This short educational film was drawn by Marius O’Galop, one of the leading French animators in the first half of the 20th century. It’s one of a series of health advisory films he made between 1914 and 1919 in collaboration with Jean Comandon – who was both a trained doctor and one of the pioneers of scientific film. Shot in 1918, L’Oubli par l’alcool deals with the troublesome subject of alcoholism with enormous wit and plenty of hyperbolic stereotyping. Our protagonist is a young and healthy bookkeeper who finds himself bored one day (“Ohh! L’Ennui!”), and heads to a bar for a drink to cheer himself up. After just a few glasses, he is totally addicted: his body swells up and loses coordination, and all dignity seems gone. But our bored bookkeeper is no fool and quickly realises what a dead-end road he’s on, so he swears off booze forever. Cut to ten years later – his health is restored, his eyes are bright and he’s doing very well in the bookkeeping department – a highly-functional model citizen once more. Let’s drink to his success!

Karl Wratschko