La Grenouille | 1908 | Fantasy, Trick Film

Title: La Grenouille | 1908 | Fantasy, Trick Film Director: Segundo de Chomón Studio: Pathé Frères Starring: Julienne Mathieu Release Date: March 1908 Runtime: 3 Format: Silent; stencil-colored Country: France Language: Silent Genres: Fantasy; Trick Film --- Chapters: 00:00:00 Fountain and fairy appear 00:00:35 Frog conjured and first transformations 00:01:20 Magicians and colored fountains 00:02:00 Carousel tableaux around the fountain 00:02:40 Return of the fairy and finale --- Summary: A fairy emerges from a rocky fountain and conjures a lively green frog. Through explosions, dissolves, and rapid transformations, the fountain becomes a stage for magicians, giant amphibians, and vividly colored water displays. As the spectacle builds, rotating tableaux of figures surround the fountain before the scene resolves and the frog perches atop the sculpture to finish its ablutions. --- Background: Directed by Spanish pioneer Segundo de Chomón for Pathé Frères, La Grenouille exemplifies the company’s stencil-color practices and studio trick work of the period, with production at Pathé’s Montreuil facilities and performance by Chomón’s frequent collaborator Julienne Mathieu. Contemporary festival notes and archives date the film to 1908 and approximately three minutes, situating it among Chomón’s fantasy shorts of the same year. --- Trivia: The film employs post-production stencil coloring , a hallmark of Pathé Frères releases in the late 1900s. Julienne Mathieu, seen as the fairy, was both a performer in and creative partner on many of Chomón’s trick films. Archival listings and festival programs consistently date La Grenouille to 1908 with a runtime of about three minutes. The film was shot at Pathé’s Montreuil studios near Paris, a major center for the company’s early special-effects productions. Some circulating metadata has misdated the film as 1901; authoritative catalog entries identify it as a 1908 Pathé release. --- Public Domain / Rights: Original Release: March 1908 Original Studio / Distributor: Pathé Frères Copyright Status: Public Domain Renewal: No --- Hashtags: LaGrenouille SegundoDeChomon Pathé SilentFilm PublicDomain JulienneMathieu FantasyFilm TrickFilm 1908 This video was sourced from Internet Archive. Originally uploaded by iamgenx@gmail.com. https://archive.org/details/LaGrenouille