Les couronnes (Crowns)

Director: Émile Cohl
Release Date: August 11, 1909
Rating: ★★★★
Review:

‘Les couronnes’ is a tableau vivant film like ‘L’éventail animé‘, now showing wreaths and crowns through the ages.

And, as may be expected, the tableaux are now shown inside a wreath-shaped frame. Like in ‘L’eventail animé’ this is a live action film, featuring no animation. Like in the former film the tableaux themselves are very stylized and beautiful, helped by the elegant score for harp and guitar.

Even if the film may be slightly less beautiful than ‘L’eventail animé’, it’s certainly more moving, with a scene of Christ receiving his crown of thorns, and a contemporary, but surprisingly sentimental scene of a rich couple giving a poor man a wreath-shaped bread.

Watch ‘Les couronnes’ yourself and tell me what you think:

‘Les couronnes’ is available on the DVDs ‘Émile Cohl – L’agitateur aux mille images’