The Butterfly Dance

For those readers traumatized by the AR girlfriend video, may I suggest "Butterflys" (scroll down and click "See the Film"), a lovingly restored 1907 Italian short dance film, director unknown, with an original 2008 score by Antonio Coppola?

Early films were mainly experimental, without a narrative framework. The dancers performed cinematographic experiments that attempted to render body movements in space and time. Dance scenes (here a serpentine dance, known as a Butterfly Dance) represent a third of the films produced.

This film, produced by the Italian company Cinès, presents viewers with one of many imitations of the serpentine dancer Loïe Fuller. The fathers of cinema all made their contribution to this essential genre. Edison and Dickson, as well as Louis Lumière and Paul Nadar propelled the first serpentine dancers to fame: Annabella (1897), Crissie Sheridan (1897), and Ameta (1903).

A bit of history:

These Butterflies twirl around with dazzling effects thanks to the marvelously restored colors. This jewel was marvelously restored. For a long time, the Morcraft company presented this film to collectors of 16mm film. A terrible version issued from a painted print revealed what the film might have been at the time of its first projection.

Color film from the '50s to the '80s is characterized by a great color instability, which turns to pink after a few years. In addition to the scratches, the original colors then look faded, sad, and insipid.

During a visit in Los Angeles, Serge Bromberg accidentally comes across the original nitrate print, which the owner Morcraft had certified having destroyed. Proof of its authenticity is found in the title, Butterflys (an obvious mistake for an Anglophone since the right spelling is of course: Butterflies) that survived on two frames, making it necessary for the restorer to make a freeze-frame, which is the case on the few surviving 16mm prints.

This nitrate print color painted in 1907 still shows the footage marks between the perforations, for, at that time, the colorists are paid by the meter! A true gem.

(Via Submarine Channel.)

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patricio

Where fps standarized by 1907 THELADYFINGERS? I assumed most films were handcranked at variable speeds till 1914 or so…
Rob Cruickshank

@4 and 7: There’s an interesting article on the history of frame rates here:

http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/18_kb_2.htm
schr0559

@2 – I think they mean “certified” in the “death certificate” sense and not the “hit man” sense. Probably they found that their copies were destroyed or missing, and weren’t aware of any other extant versions.

Also on this site, there’s an animated French PSA from 1918 on alcoholism and tuberculosis that’s a hoot: http://www.europafilmtreasures.eu/player.htm?ID=275
GammaBlog

It’s definitely worth the wait to see the hand -tinted serpentine dance at the end. It’s otherworldly.
Robbo

Some of this footage was used as the basis for rotoscoped segments in “Yellow Submarine” – just so you know.

Cheers.
Anonymous

What series of events would cause the need for an owner Morcraft, to have CERTIFIED the destruction of original prints or negatives?

I spent my film restoration youth thinking all such loss was accidental rather than intentional.
Red Leatherman

I’ve seen bits of what appeared to be from this film before, but never with the restored tinting.
Great video archive site to add to my bookmarks.

@ Ugly Canuck I agree with what you say about hand tinted film having that “feel all it’s own” that far overshadows the 2 strip Technicolor style that some others were using in that era.

@Rob Cruickshank, a interesting read on the link you gave regarding the history of frame rates.
I have a old 1912 Kodak projector and found the variable speed control it has was useful while watching old film produced in the same era as the projector.
Antinous

I probably would have gone with ‘Bats and Nudibranchs’ for the title.
theLadyfingers

Why do they insist on showing 16fps films at 24fps?
Anonymous

forget the Copolla score.

that film wants Benny Hill music!!!
Erica Asahan

This image is looks great, it’s very captivating!!
Anonymous

Hand-coloring shouldn’t be allowed to die. CG has its merits, but this is absolutely mesmerising with the way the colors swirl and change.

A lovely start to my morning. Thank you!
Mojave

Agreed…that is a great add to the bookmarks!
Ugly Canuck

The last two minutes or so are great. Hand-tinted film from this era has a feel to it all its own, nothing else is quite like it IMO.
pollyannacowgirl

Not to be a grinch, but I wasn’t THAT impressed. Certainly nicer than that AR girlfriend nonsense.

My 3 year old was entranced. It was a great privilege to hear her exclaim and ooh and ahh over the “be-YOOOO-tiful butterflies!!!”.