''La Fête espagnole'' is a 1920

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 ...

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

directed by

Germaine Dulac Germaine Dulac (; born Charlotte Elisabeth Germaine Saisset-Schneider; 17 November 1882 – 20 July 1942)Flitterman-Lewis 1996 was a French filmmaker, film theorist, journalist and critic. She was born in Amiens and moved to Paris in early child ...

and written by

Louis Delluc Louis Delluc (; 14 October 1890 – 22 March 1924) was an Impressionist French film director, screenwriter and film critic. Biography Delluc was born in Cadouin in 1890. His family moved to Paris in 1903. After graduating from the university, h ...

. It was cited by critic and film historian

Georges Sadoul Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English. Biography Sadoul was ...

as being first in ushering in

French impressionist cinema French impressionist cinema (first avant-garde or narrative avant-garde) refers to a group of French films and filmmakers of the 1920s. Film scholars have had much difficulty in defining this movement or for that matter deciding whether it should ...

Plot

During a festival day in a small Spanish town, lifelong friends Miguélan (Jean Toulout) and Réal (Gaston Modot) return to visit with their shared object of affection, the dancer Soledad (Ève Francis). Faintly amused, she cares for neither one of them, but proposes that they should fight to the death for her hand. As the two friends struggle, Soledad pursues Juanito (Robert Delsol), a young man caught up in the drunken whirl and excitement of the festival.

Cast

Ève Francis Ève Francis (born Eva Louise François; 20 August 1886 – 6 December 1980) was an actress and film-maker. She was born in Belgium but spent most of her career in France. She became closely associated with the writer Paul Claudel, and she wa ...

... Soledad *

Jean Toulout Jean Toulout (28 September 1887 – 23 October 1962) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1911 and 1959. Selected filmography * ''La Digue'' (1911) * ''The Mask of Horror'' (1912) * ''The Tenth Symphony'' (19 ...

... Miguélan *

Gaston Modot Gaston Modot (31 December 1887 – 20 February 1970) was a French actor. For more than 50 years he performed for the cinema working with a number of great French directors. Biography Modot lived in Montmartre at the beginning of the 20th cen ...

... Réal *Robert Delsol ... Juanito *Anna Gay ... la vieille Paguien *

Gabriel Gabrio Gabriel Gabrio (born Édouard Gabriel Lelièvre; 13 January 1887 – 31 October 1946) was a French stage and film actor whose career began in cinema in the silent film era of the 1920s and spanned more than two decades. Gabrio is possibly best re ...

Production

Ève Francis had already starred in Germaine Dulac's earlier serial ''Âmes des fous'' (1918). In either late 1918 or early 1919, Francis asked if she could bring by her fiancee, Louis Delluc. At their first meeting, Delluc—who was already a respected, up-and-coming film critic for ''Paris-Midi''—read his scenario "Le Fandango," reputedly written on the cut-out section of a paper tablecloth. Dulac was impressed and agreed to direct the production, which commenced in late August 1919 at the site of the future

Victorine Studios Victorine Studios (French: Studios de la Victorine) are a film studio in the French city of Nice. They are also known as the Nice Studios. Several small studios have also existed in the city. Originally built in 1921 in an attempt to create a H ...

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

; Louis Nalpas agreed to back the production as long as it was shot there, though some additional material was filmed in the Basque border town of

Hondarribia Hondarribia ( eu, Hondarribia; es, Fuenterrabía; french: Fontarrabie) is a town situated on the west shore of Bidasoa river's mouth, in Gipuzkoa, in Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, Spain. The border town is situated on a ...

. For the duration of the shooting, which concluded in November, Delluc was only seen intermittently on the set. He was, however, fully involved in editing the film with Dulac. It was screened for critics on 17 March 1920, and went into release either 31 March or 7 May 1920.

Reception

''La Fête espagnole'' was praised as something vital and new in French cinema, although—as observed by Tami Williams—the praise was directed toward Delluc, and not Dulac. For Delluc's part, he never avoided praising Dulac's contribution to the success of the film, stating that it was "a rare example of complete cooperation in French cinema. Author, director and actors have agreed, through their specific affinities and willingness to work, to seek the absolute realization of the chosen theme." Ève Francis commented that ''La Fête espagnole'' "had a staggering effect on the filmmakers then. The accelerated movement of this synthetic drama, suffused with poetry, was an unprecedented novelty." Delluc's original screenplay consisted of 217 numbered scenes, with each scene indicated by single line of text, and a gradual acceleration in the pace of these shots is observed as the film progresses.

Henri Langlois Henri Langlois (; 13 November 1914 – 13 January 1977) was a French film archivist and cinephile. A pioneer of film preservation, Langlois was an influential figure in the history of cinema. His film screenings in Paris in the 1950s are often c ...

commented that ''La Fête espagnole'' was "the key film of French film history: as important as Eisenstein's ''Strike''." Despite its influence on other filmmakers and favorable critical appraisal, the moviegoing public ignored the film, and it was banned in Portugal. Delluc's screenplay was one of three published under the title ''Drames du Cinema'' in 1923.

Preservation status

Only 8 minutes of ''La Fête espagnole'', which originally ran 67 minutes, have survived. According to Williams,Tami Williams, "Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations," University of Illinois Press, 2014 this consists of three or four short and disconnected sequences from throughout the film. These nitrate negative fragments were acquired by Henri Langlois in 1938 from Éclair, and were transferred to safety film in 1948; nothing else of ''La Fête espagnole'' has turned up since then. Nevertheless, this film remnant is still shown periodically in retrospectives of Dulac's work and was included, in 2012, in the

Cinémathèque Française The Cinémathèque Française (), founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris's 12th arrondissement, the archive offers ...

's festival ''Toute la mémoire du monde''.

Alternative titles

*''Spanish Fiesta'' *''Spanish Festival''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fete espagnole 1920 films French silent feature films French avant-garde and experimental films French black-and-white films 1920 drama films Lost French films French drama films Silent drama films 1920s French films 1920s avant-garde and experimental films