Klaus Kreimeier 14:19 on May 2, 2015  

Rigadin (1)

Les timidités de Rigadin
R: Georges Monca. B: Georges Monca. D: Charles Prince, Mistinguett, Carlos Avril. P: Pathé Frères. Fr 1910

Rigadin et la doctoresse
R: Georges Monca. D: Charles Prince, Mistinguett. P: Pathé Frères. Fr 1911
Engl. version

Le champagne de Rigadin
R: Georges Monca. D: Charles Prince. P: Pathé Frères. Fr 1915

“Charles Prince (1872-1933) appeared in Pathé films as Rigadin, whose character was generally that of a bashful lover. He already enjoyed some fame as a theatre performer before joining Pathé in 1908, and he went on to appear in over 200 Rigadin films up to 1920, writing the senarios for many of them. In Britain and America he was known as Whiffles. Rigadin’s most interesting films were those that took on contemporay themes, such as Rigadin Peintre Cubiste (1912), where he mocked modern art by appearing as an angular figure, and Rigadin aux Balkans (1912) where he plays a war cameraman who gleefully fakes scenes for the camera in France rather than travel to the Balkan War. He ended his film career playing small roles throughout the 1920s and 30s.”
The Bioscope

Rigadin aux Balkans
R: Georges Monca. B: Charles Torquet, Jacques de Choudens. D: Charles Prince, Yvonne Maëlec, Ferdinand Zecca. P: Pathé Frères. Fr 1912
Print: Pathé Télévision. From VHS
Without intertitles

“Rigadin courts a pretty woman and offers her a modest bouquet of flowers. But he has a rival who presents himself and offers the young woman jewels. Rigadin is mortified. To obtain money, he goes to Pathé Frères where he is received by Mr. Zecca. He is engaged as a reporter and must go to the Balkans where the war is raging. But Rigadin thinks himself clever to film the war in the suburbs of Paris, with the help of a few extras that he circles indefinitely around a bush. Then he makes them simulate an attack but everyone is disbanded. Our apprentice reporter rushes to help them get up. He does not notice that his rival, cleverly captures it in the camera lens. We guess the rest. The so-called reporter is kicked out immediately. (Scenario from vision)” (Translated from French synopsis, see YouTube)

>>> Rigadin (2)

TRAUM UND EXZESS, p. 234 ff.