Pierrot and Pierrette are in love. While taking a stroll in the countryside, Pierrette notices a group of young city-dwellers and sells them her flowers. One of the men falls in love with her and courts her ardently, leaving her not indifferent to his advances… Poor Pierrot! Only the first reel remains of this threepart film, directed by Gero Zambuto for Ambrosio Film in Turin. It is all the more precious since, in contrast to the plethora of films dedicated to Pierrot – fourteen in Italy alone during the silent era – this is the sole surviving version about his girlfriend, Pierrette. The print conserved at La Cinémathèque française (containing French intertitles) is almost surely posterior to the Italian distribution, as revealed by the markings in the margin of the frames of the reel (dating from the late 1920s).

Elisa Uffreduzzi