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Voidsville Follies

Works from Segundo de Chomón (6)

Beginning of the Serpentine Dance (Création de la Serpentine)

Segundo de Chomón (director)
Max Linder (lead)
Pathé (production)

Language: Silent, released in Jul 1908
Minutes: 5

Here Linder pays his dues in a way familiar to many comics: as merely the comic lead-in to the girlie show.

Featured elements:

: comedy; dance; fantasy

Tigris

Vincenzo Denizot (director)
Natale Chiusano (cinematographer)
Segundo de Chomón (cinematographer)
Edoardo Davesnes (lead)
Alex Bernard (lead)
Lidia Quaranta (lead)
Itala (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, released in Feb 1913
Minutes: 48

The monotonous story of repeated disguises doesn't provide enough incentive to suffer through the eyestrain of viewing this poor quality print. Maybe all the creativity was spent on the hallucination sequence.

But there is one claim to fame here: in 7 years of Voidsville Follies, here is the first instance seen of someone tied to train tracks (actually, tied up and then dumped on the tracks - a more efficient method) that seems to be done for drama, not laughs.

Featured elements:

: abstraction; action; alter ego; automobile; boozy-woozy; chase; crime; criminal mastermind; dance; dance-orientale; detective; master of disguise; servitude; tied to the tracks; train; undercover agent

Cabiria

Giovanni Pastrone (director/writer)
Eugenio Bava (cinematographer)
Natale Chiusano (cinematographer)
Segundo de Chomón (cinematographer)
Giovanni Tomatis (cinematographer)
Gabriele D'Annunzio (writer)
Emilio Salgari (author)
Gustave Flaubert (author)
Titus Livius (author)
Umberto Mozzato (lead)
Bartolomeo Pagano (lead)
Lidia Quaranta (lead)
Italia Almirante-Manzini (lead)
Itala (production)

Language: Silent, English titles, French subtitles, released in Apr 1914
Minutes: 124

With awe-inspiring visuals, a compelling story, and the screen debuts of Maciste and Moloch, this gets even better with multiple viewings.

Featured elements:

: action; adventure; armed conflict; chase; death scene; fighting; historical drama; melodrama; religion; rescue; Roman empire; servitude; strongman; suicide; torture

The Fire (Il fuoco (la favilla - la vampa - la cenere))

Giovanni Pastrone (director)
Segundo de Chomón (cinematographer)
Gabriele D'Annunzio (author)
Pina Menichelli (lead)
Febo Mari (lead/writer)
Itala (production)

Language: Silent, Italian titles, English subtitles, released in Apr 1916
Minutes: 50

A privileged poetess plucks a peasant painter from his mundane seclusion, flying him to the height of passion in their brief encounter. A tale of role reversal that breathes new life into a classic “femme fatale theme” (a.k.a., “misogynistic influence” that may be better left dead) by using creative cinematography and careful choreography of the poetess' movements. The result explodes with a visual extravagance within its minimalist domain and, like the painter, the viewer is seduced into an unquenchable thirst for more.

Featured elements:

: abstraction; abuse; agent of discontent; alienation; alter ego; animal act; automobile; baptism of fire; breaking class; diva mode; femme fatale; forsaken; gender-bender; infidelity; manipulator; obsession; psycho; servitude; sexuality; tragic artist; unrequited love

Tigre Reale

Giovanni Pastrone (director)
Segundo de Chomón (cinematographer)
Giovanni Tomatis (cinematographer)
Giovanni Verga (author)
Pina Menichelli (lead)
Alberto Nepoti (lead)
Febo Mari (lead)
Gabriel Moreau (lead)
Itala (production)

Language: Silent, Italian titles, English subtitles, released in Nov 1916
Minutes: 77

Never again utter the phrase “Drama Queen” until you've watched this diva single-handedly transform a threadbare story into a symphony of sensual expression.