L'Assassinat du duc de Guise (1908)
Directed by André Calmettes, Charles Le Bargy

Film Review

L'Assassinat du duc de Guise occupies an important place in the history of cinema.  Like Georges Méliès's Le Voyage dans la lune (1902), made six years earlier, its international success did much to galvanise public interest in the new medium of cinema, but its main claim to fame is that it is the first film to carry a complete dramatic narrative beyond one reel.  With a runtime of just over sixteen minutes, it relates a historical incident - the assassination of the Duke de Guise in 1588 - but in addition to this it presents the murder as a personal tragedy for a peripheral character, de Guise's faithful mistress, the Marquise de Noirmoutiers.  With its combination of dramatic intrigue and character reaction to unfolding events, the film lays the groundwork for the modern film drama.

There is some confusion over the film's title.  On its opening caption, it proclaims itself to be La Mort du duc de Guise, but its film poster refers to it by the title by which it is most widely known, L'Assassinat du duc de Guise.  It was one of the first films made by the film production company Le Film d'Art.  The latter was founded by Paul Laffitte in 1908, at the request of the Comédie-Française, with the intention of making films with a historical or theatrical basis, thereby raising the esteem of the new cinematographic art form.  This was a reaction to those (such as Méliès) who saw cinema as solely a medium of mass entertainment.  The remit of Le Film d'Art was primarily educational and artistic.  Despite its noble aims, the company rarely turned a profit from its film creations, L'Assassinat being the only one that was an outright commercial success.

The film was scripted by the esteemed playwright Henri Lavedan, and directed by André Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy, both prominent stage actors of the time.  Calmettes was artistic director for Film d'Art and Charles Le Bargy - who also plays the part of Henri III in the film - was a leading light of the Comédie-Française.

The cast comprises several members of the Comédie-Française, notably Albert Lambert and Gabrielle Robinne, who play the doomed Duke and his devoted mistress.  Also appearing in the film, in minor roles, are Albert Dieudonné and Jean Angelo, two actors who would come to prominence in French cinema of the 1920s (the former best known for playing the lead in Abel Gance's Napoléon).

Although the staging and performances are unapologetically theatrical, the actors avoid the excessive gestures that were employed more widely at the time.  Of particular note is Charles Le Bargy, who invests considerable contained power and menace in his portrayal, creating an aura of scheming nastiness through the subtlest of body and facial movements - a remarkably modern film performance.

Whereas most films up until this time consisted of just one or two scenes, with a single static shot for each scene, L'Assassinat du duc de Guise breaks its narrative up into five clearly delineated scenes and uses nine shots.  Interestingly, the one scene to employ more than one shot is the one depicting the entrapment and brutal stabbing of the Duke de Guise.  By running over five shots, this sequence manages to create the illusion of a dramatically shifting point of view without the camera actually moving.  In doing so, the tension is gradually ratcheted up, reaching a shocking climax when the butchers finally strike and bring down their victim.

One of Calmettes's brainwaves was to have a specially commissioned musical piece to accompany the film's projection (and hence mask the noise of the spectators).  This was supplied by Camille Saint-Saëns.  The film was screened for the first time at a cinema salle in the rue Charras in Paris, on 17th November 1908, and met with a rapturous reaction from its audience.

Film Synopsis

On 23rd December 1588 the long-running power-struggle between the opposing houses of de Guise and Valois will come to a dramatic climax with the assassination of Henri I of Lorraine, the Duke de Guise.  The Duke's mistress, the Marquise de Noirmoutier, is thrown into a state of disarray when she receives a message imploring her to keep her lover with her.  Unless she can prevent the Duke from attending a meeting of the royal council, he will fall into a trap laid by King Henri III of Navarre.  Ignoring his mistress's protestations, the Duke accepts the king's summons and sets out for the Château de Blois without delay.  On his arrival, he is surrounded by the king's loyal bodyguards and brutally stabbed to death.  The only person who will mourn for him is the Marquise de Noirmoutiers...