Robert Macaire and Bertrand
About Robert Macaire and Bertrand
The thieves Robert Macaire and Bertrand steal from an inn buffet, then rob the International Bank and board a train dressed as tourists. An earthquake throws them and the police into the sky over France. They land by a chimney, hide on a farm, and fight after Bertrand takes a policeman's hat and cloak for the man himself. They play dead and get away in a gas balloon, dumping ballast sand on police who try to catch them from the July Column.
Cast & crew
More about Robert Macaire and Bertrand
Georges Méliès wrote and directed it for Star Film. Catalogues number it 888–905. French ads called it a folie burlesque fantastique in 35 tableaux; American ads said 25 tableaux for the same film. A hand-colored print was sold at a higher price.
Themes
Technique
An earthquake lifts the thieves and the police into the clouds above Paris. The escape is a gas balloon whose ballast bags shower sand on the officers below.
Preservation
Presumed lost until 1988, when Eileen Bowser identified a print at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Notes
- The French title is Robert Macaire et Bertrand, les rois de cambrioleurs.
- The negative is 364 meters, 1,060 feet.
- The flying sequence shows the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacré-Cœur, the Place de la Concorde, and the Louvre.
- A print was treated as lost until 1988, when Eileen Bowser identified one at the Museum of Modern Art.
Scenes
- They clear an inn buffet and then the International Bank.
- An earthquake flings the chase into the sky over the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur.
- Bertrand grapples with a hat and cloak he thinks is a policeman.
- Sand from the balloon's ballast bags falls on police at the July Column.
Also available
- Internet Archive (Robert_Macaire_and_Bertrand)
