Burgos

I recently downloaded (for free) this public domain film from archive.org. However, when I watched, it said it was made by Segundo de Chomón and IMDb says the director was Giuseppe de Liguoro. Such confusion is common with these very early films and I have a collection of early French films where they admit that historians often are just guessing who made the films--and I found many in the collection whose attributions were different from IMDb.

I think the film has been attributed to Chomón because he worked for Pathé Frères--and this company had HUGE lines of women whose job it was to paint some of their films, frame by frame, using stencils to make them appear to be color films. However, "Burgos" is among the best looking of the hand-stenciled films I have seen as often they only have one color per cel--and this one often has several. It clearly was a VERY difficult film to make. Another reason of its attribution is that the footage is from around Barcelona--and he lived and shot films there.

The film is a documentary showing some of the sites around Barcelona. It is interesting that much of the area around these great buildings (such as the cathedral) has been changed dramatically since then. Think about it--some massive building projects for an international exposition in the 1920s, a civil war, the Olympics and many other 20th century projects have changed this ancient city so dramatically. It's a wonderful historical time capsule--regardless who made the actual film. For anyone who has visited the city or who lives there, this is a must-see silent documentary.

By the way, the intertitle cards were all in French. My French isn't terrible and I found I could understand most of what the film was saying. If you have a passable knowledge of French, it should pose no problem to watch. And, if you don't, it's still a decent flick--showing sites such as the cathedral, the mayor's home, etc..

Segundo de Chomón was well known mostly for his trick films, which was a popular film genre at the time. Besides this, his other interests were filming documentary films shot around Barcelona. He made a documentary of King Alfonso's wedding to princess Ena in Spain, as well as some travelogues showing sites in the area. "Burgos" (which is also known as "Her Life for Her Country" on IMDb, for whatever reason) is one of these documentaries. We see various sites around the area: the cathedral, a park and so on. Various peasants are also shown moving in frame and find the camera's presence only mildly interesting; maybe they were used to it. Since it was produced by Pathé Frères, which was a french company, Chomón was obviously trying to make money off showing the frenchies what Spain looked like at the time.

But here's the thing: the surviving color print of this one is excellent. Unlike other films of the era, there's no running or splotches on the print--it looks flawless. In fact, I'm pretty sure this film was colored using a different technique--I think called "Pathécolor ó Cinemacoloris" (according to a title card at the beginning). The same technique was used later to color Chomón's "Superstition Andalouse" from 1912 and it really makes the film eye-catching. While the footage here is mildly interesting to watch, the color further carries the illusion. In the end, it is an excellent look into a bygone era, and a must-see for any historian or film buff.