Mimir (leopard)

Mimir in the film Le diamant noir (1913)

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The complete silent film Le diamant noir (1913) with Mimir

Mimir († 1914 ) was a leopard who was well known in France and Belgium in the early 1910s through her use in several films.

Life

The French film director Alfred Machin (1877-1929) was employed by the Parisian film company Pathé-Freres . In 1907 he was sent to Africa to make nature films about the animal world. There, more than 20 films were made under his direction, mainly about big cats . Back in Europe, he made comedies and slapstick films that featured African animals. In 1912 he was sent to Belgium by Pathé to build a film industry there.

Mimir came to France as a young animal with machin and became his favorite animal. She was used in many of his films from 1911 to 1913, often as a leading role, and was particularly popular in Belgium. One example is the short film Saïda a enlevé Manneken-Pis , in which the actor Fernand Mertens - later famous under the name Fernand Gravey - played a child role. There Mimir kidnaps Manneken Pis and is then hunted by the Brussels gendarmerie , who are too clumsy to catch the leopard.

Surname

Mimir is a being from Norse mythology who guards one of the sources under the world tree Yggdrasil .

Filmography

The director of the films is Alfred Machin, unless otherwise noted.

• 1911: L'effroyable châtiment de Yann le troubadour
• 1911: Little Moritz chasse les grands fauves
• 1911: Babylas vient d'hériter d'une panthère
• 1912: La Fleur sanglante
• 1912: La Grotte des supplices
• 1912: Babylas va se marier
• 1912: Sous la griffe , directed by Jean Durand
• 1913: Saïda a enlevé Manneken-Pis
• 1913: L'Agent Rigolo et son chien policier

literature

• Frédéric Zarch: Catalog des films projetés à Saint-Etienne avant la première guerre mondiale . University of Saint-Étienne 2000, ISBN 2-86272-182-4 (French).
• Marianne Thys: Les aventures d'Alfred et Mimir / The Adventures of Alfred and Mimir , in: E. de Kuyper, Alfred Machin cineaste , Brussels (1995), pp. 5–25; the title page of the book shows a section of a picture by Alfred Machin and Mimir .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on Alfred Machin on 1895.revues.org (French)
2. ↑ Erik Martens, Royal Film Archive of Belgium (Ed.): Brussels. a city caught on film . Cinematek, Brussels 2014, p. 92 (Flemish, French, English)
3. ^ Marianne Thys: Belgian Cinema . Cinematheque Royale du Belgique, 1999, ISBN 978-90-5544-234-8 , p. 73.
4. ↑ The full-length short film Saïda a enlevé Manneken-Pis