Made in 1906 by an anonymous writer, Lèvres collées is in the same vein as those comedy films produced by Pathé which triumphed at that time.  However this was a comedy of the absurd and the irrational that stood out thanks to an eruption of gags, known as burlesque. This new genre of a new film industry was already at work in 1895 in L’Arroseur arrosé by the Lumière Brothers or later in films by Georges Méliès (1861-1938) and Ferdinand Zecca (1864-1947).

Burlesque was one of the favourite expressions of French silent film up until the First World War in 1914. The actor’s fast play, a simple scenario and a montage with rare pauses provided the special rhythm of the staging.  The genre imposed laughter thanks to unexpected and dramatic effects that introduced the spectator to a universe dominated by nonsense.  Extraordinary events intervened without reason in an impossible to set up coherence.  Taking inspiration from music hall and theatre, the burlesque form shows more than it relates.  Moreover the use of make-up and exaggerations with gestures and clothing reinforced the fundamentally visual characteristics of these films.

These short burlesque films at the beginning of the century were played by actors that were still anonymous to the public known as André Deed (1879-1931) Marcel Fabre (1885-1927), Raymond Frau (1887-1953) and Max Linder (1883-1925) that you can spot here, already wearing the top hat that made his dandy character famous four years later.

The original music for this film was composed by Pablo Pico in 2010 in the context of the call for proposals launched in partnership with the Sacem (Société des auteurs compositeurs et éditeurs de musique – Society of authors, composers and music editors).