Apollinaire filmé en 1914.

"We have to move, say anything, or else we will look like two buffoons!"

First and only edition, number 93 of 115 copies on papier Vélin Madagascar. The short film, or succession of photographs, were taken on 2 August 1914 as Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) on the left, and his friend the artist André Rouveyre (1879-1962), had just returned to Paris and were on their way to the Comœdia's offices to deliver their work. On the same day, the French government issued its order of mobilization for the First World War. As recounted by Rouveyre, they both saw the little shop and "the same idea struck us: we would leave each other in grim circumstances... perhaps it would be nice to have such an animated picture of us both taken..." (preface). Both men were, however, amused by the process and, upon realising that they must not stay still, Rouveyre turned to Apollinaire and said: "We have to move, to say anything, or else we will look like two buffoons!" (ibid.), resulting in the joviality of the shots. It would take a couple of years for the two friends to meet up again, in 1916, after the poet's trepanation. In 1938, Apollinaire's widow passed the original photos on to Rouveyre who decided to have them published. The flip-book format was chosen to allow the photographs to "exert, as best as possible, their power of illusion" (ibid.).

We were unable to trace any institutionally held copies in the UK, WorldCat locates eleven copies only (eight in the US, two in France, one in Switzerland).