Alfred Machin

Biography

Press photographer of press, Alfred Machin works a time with the newspaper the Illustration. He is then recruited by the powerful firm Pathé, which sends it in Africa starting from 1907. He brings back of them filmed scenes of hunting, court-measurings of adventures and animalists. The scenes which it turns of the life of the large deer create sensation. With the danger of its life, he does not hesitate to resort to close-ups. He also appears among the pioneers of the air image. The performance is greeted by the French and foreign press.

Of return, Alfred Machin gets busy a time with the direction of photography for two specialized branches of Pathé: Comica and Nizza. The two subsidiary companies are established in Nice. Comica is devoted to the joke, Nizza with the animalist cinema. Pathé charges the realizer with developing an industry cinématographiquee with the Netherlands then sends it in Belgium in 1912 as artistic director of the one of the subsidiary companies of Pathé, Belgian Cinema Film. Charles Pathé entrusts to Alfred Machin, the mission of exploiting the first film studio in Belgium. The operation of the Belgian-Cinema/Film will have constituted an undeniable laboratory of the international strategy of this cinematographic company.

It is besides in 1912, with the Chaussée of Ghent (Molenbeek-Saint-Jean), which birth takes the Belgian Cinéma. Several films of quality whose the Girl of Delft but also pacifist and premonitory the Maudite is the war (colors painted with the hand) are made by Alfred Machin in the environment of the studios of the Château of Karreveld. The scenario writer orders the execution in this place of a glazed studio, workshops, an infrastructure for the artists as well as a zoological mini-garden who accommodate exotic animals such as bears, camels and panthers. He also uses Mimir the Panther as character in several of his films of the Karreveld years.

Mobilized during the First World War, it is one of the four operators founder of the cinematographic Service of the Armies, and is press photographer for the Pathé house, under treating with the cinematographic service of the French Army . One owes him thus in particular the images of the Bataille of Verdun. It also turns the images of the French trenches for the Hearts of the world of D.W. Griffith which will become a family large company. Indeed, he is the husband of Germaine Lecuyer, with which he will have three children. She interprets some roles in her films. One of wire, Claude Machin or Cloclo (1921-1978) will also play some parts of children in films of his father. In this studio, all is realized by this company put aside the manufacture of the film, it is even equipped with its clean Powerplant providing some 8000 amp S and with a laboratory. It also has a menagerie and a very roomy birdcage within its company. The company negotiates even a stop of tram in front of its doors with the local company.

Adjuster of animals impassioned, Alfred Machin adopts a Chimpanzé name of Auguste for whom it dedicates an admiration for his intelligence, and learns to him from multiples turns for needs for documentary films and its animalist comedies. The monkey turns in Cœur of the gueux with the interpreter Maurice Féraudy. The production requires several months of preparation and the construction of ten large decorations. The following film is, him, a fiction entirely played by animals: Stupid like men (1924). The strange film does not cause the enthusiasm of the French public but obtains a certain success in addition to the Atlantic.

During an ambitious turning, a panther seriously wounds it with the chest. Following this accident, the health of the scenario writer declines. He dies in 1929 of an embolism in Nice, after having completed Robinson Junior . Alfred Machin is a very prolific scenario writer. He will have realized more than one hundred films. For Francis Lacassin, it allowed, by its attempts and innovations, an important evolution of the cinema.

Catalog of films

1908 : Hunting for the hippopotamus on the Blue Nile
1909: One day in the Island of Marken
1909: In Holland, the port of Volendam
1909: Children of Holland
1909: Hairstyles and types of Holland
1909: Hunting for the panther
1909: the cursed Mill (short-measuring expressionist)
1910: Manners and habits of Chillouks
1910: In Egypt, breeding of ostriches - Episode 2
1910: In Egypt, breeding of ostriches - Episode 1
1910: In Central Africa, Fachoda
1910: Ceremony in Madagascar
1910: Chillouks, tribe of central Africa
1910: Hunting for the giraffe (or Hunting for the giraffe in Uganda )
1910: the railway Catastrophe of Saujon
1911: Be thus charitable
1911: disconcerting Perfume
1911: Birds of Africa and their enemies
1911: Little Moritz, soldier of Africa
1911: the Devotion of a kid
1911: How a letter comes from to us of the big lakes of Africa Centrale
1911: the Cinema in Africa
1911: the Dearness of the vivres
1911: Hunting for the elephants on the edges of Nyanza
1911: Hunting for the marabout in Abyssinie
1911: Hunting for the brush in Africa
1911: Babylas has just inherited a panther
1911: Babylas lives a quite quiet house
1911: the Appalling punishment of Yann the troubadour
1911: Mrs Babylas loves the animals
1912: Painting and the pigs
1912: Molens die juichen in weenen, Of
1912: Little Moritz drives out the large deer with Maurice Schwartz
1912: Little Moritz soldier of Africa
1912: History of a small urchin
1912: the History of Undermined Claessens (lost film)
1912: the Dramatic passion of Algabert and Elisabeth de Rodembourg
1912: ivory Hunters
1912: Cairo and its surroundings
1912: the bloody Fleur
1912: the Gold which burns
1912: the Martyrdom of foam
1912: the Heart of the mills
1912: the Cave of the torments
1912: Babylas will marry
1912: solemn Funerals of the countess of Flandres, mother of king Albert Ier ( Begrafenisplechtigheid van of gravin van Vlaanderen, moeder van Koning Albert I )
1912: Joachim Goëthal and the secrecy of steel (or the Secrecy of steel )
1913: Old Arab streets of Cairo
1913: cosmopolitan Life in Cairo
1913: the Revenge on the fisherman Willing
1913: a brickyard sakalave in Akavandra, French Eastern Africa
1913: Shoes of Mrs Favart
1913: the infernal Round
1913: Medeminaars, Of
1913: Hallali
1913: Grote maneuvers van het light Belgisch
1913: the Blood drops
1913: the Enemy brothers
1913: the black Magpie (also entitled black Diamond )
1913: the John Cow-boy seeks an engagement with the variety
1913: Edges of Semois (the Ardennes Belgian)
1913: the Full power
1913: the Kiss of the emperor
1913: With the rapture of the ladies
1913: the Funny Agent and its tracker dog
1913: Rastus lost its elephant
1913: Jack the small trainer
1913: an episode of Waterloo
1913: Saïda removed Manneken-Pis
1913: Hunting for the monkeys
1913: Voyage and great huntings in Africa
1913: Mr Beulemeester, civic guard with Fernand Gravey, Nicolas d' Ambreville
1914: I will be made shave with Darman
1914: Napoleon: sacring with Sainte-Hélène
1914: canine Traction in the Belgian army ( De Hondentrekkracht in het light Belgisch )
1914: the Girl of Delft (also entitled the gold Tulip)
1914: Maudite is the war
1915: Zouaves of Africa in Flandres Belgian
1915: Our cavalry of Africa to the face
1915: Goumiers Algerian in Belgium
1915: the Flag of the hunters in Artois
1915: How one nourishes our troops with the face
1915: With our soldiers in the forests of Argonne
1915: the French Army after nine months of war
1915: After the retirement of the barbarians
1915: the Work of the kultur
1915: After 305 days of war, the moral one of the soldier
1915: Our soldiers with the mouth of Yser
1915: the Pomegranates
1915: the French Artillery on the face
1915: Car-guns on the face of battle
1915: Our hairy in the trenches of Notre-Dame de Lorette and Souchez
1915: Scouts of the air
1915: the President of the republic to the army of Alsace
1915: Its highness royal prince de Connaught decorates on the face with Alsace some with our heroes
1916: the French Howitzer of 370
1916: After the last French attack of Hartmannswiller
1916: Historic buildings of Arras victims of German cruelty
1916: Department of health with the armies
1916: Raising of dogs sentinels
1916: On the tops of Lingekopf and the Old-Armand
1917: Hearts off world of D.W. Griffith (operator of the scenes of French face)
1917: special Film for Mr Griffith
1919: Supreme sacrifice completed by Armand Of Plessy (lost film)
1920: One night agitated
1920: One awaits Polochon
1921: Periwinkle
1922: the Crowning of the Prince Louis II of Monaco
1922: Serpentine made painting Co-scénarisé and played by Marcel Lévesque
1922: Animals… commes the men
1923: Me also, I show
1924: the Enigma of the Mount Agel
1924: Heirs to the uncle James (also entitled the Million the uncle James ) Co-realized with Henry Wulschleger, Claude Machin
1925: the Heart of the gueux (also entitled Humanity ) Co-realized by Henry Wulschleger, with Claude Machin
1927: Fakirs, stove setters and company
1927: the black Man ( the Manor of the fear )
1928: the international philatelic Exposure
1928: Of the jungle to the screen
1928: the Carnival of Nice
1929: Robinson Junior (also entitled Black and White ) with Claude Machin

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