Mills in Joy and Shadow

Netherlands|1912|Stencilled, tinted and toned|7 min|35mm|Silent
EYE Filmmuseum Collection, the original nitrate print of this film was found in Germany and repatriated to the Netherlands in 1990.
31.01.2020 (Fri) 19:35 BC

Screening with other coloured silent shorts and The Extraordinary Voyage

*Post-screening talk by Dr. Giovanna Fossati (In English)

Dir: Alfred Machin
Cast: Germaine Dury, Maurice Mathieu, Germaine Lécuyer

Les Parisiennes was an American Mutoscope Company production in which a chorus line of young female dancers in charming light gowns performed the then popular cancan; The Six Sisters Dainef was a French production by Pathé Frères, with agile acrobats going all out in front of the backdrop of a classical-styled interior. Besides realistic narratives, early films branched into a variety of vignettes in which various editing techniques were widely used to create magical and vibrant scenes; Het Tovertoneel, also a production of Pathé Frères, was a prominent example of such a feast for the eyes: in the garden where the fairies frolicked, a giant and a rainbow-hued fountain coloured by hand and stencilling appeared. Filmed on location in Volendam, The Mills in Joy and Shadow told a tale of revenge as a tramp torched the miller’s wooden mill as he refused the tramp any alms. Dusk scenes tinted alternatively in crimson and purple added despair to this bleak tale.

Alfred Machin (1877–1929)
Alfred Machin was a film director, producer and photographer, whose works experimented the earliest colouring techniques on films.