Hearing the shadows at the chat noir’s pre-cinematic theatre

In the methodological introduction to his book Silent Film Sound (2004), Rick Altman focused his attention on “the extremely diverse pre-cinema practices that served as early models for film sound.” The aim of this chapter is to closely examine one such practice: that of the Chat Noir’s Shadow Theatre between 1886 and 1897. The first part of the chapter analyzes the different kinds of music that were used to accompany the shadow plays at the Parisian cabaret. The latter part focuses on the reconfiguration of the shadow plays after the closure of the Chat Noir cabaret (1897), exploring how Maison Mazo transformed the Chat Noir’s “ombres artistiques” into a mediatized and industrial production, while also promoting their artistic character in opposition to cinema’s photographic realism.