ELECTRIC PICTURES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 5, 15 December 1911, Page 6

ELECTRIC PICTURES.

APPEAR IN TOWN HALL NEXT

MONDAY

A STAR ITEM

The Electric Pictures will show at the Town Hall next Monday evening. The chief item billed is “Esmeralda," founded ou Victor Hugo’s great work “Notre Dame dc Paris.”

Of all the groat wliters of the last century, not one achieved greater renown throughout the whole world than Victor Hugo, and in ages to come his name will stand out as that of one of the greatest geniuses of all times. His grandest work was, undoubtedly, the piece which is now laid under contribution, “Notre Dame do Paris.” There is overpowering genius in every line; no pen has ever more tragically illustrated the deepest emotions, and never has a magnificently tragicsubject been more dramatically treated. In deciding to draw a cinematograph story from “Notre Dame do Paris,” two all-important results bad to be aimed at. Victor Hugo’s characters require that shilful handling which can only be hoped for from the greatest amongst actors. A happy solution was' found in securing tne services of three of the principal members of the Theatre Francais Company, viz.; Monsieur Garry, to play the part of Claude Frollo; Monsieur Krauss, that of Quasimodo; and Monsieur R. Alexandre, that, of Phoebus. There then remained the task of filling the part of the gipsy girl Esmeralda, and here again the cjioice was a very happy one, as Mile. Napierkowska, the idol of the French Opera, was pevailed upon to accept the role. With such a magnificent cast —one that could not be surpassed in the wide, wide, world—“ Notre Dame de Paris” is now presented to the public in truly superb fashion. Another point of enormous importance was to produce the surroundings as Victor Hugo saw and described them. If it had not been for the graceful cooperation of the Cathedral authorities this would have been impossible. It will lie - universally acknowledged that never lias a more beautiful architectural picture been put before the public.

It lias naturally keen necessary to condense Victor lingo’s tragedy to the necessities of representation, and it must he remembered that Victor Hugo wrote of events that happened more than four centuries ago. The Notre Dame of then still exists—a gorgeous memorial to the genius of its builders.