What Is Seen Through a Keyhole

This is a super-early film from 1901. And, compared to most other films of the day, this is a very good film. In general, "films" of the day were little more than one to two minute clips of ordinary people doing very ordinary things or fast images of action that didn't tell a story. In fact, scripts, plots and decent acting were really NOT trademarks of early films. The students I teach have described many of them as being "craptastic"--because they just aren't much fun to watch--even to Cinephiles and historians.

However, this film HAS a plot (simple though it is) and sets and tells a cute little racy story about a hotel worker that loves to peep on his guests. The camera shows a keyhole image and we are treated to one woman in partial undress and another with a woman and her beau kissing. Ultimately, though, he is caught and gets what's coming to him! Cute, inconsequential but fun.

Par le trou de la serrure (1901)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This French film from Ferdinand Zecca also goes by the titles PEEPING TOM and WHAT IS SEEN THROUGH A KEYHOLE. In the film, a worker goes to various rooms and peeks through a the keyhole. Overall this two-minute film isn't all that bad but then again there's nothing overly good about it either. The effect of the man looking through the keyhole had some nice camera-work and the effect was quite nice but there's really wasn't anything too interesting or entertaining in regards to what he was seeing. One woman had extremely long hair. One woman turned out to be a man. This type of comedy wasn't all that funny but fans of these early films will still want to check it out as a curio.

While cleaning up the landing area upstairs in a hotel, the janitor spots a beautiful young woman getting ready for bed. Staring at her through the keyhole gets him excited and he decides to check out the other keyholes to see what other beauties there are staying there.

A simple piece of French silent cinema, this film is essentially a short comedy sketch that borrows technical ideas from other directions (the point of view shot for example) and uses them for a simple gag. It isn't that funny although it does have a rather saucy content that I wouldn't have expected from this period in time (although I suppose censorship or control of the medium was some time away). Technically the shot is a one shot on a basic soundstage with the keyhole views shot on other stages, for the time it was all fresh obviously but there are better historical examples of these techniques being developed and used. The acting is mixed. The girl with the longhair is terribly aware of the camera but the janitor himself hams it all up nicely. An OK short then with some historical value but not funny enough to work a hundred year later.

This is relatively amusing in its own right, but it is more interesting for the variety of ideas and techniques contained in such a short film. It combines one of the earliest experiments in using a point-of-view camera perspective with some of the earliest cinematic observations on voyeurism and related themes.

The story starts with a janitor in a hotel deciding to take a look at what is going on inside some of the rooms, and then it goes on from there. The variety of the things that he sees makes it hard not to be reminded of James Stewart watching his neighbors in "Rear Window", and while this one is a light-hearted comedy rather than a serious thriller, both pictures in their own ways suggest some of the same basic themes.

This is also interesting as one of a number of creative movies by Ferdinand Zecca, one of the less celebrated pioneers of cinema. He worked in several different genres, and often made interesting experiments with what were then new techniques. Besides witty light features like this one, he also made fantasy pictures and somber dramas. As this movie illustrates, he brought talent and imagination to most of his movies.

Ferdinand Zecca was Pathe's most important house director in this period and he constantly experimented with cinematic technique. In this risqué comedy he makes extensive use of mattes -- in this one, keyhole mattes -- to shape the camera's field of vision.

Although the cinema continued to experiment with mattes as a major effect and their cousin, the iris shot, to shape the composition, by about 1920 both had largely been replaced by using set decoration for the same effect, except in the most conservative fields -- westerns and trailers. Even so, the bawdy humor and the payoff gag that concludes this one makes it worthwhile for fans of early film.