Cyrano de Bergerac (1900)

Inspired by Edmond Rostand's 1897 play, director Clément Maurice's hand-tinted, two-minute short experiment with sound incorporates pastel colours with synchronised dialogue. This brief but, nevertheless, astonishing technical achievement reproduces only one scene from the play: the famous duel between Cyrano and an arrogant dandy, against the backdrop of a crowded theatre stage. In this stylised, but still, white-knuckle fight, the swaggering swordsman with the prominent protrusion he calls a nose composes a poem while fencing, confident in his undeniably remarkable duelling and verbal skills.