Did you think the Western was an exclusively American
genre? Not really...
Tracing the history of early cinema, the documentary “Joe
Hamman, the Frenchman Who Invented the Western” takes us in the footsteps of
Joe Hamman, a French filmmaker who is recognized today as one of the inventors
of the genre...
In the early twentieth century, Joe Hamman, Jean Paul
Arthur Hamman was his real name, and was born in Paris on October 26, 1883. He
would become the king of the United States Western.
He turned out dozens of films in the landscape of the
large Wild West, he found ... in the part of France called Camargue!
Through his personal archive, his few friends and survivors
- eyewitnesses of his incredible life - memories saved in books, drawings, film
clips and analysis of the history of cinema specialists of orographic... Joe
Hamman leads us in time and space, between Montmartre and the Pine Ridge Sioux
plains; between South Dakota, the Camargue and Normandy.
It is the portrait of a man who had managed to remain a
child until the end.
Here's the amazing and incredible story of a film
pioneer, his introduction to the Western genre by Buffalo Bill himself, his
successful career as a director, producer, actor and stuntman; the story of one
of the inventors of the Western!
Following is an interview with Vincent Froelhy, author and film director
Q: Why this
film?
VF: I worked
for almost three years with Arte and France 3, on a documentary film about the
Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and its European tours, a history of the
Americanization of Europe. By working on this, I discovered many unusual
characters and incredible stories.
Joe Hamman was one of those characters whose journey I
thought largely deserved a film. He is, indeed, one of the most important
pioneers of cinema in France and has been completely forgotten by all.
Joe Hamman allowed me, seeing I am passionate about
cinema and the Western, to reconcile the two and dive into a little-known side
of the history of cinema.
It was very difficult to find documents, or even films by
Joe Hamman. Some of his westerns are now totally lost; others have been found,
restored and are sometimes visible during special events. This documentary pays
tribute to a great man of the theater and the world of the western and I hope
it will put a new light on him, because he is really forgotten in the history
of the 7th art. In addition to being one of the inventors of the Western, we
discovered that Joe Hamman was among the top stuntmen in the history of world
cinema - it's probably the same precursor. And something that deserves that he
be attached to it at the time in film history
[To be continued
on February 20th]
No comments:
Post a Comment