User Reviews

By the time this movie came out, Segundo de Chomon had beaten Georges Melies at trick films -- in fact, the trick film had vanished. Oh, the camera tricks remained, but they now were techniques for effects. Films had become a medium for telling stories. So, like many another film pioneer, de Chomon found himself a revered elder statesman and out of a job.

He did not give up easily, and returned to being a cinematographer, with the tricks he had learned over the years -- now techniques -- to a still popular subject: travelogues. In this one he uses a series of cuts to show scenes in Girone, the slow, leisurely pace of the cuts working very effectively, like statements in an argument, to make Girone a picturesque and pleasant place to spend some time in.

This last summer, I had a chance to visit Barcelona and thought it was one of the best places I've ever been--the food, the wine, the city--all were simply amazing. However, after seeing "Gerone, the Venice of Spain", I wish I'd taken some more time and gone on a day trip to nearby Girona. While the river in this documentary by Segundo de Chomón isn't very exciting (it looks like a trickle), the buildings are. Additionally, the homes and streets have a look about them that reminded me of Florence. I have never been to Venice, but expected to see more water and homes abutting canals--and this wasn't evident in this short documentary. It's not a brilliant film and I am sure a lot of other films like it were made around the same time, but it is an interesting time capsule and I am sure the city has changed remarkably in the hundred plus years since this was filmed. Well made and worth seeing.

Having finished up business making trick films for Pathé--the genre itself having become a passing fad since 1906--director Segundo de Chomón had only one other genre of film to resort to: travelogues, the only other thing he had been trained in since the beginning of his career with the company. Because the Spanish director was born in Barcelona, all of the numerous travelogues he produced during that year, as well as the years 1901-1904, were views of that city in Spain--made to make money off of showing the French public images of this foreign country many of them had never gone to. Travelogues by director Chomón include "L'antique Tolede" (1912), "Barcelone et son parc" (1911), and "Burgos" (1911).

This one was distributed in America by the General Film Company and is a series of views of Girona, a Spanish city reminiscent to Venice. In the three minute film, the viewer is treated to glimpses of the title location, starting with scenes of the streets and beautiful architecture, and later progressing to show views of the countryside including a lake. The views themselves are interesting historically, although the film is for the most part devoid of actual movement in frames and causes it to be viewed more like a set of photographs than a movie. For me, it's questionable as to why Chomón wasted film on it rather than just taking pictures to be viewed as a slideshow, since such things were probably still done as distractions in the cinemas. Nonetheless, and despite stationary camerawork, it is a well-made travelogue for the period and particularly worth viewing for historians.