Saturday, July 06, 2013

A Hundred Years Ago: The Closing Programme: The End of the Long Century

Cinema Lumière - Sala Officinema/Mastroianni Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, accompagnamento al piano di Gabriel Thibaudeau, earphone commentary in Italian and English, 6 July 2013

PROGRAMMA DI CHIUSURA: LA FINE DEL SECOLO LUNGO

[This film I did not see due to the overlap with the preceding program the start of which was delayed: LA REGINA DI MAKALOLOS - Le avventure straordinarissime di Saturnino Farandola. IT 1913. D: Marcel Fabre. Dal romanzo di Albert Robida. SC: Guido Volante. C: Marcel Fabre (Saturnino Farandola), Nilde Baracchi (Mysora). P: Ambrosio. 35 mm. 400 m. 20' a 18 f/s. Col. Da: Fondazione Cineteca Italiana]

LA VIE COSMOPOLITE AU CAIRE / [Cosmopolitan Life in Cairo]. FR 1913. P: Pathé. 35 mm. 50 m. 3' a 18 f/s. Col. English intertitles. Da: BFI National Archive. - AA: Non-fiction. Travelogue. Charming views of Cairo, sights, animals. Impressive stencil colour throughout the picture.

MIT DER KAMERA IM EWIGEN EIS - TEIL I / [With a Camera on Eternal Ice, Part I]. DE 1913. DP: Sepp Allgeier. P: Express. 35 mm. 220 m (incompleto). 12' a 18 f/s. Col. Da : CNC - Archives Françaises du Film. - AA: Non-fiction. An expedition film. Well shot, impressive composition immediately in Tromsö, at least two cameras were in the equipment, as there is also a shot of Sepp Allgeier, himself, filming the expedition. There is a sequence of the ship being equipped for the dangerous voyage. The dogs seem tough enough. Treibeismassen = drift ice in front of Spitzbergen. The polar wind. Hunting ice bears. Immense masses of ice. Shipwreck in the middle of flexible ice. First there is the hurry to evacuate the ship. Then there is a hurry to move onto solid ice. The cameraman films the Schiffuntergang, the destruction of the ship. A first camp is established on solid ice. [The English earphone commentary had often nothing to do with the intertitles of this print. May there be two quite different versions of intertitles?]

LE CHEVALIER DES NEIGES. FR 1913. D: Georges Méliès. C: Georges Méliès (il diavolo). 35 mm. 383 m. 19' a 18 f/s. Col. English intertitles. Da: National Film Center - The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Komiya Collection). Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna - AA: See separate remarks in the next post!

Mariann Lewinsky: "It's commonly understood that the 19th century did not come to an end on December 31, 1899, but rather with World War I, bringing the destruction of empires, devastating Europe and setting the stage for World War II. A dreary curtain fell in 1914 over the Belle Epoque, soon but a legend. The war would also change and Italian film industries. Hints of these changes, however, began earlier. In 1913 Georges Méliès, last hero of the nineteenth century féerique-fantastique show, left the cinema that had already left him."

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