Henri Rivière and his Proto-Cinematic ‘Ombres Chinoises’ (Shadow Theatre)

In 1885, Le Chat Noir cabaret in Paris’s Montmartre district was showing the adult glove puppet play (or guignol) La Berline de L’émigré. Guignols were popular amongst the artists who frequented the cabaret, including the painter Henri Rivière. After watching the play, Rivière made the decisive move of placing a white napkin across the opening of the booth and lighting it from behind.¹ This marked the birth of the shadow theatre at Le Chat Noir.

Shadow plays, said to date from China’s 7th century Tang dynasty², use a light source, a screen and often rudimentary figures to tell a story. At the time Rivière joined Le Chat Noir, these Ombres Chinoises were already a popular attraction in France. Soon, his experiments with metal-work and etching were put to good use as he worked to stage his own shadow play, The temptation of Saint Antoine at Le Chat Noir.

By the time of its premier in 1887, Rivière had developed an innovative system: zinc silhouette cutouts were placed within a wooden framework at three distances behind the screen, creating the illusion of recession into space, and sliding coloured glass panes were used to set the mood. At the very back of the structure, an oxyhydrogen flame served as the light source.³

Under Rivière’s direction, the plays were produced to near proto-cinematic levels, fully immersing the audience in an ensemble of colour, movement and sound, whilst building upon the silhouette aesthetic that had gained popularity at the time.⁴

The shadow theatre was the Cabaret's most notable attraction and ran for almost a decade, ending one year before the Cabaret itself closed its doors for good in 1897.