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Harlequin (Pauvre Pierrot) has been targeted for termination for the following reason(s): Just a prankster Please discuss it on the talk page for this article. |
Harlequin, also known as Arlequin, is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian theater and the main antagonist of the 1892 Optical Theatre film Pauvre Pierrot.
He is a classic theatrical clown who puts on performances in one of which he must compete for the heart of Columbine.
Biography[]
One night, Harlequin encounters his beloved Columbine in a courtyard. Soon, however, Pierrot knocks on the door and they hide. Pierrot starts performing a serenade for Columbine, but Harlequin constantly interrupts. He pokes Pierrot with a stick and steals his bottle, always keeping just out of sight. Eventually Pierrot gets scared of the unseen prankster and leaves, allowing Harlequin to enter Columbine's house as the short ends.
Trivia[]
- It is one of the first animated films ever made.
- Pauvre Pierrot is also believed to be the first known usage of film perforations.
- His role is that of a light-hearted, nimble, and astute servant, often acting to thwart the plans of his master, and pursuing his own love interest, Columbine, with wit and resourcefulness, often competing with the sterner and melancholic Pierrot. He later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero.
- Harlequin was modified to become "romantic and mercurial, instead of mischievous", leaving Grimaldi's mischievous and brutish Clown as the "undisputed agent" of chaos, and the foil for the more sophisticated Harlequin, who retained and developed stylized dance poses during the 19th century.
- The name Harlequin is taken from that of a mischievous "devil" or "demon" character in popular French Passion Plays. It originates with an Old French term herlequin, hellequin, first attested in the 11th century, by the chronicler Orderic Vitalis, who recounts a story of a monk who was pursued by a troop of demons when wandering on the coast of Normandy, France, at night.
- Hellequin was depicted as a black-faced emissary of the devil, roaming the countryside with a group of demons chasing the damned souls of evil people to Hell.
- Between the 16th and 17th centuries Harlequin gained some function as a politically aware character. In the Comédie-Italienne Harlequin would parody French tragedies as well as comment on current events.
- Speaking of, the re-interpretation of the "devil" stock character as a Zanni character of the commedia dell'arte took place in the 16th century in France.
- Harlequin is also known to try to win any given lady for himself if he chances upon anyone else trying to woo her, by interrupting or ridiculing the new competitor. His sexual appetite is essentially immediate, and can be applied to any passing woman.
- Harlequin often had a love interest in the person of Columbine, or in older plays any of the soubrette roles, and his lust for her was only superseded by his desire for food and fear of his master.