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Slipshod Rip-Off Mended by Blue Finale
A plagiarization of Alice Guy's, of Gaumont, prior "The Drunken Mattress" (1906), this Pathé film, Le Matelas de la mariée, is considerably less innovative. Perhaps, the film was ripped off from the scenario instead of being based on seeing the finished film, for none of the crosscutting and other advanced examples of continuity editing, trick effects or gender-based humor of the original remain here. The comparatively basic continuity editing that is here results in only seven shots compared to the 16 in Gaumont's version. A man, instead of the female mattress-mender, carries the drunkard trapped in the mattress back to a couple's bedroom in this one, too.
In the bedroom is the only place where the Pathé imitation improves upon the former film. It replaces the older couple of Gaumont with newlyweds and the consummation that implies, as interrupted by the drunkard inside the mattress. The long shot of the bride undressing to her slip also makes for one of the more blue and erotic pictures from the era. Whereas the man in the mattress helped to symbolically unleash the mattress-mender's sexual desires, as Alison McMahan (author of "Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema") suggests, in Pathé's version, the man in the mattress serves to hinder such lust.
In the bedroom is the only place where the Pathé imitation improves upon the former film. It replaces the older couple of Gaumont with newlyweds and the consummation that implies, as interrupted by the drunkard inside the mattress. The long shot of the bride undressing to her slip also makes for one of the more blue and erotic pictures from the era. Whereas the man in the mattress helped to symbolically unleash the mattress-mender's sexual desires, as Alison McMahan (author of "Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema") suggests, in Pathé's version, the man in the mattress serves to hinder such lust.
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- Cineanalyst
- Apr 3, 2020
Details
- Runtime6 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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