Round Up
#11
Spring 1978
How did I come
to shoot a series of Westerns in the heroic era of cinema?
There are several
reasons why that the memory and influence that my stay in the American West had
on me.
I had the
privilege to know some white and red men who had taken part in its history and to
listen to their stories and report their memories. Then I became obsessed by
the idea to revive their past by the use of animated photography that had just
been born.
But, I had to
wait.
I returned to
France to do my military service at the 6 Cuirassiers, and that's where I had
the opportunity (which may be considered a start) to "film a scene",
for the regiment's fete of a diligent stagecoach attack, its preparation and
its execution. One of the occupants of the "coach" was the inevitable
daughter of the Sheriff (removed by the Indians, rescued by the Cowboys) and
whose role was held by a brigadier’s daughter. It was not a cheap show, Indian costumes
and cowboy gear came from the United States, that I still own, and gave the
show an exact folkloric note. As for the horsemen, they were doing their
business.
Free from the
service, I had not abandoned my plans, I inquired about the existing
Procurement Houses. For my purposes, I learned how to use a camera and, as a matter of course,
I wrote a few scripts whose subject could not exceed four hundred meters of
useful film.
During my
early working days I made acquaintances with the operator MOREAU, returning
from a distant report, I told him of my desires.
The idea pleased
him so in May 1906 we shot the first Western in the area of Arcueil (France). The
picturesque site 5 kilometers south of Paris, stretched for more than one
kilometer. A profound thirty meters, it had once been used as a gun range. The rocky boulder
covered landscape perfectly represented a corner of a wild landscape. Long distance
panoramic views could also be taken without showing a house or a telegraph
pole. A
small green lake sat resting in a deep quarry and was judiciously used. On the
edge of this area lay quarries and huts of boards serving as sheds for the tools
of the quarrymen which became cabins for Indians or trappers.
The film,
simply titled "Cow-Boy" was shot in two days with a young debutante, a
solitary "Indian", two squires of his qualities, "PIEDS-BLANCS (WHITE-FEET)"
my half tamed horse, with which I had to use in my series "ARIZONA
BILL", four years later. A dog, a snake, the voluntary representation of a
few caretakers whom I thanked for their collaboration by a distribution of
packs of cigarette and a general tour, completed the distribution.
At the same
time I founded the first Western Club, the "BLUE STAR ASSOCIATION".
We had our own horses and I was training them in the management of the lasso on
the Prairie de Bagatelle where we had permission to practice. Most comrades
were acting in my films with actors who ventured into this new art, who now
have disappeared and are forgotten: JEAN- MARIE LAURENT [1877-1964], ANDRE
VOLBERT, MAUGER, SENECHAL, CONSTANT REMY [1882-1958].
The film
studios were located at Boulevard Jourdan and La Porte d'Orleans. It was still
only a large and high glass, in which the effects of light were obtained by a
fire of velums slipping on rods (when there was sun). The sets were made on the
spot and, in certain cases, when the action took place in a castle, for
example, it was shot with a backdrop, on which, thanks to the talent of the
painter-decorator, all the riches were visible.
A short
distance from the glass roof, in a classic suburban garden, on the premises of
a villa with three floors served as a bureau with boxes and a deposit for
fragile accessories.
The
"Director" had not yet defined his omnipotent attributions. The very
first were head figures of the boulevard theaters.
Well-known
actors, were still coming little by little and cautiously to the 7th
art. Let's not forget also that until 1914, in France, all genres - I say well
all - had been approached.
The small
roles and the extras were recruited in a cafe on the Boulevard de Strasbourg,
on the east side of the Eldorado. Sometimes we were forced to find some on the
spot. In 1913, for instance, I hired a hundred or so workers from the Aries
locomotive repair shops to play English soldiers and ... Boers of the recent
war.
