Name: Le matelas épileptique
Genre: Short, Comedy
Duration: 9 min
Rating: 6.2
Cast: Romeo Bosetti

This short comedy from Alice Guy of Gaumont, "The Drunken Mattress," is a good example of the development of continuity editing in the story film. The humor may be dated, with an inebriate ending up stuffed in a mattress--chaos ensuing. "The mattress, a symbol of matrimony, as well as sex, is removed from the domestic sphere," however, as Alison McMahan (in her book "Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema") says, and, "Once in the field it is possessed by the most appropriate symbol of the irrepressible and aggressive spirit of the street: a drunkard." In this respect, too, McMahan refers to the mattress as the mattress-mender's (as portrayed by a man in drag) "runaway desires." Regardless, the construction of this comedy is quite sophisticated for its day.

It's an early film to feature crosscutting--and with semi-reverse angles--from shots two through six. In other scenes, off-screen space is exploited and match cuts employed. Otherwise, too, the montage here is remarkably sober, as opposed to its drunken trouble maker. The axis of action is respected as the plot assumes the trajectory of prior chase comedies, from one place to another, one knockabout episode eclipsing the one before. Not including the stop-substitution trick effects, I counted sixteen shots in this, one of Guy's better films from this transitional period in the development of narrative cinema.

As the studio was want to do, Pathé quickly plagiarized this Gaumont production as "Le Matelas de la mariée" (1906). Guy's version, too, McMahan suggests bares a passing resemblance to the Lumière film, "Querelle de matelassières" ("The Quarrel of the Mattress-makers") (1898), which, having seen it, too, a single shot-scene slapstick skit between women, that connection is, indeed, slight.

The comedy genre refers to a category of entertainment that aims to amuse and entertain audiences by using humor, wit, and comedic situations. Comedies are created with the primary intention of eliciting laughter and providing lighthearted enjoyment. They encompass a wide range of styles, tones, and themes, appealing to various tastes and audiences.

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The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

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Comedy is benefited by originality. In this Alice Guy short, an alcoholic is inadvertently sewn in to a mattress. With that unique premise, havoc ensues.

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Эпилептический матрац

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Romeo Bosetti in The Drunken Mattress (1906)

The Drunken Mattress

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