Attempted Suicide

Le pendu is a French silent short film directed by Louis J. Gasnier and distributed in English-speaking countries under the titles The Man Who Hanged Himself and Attempted Suicide. The film was based on the eponymous song by . Plot Max comes courting a young lady with flowers; she likes him, but the parents send him away. The girl would not disobey her parents, so he leaves the flowers sadly on the doorstep. He goes into the forest and hangs himself. A young man digging for mushrooms finds him and gets a policeman, who comes and looks at the flailing man, then gets a sergeant, who refers the matter to his captain, who looks at the still-flailing man and goes to the village to get the police commissioner. He makes a speech to call villagers to help. Several follow him including a man with a ladder and finally the man is cut down. His sweetheart and her parents arrive on the scene; she throws herself on him to no effect, but a nearby cyclist manages to pump him back to life with his bicycle pump. Distribution The film was released on 14 December 1906 at the Omnia-Pathé cinema in Paris, where the singer Anry Barat performed Maurice Mac-Nab's song Le Pendu which had inspired the film and which explained the action. The projectionist, who hand-cranked the projector, adapted the speed of the film to remain synchronous with the song. The film was released in the USA on 19 January 1907. One of Variety's reviewer at the time "praised the brief scene, suggesting it to be most of all a "travesty" on French police."