Les ombres chinoises

"Les Ombres Chinoises" is a film by Segundo de Chomón that seems to have been inspired by his brilliant previous film "Kiri-Kis". Both feature French folk dressed up in very stereotypical Asian garb--in this case they were supposed to be Chinese and in "Kiri-Kis", Japanese. I think that he probably just re-used some of the costumes and sets. However, it's a huge mistake to think this is just another "Kiri-Kis', as the middle of the film is very different. Using stop-motion, various cut out paper shapes dance about forming pictures. It's the sort of thing that probably had audiences at the time guessing as to what the various shapes were to become. While this is not brilliant animation, it is exceptional for 1908 and one of the earliest animated films. It debuted the same year as other animated films--"Fantasmagorie" by the French director Émile Cohl and "Humpty Dumpty Circus" by Smith and Blackton--and all are considered the first or close to the first animated films. So, in this regard "Les Ombres Chinoises" is a super-important film. Even though the content is rather bland when seen today, it was groundbreaking in the day.