Armand Dranem performs The True Jiu-Jitsu ("Le Vrai Jiu-Jitsu", by P. Briollet & G. Fabri / C. D'Orviet) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Dranem, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.
Direction
Alice Guy invented this format—then history forgot her name.
Production
Chronophone tech: sound-on-disc, manually synced, absolutely cursed.
Director
Alice Guy-Blaché
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Alice Guy-Blaché directed over 1,000 films and ran her own studio—yet was written out of histories until the 2010s. This phonoscene is essentially her flex.
Dranem was so famous that 'dranem' became slang for 'clown' in French. Imagine being so iconic your name becomes the word for your job.
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