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Los hroes del sitio de Zaragoza
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Wikipedia article
'Los hroes del sitio de Zaragoza' is a 1903 Spanish short black-and-white silent film directed by Segundo de Chomn.
The film stages three of the national heroes of the 1808 First Siege of Zaragoza during the Spanish War of Independence.Review and link to watch the film in Spanish with English subtitles:
Plot
The film is composed of three scenes introduced by intertitles:
'Scene 1: Condesa de Bureta'
A sitting room. A man and a woman loading guns. A group of men wearing guns enter and shoot from the windows. Some of them are hit by shots from outside.
'Scene 2: El to Jorge'
A courtyard with an arched gate. A group of armed men behind a makeshift barricade are discussing. Some women bring them food. Soldiers come running in from behind the camera and start shooting at other soldiers coming from the other side of the gate. The invading soldiers reach the barricade but they are pushed back and routed by the defenders encouraged by a man standing on the barricade.
'Scene 3: Agustina de Aragn'
A cannon served by two men, in front of city walls.
Several men are shot dead. A woman enters and seeing the dead men shoots herself the cannon, creating a huge cloud of smoke. When the smoke dissipates, a group of men celebrating victory appears while the woman waves a flag at the top of the city walls.
Production
There are divergent views as to when this film was shot, the dates of 1901,Jos Mara Claver Esteban, 'Luces y rejas. Estereotipos andaluces en el cine costumbrista espaol (1896-1939)',Centro de Estudios Andaluces, 2012, p. 212. 1903Leonardo Romero Tobar, 'Temas literarios hispnicos (II)', Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2014, p. 371. or 1905Palmira Gonzlez Lpez, 'Los inicios del Cine en Espaa (1896 - 1909), La llegada del cine, su expansin y primeras producciones', Liceus, p.33. having been mentioned. Rjane Hamus-Valle argues that there is no evidence supporting the fact that Chomn would have directed any film before 1903. She considers that this film is the oldest preserved film directed by Segundo de Chomn and that it likely was the first one produced by the producers Macaya & Marro Rjane Hamus-Valle, 'Les mille et un visages de Segundo de Chomn: Truqueur, coloriste, cinmatographiste... et pionnier du cinmatographe', Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2020, p.26
On the other hand, the style of the film, with single shot scenes and static frontal camera, seems to indicate that it was shot before Chomn's 1904 film El heredero de Casa Pruna which includes multishot scenes and camera panning.
Historical significance
The film stages three celebrated heroes of the Spanish resistance against the Napoleonic invasion:
Mara de la Consolacin Azlor, Condesa de Bureta (es) created and directed the Cuerpo de Amazonas [Amazon Corps], a special female corps that provided relief to the wounded and supplied food and ammunition to the fighters. In addition, she turned her palace into a hospital, and took up arms at times of danger.
Jorge Ibor y Casamayor (es), known as To Jorge (Uncle George) played a major role in the defence of Saragossa. The city gave his name to a park in 1958.
Agustina Raimunda Mara Saragossa Domnech, known as Agustina de Aragn, was an active defensor of the city who has become famous for one particular action: On June 15, 1808, the French army stormed the Portillo, an ancient gateway into the city defended by a hodgepodge battery of old cannons and a heavily outnumbered volunteer unit. Agustina, arriving on the ramparts with a basket of apples to feed the gunners, watched the nearby defenders fall to French bayonets.
The Spanish troops broke ranks, having suffered heavy casualties, and abandoned their posts. With the French troops a few yards away, Agustina herself ran forward, loaded a cannon, and lit the fuse, shredding a wave of attackers at point-blank range. This action has been the subject of a monumental statue erected in Saragossa and of several paintings, which have inspired the design of the set for the film.
See also
* List of Spanish films before 1930
References
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