''Fantasmagorie'' is a 1908

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

animated film by

Émile Cohl Émile Eugène Jean Louis Cohl (; né Courtet; 4 January 1857 – 20 January 1938) was a French caricaturist of the largely forgotten Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest Pa ...

. It is one of the earliest examples of traditional (hand-drawn) animation, and considered by film historians to be the first

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

Description

The film largely consists of a

stick man ''Stick Man'', written by former Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, is a children's story about an anthropomorphic wooden stick who becomes separated from his family home and his '' Odyssey''-like adventure ...

moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects, such as a wine bottle that transforms into a flower which becomes an elephant. There are also sections of live action where the animator's hands enter the scene. The main character is drawn by the artist's hand on camera, and the main characters are a

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

and a

gentleman A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the r ...

. Other characters include a woman in a film theater wearing a large hat with gigantic feathers and a strongman. The film, in all of its wild transformations, is a direct tribute to the by-then forgotten Incoherent movement. The title is taken from the original French word for "

phantasmagoria Phantasmagoria (, also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images, such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts, onto walls, smoke, or sem ...

", a mid-19th century

magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a si ...

show with moving images of ghosts.

History

Cohl worked on ''Fantasmagorie'' from February to either May or June 1908. Despite the short running time, the piece was packed with material devised in a

stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First L ...

style. The film was released on 17 August 1908.

Production

The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto

negative film In photography, a negative is an image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occurs because th ...

, which gave the picture a blackboard look. It was made up of 700 drawings, each of which was exposed twice (animated "on twos"), leading to a running time of almost two minutes. Cohl probably copied the blackboard-style from

J. Stuart Blackton James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941) was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to ...

's ''

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces ''Humorous Phases of Funny Faces'' is a 1906 short silent animated cartoon directed by James Stuart Blackton and generally regarded by film historians as the first animated film recorded on standard picture film.Magill's Survey of Silent Films ...

'' (1906).

References

External links

* * * * 1900s animated short films 1908 films 1908 animated films French black-and-white films French animated short films Films directed by Émile Cohl French short films Articles containing video clips French silent short films Animated films without speech {{France-silent-film-stub

Description

History

Production

See also

References

External links