Les Allumettes fantaisistes - 1912
ABOUT THE FILM : Les Allumettes fantaisistes
CNC - Archives françaises du filmWhimsical Matches
Year: 1912
To the rhythm of a frenzied choreography, acrobatic matches come to life on a black background. Leaving their matchbox, they line the film in circular, concentric movements. In an almost aquatic momentum, the squadron of little bits of wood mould the contours of a character, a run-of-the-mill smoker, before transforming into a funny harness. The film ends when the matches, again transformed, take on the appearance of a distinguished man who, after several attempts, finally finds a way of lighting his cigarette.
Nationality: French
Length: 3' 57"
Genre: animation
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: black & white
Producer: Eclipse
Composer: Antonio Coppola (2009)
Original language: French
A BRIEF HISTORY : Les Allumettes fantaisistes
Before the emergence of genuine advertising cinema, advertisements made their appearance in animated films like this film made in 1912 for Maryland cigarettes. The brand displayed discretely in the background is a good example of the genre in adverts of the time.
From 1908 to 1923 Emile Courtet known as Emile Cohl (1857-1938), pioneer of animated cinema and creator of the oldest cartoon on cinema film known to date (Fantasmagorie, 1908), made three hundred films of which only sixty five have been rediscovered. This loyal supporter living on the hill of Montmartre in Paris, alternately cartoonist, drawer, actor and painter played a part in the movements that influenced surrealists before discovering, at the age of fifty, the world of cinema animation.
Brilliantly handling drawing or matches, the cut out or puppets, Cohl like Georges Méliès turned what was just a trick into an art form! These Whimsical matches are the second trace of his work with this material after Animated Matches made in 1909 for Gaumont. He also worked for Lux, Pathé, Eclipse and Eclair which sent him to Fort Lee in the United States of America from 1912 to 1914 to bring fashionable comics to life.
Cohl drew thirty or so very short films whose silhouettes were simplified over time, but his great speciality remained transformation drawing today called "morphing" in the image of this cigar that became dirigible in the film.
With French cinema beginning to go into decline with the First World War, Emile Cohl stopped film making in 1923. He continued working however, notably as a privileged consultant for Joseph-Marie Lo Duca's (1910-2004) DAE company (European Cartoons). Up until his death in 1938, the father of cartoon cinema made use of his genius in the film La Conquête de l'Angleterre (the conquest of England) that was supposed to be the follow-up to La Découverte de l'Amérique (the discovery of America) by Mimma Indelli (1909-2002) a few years before. The devastating fire in the studio in1939 interrupted production of La Conquête de l'Angleterre of which only a few metres of rushes remain today: the credits and a panoramic view of the Bayeux tapestry redrawn by Cohl (kept by the French film Archives).
