This very short film is a dramatized episode from the life of Christ: Hoshana, a Jewish liturgical poem, refers to a commandment (mitzvah) practiced in the Temple in Jerusalem at the week-long Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles, a Biblical Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest. This Gaumont production should not be confused with a segment of La Naissance, la vie et la mort du Christ (Alice Guy, 1906). Nor should it be mistaken for L’Aveugle de Jérusalem (Louis Feuillade, 1909), even if the very same painted scene appears on the background. Thanks to film historian Valentine Robert, the subject has been identified as no. 618 in the July 1909 Gaumont Phonoscènes catalogue. It was meant to be accompanied with a gramophone recording of the religious hymn “Hosanna” in Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D minor, op. 48, composed between 1887 and 1890. According to Robert, there was an earlier Gaumont film with a similar title: Les Rameaux (de Faure), no. 378 in the 1908 Phonoscènes catalogue. [Note: The composer’s last name does not have its accent on the titles of these films.] The entry was later withdrawn and replaced with this new version. The corresponding shellac disc by Gaumont, etched with the entry number 2564, has survived in a private collection. The film presented here is part of a 35mm print of the monumental multi-media work The Photo-Drama of Creation (Charles Taze Russell, 1914), recently acquired by the George Eastman Museum and currently in the process of restoration. Our thanks go to Camille Blot-Wellens and Joseph Halachmi for their suggestions and comments.
STOP PRESS: We have now been provided with a high-quality digital recording of the original shellac disc, thus enabling us to synchronize the music with the film. It will therefore be shown twice, once in 35mm, silent, and then as a DCP with the music soundtrack (the first part and the very end of the film are missing).

Paolo Cherchi Usai, Julia Mettenleiter