Thu
27/06
Piazzetta Pier Paolo Pasolini > 22:00
1904: A FABULOUS YEAR
Mariann Lewinsky and Karl Wratschko
Stephen Horne, drum accompaniment by Frank Bockius
From 1903 to 1911, the glamorous annual revue at the Metropol-Theater was the highlight of Berlin’s entertainment scene. In 1904 its title exulted Ein tolles Jahr! (A Fabulous Year!), which fits our programme perfectly – a revue of fantastic films from 1904. Early cinema adopted the variety programme concept and the exceptional quality of this cinema lies in the wide range of aesthetic impacts and emotional reactions spectators experience watching, one after the other, the ten or more short films in each screening.
Moved and touched, we empathise with real or fictional characters; with astonishment we follow the irresistible timing of clowns; we are shocked when the balloon turns red and burns all of a sudden, and are delighted by the sublime vision of ships on the horizon or patterns created by rhythmically swaying pompoms. How amusing (and gross) when the telephone booth is mistaken for the toilet! (In his aesthetics of performing arts Abhinavagupta [950-1020 C.E.] suggests nine categories of reactions [bhava], based on nine basic emotions [rasa]: Delight, Laughter, Sorrow, Anger, Heroism, Fear, Disgust, Wonder and Serenity, providing an excellent access to early cinema.)
In selecting and arranging the films, we paid attention to other special delights of 1904 cinema, such as switching between colour and black-and-white, and the diversity of spatial arrangements. We proudly present a number from the original Metropol revue: comedian Henry Bender as Baby Emil. The recording on disc of his husky voice is lost, but we have found the text (by Julius Freund) and music (by Victor Holländer, father of Friedrich Holländer, of The Blue Angel) and now only need a singer, stocky and hoarse.
Mariann Lewinsky
ProjectionInfo
Subtitle
Original version with subtitles
Admittance
CAMBRIOLEURS MODERNES
UN DRAME DANS LES AIRES
SPITHEAD NAVAL REVIEW
ERREUR DE PORTE
LES BULLES DE SAVON
Emil! Babylied
COMMISSIONER HIGGINS VISITS AHMEDABAD GIRLS’ SCHOOL
A MINER’S DAILY LIFE
DÉVALISEURS NOCTURNES
DÉTRESSE ET CHARITÉ
LES GRANDES EAUX DE VERSAILLES
MATCH DE PRESTIDIGITATION
LES DÉNICHEURS D’OISEAUX
LA MÉTAMORPHOSE DU PAPILLON
If you like this, we suggest:
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Cinema Modernissimo
1904 – Where the Bolognesi went to see the films
1904 – Where the Bolognesi went to see the films
Mariann Lewinsky
Daniele Furlati
12:15
Cinema Lumiere - Sala Officinema/Mastroianni
THE LIGHT OF 1904
THE LIGHT OF 1904
Bryony Dixon (BFI), Mariann Lewinsky and Karl Wratschko
John Sweeney
12:15
Cinema Lumiere - Sala Officinema/Mastroianni
1904: NEWS! LATEST NEWS!
1904: NEWS! LATEST NEWS!
The matrix and starting point of this programme is the British film Press Illustrated by Lewin Fitzhamon, presenting animations of various images in a newspaper. Our cinematographic newspaper of 1904 starts with international news reporting on the assassination of Russian minister Plehve in St Petersburg (28 July 1904), the launch of the Italian dreadnought Regina Elena in La Spezia (19 June 1904) and a terrible fire in a Chicago Theatre (602 deaths). Among the topical events of society and stage are a wedding among the high nobility of Paris (with Marcel Proust possibly walking briefly through the picture) and the latest French musichall hit, La Danse apache (or Cake-Walk Parisien) created by Mistinguett and Paulo; the beat reporters have come up with a story about a court case after a strike and a gruesome duel (with two victims) and the supplement is dedicated to the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. The Pathé catalogue states unequivocally that “Évènements russo-japonais. Combat naval was not taken on the spot.” Hughes Laurent, scenographer at Pathé, has left a detailed account about how actualités
reconstituées such as Évènements russo-japonais and the assassination of Plehve were shot in Montreuil – for the scenery of the latter he used as a template an illustration published in the “Petit journal illustré” (Hughes Laurent, Le Décor du cinéma et les décorateurs, “Bulletin de l’AFITEC”, No. 16, 1957).
One interesting observation: in the 1904 Pathé catalogue, a title Long Live Russia! (no. 1044) and another Long Live Japan! (no. 1045) are available to order. Wise Pathé gave cinema operators the possibility to bias the news about the Russo-Japanese War according to the political orientation of their audience. From researcher Morgan Corriou we learn that the series was extremely popular in Tunisia, and for years screened during the celebrations at the end of the Ramadan. The victory of Japan over a white imperialist power had a deep meaning in a country occupied by France.
Karl Wratschko and Mariann Lewinsky
Harp accompaniment by Eduardo Raon, drum accompaniment by Frank Bockius.