C'est pour les orphelines - 1916

For the Children (1916)
French film. This sketch was contributed by the cast and crew of "Les Vampires" to a 1916 omnibus film, "For the Children", donated by the French film industry to raise funds for war orphans. Its humor pivots upon a French idiom well-explained by director Michael Powell in his 1086 autobiography, "a Life in Movies":
"The French have a charming word for a pretentious piece of shit, a flop, a turkey; they call it a navet (a turnip), and when it is embarassingly awful, it becomes a super navet."

L'embusqué - 1915

French film. Bout de Zan et l’embusqué, Louis Feuillade, Studios Gaumont, 1915. Marius Barbentane is visiting Bout-de-Zan uncle. He brings him and his wife a rabbit he pretends to have shot at 500 m. Taking into account the general laughter, it invites them the following day at his place and make the bet he is shooting a bird at 500m. Next day at Marius's, Bout-de-Zan playing in the garden meets a little boy. He discovers that Marius paid the boy 10 centimes to pull with a string a dead bird in a tree at 3 o'clock. Bout-de-Zan gives money to the boy and takes his place. At 3, when Marius is shooting, a stuffed rabbit is falling from the tree. Everyone is laughing. A little note written by Bout-de-Zan explains that instead of lying, Marius will have to join the army and shoot German as Bout-de-Zan 's father. Immediately Marius is running and enrols himself.
Written by Olivier RONAT