Bedtime for the Bride
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About Bedtime for the Bride
A newlywed couple stand by their wedding bed. Louise Willy, as the bride, undresses behind a folding screen, taking off a jacket, a dress, and layers of skirts, while her husband paces, mops his brow, reads a newspaper, and looks back at her. The surviving piece ends before she is nude.
Cast & crew
More about Bedtime for the Bride
Eugène Pirou produced it. Albert Kirchner directed under the name Léar. It was first screened in Paris in November 1896. The original running time is estimated at 7 minutes.
Themes
Background
It played in Paris within a year of the first public projected film shows.
Making
The undressing is staged as a café turn: the bride stays behind the screen, and the husband's business is the reaction.
Preservation
A degraded print turned up in the French film archives in 1996. What remains runs 3 minutes 46 seconds and includes the undressing.
Notes
- The French title is Le Coucher de la Mariée. English titles include Bedtime for the Bride and The Bridegroom's Dilemma.
- Louise Willy is the bride. The actors glance toward the camera.
- Pathé made at least four related versions between 1897 and 1907, two of them with Willy.
- A 1899 imitator was called Le Coucher de la mariée ou Triste nuit de noces.
Scenes
- The bride peels off outer clothes behind the screen while the husband pretends to read.