The Heroes of the Siege of Saragossa
About The Heroes of the Siege of Saragossa
Three single shots, each announced by a title, stage the 1808 siege of Zaragoza. In a sitting room the Countess of Bureta and a man load guns, then armed men fire from the windows and some of them fall. In a courtyard, women bring food to men behind a barricade. Soldiers rush the arch, and the defenders, rallied by a man standing on the barricade, drive them back. At the walls, gunners drop beside a cannon. A woman takes the lanyard, fires, and waves a flag from the wall as the smoke clears.
Cast & crew
More about The Heroes of the Siege of Saragossa
Segundo de Chomón directed and photographed the short for the producers Macaya y Marro. The company credit is Hispano Film. Sources have dated the shoot to 1901, 1903, or 1905. Réjane Hamus-Vallée finds no evidence that Chomón directed anything before 1903 and treats this as his oldest surviving film, likely the first Macaya y Marro production. The camera stays frontal and each scene is one shot, unlike his 1904 El heredero de Casa Pruna.
Themes
Background
The First Siege of Zaragoza, in 1808, was a Spanish stand against Napoleon's army during the Peninsular War. The short picks three figures already treated in Spanish painting, writing, and music.
Making
Chomón stages the siege as three wide theatrical sets: a room, a courtyard with an arched gate, and a cannon in front of a wall. Extras fall in place, and the cannon shot is a burst of smoke.
Look
Segundo de Chomón photographed three wide shots with a static frontal camera. There is no pan and no cut inside a scene.
Preservation
Hamus-Vallée calls it the oldest surviving film directed by Segundo de Chomón. A digital copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The three titles name the Condesa de Bureta, el tío Jorge, and Agustina de Aragón.
- María de la Consolación Azlor, Countess of Bureta, organized a women's corps during the siege, turned her palace into a hospital, and at times took up a gun.
- Agustina de Aragón is shown firing the cannon after the crew is shot down.
- The picture is black and white, not a stencil-color Pathé release.
- A Cinema History times a copy at about four minutes. Wikipedia gives 3 minutes 25 seconds.
Scenes
- Defenders fire from the windows of the countess's room and are hit from outside.
- A man stands on the barricade and the courtyard defenders push the attackers back through the arch.
- Agustina fires the cannon into a cloud of smoke, then waves a flag from the city wall.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Los Héroes del Sitio de Zaragoza (1903) .webm)
