On doit le dire - 1918
ABOUT THE FILM : On doit le dire
Lobster FilmsYou Have to Say It
Year: 1918
Mathieu and Mattéo are in the same fire station. On leave, Mathieu walks down a lively street and is whistled at by a prostitute on the balcony of a hotel room. A little bit later, Mattéo stops in front of the same hotel… Mathieu and Mattéo contract syphilis.
Through the crossover portraits of the two soldiers, designer O’Galop signs a hard-hitting, funny prevention film.
Nationality: French
Length: 4' 38"
Genre: prevention,animation
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: black & white
Original language: French
A BRIEF HISTORY : On doit le dire
A curious man and always on the lookout for what was new in art, Marius Rossillon (1867-1946) was better known by the nickname O’Galop. Cartoonist, painter, manufacturer of zany toys and film maker, he was the creator of the "Michelin Man", the famous Michelin tyre man. Caricaturist, he sketched his contemporaries with nonsense and humour in several reviews including "Le Charivari", a satirical weekly internationally renowned to such an extent that the English newspaper "Punch" was subtitled "The London Charivari".
O’Galop's first collaborations were set at about 1910 with prevention films. Together with Doctor Jean Comandon (1877-1970), a pioneer of scientific cinema, they signed films conveying hygiene messages like How to catch diseases or The fly.
In 1918, at the end of the First World War, Jean Comandon was in charge of supervising a series of films dealing with the scourge of French society. Three of these films, To Beat Tuberculosis, Great Oks from Little Acorns Grow and The Alcohol Cycle are present on the website under the title Trois films de prévention du dessinateur O'Galop (Public Health Designed By O’Galop).
On doit le dire (We have to say it), a propagandist film against syphilis, is part of this series. With its microbes seen through a microscope and its explanatory texts integrated into the images, this animated film intended for the general public expresses the educational and ethical preoccupations of his time. The fluidity of the drawing and the acidity of the words make it a timeless, funny film, which keeps the inimitable style of the artist O’Galop.
