Les couronnes - I - La couronne de ronces (1909) watch online HD

Les couronnes - I - La couronne de ronces (1909)

Les couronnes - II - La couronne d'épines (1909)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

These two films are from French director Emile Cohl and while they were originally released as two films, the Kino release has them put together as one. Both films center around various uses of crowns so the screen will have a crown on it and then the image inside will have a topic about it. It could be the crown of roses, thorns, laurels and various other subjects are shown. Obviously the one that will be most interesting to people is the one dealing with Jesus and this here is handled fairly well, although it's certainly nothing ground-breaking. Overall the films are mildly entertaining but the director certainly delivered much better in other work. I think the biggest problem is that the idea isn't carried out very well and in the end there's just nothing here overly interesting.

This is one of a series of short films directed by Emile Cohl, usually in collaboration, in which a series of linked images are shown -- in this case, linked by crowns of various sorts. The scenes are framed, in this by an elliptical wreath, reproducing one of the crowns.

Although there is movement, this is actually a series of tableaux vivantes pieces, in which famous images, often paintings were produced by living actors. In many ways it was a matter of film grammar: was the unit of a movie -- the sentence of the novelette, if you will -- was it the shot or the scene? This sort of composition, in which you could remove the shot from the movie and frame it largely died out by 1920 -- but has been revived, occasionally ham-handedly, I feel, by directors who translate graphic novels to movies -- and who will often settle on a particular frame from the graphic novel for quite a long time.

In the meantime, here it is in its full flower. See what you think of the technique.