Film Review

This documentary, directed by French filmmaker Jorge Amat, is largely based on the still photographs and film footage taken by a French diplomat named Auguste François in China a century ago. As such, the film offers some rare images of Chinese life from a bygone era. François, the "consul" of the title, was stationed in China between 1896 and 1905. As an avid photographer, and access to one of the first movie cameras (lent to him by the famous Lumière brothers), François shot numerous still pictures and movie scenes of local scenery, people, customs, and events, materials augmented by the diplomat's letters, diary entries, and notes. By skillfully manipulating these materials, Amat has produced a visual collage, while structuring his documentary's narrative around François's adventure in China. Viewers should be aware, however, that, despite the claim in the publicity literature for this documentary, some of the materials in the film are not from François's original footage; for instance, the paintings associated with the Boxer Uprising in China at the turn of the twentieth century and the passage purported to be about the Opium War derive from other sources.

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One of the most striking features of the documentary is the absence of the "interior." All the shots (both still and motion pictures) were taken outdoors: at markets place, in the street, or in courtyards. There is not even a glimpse of the Chinese world behind the façade of buildings. It is safe to assume that the primitive cinematographic technology of the early days of the medium must have been one of the reasons for François to avoid shooting interiors (although that excuse would no longer hold for still photography in the period), but the result underscores the superficiality of his representation of China. In contrast to other documentary classics, such as Nanook of the North (1922), François seemed quite content with what was immediately visible to him and did not make any effort at penetrating beneath the surface of his subject.

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