Cléopâtre (Original)
1910
Alternative Titles
Cleopatra (Alternative), Kleopatra (Alternative)
BFI identifier
22344Synopsis
The story of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and her love for the Roman Mark Antony. Cleopatra is seen at her court prior to departing for Mark Antony's camp. Mark Antony receives Cleopatra at his camp. After she has alighted from her boat he dismisses all his company and then, watched by Octavius, he declares his love for Cleopatra before leaving with her on the boat. Later at the Roman camp, Mark Antony dismisses Octavius who has been critical of him for his infidelity. In Egypt, Mark Antony and Cleopatra are seen enjoying entertainments - dancing, gladiators, etc. Octavius arrives and declares war on Mark Antony. Cleopatra, relaxing in an apartment overlooking the pyramids, is bought news of Mark Antony's defeat by a messenger. She is angry and has the messenger poisoned. Mark Antony stabs himself and the Romans rush Cleopatra's palace. She retires to an inner room where she poisons herself with an asp bite. Octavius rushes in to find her dead (868ft). Incomplete. (Shotlist)
- Production Country: France
- Production Company: Pathé Frères
- BFI Category: Fiction
- Source: N/A
Cast
Madeleine Roch (Cleopatra)
Stacia Napierkowska (Le Message)
Rianza (La Danseuse)
Jeanne Bérangère
Credits
Director: Ferdinand Zecca, Henri Andréani
Décors: Jambon
Production Company: Pathé Frères
Script: Ferdinand Zecca, Henri Andréani
Film Technical Information
- Original Length: 355 m
- Length of BFI Viewing Print: 250 m
- Support: Viewable
- Black and White
- Format: 35 mm , Digital Betacam
Comments on the print:
The BFI holds an original, tinted and stencil-coloured nitrate print of this film of 900 ft. (274 m.). It stems from the renowned Abbé Joye Collection and has German intertitles, but lacks the main title card. It was preserved in 1980 on black-and-white safety stock (the positive measures 819 ft./ 250 m.). Later on, a digital version of the film was also made. In 2024, the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé had a new, razor sharp 4K restoration made at the Immagine Ritrovata film lab, based on the original black-and-white negative, deposited at the Cinémathèque française. The CNC (Centre national de la cinématographie) in Paris preserved a 560 m. long tinted and stencil-coloured print, originally at the Filmoteca UNAM in Mexico. This is a reworked version that came out in 1914 and to which fragments from several other historical films by Pathé were added to let the film compete with the Cines epic then in circulation -Marcantonio e Cleopatra (1913) directed by Enrico Guazzoni.
Source for original length: from the FJSP website pathe.com/document/cleopatre/5fdd2ae2af99ca9e7f2816c6?pageId=60cb022c6fb6ab1f3a2a538a&q=cleopatre&pos=1
Printed Materials
Visual Resources
