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Robert Macaire and Bertrand

Robert Macaire and Bertrand
Directed by Georges Méliès
Production
company
Running time
364 meters/1060 feet
Approx. 20–22 minutes
Country French
Language Silent

Robert Macaire and Bertrand (French: Robert Macaire et Bertrand, les rois de cambrioleurs) is a 1906 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès.

Some details from the following synopsis are taken from the plot description in Méliès's 1905 American catalogue.

Two thieves, Robert Macaire and his friend Bertrand, are eating a cheap meal at a small inn. Finding the inn's buffet table momentarily unattended, they steal everything on the table, including the tablecloth, and make a getaway. When the waitress returns, she realizes what the thieves have done and calls for help. Four police officers start off after Macaire and Bertrand. As the chase begins, the criminals break into the International Bank and steal some bags of gold. They escape through a transom and finally arrive in a theatre's costume storage room, where they disguise themselves as tourists. The thieves, hiding their everyday clothes, attempt to catch a train in their new disguises, and just manage to catch hold of the end of the last car. The pursuing policemen order a special train so they can continue tailing Macaire and Bertrand.

Just as the chase reaches an out-of-the-way village, an earthquake begins. Thieves and police alike are hurled into the air and fly through the clouds over France. Finally, Macaire and Bertrand manage to land by clinging to a chimney. The knockabout chase resumes in the house below, to the chagrin of its owners. At length, Macaire and Bertrand throw the police off the scent and hide in a nearby farm. Their cover is lifted when Bertrand, mistaking a policeman's hat and cloak for the policeman himself, makes a loud noise and attracts the attention of the police officers. In the ensuing fight, both Macaire and Bertrand fall to the ground dead. The police shed a collective tear for the tragic demise of their two enemies.

When the police leave, Macaire and Bertrand get up unharmed; they had faked their deaths. The chief police officer, returning to the scene to write a report of the event, is just in time to see them escape, and chases them to an open area where a gas balloon is about to launched. Macaire and Bertrand jump into the balloon and escape upward. The chief officer is momentarily hooked on the balloon's anchor, but quickly falls to earth. The police officers make one final attempt to catch the balloon by climbing to the top of the July Column, but they are showered with sand from the balloon's ballast bags. Macaire and Bertrand, celebrating their freedom in the clouds, are triumphant.


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