Vintage original 110 x 150 cm. (43.3 x 59.0 in.) "country of origin" French stone lithograph poster from the one-reel silent film comedy, LE PIANO IRRESISTIBLE (The Irresistible Piano), released in France in 1907 by Gaumont and directed by Alice Guy.
The artwork depicts a male music teacher who has just moved into a new apartment as he enthusiastically plays his piano while his top hat rests nearby. Two young men come dancing into the room in response to his joyful tune as they move the rest of his possessions into his new home. This poster is a stone lithograph, the process of which produces very fine detail and beautiful, rich colors. It has been professionally linen-backed in fine+ condition with scattered small areas of minor restoration. For reference purposes, we have included an image of the poster after it was linen-backed but before any restoration was performed (see last photo).
Original-release "country of origin" French posters from any films directed by Alice Guy during her pre-1910 period as a director are extremely scarce. This film exists and is included in the DVD box set, Gaumont Treasures: 1897-1913, distributed by Kino International. It's a very fun film, as the music teacher's piano playing makes everyone who hears it bob up and down to the tune, with very funny results.
*"Alice Ida Antoinette Guy-Blaché (née Guy; French pronunciation: [alis gi blɑʃe] ; 1 July 1873 – 24 March 1968) was a French pioneer filmmaker. She was one of the first filmmakers to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. She experimented with Gaumont's Chronophone sync-sound system, and with color-tinting, interracial casting, and special effects.
She was artistic director and a co-founder of Solax Studios in Flushing, New York. In 1912, Solax invested $100,000 for a new studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the center of American filmmaking prior to the establishment of Hollywood. That year, she made the film A Fool and His Money, probably the first to have an all-African-American cast. The film is now preserved at the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute for its historical and aesthetic significance."
*(source: Wikipedia)
*"The first scene is that of a music teacher, with the aid of two men, moving his worldly belongings into a new apartment. No sooner is the piano rolled into the room than he sits down to play. The music so exhilarates the two helpers that they keep time with their limbs to the refrain of the music as they carry in the several remaining pieces of furniture. Another apartment in the same building is the scene of the next series of views. In it, is shown a dining room, a man and woman at the table and a maid serving. Suddenly the three become conscious of martial strains of music which have floated out of the music master's room. It has an irresistible effect upon them, for they soon begin to dance, and then decide to investigate from where the music emanates. They locate the professor, enter his room and finding him still at the piano, involuntarily resume their dancing duties. Another apartment is now shown, wherein a man is tilted back in a chair, taking a nap, and his wife is busily engaged in mending some clothes. There, too, the sound waves emanating from their new neighbor, the professor, penetrate, the room. It has a magic effect, livens them up; they begin to dance, and also seek the source of the music.
The scene changes to the studio, the professor still at the piano, the first three people still dancing and making merry, are now joined by the new couple. The next apartment is that of a dressmaker; girls busily engaged at the sewing machines, one at a model, when, lo! There is music in the air. 'Tis irresistible. They rise up as one, commence to dance, and dance out of the room in search of the fountain of the soul-inspiring music. They are presently shown to dance into the professor's studio and join the frolicking crowd, all gaily dancing and the professor still at the piano. A police officer, passing the building, is attracted by the sounds of music. He instantaneously becomes frisky, and dancing into the building, joins the merry crowd, all dancing, although somewhat exhausted. The professor has now about reached the limit and decides to stop, but is forced to continue, and his neighbors resume their dancing; after which the music becomes slower and slower, as is evidenced by the reduced time of the dancers' limbs, and gradually dies out, when the seamstresses, police officer, old couple and the diners fall in a heap, apparently exhausted, and the professor sprawls over the piano in a faint."
*(source: IMDb)
O.C.