Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (also Chomont or Chaumont ; 17 October 1871 – 2 May 1929) was a pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He produced many short films in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

while working for

Pathé Frères Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...

and has been compared to

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

, due to his frequent camera tricks and optical illusions. He is regarded as the most significant Spanish silent film director in an international context.

Biography

Born in

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

(Spain), Segundo de Chomón reportedly got into film through the efforts of his French actress wife,

Julienne Mathieu Julienne Alexandrine Mathieu ( - ) was one of the earliest French silent film actresses who appeared mostly in French silents between 1905 and 1909. She appeared in the silent film '' Hôtel électrique'' released in 1908, one of the first films ...

, who appeared in early

productions and worked in some

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

s Parisian workshops like Thuillier's studio. Around 1900 he became an agent for Pathé Frères in Spain, publicizing and distributing their films out of Barcelona. In 1901, Chomón began producing actuality films in Spain on an independent basis and distributing them through Pathé; his first

trick film In the early history of cinema, trick films were short silent films designed to feature innovative special effects. History The trick film genre was developed by Georges Méliès in some of his first cinematic experiments, and his works remain th ...

was ''Gulliver en el país de los gigantes'' (1903). Chomón and his wife also specialized in producing stencil colored film prints and were one of the developers of the Pathéchrome process, patented by Pathé in 1905.

Charles Pathé Charles Morand Pathé (; 26 December 1863 – 25 December 1957) was a pioneer of the French film and recording industries. As the founder of Pathé Frères, its roots lie in 1896 Paris, France, when Pathé and his brothers pioneered the deve ...

noted the quality of Chomón's trick films and, from 1903, began to support these efforts with the desire of competing with

. Chomón was expert enough at making trick films and had proven himself so valuable to Pathé that in 1905 he and Mathieu moved from Barcelona to Paris, and Chomón was placed in charge of a color stencilling shop in addition to his periodic duties as a director. Through 1907, Chomón worked in close collaboration with Pathé's top director,

Ferdinand Zecca Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 – 23 March 1947) was a Innovator, pioneer French film director, film producer, actor and screenwriter. He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the inter ...

; the partnership worked so well that in 1907 Zecca selected Chomón to co-direct a major project, the remake of Zecca's own 1903 '' Vie et Passion de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ''. Shortly afterward, Zecca moved into an executive position at Pathé and did little direction from that time; Chomón's most productive years as a filmmaker lasted from 1907 to 1912, a period during which Méliès' production went into a steep decline. Chomón often worked with other directors; in addition to Zecca he collaborated with

Gaston Velle Gaston Velle (1868–1953) was a French silent film director and pioneer of special effects, who was prominent in early French and Italian cinema during the first two decades of the 20th century. Like his father, the Hungarian entertainer Joseph ...

, Juan Fuster, Alberto Capellani and

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

. Although he remained with Pathé, in 1910 Chomón returned to Barcelona and started an independent production company, Iberico Films, which proved short-lived. In 1912, Chómon accepted an invitation to make films in Italy. In addition to his own films, he worked on special effects on the films of others, notably

Giovanni Pastrone Giovanni Pastrone, also known by his artistic name Piero Fosco (13 September 1883 – 27 June 1959), was an Italian film pioneer, director, screenwriter, actor and technician. Pastrone was born in Montechiaro d'Asti. He worked during the era of ...

's epic ''

Cabiria ''Cabiria'' is a 1914 Italian epic silent film, directed by Giovanni Pastrone and shot in Turin. The film is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War (218–202 BC). It follows a melodramatic main p ...

'' (1914). Pastrone returned the favor in 1917 through collaborating on Chomón's last directorial effort, ''La guerra e il sogno di Momi''; Chomón's own films had become less frequent after his move to Italy, and he had primarily worked in visual effects and cinematography in these years. After 1917, Chomón principally worked on creating visual effects for the films of others, including Guido Brignone's ''Maciste in Hell'' (1925) and

Abel Gance Abel Gance (; born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 188910 November 1981) was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: ''J ...

's ''Napoléon'' (1927). Towards the end of his life, Chomón collaborated with Swiss inventor Ernest Zollinger (ex-Pathé, ex-Itala Films) to develop a photographic, two-color film process. Chomón was planning to get back into full-time film production on his own when he died, suddenly, of a heart attack at age 57.

Legacy

The very year that Chomón died, the Surrealists organized a soirée that would rehabilitate the artistic reputation of Georges Méliès and to begin the long process of recovering his films. Chomón was effectively forgotten in the wake of his death, though over time silent film collectors began to recognize some of his shorts and he was dubbed "The Spanish Méliès" in English-speaking lands. Two of his films, ''Le spectre rouge'' (1907) and ''

Hôtel électrique ''Hôtel électrique'' (also released in Spanish as ; ) is a 1908 silent French comedy-fantasy film directed by Segundo de Chomón and produced by Pathé Frères. The short appears to be inspired by the 1907 American short film ''The Haunted Hotel ...

'' (1908), persistently circulated in the collector's market and were also circulated by the Museum of Modern Art film library; the first as an example of stencilled color and the second as a

film by an unknown director. The Italian film ''Cabiria'' (where he was director of photography & special FX) featured what may have been the first "

dolly shot A tracking shot is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. In cinematography, the term refers to a shot in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly that is then placed on rails – ...

" in the movies, utilizing a device built by Chomón. Finally, recognition came to Chomón in his home country, as the Filmoteca de Catalunya established a special division with the purpose of collecting and cataloguing what was left of his output; a DVD collection in PAL format with 31 films, Segundo Chomón: Le Cine de la Fantasia, was released by the Filmoteca in 2010. Many of de Chomon's Parisian Pathé Frères films have been recovered, but his Spanish and Italian productions have proven more elusive. Comparisons of Chomón's work with that of Georges Méliès is inevitable, with those in Chomón's court insisting that he was a better filmmaker, whereas those on Méliès' side insist that Chomón was a mere imitator. While it is hard to top Méliès' achievements in discovering basic editing and in his eye-popping production designs, Chomon was a slightly more modern filmmaker than Méliès. Chomón relied extensively on animation, a field in which he was a pioneer and a technique Georges Méliès seldom, if ever, used. Moreover, Chomón offered slight improvements on some techniques that Méliès already had tried, such as in ''Les Kiriki, acrobates japonais'' (1907). Chomón's work was also more expansive in terms of genre than that of Méliès; he started in actuality films and continued working in this field after the transition to documentary and was also employed on standard dramatic features as well. Méliès began making actualities also, in 1896, but after discovering and developing the trick film and fantasy genres, he stayed put. Nevertheless, it is for his trick films that Chomón will be best remembered; Spain honored him with a postage stamp in 1994. Chomón's film ''Armures Mystérieuses'' (''The Mysterious Armor'' or ''The Wonderful Armor'') was preserved by the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

in 2010. Film historian Tom Gunning has suggested that

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and m ...

and/or

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

were familiar with Chomón's ''Superstition andalouse'' (1912) years before making their experimental film ''

Un Chien andalou ''Un Chien Andalou'' (, ''An Andalusian Dog'') is a 1929 French silent short film directed by Luis Buñuel, and written by Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. Buñuel's first film, it was initially released in a limited capacity at Studio des Ursuline ...

'' in 1929.

Filmography

*1901: ''

Bajada de Montserrat ''Descente du Mont Serrat'' is a 1901 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed by Segundo de Chomón Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (also Chomont or Chaumont ; 17 October 1871 – 2 May 1929) was a pioneeri ...

'' *1902: '' Choque de trenes'' *1902: '' Danse des Ouléd-Naïd'' *1902: ''

Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American actress and dancer who was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Career Born ...

'' *1902: ''

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

'' *1903: ''Pulgarcito'' *1903: '' Gulliver en el país de los Gigantes'' *1903: '' Los héroes del sitio de Zaragoza'' *1904: '' Barcelone, Le parc au crépuscule'' *1904: ''

El heredero de Casa Pruna ''El heredero de Casa Pruna'' ''( en, The Heir of the Pruna House, Catalan: L’hereu de Can Pruna)'' is a Spanish short silent film directed by Segundo de Chomón. It was shot in Barcelona in 1904 and released in Spain the same year, making it the ...

'' *1906: ''Le roi des dollars'' *1906: ''L'obsession du billard'' *1906: ''Le sorcier arabe'' *1906: ''Les cent trucs'' *1906: ''Le courant électrique'' *1906: ''La maison hantée (1906)'' *1906: ''La fée aux pigeons'' *1906: ''La dernière sorcière'' *1906: ''Plongeur fantastique'' *1906: ''L'homme aux trente-six têtes'' *1906: ''Le théâtre de Bob'' *1906: ''La maison hantée'' *1906: '' Ah! La barbe'' *1906: ''Hallucination musicale'' *1906: ''L’obsession de l’or'' *1906: ''Le mariage du roi Alphonse XIII *1906: ''Le troubadour'' *1906: ''L'antre de la sorcière'' *1906: ''Les roses magiques'' *1907: ''La Passion de Jésus'' *1907: ''Métempsycose'' *1907: ''Les tulipes'' *1907: ''Le scarabée d'or'' *1907: ''Le charmeur'' *1907: ''Le bailleur'' *1907: ''Les flammes diaboliques'' *1907: ''Le parapluie fantastique'' *1907: ''Fantaisies endiablées'' *1907: ''Le spectre rouge'' *1907: ''Les œufs de Pâques'' *1907: ''La fée des roches noires'' *1907: ''Les chrysanthèmes'' *1907: ''Le sculpteur express'' *1907: ''Silhouettes animées'' *1907: ''Armures mystérieuses'' *1907: ''Les verres enchantés'' *1907: ''La boîte à cigares'' *1907: '' Satan s'amuse'' *1907: ''L'étang enchanté'' *1907: ''Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs'' *1907: ''La forge infernale'' *1907: ''En avant la musique'' *1907: ''La maison morcelée'' *1907: ''Les Kiriki, acrobates japonais'' *1907: ''Les glaces merveilleuses'' *1907: ''Le baiser de la sorcière'' *1907: ''Métempsycose'' *1907: ''Le scarabée d'or'' *1907: '' La maison hantée''Europa Film Treasures Les Kirikis, acrobates japoniases
'' *1908: ''La table magique'' *1908: ''Voyage original'' *1908: ''Les œufs merveilleux'' *1908: ''L'araignée d'or'' *1908: ''Création de la serpentine'' *1908: ''Voyage oriental'' *1908: ''Le secret de la sorcière'' *1908: ''Le rêve des marmitons'' *1908: ''Les affiches animées'' *1908: ''Sculpteur moderne'' *1908: '' Voyage dans la lune'' *1908: ''Chiffonniers et caricaturistes'' *1908: ''Le rêve de Toula'' *1908: ''La grenouille'' *1908: ''Les lunatiques'' *1908: ''L'auberge tranquille'' *1908: ''L'insaisissable pickpocket'' *1908: ''Les papillons japonais'' *1908: ''La légende du fantôme'' *1908: ''Les flammes mystérieuses'' *1908: ''Déménagement magnétique'' *1908: ''Les tribulations du roi Tétaclaque'' *1908: ''

'' *1908: '' L'aspirateur'' *1908: ''Les grotesques'' *1908: ''Cuisine magnétique'' *1908: ''Le chevalier mystère'' *1908: ''Hôtel électrique'' *1908: ''L'écran magique'' *1908: ''La grotte des esprits'' *1908: ''Mes fleurs'' *1908: ''Magie moderne'' *1908: ''L'abeille et la rose'' *1908: ''Le voleur mystérieux'' *1908: ''Les pantins de Misole'' *1908: ''Les ombres chinoises'' *1908: ''Les jouets vivants'' *1908: ''La maison ensorcelée'' *1909: ''Symphonie bizarre'' *1909: ''Le voleur invisible'' *1909: ''La liquéfaction des corps'' *1909: ''Les cocottes en papier'' *1909: ''Le petit Poucet'' *1909: ''L'âne de la sorcière'' *1909: ''La forge du diable'' *1909: ''Les cadeaux de la fée'' *1909: ''Le jeu de patience'' *1909: ''Farce macabre'' *1909: ''Cauchemar et doux rêves'' *1909: ''Les têtes fantastiques'' *1909: ''Voyage sur la planète Jupiter'' *1909: ''La leçon de musique'' *1909: ''Pickpock ne craint pas les entraves'' *1909: ''Une excursion incohérente'' *1909: ''Les guirlandes merveilleuses'' *1909: ''Mars'' *1909: ''Le Roi des aulnes'' *1909: ''Voyage au centre de la Terre'' *1910: ''Amor Gitano'' *1910: ''La expiación'' *1910: ''El puente de la muerte'' *1910: ''Venganza de un carbonero'' *1910: ''La fecha de Pepín'' *1910: ''La fatalidad'' *1910: ''El ejemplo'' *1910: ''Pragmática real'' *1910: ''Justicias del rey don Pedro'' *1910: ''La manta del caballo'' *1910: ''La hija del guardacostas'' *1910: ''La gratitud de las flores'' *1910: ''Flores y perlas'' *1910: ''Los guapos'' *1910: ''

El puñao de rosas ''El puñao de rosas'' (''A Bunch of Roses'') is a one-act zarzuela "of Andalusian customs" (''de costumbres andaluzas'') by Spanish composer Ruperto Chapí to a libretto by Carlos Arniches and . It was successfully premiered on 30 October 1902, ...

'' *1910: ''Las carceleras'' *1910: ''La tempranica'' *1910: ''El pobre Valbuena'' *1910: ''Lucha fratricida o Nobleza Aragonesa'' *1910: ''Los pobres de levita'' *1910: ''Los dulces de Arturo'' *1910: ''Una farsa de Colás'' *1910: ''Flema inglesa'' *1910: ''Gerona: la Venecia española'' *1910: ''La heroica Zaragoza''. *1911: ''Pulgarcito'' *1912: ''El talismán del vagabundo'' *1912: ''Soñar despierto'' *1912 : ''Métamorphoses'' *1916 : ''La guerra e il sogno di Momi'', directed with

Notes

References

*(fr) Beaudet, Louise, ''À la recherche de Segundo de Chomón : pionnier du cinéma,'' Annecy, Les Éditions du lac, 1985 * Sánchez Vidal, Agustín, ''Realizadores aragoneses'', Zaragoza, Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada-Edelvives, 1999. * Sánchez Vidal, Agustín, ''El cine de Chomón'', Zaragoza, Caja de Ahorros de la Inmaculada, 1992. * Tharrats, Juan Gabriel,'' Los 500 filmes de Segundo de Chomón'', Universidad de Zaragoza, Prensas Universitarias, 1988. *(fr) Tharrats, Juan Gabriel, ''Segundo de Chomón : un pionnier méconnu du cinéma européen,'' Paris, L'Harmattan, 2009 () * Tharrats, Juan Gabriel, ''Inolvidable Chomón'', Filmoteca regional de Murcia, 1990, 59 p.

External links

* * * * Eleanor McKeown, "The Spanish Weirdness of Segundo de Chomón" Electric Shee

* Paghat the Ratgirl, Wild Realm Review: Films of Segundo de Chomó

* Anthology Film Archives, "The Singular Segundo de Chomón

* Europa Film Treasures, "Les Kirikis, acrobates japonaise

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chomon, Segundo de 1871 births 1929 deaths Spanish film directors Spanish cinematographers Spanish male screenwriters Film directors from Aragon French film directors Fantasy film directors Cinema pioneers People from Teruel 20th-century Spanish screenwriters 20th-century Spanish male writers