Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1906
The Chimney Sweep (film)
Buy The Chimney Sweep (film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = The Chimney Sweep
| image = File:Jack le ramoneur Mlis.jpg
| alt =
| caption = A scene from the film
| native_name =
| director = Georges Mlis
| producer =
| writer =
| screenplay =
| story =
| based_on =
| starring =
| narrator =
| music =
| cinematography =
| editing =
| studio = Star Film Company
| distributor =
| released = March 1906
| runtime =
| country = France
| language = Silent
| budget =
| gross =
}}
'The Chimney Sweep' is a 1906 French silent film directed by Georges Mlis.
Plot
Jack, a kidnapped boy working as a chimney sweep, is roughly treated and often beaten by his brutal employer. Falling asleep after a long day, he dreams of his lost mother and the fairy tales he heard. The memories transform into a journey through Dream Country, led by the Fairy of Dreams, who turns Jack into a King amid the celebrations of a royal court. The dream ends abruptly when Jack is woken up by his employer for the day's work.
Jack is busily at work when, behind some bricks inside a chimney, he comes across a box full of gold and money, hidden there many years ago. The employer tries to take possession of the treasure trove, but Jack runs away. A chase ensues through the neighborhood, with townspeople and servants joining in. Jack escapes and hides just before his employer falls into a pit. Finding him covered with mud, the onlookers plunge him into a cask of water.
By good luck, Jack manages to come across his family, and is welcomed back. Surrounded by riches, he forgives his former employer.
Production
From 1905 onward, films by the Path Frres studios gained sweeping popularity at fairground cinemas and other venues. Mlis attempted to respond to this popularity by imitating their style. Thus, 'The Chimney Sweep' is a bricolage, combining Mlis's sense of fantasy with the dramatic, realist tone of popular Path films, possibly with a young audience in mind. The chase at the end of the film also suggests Mlis's attempts to keep up with the times, as chase films had become a popular trend.
Mlis appears in the film as one of two men who join the chase scene together; Emile Gajean is the other. The ballet in the film is performed by the 'corps de ballet' of the Thtre du Chtelet, and was choreographed by Madame Stitchel, their director. Stitchel also choreographed dances for other Mlis films, including 'Under the Seas'. The Ping-Pongs, an English company of dancing girls, played the Troops of Dream Country. Unusually for Mlis, the chase scenes were filmed outdoors: each of these exterior scenes was staged on a different part of Mlis's own property in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis. Special effects in the film were created using stage machinery, substitution splices, superimpositions, and dissolves.
Release
The film was released by Mlis's Star Film Company and is numbered 791806 in its catalogs. In French catalogs, it was advertised as a 'conte bleu fantastique en 25 tableaux'; in English-language catalogs, as "an extravagant 'cock and bull' story in 25 scenes." The English-language catalog writeup for the film also highlighted its comic chase scene, saying that 'The Chimney Sweep' included "ComedyMysterySensational AdventuresPathosAcrobaticsSpectacular Effects and A GREAT BIG CHASE." The film was registered for copyright at the Library of Congress on 17 February 1906, and showings of it were first advertised in the 'Phono-Cin-Gazette' on 1 March of the same year. It was offered to exhibitors in both black-and-white and (for a higher price) hand-colored prints.
A fragment of the film survives; the rest is presumed lost.
Notes
Footnotes
References
Citations
*
*
*
*
*
Buy The Chimney Sweep (film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1906