The third short film from the archives of La Cineteca el Friuli in the Pordenone Silent Film Festival lineup today, "Bigorno Smokes Opium" is a wackadoodle of a comedic sketch. As oft the case with these things, its seemingly anti-drug message is undermined by all the interesting stuff in the movie arising from someone consuming drugs. It's also mired in Orientalism--never mind the European colonialists were the ones pushing the dope, and, again, the exoticism, along with the drugs, is what makes the film fun. Otherwise, it's just a dull sketch about some guy returning to France from his travels abroad and not about dreams induced by opium smoking that leads its user to wildly break everything in a room.
Reportedly, Bigorno was part of a series of comedies, but by itself, it's one of surprisingly quite a few silent films to depict drug use in weird ways. Kino released a home video a while back entitled "The Devil's Needle & Other Tales of Vice and Redemption" with such films. Charlie Chaplin got a shot of energy sitting on a needle in "Easy Street" (1917). The earliest adaptation of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" that I've seen, from 1915, rewrites the doomed protagonist as a cocaine fiend. Even tobacco led to "Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy" (1909). My favorite, though, remains the Douglas Fairbanks parody of a hophead Sherlock Holmes, "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" (1916).
Reportedly, Bigorno was part of a series of comedies, but by itself, it's one of surprisingly quite a few silent films to depict drug use in weird ways. Kino released a home video a while back entitled "The Devil's Needle & Other Tales of Vice and Redemption" with such films. Charlie Chaplin got a shot of energy sitting on a needle in "Easy Street" (1917). The earliest adaptation of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" that I've seen, from 1915, rewrites the doomed protagonist as a cocaine fiend. Even tobacco led to "Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy" (1909). My favorite, though, remains the Douglas Fairbanks parody of a hophead Sherlock Holmes, "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" (1916).