Réception de sa majesté Alphonse XIII à Barcelone

Despite having worked for the French film company Pathé Frères, early film director and cinematographer Segundo de Chomòn actually came from Spain before becoming involved in film production. As a result, a good amount of his earliest work for the Pathé company were documentaries on his birth city Barcelona, where he soon became involved shooting travelogues of the place and of other various cities in Spain (such as Girona and Toledo). In releasing these travelogues, Pathé would be making money off allowing glimpses of the foreign country to the general public in France.

This minute-and-a-half film is one of those documentaries, but it's a little hard to tell exactly what it's supposed to be about. According to the title, the film was meant to depict a reception for His Majesty King Alfonso XIII after he apparently arrived home from his travels, but there is little to suggest this apart from a few small details. The short merely features a huge crowd of mostly gentlemen flocking around what seems to be the King on his throne, moving through the crowd. Unfortunately, you can't really see the throne at all. Then there are a few cuts and you see His Majesty at the podium making a speech while the crowds hustle around to get as close as possible. Some of the men stare the camera down and you'll sometimes see someone's head right up close to the lens or maybe a hand waving a handkerchief.

It certainly doesn't do a spectacular job at filming the main subject (King Alfonso), but the short does include several panning shots which weren't entirely common during that period. No doubt Chomòn couldn't have done any better with all the crowds blocking the view. In addition, this one also provides a few comical moments to see how the men react to being photographed.