Alberts Frères, founded around 1899, was one of the first film production companies in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The company was founded by brothers Albert (1879–1941) and

Willy Mullens Willy Mullens (4 October 1880, Weesp, North Holland - 21 April 1952, The Hague) was a Dutch producer, director, and promoter of movies. He is considered to be one of the early pioneers of Dutch cinema, and one of his movies was recently elected a ...

(1880–1952); they were the main filmmakers and exhibitors in the Netherlands in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

History

Willy and Albert's father, Albertus Abraham Mullens (30 July 1847

Hoorn Hoorn () is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers ( ...

– 1890), alias "A. Alber(t)", and a German by the name of Ernst Ahrens Basch (1838-1908) had founded a theater company, Koninklijk Nederlandsch Cagliostro-Théâtre Alber & Basch, specializing in "mysterious and pseudo-scientific spectacles". After Albert Senior's death, their mother, Christina Mullens-Verpoort, continued to direct the company. Christina took her sons to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where they saw

Auguste and Louis Lumière The Lumière brothers (, ; ), Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (19 October 1862 – 10 April 1954) and Louis Jean Lumière (5 October 1864 – 6 June 1948), were French manufacturers of photography equipment, best known for their ''Ciném ...

's films in the

Salon Indien du Grand Café Le Salon Indien du Grand Café was a room in the basement of the Grand Café, on the Boulevard des Capucines near the Place de l'Opéra in the center of Paris. It is notable for being the place that hosted the first commercial public film screenin ...

. With financial aid from their mother, they bought a number of films and started to show them in the Netherlands. They chose the French name "Alberts Frères" since the film business at the time was predominantly French. In 1899, the company started touring the halls and theaters of the country during the winter, and quickly became one of the main attractions at fairs throughout the country. Mullens also helped found the Nederlandsch Centraal Filmarchief (1919), the first audio-visual archive in the Netherlands.

Production and notable films

Beside showing films, Alberts Frères quickly started making them. An early film which generated headlines was made in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

. On Friday, 13 September 1907, the brothers had filmed a practical joke in Maastricht, in which an actor by the name of Tünnes (from the local Schmidt theater), pulling a

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

by a rope, took off from the local market carrying a

suckling pig A suckling pig is a piglet fed on its mother's milk (i.e., a piglet which is still a " suckling"). In culinary contexts, a suckling pig is slaughtered between the ages of two and six weeks. It is traditionally cooked whole, often roasted, in ...

under his arm without having paid for it. He proceeded to visit the vegetable stands, and the scene erupts with screaming housemaids, flying baskets and vegetables, and a number of police officers. Their most successful production is also one of the oldest surviving Dutch fictional films, ''

The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach ''The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach'' ( nl, De mésaventure van een Fransch heertje zonder pantalon aan het strand te Zandvoort) is a 1905 in film, 1905 early Netherlands, Dutch silent film directed by Will ...

'', made in 1905, which in 2007 was "canonized" as one of sixteen canonical films by the

Netherlands Film Festival The Netherlands Film Festival ( nl, Nederlands Film Festival) is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht. During the ten-day festival, Dutch film productions and co-productions are exhibited. Be ...

. Willy Mullens later became a well-known producer of

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

s; his ''Holland Neutraal: Leger en Vlootfilm'' (1917) received a royal

premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

, in the presence of

Queen Wilhelmina Wilhelmina (; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the ...

and Prince Hendrik. The two and a half hour long film, which showcased the Dutch army and navy, was commissioned by the Dutch Minister of War Bosboom, and was intended to rally popular support for Dutch neutrality during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; on the other hand, the film, with its display of military might, also aimed to show that the Dutch, despite their neutrality, were not to be thought of lightly. During World War I the company was hired by Kaiser Wilhelm's Dutch legate to film German children celebrating Queen Wilhelmina's birthday in 1919. The German Bild- und Filmamt, which aimed at the production of propaganda, was to procure copies for the German market, in hopes of maintaining good relations between Germany and the Netherlands. It is not known if this actually happened.Ivo Blom, "Business As Usual? Filmhandel, Bioscoopwezen en Filmpropaganda in Nederland Tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog," in Pp. 137–138.

References

External links

Alberts Frères
at Cinema Context {{DEFAULTSORT:Alberts Freres Film production companies of the Netherlands Mass media companies established in 1899 Film production companies established in the 1890s Dutch companies established in 1899