Film Info

Released on :

1892

Language :

Silent

Country :

France

Type :

Short Films

Format :

Color :

Colored

Directed by :

Charles-Émile Reynaud

Pauvre Pierrot (1892)

First animated cartoon

Pauvre Pierrot ( Poor Pete in English) is one of the first animations ever made. It is a French rom-com animation first exhibited in October 28, 1892 (3 years before the invention of cinema). It’s director, Charles-Émile Reynaud showed it along with two other films, ‘Le Clown et ses chiens’ and ‘Un bon bock’ when he opened his Théâtre Optique at Musée Grévin in Paris, France. The entire program was called Luminous Pantomimes. This animated film was shown using Theatre Optique system developed by it’s director, Charles-Émile Reynaud.

The film consists of 500 individually painted images on sheets of glass. Reynaud himself was the script writer and projectionist. Although it was made earlier than the invention of cinema but it was colored. The musical score was done by Gaston Paulin. Originally it’s running time was about 15 mins. But the restored version runs for about 4 mins.

The film now available is the restored version. The restoration was done by Julien Pappé in 1993.

The story in brief:

The film starts with Arlequin stealthily visiting his lover Colombine on a moonlit night. Colombine is happy to see Arlequin but soon there's a knock at the door and Colombine asks Arlequin to hide. On opening the door Colombine finds Pierrot has come to meet her too. Pierrot gives her a bouquet of flowers and tries to start a conversation but Colombine cuts him short and makes him leave. She then goes inside the house. But Pierrot returns after a while and is disheartened from not seeing Colombine there. He takes some drink and then starts to sing a song. Arlequin, who was hiding there all the while, tries to scare Pierrot. Watch the film to see what happened after that.