Les ombres chinoises - 1908
ABOUT THE FILM : Les ombres chinoises
Lobster FilmsPantomime
Year: 1908
Two parasols twirl in the centre of a portico, held by two women dressed as Japanese, who, helped by their servants, set up a screen. The latter soon occupies the entire frame of the image. It's then that the shadow plays begins. Objects and various characters appear and transform: an elephant, a sugar tong, a clown... For this short, Segundo de Chomón called upon his wife, Julienne Mathieu, who plays the role of one of the Japanese women.
Nationality: French
Actor: Julienne Mathieu
Length: 3' 27"
Genre: trick film
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: black & white
Producer: Pathé Frères
Composer: Julien Carton
Original language: French
A BRIEF HISTORY : Les ombres chinoises
Often, the name of Segundo de Chomón (1871-1929) is associated with that of Georges Méliès (1861-1938). If he is less known than his illustrious rival, the Spanish filmmaker has nonetheless little to envy in him in terms of creativity and inventiveness when it comes to special effects. It is in 1905 that Segundo de Chomón is hired by Pathé Frères, and put in charge of special-effects films to compete with Méliès. During the years 1908 and 1909, which are particularly prolific, Segundo de Chomón makes his best special-effects films, among the some 150 which he made for Pathé between 1905 and 1909.
In Les Ombres chinoises, Chomón adapts to the screen an ancestral show, of eastern origin, the "shadow play". Popularised in France by Séraphin (1747-1800) to amuse the royal family, this art was highly fashionable at the turn of the 20th century in Parisian cabarets, like Le Chat noir in Montmartre.
The film is presented here in an abbreviated version. On the second screen, set up by the female presenters, was to appear, in the original version, the shadows of gymnasts performing acrobatic exercises. Thus, Chomón proposed a foreshadowing of what was to become the technique of transparency: the characters are filmed in front of a frosted screen, which receives a back-projected image (for example, a landscape which parades by behind a character at the steering wheel).
One of the Japanese women is played by Julienne Mathieu (1874-?), Chomón's wife, present in several films of the Pathé period. The couple met in Paris around 1895. Coming from an artists' family, Julienne was an operetta singer and actress. She took charge of illumination studio, run Mme Thuillier, who coloured Georges Méliès' films, ushering her husband into the new world of motion pictures. Thanks to her, Chomón discovered and perfected the art of the colouring - he even, perhaps, collaborated in the creation of the mechanical process of film colouration called Pathécolour.
The original music for this film was composed in 2011 by Julien Carton in the context of the partnership with the CNSMDP (Paris Conservatory of Dance and Music).
