Mobilier fidèle (1910)

Director:

Émile Cohl

Release Date:

7 May 1912 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Short

Plot:

Furniture moves itself into a new house, without human intervention. No people appear in this stop-motion short by animation pioneer Émile Cohl. |

Also Known As:

Le mobilier fidèle (France)
Les meubles fidèles (France)
The Automatic Moving Company (International: English title)

Runtime:

4 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | None

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Pathé Frères

Trivia:

Released in the US as a split reel along with the documentary Palace and Fountains of Versailles (1912).

The Automatic Moving Company or Mobilier fidele was a fascinating early look at stop-motion

In the printed intro to this short stop-motion film in the DVD collection "Saved from the Flames", it mentions that historian Donald Crafton claimed that Romeo Bosetti was responsible for The Automatic Moving Company and it was made in 1911. However, it also mentions Emile Cohl's short with the above title and the 1910 date. It then said that both Cohl and Bosetti worked for Pathe in '11 and occasionally collaborated. So maybe they both worked on this. Anyway, this was a fascinating early look at stop-motion animation as we see furniture after furniture move by themselves to a new home with no help from any humans. Quite a piece of work by whoever made this. By the way, I watched an earlier version of this kind of technique called El Hotel Electrico by Segundo do Chomon when I saw it on YouTube a couple of years ago. Anyway, I highly recommend Mobilier fidele or The Automatic Moving Company.