Lulù

"Lulù" is apparently the final film of Segundo de Chomón. It's odd in many ways. Chomón hadn't made any films for quite a few years before making this final film. Also, the style is so completely unusual for him...and is a HUGE departure for the man. Usually, he is known as a man who liberally 'borrowed' (a nice way of saying 'stole') from the work of Georges Méliès.

Unlike any other film I've seen of the filmmaker, this one is stop-motion featuring a cute chimpanzee who sports a top hat and suit. The ape lives in a house and has a magic wand...using it to make things move and disappear (such appearing and disappearing are common for Chomón's films). After a while, a thief breaks in and the chimp uses the wand to make a chump out the crook. Then, the chimp and a police man sit down and have a drink.

This is a very cute little film and I found it adorable. But in addition, I couldn't help but wonder if this had anything to do with "King Kong" a decade later, as he, too, was made using stop-motion and both are apes. Regardless, it's a very sweet short film....and in spite of some jerky movement, it's actually very well made.

A monkey eats a supper and prepares for bed. A burglar climbs to his apartment and starts to eat his leftovers, but the monkey awakes and magically subdues him.

This is the last directorial credit of Segundo de Chomon (although he worked as a cinematographer on several movies later in the decade). A decade and a half later he had been Gaumont's director of choice for movies to take away Georges Melies' market, but with the collapse of that sort of film by 1912, he was left at loose ends and retreated to being more and more the cameraman he had begun as. This one is done in stop-motion and will remind the viewer of WIllis O'Brien's work for Edison in 1915, although the motion is jerkier and the actions are definitely in the Melies style of magic. The competition would put paid to de Chomon as he had to his a decade earlier. Soon O'Brien's work in THE LOST WORLD would set a new standard.

Segundo de Chomón's career as director had officially ended around 1912, the year he ended his business with Pathé after creating several a series of travelogues on Spanish cities. Even after this, he remained a part of filmmaking, in particular assisting Giovanni Pastrone on "Cabiria" as a cinematographer, and later collaborating with him in 1917 to make the forty-minute stop-motion film "The War and the Dream of Momi". During the 1920s, he remained involved in cinematography and most notably participated in the making of Abel Gance's "Napoleon", which was his last significant credit in filmmaking.

"Lulu" is widely considered to be his last film as a director. In reality, it was never officially produced by any film company and was only a private project I assume Chomón worked on in his spare time--reportedly with the help of his wife Julienne Mathieu and their son. Indeed, the film's plot is a rather strange one and it ends quite abruptly, telling us it was probably an unfinished project which he lost interest in. The short utilizes miniature models and stop-motion, albeit jerky, to create an odd piece of work, that, in its incomplete story, leaves the viewer puzzled.

"Lulu" is about an almost creepy, anthropomorphic monkey who arrives home at his apartment one evening and uses a magic wand to make himself dinner. After this, he climbs into bed to sleep but is awakened by a robber who eats the leftover food. Using his wand, the monkey is then able to play some pranks on him, such as causing the plates and food to move around the table, making the chair move, etc. After finally subduing him, the burglar is shut up in a closet with the help of a policeman.

The stop-motion animation, admittedly jerky, is very well done for the period although the director himself had made smoother animation back when working for Pathé. I am guessing this is because miniature models needed slower movements to seem more lifelike. The amount of detail in frame, however, is quite fascinating considering everything was doll sized and needed to be moved with delicate care without upsetting anything. Indeed, some might even consider the film a precursor to the Quay Brothers, which it undoubtedly resembles the work of whom to some extent.

The story concludes rather abruptly--with the monkey supposedly treating the policeman to a meal from the wand--and undoubtedly evidences the fact that it was not intended to truly "end". No doubt the short was really just an experimental work more than anything else and probably remained untitled. "Lulu" is a rather curious title for the film, and makes no sense with the action, but was rather probably a label of sorts Chomón slapped on the project. As it is, an odd and quite enigmatic work, but also containing a certain amount of charm in its homage to the magic films the director produced years before.