The Mills in Joy and Sorrow
About The Mills in Joy and Sorrow
Among the dykes of Holland, a miller (Jacques Vandenne) refuses food to a tramp (Marre). The miller's small son (Maurice Mathieu) has made a toy windmill. The tramp smashes it. The boy takes the wreck to his father, who thrashes the tramp, and the tramp swears revenge. He then sets fire to the mill. The burning sails turn against the sky, reflected in the canal, while the family runs.
Cast & crew
More about The Mills in Joy and Sorrow
Alfred Machin directed and wrote this Pathé Frères short. Paul Sablon photographed. Raoul Morand designed the sets. French intertitles. Pathé's length is 180 metres, given as 6 minutes. It was shown at the Omnia Pathé in Paris. The Dutch title is De Molens die juichen en weenen. IMDb lists 7 minutes. A French filmography has dated a Paris showing 24 May 1912; another listing says 23 May.
Themes
Making
Pathé sent Machin to film in the Low Countries. The mills, the toy, and the canal are the whole set.
Look
Paul Sablon photographed the two mills, the toy and the working one, and the canal. The circulating print is tinted.
Preservation
A tinted print survives and is on Wikimedia Commons under the Dutch title.
Notes
- Germaine Dury plays the miller's wife. Germaine Lecuyer plays the daughter.
- The English titles are The Mills in Joy and Sorrow and The Mills that Cheer and Weep.
- Machin had already made a windmill story, Le Moulin maudit. This one is the revenge of a tramp who was turned away.
Scenes
- The tramp destroys the son's toy windmill after the miller refuses him food.
- The miller thrashes him, and he vows to come back.
- The mill burns, the sails still turning, over the canal.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Molens die juichen en weenen (1912).webm)
