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Zinc Figures Were Silhouetted Against A Backlit Background, And Music And ...

Zinc figures were silhouetted against a backlit background, and music and sometimes narration would be included. The resulting spectacles were quite popular and attracted such famous people as Claude Debussy, Eric Satie, and Toulouse-Lautrec (Krafft, 2006: par. 6). Rivière also collaborated with George Auriol in the completion of a series of shadow books. These were heavily decorated in a Japanese style that soon became known as the genre art nouveau. The most famous work that came out of this time, however, was a volume known as Les Trente-six Vues de la Tour Eiffel, a series of prints, thirty-six in all, of Paris at the time. The Japanese influence is very apparent in this work, particularly the work of Hokusai in his depictions of Mount Fuji (Krafft, 2006: par. 8).
The Chat Noir's success was instrumental in making Montmartre the center of artistic life in Paris. Although it was not the only cabaret, it was by far the most famous. Other establishments included Cabaret des Quat'z' Arts, La Lune Rousse, Les Pantins, and the more famous Le Mirliton. Le Mirliton is French for ‘reed pipe', but has the secondary meaning of ‘doggerel'. The cabaret was actually located in the original home of the Chat Noir, and the artist most commonly associated with it was Aristide Bruant. Bruant was ardently political, and his songs are full of references to the despair and poverty of victims of social injustice. Prisoners, prostitutes, and outcasts in general were often subjects of his work. The lyrics were written in the language of the streets, and were often satirical. Bruant himself was made famous in a poster of him that was created by Toulouse-Lautrec. Appignanesi describes his lyrics as both bitter and hopeful: ‘With his deep affinity for the subjects of his songs, yet without a trace of moralizing sentimentality, Bruant exposes the plight of the lower depths and the need for change' (2004: p. 27). His lyrics are often considered the root of the cabaret chanson tradition. Below are the lyrics of a song that Bruant composed in 1898 for his election campaign for the legislature, and one which represents the motivations and political themes that traditionally marked his work:
If I were your deputy,
Oho! Oho! One can only try
I would add the word Humanity
To the three of our revolutionary cry.
Instead of speaking every day
For the republic or the empire
Making speeches that leap into fire,
But have nothing to say
I'd champion the mewling babes
Of unwed mothers, the poor old folk
Who freeze in the wintry city,
They'd be as warm as a summer's day
If I were made deputy
In Belleville.
(Bruant, qtd. in Appignanesi, 2004: p. 27)
We can see in Bruant's lyrics the kinds of issues that were relevant and the political atmosphere at that time. It is no surprise that he sings of hungry children (‘mewling babes'), unwed mothers, the impoverished, the homeless ‘who freeze in the wintry city'.

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