Rayon de soleil, Un/Un raggio di sole
(1912) Director: [Henri Gambart] –
Production: Pathé Frères –
Lenght: 71m –
Intertitles: Italian –
The film:
A warm sunny day. Encouraged by his affectionate family, an arthritic old man goes out for a wheelchair ride, in the care of an undependable attendant. The attendant unthinkingly “parks” his charge by a bench and saunters cheerfully into a bistro. Left alone, the old man – until then immobile and reacting to very little – is unexpectedly brought to life by his exposure to the sun, and especially by his vicinity to an unknown beauty who has chosen the nearby bench to sit down for a spot of reading. Such is the effect of this combination of pleasurable stimuli that all the man’s aches and pains go away; getting up from his wheelchair and sitting next to the girl, he rediscovers his gallantry, chatting her up with no little vigour and apparently making some progress. On the journey home the initial roles are reversed: standing firm on his own two feet, the former invalid pushes the wheelchair on which his alleged carer now slumps, blind drunk.
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.
Un rayon de soleil 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.
