Content area
Full Text
While the world's cinematheques debate the implications of the digital revolution, the treasures pour forth, thanks in part to digital technology.
Volume One of Gaumont: Le Cinema premier covers the years 1893-1913 and the work of three directors, Alice Guy, Louis Feuillade, and Léonce Perret. There are 94 films - 17 hours - in the 7-DVD set. Some of these films are extras, so there are actually less than 90 films from the output of nearly 2,000 films from these three filmmakers. Nonetheless, Gaumont have succeeded in presenting a very clear idea of these filmmakers' range with their examples and the extras.
The three careers overlap. We have examples of Alice Guy's films from 1897 to 1907 (including her last film for Gaumont), Feuillade from 1907 to 1912, and Perret from 1910 to 1913. Through the extras/documentaries, we learn about their careers. In the cases of Feuillade and Perret, the extras are, wittily so, silent. For Guy, Gaumont has included a very interesting and warmhearted 1995 documentary from the National Film Board of Canada. In Feuillade's case, the selection finishes before the serials, Fantomas.Judex, etc., which have fixed him indelibly in the history of cinema. Feuillade died in 1925, Perret in 1935, still filmmaking.
Regardless of any individual differences, we are made very aware through the choice of films and the very fine accompanying booklet that these three filmmakers were working at a prodigious rate in a demanding studio system. Léon Gaumont ran a very tight ship. He was a disciplinarian and watched budgets closely. The films reflect the interests, mores, and morality of the period, and are clearly made within the philosophy of the studio. Yet the filmmakers were not automatons. Each body of work also reflects their personalities. And each is further developing the new art. There is both intellectual curiosity and passion.
Alice Guy was Louis Gaumont's secretary and office manager. One day, she asked Gaumont for permission to make one or two short films with friends. He agreed and she was launched. Guy is a very, very important figure. While the inventors such as Lumière and Gaumont saw cinema as a scientific tool, it was someone like Guy who, at the very beginning, saw the creative potential of cinema, its...