The Broken Violin
About The Broken Violin
Only a fragment is known. In a kitchen, an assistant cook, the young Jean-Baptiste Lully, is scolded for being late. Left alone, he takes out a violin. The kitchen staff gathers to listen. A man in livery breaks it up, scolds Lully, and sends him away. The fragment ends on a glimpse of a Baroque room, a maid, and a woman in an elaborate dress.
Cast & crew
More about The Broken Violin
Star Film sold it as numbers 1176–1185 and advertised it as a hand-colored anecdote of Louis XIV in four scenes, with a ballet. At least some of it was shot in the garden of the Méliès property at Montreuil-sous-Bois. From the fragment, a Centre national de la cinématographie guide concludes that Méliès's employee Manuel, not Méliès, probably directed it.
Themes
Preservation
Only a fragment survives. The rest is presumed lost.
Notes
- The French title is Lully ou le Violon brisé.
- The catalogue called it "très artistique" and "spécial pour coloris.
- The surviving piece does not show the violin being broken.
- The kitchen scene is the one that circulates. The ballet and the other tableaux are missing.
Scenes
- The cooks stop work and listen while Lully plays.
- A man in livery orders him out.
