Bryony Dixon (BFI), Mariann Lewinsky and Karl Wratschko

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

This programme is arranged for experimental purposes, enabling the audience to compare similarities and differences. First, there are four surviving prints of Excursion en Italie, a cinematic Grand Tour in 12 tableaux presenting tourist highlights from Genoa, via Venice and Vesuvius, to Rome. All different and none like the original version that premiered in Paris in May 1904. The copy from Cineteca di Bologna lacks the beginning (En rade de Gêne, 12 m – the only lost scene of the film) and the end. It is impossible to say whether these parts were intentionally cut or if they went lost, which happens easily with film beginnings and endings. For the short Pont des soupirs and Rome moderne et antique from the Filmoteca de Catalunya, the producer Pathé Frères is responsible; in its 1905 catalogue six segments of Excursion en Italie appear as separate films. The Australian version includes another film, La Fête des gondoles à Venise (Eclipse 1906-1907); it was almost certainly inserted by the exhibitor Corrick, an itinerant showman. Second, as a contrast to these travelogues with their measured pace and contemplative gaze at distant landscapes and cityscapes, four very short films are presented. Close-up faces and surprising changes irresistibly capture the audience’s attention, and the stripper even winks at us and holds up the flea she caught so that we can see it better. Third, as a finale, a different Venice, not postcards for armchair tourists by French professional Camille Legrand, but what Venetian Giancarlo Stucky captured when he filmed the people and places of his hometown with the very first amateur camera, the Gaumont-Demenÿ Chrono de Poche, bought in 1900. The approximately 70 undated 15mm films from his estate were restored in 20182020; here five of them will be screened.

Mariann Lewinsky