Guillaume Tell - 1903
ABOUT THE FILM : Guillaume Tell
La Cinémathèque de ToulouseWilliam Tell
Year: 1903
Former mercenary retired to the mountains and expert marksman with a crossbow, William Tell is commanded to pierce an apple placed on the head of his son after having refused to hail the emblem of Gessler, bailiff of the county of Uri assigned by the emperor of Austria. Tell succeeds this exploit and received as a hero, he is acclaimed by the people.
The story of the legendary hero and the Swiss independence that took place at the end of the 13th century is told here in a succession of five filmed pictures. This film is a model of its kind as a result of the catalogues of the Pathé Company.
Nationality: French
Length: 5' 31"
Genre: fiction
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: hand-coloured
Producer: Pathé Frères
Composer: Marc Perrone (2009)
Original language: French
A BRIEF HISTORY : Guillaume Tell
The beginning of the 1900's was also when traditional cinema went on to industrial cinema. Production development was linked to the success of screenings at fairgrounds where they became the main attraction. Pathé Frères in France was the first film company in the world up to the beginning of 1910. Thanks to the standardisation of production means, the company's catalogues improved with a blossoming of comic and special effect films. Small structures were set up and each director, most of them with theatre experience, specialised in a theme.
In 1902 the story was added to the Pathé firm's repertoire of genres in the same way as Fééries et contes, Scènes dramatique and Scènes religieuses ou bibliques. Film director and Charles Pathé's right-hand man (1863-1957), Ferdinand Zecca (1864-1947) hired Lucien Nonguet (1868-?) former theatre sound engineer, to film topical events and historic re-enactments like Marie-Antoinette (1904) and Cuirassé Potemkine (1905), not to be confused with the famous film by Russian Sergueï Eisenstein (1898-1948) filmed twenty years later!
As a loyal associate, Lorant-Heilbronn (1874 - 1912) whose film Christopher Columbus can also be seen at Europa Film Treasures, often made the decor of films by Nonguet. The decor was an essential element of the first film productions and the studio offered an adapted space to house it. Furthermore, the poor sensitivity of the films required light conditions that only the studio could provide. In line with Méliès (1867-1938) who built the first genuine film studio in Montreuil, these "light traps" grew in number around the world, equipped with the necessary machinery and maximum sunshine.
Cinema was equipped with theatre resources by calling on its decorative effects with the painted canvases and trompe-l’oeil that created the illusion of relief. The decor of the lake is a good illustration of this in William Tell, as proved by the description by Gaston Dumesnil, one of the pioneers of decoration for the Pathé Company in Vincennes: "The decor of the lake is made up of a little basin whose water is shaken up by a machinist, placed in front of a painted background framed with decorated frames stimulating depth."*
The original music for this film was composed by Marc Perrone in 2009.
*Jean-Pierre Berthomé, Le Décor au cinéma, Publisher : Cahiers du Cinéma, Paris, 2003.
