Monday, October 03, 2011

Rosalie fait du sabotage / Jane on Strike

(Pathé Frères, FR 1911) D: Roméo Bosetti; cast: Sara Duhamel; 35 mm, 168 m, 8'30" (17 fps); from: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. English intertitles. Restored in 2011 by Haghefilm Fellow Clara Sánchez-Dehesa. Viewed at Teatro Verdi, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, e-subtitles in Italian, grand piano: Donald Sosin, 3 Oct 2011.

Clara Sánchez-Dehesa, Caroline Yeager (GCM Catalogue): "Sara Duhamel, one of the “Funny Ladies” in the so-called First Golden Age of Film Comedy, portrayed Rosalie (renamed Jane for American audiences) in the successful “Rosalie” series (1911-1913) directed by Roméo Bosetti. This series took issue with the differences between social classes and examined labor issues taking place at that time, but always with humor. In this installment, Jane has been elected the president of the Union of Cooks and Housemaids, and has just signed a resolution to improve their working conditions. Returning to the bourgeois family for which she works, Jane flexes her newfound power by creating a series of hilarious situations designed to sabotage the family kitchen until her demands are met. The original source material for this restored 35 mm print was a 28mm diacetate print donated by the 3M Corporation, from the collection of Louis Walton Sipley." – CLARA SÁNCHEZ-DEHESA, CAROLINE YEAGER

AA: A suffragette farce, a catastrophe farce. Rosalie the housemaid joins the mutiny of women by destroying kitchen utensils and spoiling food. The centerpiece is a disastrous dinner with a live rabbit in a loaf of bread, spoiled pasta, mice on the table, and a petroleum bottle which leads to a conflagration in the dining room. Rosalie's finishing touch is itching powder spread liberally on the conjugal bed. Rosalie is finally pacified with a new, better contract. A digital restoration from a 28 mm Pathé Kok source: the result is very watchable.

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