The Six Sisters Dainef

France|1902|Hand coloured|3 min|35mm|Silent
EYE Filmmuseum Collection
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:Unknown

Les Parisiennes (1897) 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 (1907), 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 (1912) 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.