The film:

The George Méliès film, a variation of Nouvelles luttes extravagantes (N°309-310), opens on a painted backcloth: a brick wall, a pond, and, in the distance, some boats docked on the shore and a few domes with a vague oriental style. In front of the backcloth two women wearing a revealing outfit are fighting. The heaviest one succeeds to ground the rival, but when they get up to greet the public, they are suddenly wearing long and respectable black dresses. They grab some white sheets and they hide under them until suddenly taking the sheets away, instead of the ladies, two combat-hardened beardy men wearing shorts appear and start to fight till one of the two grounds the rival. While the winner enjoys his triumph the looser picks himself up from the ground and suddenly attacks him and literally tears him to pieces. The new winner collects the rival and reassembles him on the armchair; as if it were nothing, he rises and the two men bow to the public, soon joined by the gentle ladies, wearing again the outfit used in the fight scene. 

The film restoration:

The film was digitally preserved by Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino from a tinted nitrate positive 15 meters long without intertitles, deposited at the Museo by Fabrizio Pangrazi’s family.

The preservation work was carried out in 2012 at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna.

Link Vimeo Cineteca MNC:

https://vimeo.com/397387684

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