“Length: 40 m. (2 min.), incomplete (this is probably only the first part). Stencil colouring. The only intertitle present, the first (‘Au camp des bohémiens’), is tinted blue.

Love blossoms between a young gypsy, dancer and fortune teller, and a handsome knight. When the gypsies begin to devastate the towns of the area, the peasants ask for the help of their lord who sends in soldiers to throw out the sackers. The gypsies however hide and manage to kidnap one of the knights, of course the beloved of the dancer. During the night, she releases him and he flees. This is the plot of the film as reported in the Pathé catalogue. In this copy we can see only the first part of the story, when the dancing gypsy enchants the handsome knight.

A rather simple pochoir coloration if compared with other Pathé films of the same period such as, for example L’Ecrin du Radjah. It should be noted however that while the latter is a film of the fantasy genre, where the colours accentuate the unreal atmosphere, in the case of Les Bohémiens the colouring has a secondary function with respect to the progress of the narration”.

Giovanna Fossati