Auguste François

 

 

Films and Videos.

 

Between 1900 and 1904 in Yunnan, the consul Auguste François filmed what is undoubtedly the oldest cinematographic report made in what was still Imperial China. A portion of these images has been lost. Thankfully, however, certain sequences were saved by the Association and others are held in the Gaumont Pathé Archives.

Some of the images filmed by Auguste François have been used in different documentaries about the consul himself or about the Yunnan railway, a project to which he contributed. Several modern films on Yunnan provide an insight into this region where the consul spent a significant period of time.

 

*            Films :

 

 

- Images of China (1901-1904)

Auguste François

Daily life in Yunnan. Viceroy’s visit to the Consulate. The Consul sits in his sedan chair. The Consul and his panther. With his rifle, Auguste François plays Guillaume Tell with his boy. The southern district in Yunnan-Sen. Court scene: beating. Procession with Viceroy’s emblems and insignia. Crowd scenes. Cutting of the pig’s throat. In the street near a Pagoda. At the barbers. Beggars grooming each other. Dragon dance. Celebration at the Jade Pagoda. Opium smokers. The butler and his wife’s meal. Street scenes, merchants. Monkey trainers. Legless cripple or acrobat? Procession of prisoners in chains. Funeral procession. Stream of jostling beggars. Dancer and theatre actors. Street market. On the road, in the countryside.

ASSOCIATION AUGUSTE FRANÇOIS, Paris, 1990

35 mm, b/w, silent, 32 minutes

 

- Images of China (1901-1904)

Auguste François

ASSOCIATION AUGUSTE FRANÇOIS, Paris, 1990

16 mm, b/w, silent, 28 minutes

 

*        Videos :    

 

- L’Œil du consul [Through the Consul’s eye]

Film directed by Jorge Amat

Written by Gérard Guicheteau

With the voices of Marc Berman and Jacques Campain

Music by Jean-Louis Valero

Production Françoise Gazio

TANGUERA FILMS / FRANCE 3 / RMN, Paris, 1999

VHS Pal/Secam, 50 minutes

An English language version of this documentary is also available: Through the Consul’s Eye ( http://icarusfilms.com/new2001/thru.html ).

 

 Auguste François, an unknown French Consul in China, made the headlines in 1900 by saving a handful of French citizens during the Boxer uprising.

 

This film chronicles his personal adventures and plunges the audience into the history of colonial China at the turn of the 20th Century.

 

François not only observed and participated in these events, he also recorded his experiences with humour in letters and diary entries.

 

The film recounts his adventures and is illustrated with rare

archival photographs and films that the Consul shot using a

camera lent to him by the Lumière brothers.

 

 

- Auguste François in China 1896-1904

Film directed by Alain Casanova

Written by Pierre Seydoux

     With the voice of Alain Casanova

STAR FILM INTERNATIONAL / ASSOCIATION AUGUSTE FRANÇOIS, Paris, 1996

VHS Pal/Secam, 8 minutes

 

- Images of China (1901-1904)

Auguste François

ASSOCIATION AUGUSTE FRANÇOIS, Paris, 1992

VHS Pal/Secam, b/w with music and titles, 32 minutes

 

- Lai xun yi jiu yi ling nian de lieche (The train from 1910)

Chinese documentary about the history of the Yunnan railway. It was produced by China Central Television and the Yunnan Railway Management with Yin Xiao Jun and shown in China on CCTV-1 in July 2001.

VHS Pal, Chinese, 4 episodes of 30 minutes each.

An English-subtitled version is available online on CCTV Documentary. Watch the first part or watch any episode.

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- Le petit train du Yunnan [The Little train of Yunnan]

French version of the German documentary Der letzte Zug - Die Yunnan-Bahn by Ingmar Trost, produced by FlorianFilm in 2008 for the German television channel ZDF and screened by the French television channel ARTE on 22-23 December 2008.

 

       1st part: From Haiphong to Hekou (43 minutes),

 

        2nd part: From Hekou to Kunming (43 minutes).

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- A Hundred Years of History: Linking the Famous Chinese and Vietnamese Cities

 

 

Chinese documentary on the Yunnan railways, produced in 2010 by Kunming television and Red River television.

It lasts approximately 2.5 hours and comprises 7 parts:

 

 

DVD n° 1 :       1° - Kunming (26 minutes)

    2° - Kaiyuan (21 minutes)

    3° - Mengzi (26 minutes)

DVD n° 2 :       4° - Gejiu (22 minutes)

       5° - Hekou (25 minutes)

      6° - Vietnam (23 minutes)

     Final music « The era of the rice rail » (4 minutes)

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The A.A.F. also has a number of VHS cassettes concerning exhibitions of Auguste François’s photos:

 

- EXPO 99 – Exposition internationale horticole KUNMING - CHINA [International Horticultural Exhibition]

Summary of France’s participation in the Kunming international flower exhibition in 1999 (7 minutes)

Produced by the PR department of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing.

 

- LA TELEVISION DE PEKIN A LUNEVILLE – 28/03/2001 [Peking television at Lunéville]

A crew of China’s CCTV-1 filmed a report on Auguste François’s birth-place (5 minutes)

Produced by Lunéville Town Hall.

 

There are also extracts from amateur films and recordings of programmes shown on Chinese television channels:

 

 - LES MIAO MIAO A ANGERS [The Miao Miao in Angers]

Report about a Chinese folk group visiting the exhibition of Auguste François’s photos at the Pincé Museum in Angers in 1993 (15 minutes)

Produced by CONTACTS ANJOU CHINE.

 

- QING YAN: SUR LES PAS D’AUGUSTE FRANÇOIS [Qing Yan: In the Footsteps of Auguste François]

Report filmed during the trip of a group of people from Angers to Qing Yan (Guizhou) in 1993 (13 minutes).

 Produced by CONTACTS ANJOU CHINE.

 

- EXHIBITION OF AUGUSTE FRANÇOIS’S PHOTOS IN KUNMING - 1997

Recordings of Chinese television programmes. – Report filmed in the exhibition halls of the Yunnan Provincial Museum

(1 hour 30 mins)

 

- EXHIBITION OF AUGUSTE FRANÇOIS’S PHOTOS IN PEKING - 1998

Preparation of the exhibition at the Chinese National History Museum

(3 hours 05 mins)

 

For French-speakers with an interest in Yunnan, the A.A.F. particularly recommends two films produced by FRANCE 3 - MONTAGNE:

 

- LE TRAIN CELESTE  [The Celestial Train]

 

 

 

 

 

Documentary on the French railway of Yunnan

Film by Malek Sahraoui (1993)

(26 minutes)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- LES SCULPTEURS DE MONTAGNES  [Mountain Sculptors]

 

 

 

French documentary on the customs of the Yi and Hani minority groups in Yunnan

Film by Yann Layma (1994)

(26 minutes)

 

 

  

 

As part of their public relations press releases, the Management of EDF [National French Electricity] Asia-Pacific in Peking produced two documentaries on the French railway in Yunnan.

 

- The first, Yunnan yinji, was originally filmed in Chinese but now also exists in a French version entitled Lieu de Mémoire [Place of Memory]. It lasts 56 minutes and was produced in 2004 by a Chinese crew and was shown in China and in Vietnam. 

- The other, Un train au Sud des Nuages [A Train Below the Clouds] was filmed in French. It lasts 26 minutes and was produced by a French crew in 2006.

 

                    

 

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Updated : 25th May 2013