Drama at the Puppets' House
About Drama at the Puppets' House
A stick-figure man rings at his sweetheart's door. The bell-pull breaks, so he knocks at the window. She is inside with a lover and dumps a bucket of water on him. The white lines on the black sheet keep changing into new chases.
Cast & crew
More about Drama at the Puppets' House
Émile Cohl drew Un drame chez les fantoches for Gaumont. Silent Era dates the release to November 1908, and the French record gives 75 meters, about four minutes. Kleine Optical sold it in the United States as A Love Affair in Toyland.
Themes
Making
Cohl, a caricaturist who had just started making films, shot successive changes of the same drawing instead of using jointed puppets.
Technique
Each new pose is a fresh white-line drawing on black, photographed a frame at a time so bodies turn into other bodies.
Preservation
Silent Era lists a surviving print.
Notes
- French title: Un drame chez les fantoches.
- The figures are white lines on black paper, redrawn for each change.
- Gaumont released it in France. Kleine handled the American prints.
- Cohl's Fantasmagorie, another line film, came out the same year, earlier.
- A print survives.
Scenes
- The bell-pull breaks and he bangs on the window.
- A bucket of water comes down on him.
- The drawings twist into a new chase.
