Not’ fanfare concourt / La nostra fanfara concorso Our Band’s Going to the Competition(1907) Director: Albert Capellani –
Production: Pathé Frères –
Original lenght: 195m –
Lenght: 68m –
Intertitles: no intertitles –
Première: 25/07/1907 –
Cast: André Deed
The film:
Under the glorious emblem of the frog, the redoubtable “Fouilly les Grenouilles” brass band is setting off for a competition to be held in their subprefecture. The honor of the village is at stake; wives, cuirassiers, the mayor, and townspeople form an enthusiastic escort as the band makes its way to the station. Morale is high, the conductor is fired up, everything looks set for success. And a success it is. The band wins first prize – an enormous gold medal looking suspiciously like cardboard – and celebrates with a deceptively light wine, whose effects do not take long to make themselves felt. But, as the presentation in the Pathé catalogue informs us, “la belle médaille d’or a son revers” (“the beautiful gold medal has another side”), and the reception the wives give their drunken husbands when they come home isn’t exactly warm.
The digital process:
On 1 November 1912 Pathé, one of the world’s biggest film companies, launched its first home cinema system – a parlour projector for a family audience, curiously resembling a Singer sewing machine. Its advertising slogan ran: “KOK: Cinema in your own home! Joy for grown-ups! Happiness for children!”. The 28mm Cinématographe de Salon KOK projector was the first successor to the magic lantern, which had long been popular among the rich bourgeoisie and aristocratic families.
Our Band’s Going to the Competition was digitized in 2017 through a partnership involving the film archives of Turin, Toulouse, and Limoges, starting with the films from the 28mm collection in Turin. Repair work and scanning in 2K were carried out by the Cinémathèque de Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and image-enhancement and finalizing by the Cinémathèque de Toulouse. Our thanks go to the Gaumont Pathé Archives for their help in identifying the films.
