The Surrender of Tournavos
About The Surrender of Tournavos
On a painted fort, soldiers fire at an enemy who is never shown. Reinforcements are called. Ladders rise at the wall: the position is about to be overrun. The short reconstructs the Greek loss of Tyrnavos (Tournavos), on the plain of Larissa, in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Méliès staged it on a set in France. Star Film No. 106. The negative is about 59 feet, near one minute. Another title is La Prise de Tournavos par les Troupes du Sultan.
Cast & crew
More about The Surrender of Tournavos
Georges Méliès produced and directed the 1897 reconstruction. It was not filmed at Tyrnavos. The set is the flat, recognizable Méliès scenery used for his other staged actualities that year. Catalog length is 59 feet.
Themes
Background
The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 was only weeks old when Star Film issued this reconstruction of the fight at Tyrnavos.
Making
Méliès sells a war bulletin with three or four men, a wall, and ladders. The unseen enemy is the point: the overrun is implied by the ladders, not by a second army.
Look
A single stage view of the fort, shot in France, stands in for the Greek town. No battlefield negative exists for this title.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Listed as lost until 2007, when the London archive identified a print. Another copy is held by the Centre national du cinéma.
Notes
- Greek troops lost Tyrnavos and fell back across the Larissa plain in 1897. The film shows that surrender, not a French battle.
- Star Film number 106.
- Thought lost until 2007, when a print was identified in the National Film and Television Archive in London.
- A second print is at the Centre national du cinéma in France.
Scenes
- Men inside the fortification fire outward.
- A call goes up for help.
- Ladders appear against the wall as the post is taken.
Also available
- BFI National Archive
- Centre national du cinéma
- Wikimedia Commons (La Prise de Tournavos (1897).webm)
