User Reviews

In the recent collection "Gaumont Treasures Volume 2", I have noticed that the dates attributed to many of these films by Kino are quite different than those listed on IMDb. I think much of this is because with such early films, determining when they were made (as well as by whom in many cases) is just guesswork. Whether "The Baptism of Calino" came out in 1910 or 1911, however, the film seemed a bit dated and limp when I saw it.

While the film is about the baptism of a child, this isn't 100% apparent by the action. Much of it consists of highly exaggerated acting by a group of people going to celebrate a baptism (though none of the actual ceremony is seen) and the sets are obviously fake. None of this is especially good and by 1910/11, such films were giving way to more naturalistic films. Nothing about this is natural or believable.

Out of the blue, midway through the film, the 'baby' walks off, steals a bicycle and goes on a made dash--followed by the members of the baptism party. I do have to commend the film for all the stunts (LOTS of folks were smashing and falling off their bikes) but none of it seemed well done. Too often, the people obviously were deliberately crashing into each other at slow speeds and none of it made much sense. In other words, slapstick for the sake of cheap laughs and not much more. Overall, a rather limp but watchable short film and not one of Jean Durand's better pictures.

When a young child celebrates his coming baptism by stealing a bicycle, and is pursued by the adults in attendance, the usual chaos ensues.

This is one of the many 'Calino' short comedies directed by Jean Durand and starring Clément Mégé. By this point in movie history, the comic chase had been a staple for half a dozen years, and there was little to make a movie about it that was novel. Comics pursued or were pursued by monkeys, pumpkins, or whatever the film maker chose in hundreds of short subjects. While the comedy chase remains a vital part of movies, it is as part of the grammar of cinema.

I would like to take exception with the description of this movie as 'surreal'. Surrealism was a high art movement that arose in the chaos of the First World War. While it drew on the absurdity of earlier comedy, there is no reason to refer to slapstick comedy as surreal. It would be like describing Aristophanes as a dramedy; the inspiration runs from slapstick to surrealism, not the other way around.

To appreciate Durand comedies, one has to forget all about US slapstick comedy, to which they only bear a very superficial relationship. This is surrealism avant l'heure. There is no attempt at naturalism (the genre is by definition anti-naturalistic) and the objective is not so much slapstick in the US sense (people hitting and kicking each other, throwing bricks at each other, sticking pins in each other, shooting each other etc) but rather a sort of inspired and highly improbable mayhem usually emanating from some particularly innocent character who is at the centre of it all. It was a style of humour very much in vogue in France and Italy. In Léonce cinématographiste, for instance, where one sees a film programme in session (a drama plus a comedy), it is just such a "mayhem" comedy that is shown. I love these comedies and much prefer them to the nastiness of US slapstick and at its best (this is a minor example) such comedies can be superb (Onésime horloger is a Durand classic but the Italian film Lea e il gomitolo is a special favourite of mine with the superb Lea Giunchi, innocent to perfection, destroying an entire house in a search for a ball of wool.

Forget too about notions of baptism you may have in the US. The ceremony is of little importance; a French baptism is mainly about eating and drinking (one "waters" the baby in an entirely alcoholic sense).