Century of Cinema: 1902 – SAGARMÍNAGA
Gregorio Antonino María Sagarmínaga y Aberasturi (1846-1924) was an important industrialist from Bilbao. He showed a special interest in recreational physics, magic and optical devices, and he acquired a magic lantern and plates in 1883 to set up projections at the cultural society El Sitio in Bilbao. A few years later, in 1897, he enriched his performances with moving images.
The Sagarmínaga collection brings together more than 100 films purchased between 1897 and 1907. The collection was acquired and restored by Filmoteca Española in the early 2000s, in collaboration with laboratories Iskra and Fotofilm-Deluxe.
One particularity of the collection was that it was organised into programmes (films spliced and organised in reels), each given a title by the Sagarmínaga. The films presented in this edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato were not all part of the same programme but were all produced in 1902 and give a representative glimpse of the collection, with a predominance of Pathé films, two films produced by Parnaland and one film shot in Spain by the photographer Escobar, distributed by Gaumont. The subjects of the films are very present in the collection as a whole: images of King Alphonse XIII, trick films, comedies, gymnastics and a sea scene. The collection is not only exceptional for the abundance of titles (some prints appear to be unique) but also for the richness and diversity of its subjects.

Camille Blot-Wellens

Century of Cinema: 1902 – MAGIC
The animated photography of the Lumière views was no longer a novelty in 1902; by now trick films, transformations and fairytales were the highlights of a screening. These genres did not remain an exclusive speciality of Star Film for long; other companies started to produce similar films, often directly copying Méliès. For example, for La Soubrette ingénieuse, Zecca used a trick that Méliès had introduced with L’Homme mouche (not in the programme), pointing the camera from a vertical vantage point to the floor.
To start a production line of scènes a trucs et transformations, in 1902 the Lumière brothers hired Gaston Velle (1868-1948), an itinerant illusionist who apparently had worked before in Lyon, showing his magic in programmes that also presented Lumière films. The 13 views he made for the Lumières were announced as “Nouvelles vues fantasmagoriques. Scènes de genre et à transformations. Vues de 30 mètres à 70 mètres” in the “L’Industriel forain” (18-24 January 1903).
In 1904, Velle moved to Pathé Frères and created some of the loveliest féeries such as La Poule aux oeufs d’or, La Ruche merveilleuse and Le Petit Jules Verne. Like his fellow magician Méliès, he gave up cinematography for good in 1913; féeries and transformations had fallen out of fashion, giving way to costume drama and animation films.

Mariann Lewinsky