Histoire d'un crime

(1901)

   Film. Directed by Ferdinand Zecca for Pathé, Histoire d'un crime is an early narrative film, probably the first crime film ever made, and one of the early realist films. The film, which runs approximately eight minutes, was a commercial success. It is a moralizing story about a carpenter who develops a gambling problem and who ultimately commits murder. The story, which seems as though it might have been adapted from something in period newspapers, was, according to film scholar Richard Abel, actually inspired by waxwork displays at the Musée Grevin just prior to its production.

   The film is noteworthy not only for its narrative content and its use of realism, but also through its use of flashback sequences, which occur as dreams the carpenter has while in prison. The flashback is achieved by juxtaposing two sets in the same scene, one above the other. In the frame, the sleeping prisoner and the sleeping guard, who is supposed to be watching him, are in the lower set, while the action of the flashback or dream sequence occurs in the upper set. Although this is a technique that had previously been used in the theater, it pushes the boundaries of early cinema, pointing to the possibility of representing more abstract realities than simply the filmic present of narrative action.