Title: | J'ai perdu ma gigolette |
Artist: | Louis Maurel (performer) |
Date: | 1900 |
Material: | Cellulose nitrate |
Dimensions: | 35 mm |
Company: | S.A. Phono-Cinéma-Théâtre |
Location: | Paris, France |
The Cinepar camera, which used center perforations, was patented by Ambroise-François Parnaland in 1896. The fragment here is from one of the films shot by Clèment-Maurice for the Phono-Cinèma-Thèâtre at the Paris Exposition of 1900. These films, which included dance, theater, opera and comedy, were accompanied by sound from a Lioret cylinder phonograph. "J'ai perdu ma gigolette," is a comic song performed by Louis Maurel, a successful singer in cafes and theaters. The film as a whole is considered lost.
Parnaland and Clèment-Maurice also collaborated with Dr. Eugéne-Louis Doyen, a surgeon who filmed numerous surgeries, which he showed for educational purposes at medical conferences, etc. Unfortunately, Parnaland took to distributing his films for popular consumption without Doyen's knowledge, including at fairgrounds. Doyen successfully sued Parnaland in 1905 in an important case that established cinema as a copyrightable work of art ‘equivalent to photographs’.