Cineanalyst gives his usual fine analysis of this short film by Georges Hatot. I'd like to expand on one point. Cineanalyst points out that Hatot specialized in historical scenes. It's not just the scenes he painted, but moving recreations of famous paintings of historical scenes.
In this case, it's Jacques-Louis David's painting MARAT ASSASSINE, first exhibited in 1793. David did a lot of this sort of painting during the French Revolution, and you can look at copies of it on the Internet if you wish. This painting's fame during the 19th Century was sustained by copies, reproductions, probably post cards, stereopticon slides and probably magic-lantern shows.
All the arts build on what has come before, and when you deal with two visual arts, you can often see echoes of the elder in the younger. That's why this sort of technique, of taking a famous image and incorporating it into a movie is part of cinema's DNA, its basic language. Here's one of the movies in which this is exhibited, baldly and boldly enough that we can tell precisely what Hatot is doing.
In this case, it's Jacques-Louis David's painting MARAT ASSASSINE, first exhibited in 1793. David did a lot of this sort of painting during the French Revolution, and you can look at copies of it on the Internet if you wish. This painting's fame during the 19th Century was sustained by copies, reproductions, probably post cards, stereopticon slides and probably magic-lantern shows.
All the arts build on what has come before, and when you deal with two visual arts, you can often see echoes of the elder in the younger. That's why this sort of technique, of taking a famous image and incorporating it into a movie is part of cinema's DNA, its basic language. Here's one of the movies in which this is exhibited, baldly and boldly enough that we can tell precisely what Hatot is doing.