This long scène dramatique of 1906 is unusual in its refined, fluid cutting: we sense a sure hand assembling and interweaving different locations, characters and time-frames. Capellani would reuse the dramatic scene on the parapet of the Notre-Dame bell tower, with the gargoyles and the panoramic view over Paris, in Notre-Dame de Paris (1911).

1906 is a crucial year in the history of the French cinema. Vie et Passion de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ is the first feature-length film distributed as such; films are structured; the spectator begins to be critical. On the other hand, the cinema has lived for barely a decade. It is also a period represented in a surprisingly rich manner in the Lobster collection. Because never did innocence and imagination rule as they did at this moment. And we laugh at little farces (Toto) as we dream through filmed poetry like Voyage Around a Star. From the moment we first thought about this programme, we have discovered numerous nitrate prints from before the 1910s. Luck? Obstinacy? The Lobster team is, in France, the last private adventure of research, restoration, and rediscovery of the cinema. Because, for us, a film is more than films: these are shreds of time which live again, regards which converge on the screen of pleasure, simply little moments of happiness.

Serge Bromberg, Lobster Films

The Lobster collections, based in France and the USA, consist of some 120,000 cans of film in every format, from the first steps in the history of cinema to the most recent experimental work. Every year Lobster presents its performances “Retour de flamme” and dedicates itself to such DVD productions as Retour de flamme and the documentaries Les premiers pas du cinéma – Le son et la couleur.