|
|
| Festival Year |
Festival Section |
| 2008 |
Rediscoveries and Restorations |
| Film Title |
GRIBICHE |
| Alternative Title 1 |
|
| Alternative Title 2 |
|
| Alternative Title 3 |
|
| Country |
France |
| Release Date |
2 April 1926 |
| Production Co. |
Films Albatros |
| Director |
Jacques Feyder |
| Format |
|
Speed (fps) |
| 35mm |
|
18 |
| |
|
|
| Footage |
|
Time |
| 2653 m. |
|
128' |
| Archive Source |
Cinémathèque française, Paris. Restauro effettuato nel/ Restored in 2008. |
| |
|
| Print Notes |
col. (copia imbibita con metodo Desmet / Desmet colour, duplicating original tinting); Didascalie in francese / French intertitles. |
| Cast |
| Jean Forest (Antoine Belot [“Gribiche”]), Françoise Rosay (Edith Maranet), Cécile Guyon (Anne Belot), Rolla Norman (Philippe Gavary), Charles Barrois (Marcelin), Andrée Canti (governante/governess), Armand Dufour (chauffeur), Serge Otto (cameriere/valet), Alice Tissot (insegnante d'inglese/English teacher), Major Heitner (insegnante di lettere/literature teacher), Georges Pionnier (istruttore di boxe/boxing instructor), Soufflot (Percy Brown), Mme. Surgères (Mme. Veudrot), Hubert Daix (Veudrot), Victor Vina (ubriaco/drunk), Sylviane de Castillo (dame du monde/society woman) |
| |
| Other Credits |
| ., scen: Jacques Feyder; sogg./story: Frédéric Boutet; aiuto regia/asst. dir: Henri Chomette, Charles Barrois; f./ph: Maurice Desfassiaux, Maurice Forster; scg./des: Lazare Meerson |
| |
| Other Information |
| riprese/filmed: 7-9.1925 (Paris, Vincennes, Chatou, l'île Saint-Germain, Armenonville, Neuilly; Studios Albatros, Montreuil); dist: Films Armor; proiezione per distributori ed esercenti/trade screening: 4.11.1925; data uscita/released: 2.4.1926 (Aubert-Palace, Paris); ried./reissue: 5.7.1929 |
| |
| Program Notes |
Gribiche was Jacques Feyder's first film for the Albatros company. In all he collaborated three times with Albatros (the following year with Carmen and two years later with Les Nouveaux Messieurs, which is also presented in this year's Giornate del Cinema Muto).
In 1925, when Kamenka proposed to Feyder the idea of filming Frédéric Boutet's original story (written specially for the cinema), the filmmaker was already known; he had by this time directed L'Atlantide (1921), Crainquebille (1923), and Visages d'enfants (1925), the most appreciated of his films.
With Gribiche, Feyder remained in the world of childhood, but a responsible childhood, a child who helps adults to grow up, and he attacks the notion of charity which, without heart, has no meaning.
Feyder entrusted the role of the child to Jean Forest, with whom he had already worked on several films, and the role of the mother to the magnificent Françoise Rosay, with the additional support of Rolla Normand and Armand Dufour.
The greater part of the film was shot in Parisian locations, and the rest in the Albatros studios in Montreuil. The decors were (again) entrusted to the young Lazare Meerson, the camera to Forster and Desfassiaux, and as assistant Feyder chose Henri Chomette, the brother of René Clair.
Despite some complaints of longueurs, the film was quite well received by the press, as we may read in Cinéa (15 November 1925): “[Feyder] endows the film with a charming fantasy, made up of small details, delightful nothings, witty and moving touches. From a simple fictional subject occupying two hundred lines in a newspaper, he creates a whole world of delicate sensations; he makes a great film, with humour, emotion, a constant care for elegance, and the most distinguished artistic sense. In his cinematic approach to the story, Feyder liberates the silent art from the stranglehold of theatre, in which, with constant talk, one has scarcely time to think or to feel. Gribiche is directed with incontestable purity of style and taste.“
The Cinémathèque Française, the rights-holder of the film, conserves the original elements, of which a nitrate negative has served for the restoration which has long been in circulation.
However, the negative used for this new restoration, corresponds to a second version of the film, prepared for foreign distribution. As was customary at the time, Albatros prepared two negatives in order to respond to the needs of the market. According to documents preserved in the Cinémathèque Française, the export negative was circulated in numerous countries, and these journeys have left their trace on the film elements. This “second” negative differs considerably from the first version, prepared for French distribution. Some takes are different and the component narrative may be changed. Though the first negative is lost, we nevertheless have this version, thanks to two nitrate prints of the period. We therefore decided to restore this first version, with the original tinting, and so rediscover the film as close as possible to the way its director had intended. - CAMILLE BLOT-WELLENS
|
|
|
