Le Coucher de la Mariée

Le Coucher de la Mariée, Bedtime for the Bride, or The Bridegroom's Dilemma is a French erotic short film considered[1] to be one of the first erotic films made. The film was first screened in Paris in November 1896, within a year of the first public screening of a projected motion picture.[2] The film was produced by Eugène Pirou and directed by Albert Kirchner under the pseudonym "Léar".[3]

Le coucher de la mariée
Frame from the film
Directed byLéar (Albert Kirchner)
Produced byEugène Pirou
StarringLouise Willy
Release date
November 1896
Running time
7 minutes (only 2 minutes survive)
CountryFrance
LanguageSilent

Plot

A newlywed couple is in front of their wedding-bed after their wedding. The husband goes into raptures in front of his new wife, who simpers. She then asks him to withdraw while she undresses and he puts a folding screen between them. She removes one by one the many layers of clothes she wears — a jacket, a dress, underskirts, sub-underskirts, a blouse. The husband does not stay in place, sometimes mopping his front, sometimes reading a newspaper, sometimes having lecherous looks above the folding screen. The actors send numerous glances towards the camera.

History of the movie

The original film has been estimated to be around seven minutes long,[1] but it had degraded to a poor condition in the French Film Archives until it was found in 1996. Only two minutes of the film have survived, which includes the undressing sequence.[4]

The film was shot in a theater set, and featured actress Louise Willy[5] who performs the striptease. It is the direct adaptation of a theater show with the same name and the same cast. The show was very popular[6] at the time, at Olympia Theater (Paris). It was a pantomime, quite risqué, but still not explicit as the actress was not nude. However, because only two minutes have survived from the original seven minutes, it is impossible to see more than the striptease.

See also

References
  1. Phil De Semlyen. "Film Studies 101: The A-Z of the birth of cinema". Empire. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  2. Ramsaye, Terry (1926), A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture Through 1926, Simon and Schuster Essandess paperback reprint, 1964, Location at Broadway and Thirty-Fourth: p. 117; 20-foot screen and gilded frame, p. 232
  3. Le coucher de la mariée: pantomime en un acte. Paris: E. Fromont, 1895
  4. Alex Duval Smith (13 November 1996). "Tremendous amount of prudishness' over porn, says journalist". London Observer Service. Retrieved 1 June 2015 – via Newspapers.comopen access.
  5. Richard Abel, Encyclopedia of early cinema, Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 978-0-415-23440-5, p. 518
  6. Dubé, Paul; Marchioro, Jacques. "Les frères Isola – Souvenirs". dutempsdescerisesauxfeuillesmortes.net (in French). Retrieved 7 July 2016.


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