''Comedian Paulus Singing'' (french: Paulus chantant) was a series of five French short silent films made in 1897 by Georges Méliès, starring the popular café-concert singer Paulus (real name Jean-Paul Habans, 1845–1908). The films were designed for a café-concert stunt in which Paulus would sing behind the screen as the films were projected, giving the illusion of a

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

. All five films are currently presumed

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

Summary

The English and French release titles, as well as the Star Film Company catalog numbers, for the films were as follows: *''Comedian Paulus Singing "Derrière l'Omnibus"'' (''Paulus chantant: Derrière l'Omnibus'', 88) *''Comedian Paulus Singing "Coquin de Printemps"'' (''Paulus chantant: Coquin de Printemps'', 89) *''Comedian Paulus Singing "Duelliste Marsellais"'' (''Paulus chantant: Duelliste marseillais'', 90) *''Paulus chantant: Père la Victoire'' (no English title or catalogue number) *''Paulus chantant: En revenant d'la revue'' (no English title or catalogue number)

Production and release

Paulus, then nearing the end of his long and celebrated career as a pro-

Boulangist Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ("General Revenge"), was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Repub ...

entertainer, approached Méliès with the concept for the stunt.Frazer 1979, p. 37 The series was filmed at Méliès's theater of illusions, the

Théâtre Robert-Houdin The Théâtre Robert-Houdin, initially advertised as the Théâtre des Soirées Fantastiques de Robert-Houdin, was a Paris theatre dedicated primarily to the performance of stage illusions. Founded by the famous magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdi ...

in Paris. In order to provide enough light for his film camera, Méliès included fifteen arc lamps and fifteen

mercury-vapor lamp A mercury-vapor lamp is a gas-discharge lamp that uses an electric arc through vaporized mercury to produce light. The arc discharge is generally confined to a small fused quartz arc tube mounted within a larger soda lime or borosilicate gl ...

s in his setup, making the ''Comedian Paulus Singing'' series the first known use of

artificial light Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...

in a motion picture. Three of the films (''Derrière l'Omnibus'', ''Coquin de Printemps'', and ''Duelliste Marsellais'') were sold through the catalogs of Méliès's studio, the Star Film Company, for both French and American film markets. The other two, which featured Paulus singing hymns of praise to the controversial political figure

Georges Ernest Boulanger Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ("General Revenge"), was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Repub ...

, were filmed for the café-concert performance but not included in the Star Film catalogs, as Méliès himself was a fervent anti-Boulangist.Hammond 1974, pp.26–27

References

External links

* * * * * {{Georges Méliès 1897 films 1890s French films Film series introduced in 1897 French silent short films Lost French films Films directed by Georges Méliès Films about singers French black-and-white films 1890s lost films 1897 short films