Léontine, Nasty Girl

La pile électrique de Léontine
R and actors unknown. P: Pathé Frères. Fr 1910

“A bunch of yokels are amusing themselves by giving themselves shocks with a wind-up electrical generator. Leontine steals it, and rushes off to try its effects on several other groups of people in this funny comedy. By the third iteration I was able to figure out that a lot of the repeated gag was accomplished by having the actress stand in front of a screen on which the other performers were projected from behind. The seamlessness of the effect is very well done. Leontine — or ‘Betty’ as she was called in her presentations in English-speaking places, was a young girl who got into all sorts of highly destructive situations, like flooding an apartment building in ‘Betty’s Boat’ (Le Bateau de Léontine, Fr 1911). She’s very funny, but aside from the character name, there’s nothing known about these films.”
IMDb (boblipton)

“Following on the success of Les pétards de Léontine (1910), in which she terrorizes the neighborhood with her rogue fireworks, in this episode Titine [i.e. Léontine] steals an inventor’s electric battery and unleashes her hilarious fury on everyone in sight. But it is more than a sadistic sight gag. With a jolt of electricity, alienated workers speed up their labor time, lackluster dancers gain energetic rhythm, and military conscripts feel the true power of their bodies. After she turns off the battery, however, they go back to their sad, lifeless daily motions. The real treat arrives at the end when Titine electrocutes the local police force, douses her accusers in water, and joyfully strides away. She does not need a battery to remain lively.”
Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak & Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi: Gender and the Nasty Women of history. Early Popular Visual Culture, 19:4, 392-413, p. 411
(https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2021.2074962)

Still: Le Bateau de Léontine, Fr 1911

“Boating and daydreaming were furious impulses of feminist cinema from the early days, paving the way for classics like Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974). After months of quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we can all relate to tomboy Léontine when she plugs up the drains and turns on the faucets to sail her toy boat indoors (see above). Pretty soon, the entire house is flooded! Titine (as she was nicknamed) wreaks apocalyptic mayhem in all 24 episodes of this popular series (1910–1912), more than half of which survive. As forest fires rage and ice caps melt, it is hard to look away from this surreal spectacle of domestic climate catastrophe.”
Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak & Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi: Gender and the Nasty Women of history. Early Popular Visual Culture, 19:4, 392-413, p. 394-395
(https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2021.2074962)