were passé and the Fregoligraph quietly disappeared from the show. Fregoli abruptly chose to retire in 1924. He spent his last years in Viareggio, where he died in 1936. Fregoli’s influence gave psychiatry the Fregoli Syndrome, and in theatre extends to the present, through his most worthy successor, Arturo Brachetti."

"During the Giornate a foyer exhibition will trace Fregoli’s career on stage and in film." – William Barnes

The Films

"On his retirement in 1924, Fregoli abruptly put all his professional materials – sets, costumes, wigs, and presumably films – in store in Genoa, and within weeks everything was sold and had vanished. Not until the 1950s did this group of original nitrate films reappear in Viareggio, to be subsequently acquired by the Cineteca Nazionale of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome. These Roman holdings were restored in 1995 under the auspices of the LUMIERE Project by Les Archives françaises du film du CNC, Bois d’Arcy,* who have now prepared the new digital transfer being shown in this year’s Giornate programme. The films have been transferred from 35 mm at 16 frames per second, and their original 35 mm lengths in metres have been included in the listings for each of the films."

"The films are a heterogeneous collection: some look like rejected attempts, while others are clearly fit for public screening. Their order on the CNC’s DCP roughly follows the numbering assigned
to them by Livio Luppi in 1995, based on the labels on the original Lumière cans in which (sometimes evidently misplaced) they were found. However, it is more revealing to consider them
in the stylistic groupings adopted in the listing below."

"No camera operator is identified: the proposition of Vico D’Incerti, in 1951, that Fregoli was assisted on camera by the 20-year-old Luca Comerio is not substantiated, but in his memoirs Fregoli
acknowledges a certain Müller as his technical collaborator. "

* Fregoli’s speed and dynamism were inevitably appealing to the Futurists, and he is briefly mentioned in Marinetti’s Manifesto del Varietà (1913). In his ground-breaking 2002 Giornate
programme “The Italian Avant-Garde, or, an Unwitting Avant-Garde” Carlo Montanaro included 13 of Fregoli’s surviving 20 films in their original 35 mm format.

Unless otherwise noted, the Fregoli-directed films have the common credit: IT 1898-99; D+SC+C: Leopoldo Fregoli. The codes “CNC” and “F” respectively indicate the running order of the present digital compilation and the numbers assigned in the Luppi filmography.

THE ORDER OF THE FILMS IN THE CATALOGUE (THE FILMS WERE SCREENED IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ORDER, SEE BELOW)

1. Films shot in slightly variable stock set comprising decorated flats with curtained doorway in centre, evidently built outdoors. This series probably represents the earliest surviving Fregoli films.
BARBIERE MALDESTRO [FREGOLI IN PALCOSCENICO] (9.2m, 30"; CNC 3; F03)
FREGOLI AL RISTORANTE I (15.1 m, 49"; CNC 8; F10)
FREGOLI AL RISTORANTE II (11 m, 36"; CNC 9; F11)
FREGOLI TRASFORMISTA (14.7 m, 48"; CNC 14; F18)
SIGNORA AL RISTORANTE (8.5 m, 28"; CNC 18; F24)
GIOCHI DI PRESTIGIO (15.5 m, 50"; hand-coloured; CNC 21; F27)

2. Films in “interior” sets, constructed outdoors
FREGOLI DONNA [FREGOLI RETROSCENA; IL BOUQUET DI FIORI DI FREGOLI] (14.5 m, 47"; CNC 1; F01)
BURLA AL MARITO I (15.2 m, 50"; CNC 5; F06)
BURLA AL MARITO II (15.4 m, 50"; CNC 4; F21)
FREGOLI BARBIERE MAGO (18.4 m, 60"; CNC 11; F14)
MAESTRI DI MUSICA (16.7 m, 54"; CNC 13; F16)
SEGRETO PER VESTIRSI (CON AIUTO) (8.5 m, 28”. CNC 19, CNC 20; F25)

3. Films in “exterior” sets, constructed outdoors
PERE COTTE (18.4 m, 60"; CNC 10; F13)
BIANCO E NERO (cast: Fregoli?; 12.3 m, 40"; CNC 17; F22)

4. Films shot in exterior locations
ERMETE NOVELLI LEGGE IL GIORNALE (C: without Fregoli, with Ermete Novelli; 16.9 m, 55"; CNC 2; F02)
SOGNO NUOVO / NOVELLI IN FAMIGLIA(C: without Fregoli, with Ermete Novelli, his wife Olga Giannini, their son Alessandro, their dog; 16.9 m, 55"; CNC 6; F07)
LA SERENATA DI FREGOLI / FREGOLI IN CAMPAGNA / FREGOLI CHITARRISTA (15.1 m, 49"; CNC 12; F15)
FREGOLI SOLDATO I (14.9 m, 49"; CNC 15; F19)
FREGOLI SOLDATO II (15.9 m, 52"; CNC 16; F20)
BAGNI DI MARE / BAGNI FINE DI SECOLO (13.9 m, 45"; CNC 7; F09)

5. Films of Fregoli by Lumière
PARTIE DE CARTES (Lumière – FR 1897) Cast: Leopoldo Fregoli; 35 mm, 13.8 m, 45" (16 fps). Lumière no. 764.
DANSE SERPENTINE (Lumière – FR 1897) Cast: Leopoldo Fregoli; 35 mm, 12.3 m, 40" (16 fps). Lumière no. 765.

THE FILMS WERE SCREENED IN PORDENONE IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER:

1. FREGOLI DONNA [FREGOLI RETROSCENA; IL BOUQUET DI FIORI DI FREGOLI] (14.5 m, 47"; CNC 1; F01). Filmed in “interior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: A bouquet behind which Fregoli changes from woman to man, and man to woman.
2. ERMETE NOVELLI LEGGE IL GIORNALE (C: without Fregoli, with Ermete Novelli; 16.9 m, 55"; CNC 2; F02). Filmed in exterior locations. - AA: In medium shot, Ermete Novelli is seated at a table, keeps changing newspapers, laughing at them.
3. BARBIERE MALDESTRO [FREGOLI IN PALCOSCENICO] (9.2m, 30"; CNC 3; F03). Shot in slightly variable stock set comprising decorated flats with curtained doorway in centre, evidently built outdoors. Probably among the earliest surviving Fregoli films. - AA: At the clumsy barber's, head washed.
4. BURLA AL MARITO I (15.2 m, 50"; CNC 5; F06). Filmed in “interior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: A prank to the husband: switching from woman to man.
5. BURLA AL MARITO II (15.4 m, 50"; CNC 4; F21). Filmed in “interior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: A prank to the husband: the lady friend turns out to be Fregoli.
6. SOGNO NUOVO / NOVELLI IN FAMIGLIA. (C: without Fregoli, with Ermete Novelli, his wife Olga Giannini, their son Alessandro, their dog; 16.9 m, 55"; CNC 6; F07). Filmed in exterior locations. - AA: Non-fiction: family happiness at the Ermete Novelli family.
7. BAGNI DI MARE / BAGNI FINE DI SECOLO (13.9 m, 45"; CNC 7; F09). Filmed in exterior locations.- AA: Non-fiction: holiday fun: boating, splashing into the water, swimming.
8. FREGOLI AL RISTORANTE I (15.1 m, 49"; CNC 8; F10). Shot in slightly variable stock set comprising decorated flats with curtained doorway in centre, evidently built outdoors. Probably among the earliest surviving Fregoli films. - AA: Drinking, cutting fruit, everything is taken away.
9. FREGOLI AL RISTORANTE II (11 m, 36"; CNC 9; F11). Shot in slightly variable stock set comprising decorated flats with curtained doorway in centre, evidently built outdoors. Probably among the earliest surviving Fregoli films. - AA: At the restaurant, everything is taken away.
10. PERE COTTE (18.4 m, 60"; CNC 10; F13). Filmed in “exterior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: Baked pears. 8 films are eating. A vanishing trick.
11. FREGOLI BARBIERE MAGO (18.4 m, 60"; CNC 11; F14). Filmed in “interior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: The magic barber. A huge hair and beard, all cut. They grow again in an instant.
12. LA SERENATA DI FREGOLI / FREGOLI IN CAMPAGNA / FREGOLI CHITARRISTA (15.1 m, 49"; CNC 12; F15). Filmed in exterior locations. - AA: Serenading with a guitar under the window. The policeman gets to sing, Fregoli playing the guitar.
13. MAESTRI DI MUSICA (16.7 m, 54"; CNC 13; F16). Filmed in “interior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: Lightning fast impressions of Rossini, Wagner, Verdi, Mascagni. John Sweeney was up to task with [The Thieving Magpie?], The Ride of the Valkyries, The Anvil Chorus, and Cavalleria rusticana.
14. FREGOLI TRASFORMISTA (14.7 m, 48"; CNC 14; F18). Shot in slightly variable stock set comprising decorated flats with curtained doorway in centre, evidently built outdoors. Probably among the earliest surviving Fregoli films. - AA: Fregoli took his clothes off and transformed into many others.
15. FREGOLI SOLDATO I (14.9 m, 49"; CNC 15; F19). Filmed in exterior locations. - AA: The park bench gag: the soldier has to stand up to salute, the bench plank gets out of balance, and the lady falls on the ground. Fregoli does here what comedy serialists such as Cretinetti did ten years later.
16. FREGOLI SOLDATO II (15.9 m, 52"; CNC 16; F20). Filmed in exterior locations. - AA: See above. Here the lady has a baby in her arms.
17. BIANCO E NERO (cast: Fregoli?; 12.3 m, 40"; CNC 17; F22). Filmed in “exterior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: Black and white. Pranks with the hats of two men who meet on the streets. One gets white flour into his hat and on his face, the other black soot.
18. FREGOLI E SIGNORA AL RISTORANTE (8.5 m, 28"; CNC 18; F24). Shot in slightly variable stock set comprising decorated flats with curtained doorway in centre, evidently built outdoors. Probably among the earliest surviving Fregoli films. - AA: The lady at the restaurant. A fleeting fragment.
19. SEGRETO PER VESTIRSI (CON AIUTO) (8.5 m, 28”. CNC 19, CNC 20; F25). Filmed in “interior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: A secret to dressing (with a little help). How to change clothes lighting fast backstage.
20. SEGRETO PER VESTIRSI (CON AIUTO) II. Filmed in “interior” sets, constructed outdoors. - AA: A secret to dressing (with a little help). How to change clothes lighting fast backstage.
21. GIOCHI DI PRESTIGIO (15.5 m, 50"; hand-coloured; CNC 21; F27). Shot in slightly variable stock set comprising decorated flats with curtained doorway in centre, evidently built outdoors. Probably among the earliest surviving Fregoli films. - AA: Prestigious tricks. There is no end to the flowers. Wonderful colour: orange, sepia, etc.
22. PARTIE DE CARTES (Lumière – FR 1897) C: Leopoldo Fregoli; 35 mm, 13.8 m, 45" (16 fps). Lumière no. 764. - AA: The famous Lumière film: Fregoli, indeed, is the most prominent player.
23. DANSE SERPENTINE (Lumière – FR 1897) C: Leopoldo Fregoli; 35 mm, 12.3 m, 40" (16 fps). Lumière no. 765. - AA: A Lumière serpentine dance number starring Fregoli.

AA: Who was the first film star?

The master of transformations Leopold Fregoli was an international superstar of the stage who made also a series of films which were screened usually only in his own shows - on the biggest stages of the world everywhere.

The bodybuilder Eugen Sandow had appeared in films by Skladanowsky and Edison, but there was not a series of "Eugen Sandow films", as there certainly was by Leopoldo Fregoli starting in 1898.

Mariann Lewinsky has claimed in her Cento anni fà series in Bologna that the first film stars appeared in 1909 - Stacia Napierkowska and Cretinetti / André Deed.

And let's not forget Georges Méliès who was both the producer-director and the star of his own film series starting in 1896 (produced, appropriately, by his Star Film company). (But already Edgar Morin tracked a transition from Star Films to film stars).

Leopold Fregoli made a lot of films, and they all vanished due to the fact that Fregoli himself abandoned them. There are so many of these tragic cases of entire abandoned film legacies - R. W. Paul, Georges Méliès, Edwin Thanhouser, Leopold Fregoli...

A stash of secondary material, outtakes, et cetera, survives, and we saw it all here today.

Introduced by Arturo Brachetti, Fregoli's spiritual heir, a master of transformations himself since decades now.

Most of these films I also saw in Le Giornate's brilliant Avanguardia italiana series in Sacile in 2002 curated by Carlo Montanaro. Now we saw the entire set in 2015 digital restorations from AFF / CNC.

An invaluable treasure trove of a fabulous artist.