Ceské hrady a zámky

Seeing this short, "Czech Castles and Palaces," before the feature on the fourth day of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, what begins as if it were a travelogue of said castles and palaces and in the same vein as the festival's first day series entitled "The Urge to Travel," soon diverges into a race-against-the-clock and, then, a violent slapstick comedy and chase over the rooftops of Prague. This unpredictable comedy and rooftop stunt work is why I suppose it was paired with the 1921 Italian feature, "Tempest in a Cranium." Such comedic chases have appeared in cinema since the beginning, including on rooftops as early as the Lumière film "Poursuite sur les toits" (1897/98).

The short was made by Karel Hasler, who the festival notes inform was a Czech cabaret performer, as well as a filmmaker. Reportedly, this film was part of a multi-media exhibition--being screened before his live performances, which explains the short's abrupt ending, as it would be followed by him appearing on stage. Notes also claim his songs ran afoul of the Nazis, and Hasler died in a concentration camp.

(Note: Print from the National Film Archive in Prague. Also according to Jay Weissberg's Pordenone notes, the film has sometimes been erroneously dated, including on IMDb, as from 1914, based on a doctored newspaper page, but, in fact, the film is from 1916.)