Pauvre Pierrot

Pauvre Pierrot, directed by Charles-Émile Reynaud, is one of the first animated films ever made. It is made up of 500 individually painted images and originally lasted about 15 minutes. The version available to today is a 4 minute version, restored from pieces of the original.

It's a simple story of a woman with two men wooing her, one she cares for, and the other which is somewhat a nuisance to her, even if he is sincere. To achieve his effects, Reynaud invented his Théâtre-Optique system which was basically a zoetrope with a projector. The images showed successive images of moving figures in front of blackbackgrounds. These images could be adjusted in real-time to project tthe animated characters against an immobile background image which was being projected by a second projector from a painted glass plate.

At times the show was quite elaborate. Original music and songs were written for the show, played by an piano accompanyist and sung by an actor. Reynaud performed 12,800 shows from 1892 to 1900. Commercially successful for a time, the popularity of these shows were eventually overtaken by the projected camera live action films of the Lumières and others.

Pauvre Pierrot (1892)

This French film is considered one of the first animated movies ever made. From original reports it seems that the movie lasted longer than what's available in its current version but even at just four-minutes you can't help but be somewhat amazed at what great quality the film actually is. The plot is quite simple and deals with two men and a woman that they both want.

I will just leave the story at that but the main reason to watch this is for the beautiful animation. Now, it should go without saying but this movie was made in 1892 so one really shouldn't be expecting the work of Walt Disney. The film has a very fresh look to it and I must say that the colorful background is certainly the highlight.

This might be fairly basic animation compared to today's 3D computer-generated spectaculars, but it is in its own way just as remarkable. Emile Reynaud developed many marvels like this, and operated some rather tricky mechanism to screen it. Sadly, Reynaud was not only something of a perfectionist who personally hand-painted every image of every film, he also only trusted himself to operate the screenings. and therefore stretched himself a little too far. He was hugely successful before the advent of movies, but was incapable of progressing and stands as a singular warning of the fate that befalls any business that fails to adapt to a changing market. The film has historical importance, and as a bitter and impoverished Reynaud destroyed most of his films years after the film industry had made his shows obsolete, it's something of a minor miracle that it still exists today.

J. Stuart Blackton's 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906)' is generally held as the first animated film. Indeed, it was the first animated film made on motion-picture film, but such history is nevertheless unfair to Émile Reynaud, who, fourteen years earlier, was projecting moving animated images to delighted audiences. 'Pauvre Pierrot (1892)' is one of the director's few surviving works (most were, in a fit of frustration, discarded into the Seine by the director himself), and such a colourful and charming curio remains a delight to behold.

Reynaud animated each frame himself – 500 in total (36 metres long) – and extended the film to 12-15 minutes by personally manipulating the picture-bands during the projection. The story told is a simple one: Pierrot and Arlequin compete for the romantic attention of Colombine, a beautiful maiden. One potential suitor attempts to charm the good lady with a lute performance, but his competitor goes one better with a baton or sword of some sort.

Reynaud's moving picture show, billed as "Théâtre Optique" or "Pantomimes Lumineuses," included a triple-bill of three films: 'Pauvre Pierrot,' 'Un bon bock (1892),' and 'Le Clown et ses chiens (1892).' One contemporary newspaper reported that Reynaud "creates characters with expressions and movements so perfect that they give the complete illusion of life." The show was initially a great success, but, in 1918, Reynaud died a poor man. His delicate work, prone to rapid degradation, could not compete with the Lumière brothers' cinematograph, which depicted real-life, and not merely an animated approximation.

Cute and strange; oh, and it's the first animated thing put to film... ever. Impressive for that alone, AND it has a story! It may not be too deep, and may be a little confusing (what's with the guy that comes out of nowhere and steals the guy's ukulele or whatever it is, is he a ghost?) But it does have a beginning, middle and sort of an end, maybe, arguably. For what this french animator was able to accomplish - and did I mention in COLOR no less - and for the simple fact that this is one of the major accomplishments of that century, to get something with images moving, albeit jerkily, I say you should check out all four minutes on YouTube or wherever silent film shorts are sold.