Albert Capellani: Un Cinema Di Grandeur

Antología de obras de Albert Capellani editado por la Cineteca di Bologna.

Albert Capellani (1874-1931) came from the theatre, […] when Pathé recruited him as a director in 1905. Capellani brought to the film world many colleagues from his time in the theatre. He also brought to the cinema a totally new way of directing actors. From his earliest, shortest films his mise-en-scène is recognizable by its subtle expressiveness, choreography and the use of asides.

In 1906 the scènes dramatiques were very new. This became Capellani’s preferred genre, and he contributed much to its rapid development. He specialized in sweeping narratives, interweaving multiple locations and protagonists so as to endow even the short films with grandeur and breadth. He was also the first director to develop the short scènes dramatiques into long-form works such as the 1908L’Assommoir (France’s first feature-length work) and Les Misérables (1912).

Around 1902 to 1908 by far the longest films were being produced in the scènes féeries et contes series, and this is probably why Capellani made this genre his second favorite. The stage féerie was entertaining, ironic, spectacular and full of special effects; and Capellani féerie films, such as Le Pied de Mouton and Cendrillon are distinguished by these same qualities.

Capellani personifies the grandeur, quality and creativity of the Pathé Company during its ten most glorious years. He was a representative of Paris culture, a man of literature, of prestigious theatre productions, of stars –and of impressive, meticulously staged costume dramas. He was a great, versatile talent, an innovative filmmaker and a successful producer. From 1915 to 1922 Capellani worked in the USA, where he made about 25 films. He came back to France but his career was at an end; he never managed to bring into being his planned film version of Werther, and died in 1931.

THE DVD
Between his debut film, Le Cheminau (1905), and his second version of the same book, Les Misérables (1912), Capellani made about 70 to 80 films, of which slightly more than half are still extant. For this DVD twelve titles have been selected from the years 1905 to 1911. They are not arranged in chronological order, but divided into two programs, with six films relating to the 20th century, the other six to the 19th. Program 1 starts with a 1911 film and then works backwards in time until 1906, where Program 2 takes over with the earliest of all the films, from 1905, and then moves forward until 1909, so that the films form a continuous loop. For the pre-WWI cinema and Capellani’s 1905-1911 films belong to both the 20th century and the 19th: Eric Hobsbawm’s “long 19th century” only comes to an end in 1914.