A Hasty Renovation

A Hasty Renovation

1911 · 6 min · ★ 10.0 · Comedy

Léontine helps her pal Rosalie (Sarah Duhamel) race against time to clean up a house after Rosalie’s boss, Baron von Hummen, announces that he and Madame will return home earlier than planned. They recruit workers and poach resources from a nearby construction site. As we see, it takes a village to tidy a house on short notice (or at least it should!), but there’s a limit to the capacities of even collective domestic labor. Accelerated productivity gives way to sheer physical anarchy and irreversible destruction. Dirt and debris pervade every surface—furniture and skin alike—leading to several unfortunate blackening gags.

Directed by Romeo Bosetti

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Cast

Sarah Duhamel Rosalie
Léontine

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A Hasty Renovation

Fear of Shadows

Both from Romeo Bosetti.

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Fear of Shadows

Fear of Shadows · 1911

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MovieComedyThriller

In a playful, reflexive take on the familiar “last-minute rescue” formula, a woman and her housekeeper left alone at home miss-read shadows projected from the street outside and fear a violent assault. Male police officers dispatched to rescue them correctly diagnose the situation, with hilarious results, including a late gender reveal. Notable for its early use of triptych.

Léontine's Boat

Léontine's Boat · 1911

Léontine's Boat

Léontine cannot resist her desire to sail her new toy boat indoors. She plugs up the drains and turns on the faucets, flooding the house as water rains down through the floorboards and collapses the ceilings.

Léontine on Vacation

Léontine on Vacation · 1910

Léontine on Vacation

What would a vacation be for Titine without hellraising mischief? As a reward for receiving high marks at school, she goes on a peaceful jaunt to the countryside to visit her aunt and uncle. Naturally, she trips the gardener, futzes with her aunt’s expensive perfume, terrifies the cooks by levitating pots and pans (with hidden string!), enjoys a bacchanalian feast of grapes and sausage, and then jumps out the window. Her uncle banishes her with a stern warning for tyrannizing their idyllic home. But Léontine does not appear chastised.

Rosalie Has Sleeping Sickness

Rosalie Has Sleeping Sickness · 1911

Rosalie Has Sleeping Sickness

Anarchic physical destruction

It’s Rosalie’s Fault!

It’s Rosalie’s Fault! · 1912

It’s Rosalie’s Fault!

Rosalie is a maid for a wealthy family and receives a letter that her cousin is coming to visit. She assumes that a burglar is her cousin and the mix-up and chaos begins.

Pétronille Wins the Grand Steeple Chase

Pétronille Wins the Grand Steeple Chase · 1913

Pétronille Wins the Grand Steeple Chase

Pétronille's husband jockey, Tortillard, face-plants in the middle of the track. She puts on his clothes and mounts his steed, “despite her rotund build” at 100 kilos. She leads the other riders on an off-track equestrian escapade, eventually making it back to the course.

Rosalie Moves In

Rosalie Moves In · 1911

Rosalie Moves In

Rosalie moves into an apartment building, disturbing her neighbors above, below, and next to her.

Patouillard's Wife Wants to Follow the Latest Fashions

Patouillard's Wife Wants to Follow the Latest Fashions · 1912

Patouillard's Wife Wants to Follow the Latest Fashions

The wife of Patouillard begs him for new clothes according to the latest fashion in the newspapers. So they go out for some shopping. Afterwards she is going out in her new dress, which is so tight that she can hardly walk in it. She changes the skirt for a pair of trousers, but finds herself being laughed at, and when the trousers get wet at the seaside, Patouillard finally puts her in a jute bag and makes her hop back home.

Pétronille’s Despair

Pétronille’s Despair · 1914

Pétronille’s Despair

Pétronille tries and fails to commit suicide, multiple ways, after her boyfriend Casimir dumps her. A morbid but amusing comedy.

Little Moritz Wants to Marry Rosalie

Little Moritz Wants to Marry Rosalie · 1911

Little Moritz Wants to Marry Rosalie

Wimpy Little Moritz needs to toughen up to win Rosalie, but ends up smashing everyone and everything in sight when boxing lessons turn him into a mindless fighting machine. (MoMA)

Fantômas

Fantômas · 1913

MovieDramaThriller

A French silent film serial which follows the exploits of the archvillain Fantômas, who commits crimes while eluding Inspector Juve's tireless persecution.

Onesime, Clockmaker

Onesime, Clockmaker · 1912

Onesime, Clockmaker

MovieScience FictionComedy

In an effort to secure a promised inheritance, Onésime invents a time machine that speeds up activity on earth, hyper-animates men and machines, and telescopes the human life-cycle.

Léontine Keeps House

Léontine Keeps House · 1912

Léontine Keeps House

In a last gasp effort to school Titine in domestic labor, her parents entrust her with housesitting. She executes her obligations with catastrophic aplomb, shattering all the dishes in the gesture of cleaning them. She manages to flood and incinerate her entire home simultaneously. In a futile effort to find her baby brother and pet dog, she inherits a horde of stray canines and orphaned babies.

Patouillard Has a Jealous Wife

Patouillard Has a Jealous Wife · 1912

Patouillard Has a Jealous Wife

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The Drunken Mattress

The Drunken Mattress · 1906

The Drunken Mattress

An alcoholic is inadvertently sewn into a mattress.

Rosalie and Her Phonograph

Rosalie and Her Phonograph · 1911

Rosalie and Her Phonograph

MovieFantasyComedy

A jolly housekeeper brings new meaning to the notion of “home entertainment” with a handsome new portable phonograph that causes people, furniture, and buildings to rock and roll through the magic of stop-motion animation. (MoMA)

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