Madame's Cravings
About Madame's Cravings
A pregnant woman out with her husband, who pushes a pram, cannot pass a craving. She takes a little girl's lollipop. At a café she drinks a stranger's absinthe while he is buried in his paper. She eats a herring and then smokes a pipe, choking on it and pulling at it anyway. Close-ups stay on her face. The film ends with a baby in a cabbage patch.
Cast & crew
More about Madame's Cravings
Alice Guy directed this Gaumont short. The English and French Wikipedia pages, and Gaumont's 2008 DVD set Le Cinéma premier, date it 1906. French Wikipedia also notes a Pathé film of the same title, with a different scenario, released in 1907. The year kept for the title is 1907.
Themes
Background
A Gaumont comedy of pregnancy cravings. Gaumont and both Wikipedia pages date the short 1906. The title year is 1907.
Reviews
Iris Brey called it Guy's most provocative film because the plot is built on a pregnant woman's desires, and wrote that the close-ups are there so the audience feels that pleasure.
Look
Guy is credited with the camera. The film cuts from wide views of each theft to a close-up of her face as she eats, drinks, or smokes.
Preservation
Gaumont included it in the 2008 DVD set Le Cinéma premier, 1897–1913, volume 1. A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- French Wikipedia gives 4 minutes 15 seconds and a length of 130 meters. The English page says 5 minutes.
- The cabbage-patch baby points back to Guy's La Fée aux choux.
Scenes
- She takes the child's lollipop on a park bench.
- She finishes the absinthe while the customer reads his paper.
- A baby is in the cabbage patch at the end.
Influenced by
- La Fée aux choux
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-madame-a-des-envies-aka-madams-fancies)
- Gaumont DVD: Le Cinéma premier 1897–1913, volume 1 (2008)
