Poor Pierrot
About Poor Pierrot
Harlequin meets Columbina in a courtyard. Pierrot knocks, and the lovers hide. Pierrot serenades her. Harlequin, staying out of sight, pokes him with a stick and steals his bottle. Pierrot grows frightened of the prankster he cannot see and leaves. Harlequin goes into Columbina's house.
Cast & crew
More about Poor Pierrot
Charles-Émile Reynaud painted about 500 images and performed the band himself on his Théâtre Optique. It opened on October 28, 1892, at the Musée Grévin in Paris, in a program called Pantomimes Lumineuses, with Un bon bock and Le Clown et ses chiens. Gaston Paulin wrote the music, played live. The original show ran about 15 minutes. A restoration runs about 4 minutes. Louis Morin is also credited on the writing. The French title is Pauvre Pierrot.
Themes
Background
The first public show of Reynaud's painted bands predates the Lumière cinematograph by three years. The audience at the wax museum watched a moving drawing, not a photographed street.
In film history
With Un bon bock and Le Clown et ses chiens, it is one of the first animated pictures shown to a paying public, and the first film made to demonstrate the Théâtre Optique.
Making
The Musée Grévin show was a one-man performance: Reynaud at the Théâtre Optique, Paulin's score in the room, and three short pantomimes in an evening.
Technique
About 500 hand-painted images on a perforated band, projected by Reynaud's Théâtre Optique. The perforations are believed to be the first on a film strip.
Music
Gaston Paulin wrote a score that was played live while Reynaud operated the Théâtre Optique. The images themselves are silent.
Preservation
The original performance ran about 15 minutes. A restored version runs about 4 minutes. Few images survive from the companion piece Un bon bock, at the Cinémathèque française.
Notes
- Reynaud did not project a photographed negative. He hand-painted the figures and moved the band from the booth.
- The picture band is believed to be the first use of film perforations.
- Un bon bock, drawn in 1888, survives only in a few images at the Cinémathèque française.
- English-language titles include Poor Pierrot and Poor Pete.
Scenes
- Pierrot sings under the window while Harlequin, hidden, pokes him and takes his bottle.
- Pierrot flees the unseen pest, and Harlequin walks into the house.
