The 90 minute documentary produced in 1933 by French directors Léon Poirier and André Sauvage, is remarkable in many respects: by the story it tells, also by the story of its making, and not less important by the story of its post-release life.
This movie documents the Citroën Kégresse expedition made across Asia in 1931-1932: 30,000 km from Beirut to Beijing on the ancient Silk Road.
The Kégresse boogie was named after his inventor, the French Adolphe Kégresse, who created it in 1910-1912. By that time he was chief engineer at the court of Russian Czar Nicholas II.
After the Russian Revolution Kégresse returned to France and in 1919 he started to work for Citroën. He enhanced there his invention and the result was the Citroën Kégresse half-track: the front gave the steering for the car, the rear gave the driving force. A cross-country car, perfect for the military. It was used by the French army, and not only: US, Danish, and Polish armies used the Citroën Kégresse as well.
André Citroën decided to use the half-track in ambitious expeditions across Africa and Asia. The purpose was to demonstrate in a spectacular way the resilience of Citroën products, but also to open important routes for the wheels, with calculated political and economic gains.
Two expeditions took place in Africa, by the mid 20's. I'd like to talk a little bit about them in a future post. Let's only note that the second African expedition was also filmed: La Croisière Noire (Black Journey), released in 1926.
For all these expeditions in Africa and Asia the lead was Georges-Marie Haardt, the general manager at Citroën, a man of great style and strict discipline. The success of these cruises is largely due to him.
For the Asian expedition Haardt decided to split the team in two: the Pamir group started from Beirut heading to Kashmir, to pass the Himalayas and then the Gobi desert and to make the junction with the China group who was coming from Tien Tsin.
It started in April 1931. Haardt was with the Pamir group. Climbing the Himalayas was beastly hard and at a certain point they had to dismantle the cars and to carry the parts on the footpaths at 5,000 m altitude.
Eventually they made it and arrived at Aksu in October. The China group was already there (together with Father Teilhard de Chardin). They, too, had had all kind of difficulties and at a certain moment had become the captives of a local warlord in Urumchi. André Citroën had sent the ransom from Paris.
The reunited team arrived at Beijing in February 1932. Sadly, Georges-Marie Haardt was no more with them. Weakened by the whole adventure he took a ship to return home. On the way back he contracted a double pneumonia and passed away at Hong Kong.
The Pamir group included also some movie specialists who filmed the voyage. Shooting at extremely low temperatures and extremely high altitudes on the Himalayan footpaths was as adventurous as the adventure captured by the camera, but it was this way that they got the day after day chronicle. The movie was released in 1933 and it had the success it deserved.
I discovered a wonderful review in a New York Times issue from 1936, November 18(when La Croisière Jaune came at the 55th Street Playhouse).
Later in the fifties La Croisière Jaune was part of the selection for Cinema 16, the famous non-profit society promoting in New York documentaries, indies, experimental movies. One of the promoters of Cinema 16, Jack Goelman, remembered in an interview that he had fallen in love for this movie and considered it quite unique.
And La Croisière Jaune continued its carrier: in 2006 ARTE (the TV cultural channel for all EU countries) presented a documentary that was based on footage from the Black and Yellow Cruises: En Avant, Toute ! Autour du Monde en Citroën (with the English title Half-Track Heroes - The Crusades of André Citroën). The authors are the Germans Christian Schidlowski and Peter Bardehle.
I found this documentary on youTube, published by the enthusiasts from the Zagreb Citroën Klub! So, it is a very long story, started by 1910 in St. Petersburg, where the Kégresse track was invented, continued in the twenties and thirties in Africa and Asia with the great Citroën expeditions, opening car routes across Sahara and on the Silk Road, immortalized in the two movies that were rediscovered by Jack Goelman in the fifties, then by the two German directors that created the documentary for ARTE in 2006, and finally published on youTube by the passionate Zagrebians from the Citroën Klub.
Finally? This story is going on.
This movie documents the Citroën Kégresse expedition made across Asia in 1931-1932: 30,000 km from Beirut to Beijing on the ancient Silk Road.
The Kégresse boogie was named after his inventor, the French Adolphe Kégresse, who created it in 1910-1912. By that time he was chief engineer at the court of Russian Czar Nicholas II.
After the Russian Revolution Kégresse returned to France and in 1919 he started to work for Citroën. He enhanced there his invention and the result was the Citroën Kégresse half-track: the front gave the steering for the car, the rear gave the driving force. A cross-country car, perfect for the military. It was used by the French army, and not only: US, Danish, and Polish armies used the Citroën Kégresse as well.
André Citroën decided to use the half-track in ambitious expeditions across Africa and Asia. The purpose was to demonstrate in a spectacular way the resilience of Citroën products, but also to open important routes for the wheels, with calculated political and economic gains.
Two expeditions took place in Africa, by the mid 20's. I'd like to talk a little bit about them in a future post. Let's only note that the second African expedition was also filmed: La Croisière Noire (Black Journey), released in 1926.
For all these expeditions in Africa and Asia the lead was Georges-Marie Haardt, the general manager at Citroën, a man of great style and strict discipline. The success of these cruises is largely due to him.
For the Asian expedition Haardt decided to split the team in two: the Pamir group started from Beirut heading to Kashmir, to pass the Himalayas and then the Gobi desert and to make the junction with the China group who was coming from Tien Tsin.
It started in April 1931. Haardt was with the Pamir group. Climbing the Himalayas was beastly hard and at a certain point they had to dismantle the cars and to carry the parts on the footpaths at 5,000 m altitude.
Eventually they made it and arrived at Aksu in October. The China group was already there (together with Father Teilhard de Chardin). They, too, had had all kind of difficulties and at a certain moment had become the captives of a local warlord in Urumchi. André Citroën had sent the ransom from Paris.
The reunited team arrived at Beijing in February 1932. Sadly, Georges-Marie Haardt was no more with them. Weakened by the whole adventure he took a ship to return home. On the way back he contracted a double pneumonia and passed away at Hong Kong.
The Pamir group included also some movie specialists who filmed the voyage. Shooting at extremely low temperatures and extremely high altitudes on the Himalayan footpaths was as adventurous as the adventure captured by the camera, but it was this way that they got the day after day chronicle. The movie was released in 1933 and it had the success it deserved.
I discovered a wonderful review in a New York Times issue from 1936, November 18(when La Croisière Jaune came at the 55th Street Playhouse).
Later in the fifties La Croisière Jaune was part of the selection for Cinema 16, the famous non-profit society promoting in New York documentaries, indies, experimental movies. One of the promoters of Cinema 16, Jack Goelman, remembered in an interview that he had fallen in love for this movie and considered it quite unique.
And La Croisière Jaune continued its carrier: in 2006 ARTE (the TV cultural channel for all EU countries) presented a documentary that was based on footage from the Black and Yellow Cruises: En Avant, Toute ! Autour du Monde en Citroën (with the English title Half-Track Heroes - The Crusades of André Citroën). The authors are the Germans Christian Schidlowski and Peter Bardehle.
I found this documentary on youTube, published by the enthusiasts from the Zagreb Citroën Klub! So, it is a very long story, started by 1910 in St. Petersburg, where the Kégresse track was invented, continued in the twenties and thirties in Africa and Asia with the great Citroën expeditions, opening car routes across Sahara and on the Silk Road, immortalized in the two movies that were rediscovered by Jack Goelman in the fifties, then by the two German directors that created the documentary for ARTE in 2006, and finally published on youTube by the passionate Zagrebians from the Citroën Klub.
Finally? This story is going on.
