An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (film)

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Directed by	Robert Enrico
Written by	Robert Enrico
Based on	"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"; by Ambrose Bierce
Produced by	Paul de Roubaix; Marcel Ichac
Starring	Roger Jacquet [fr]; Anne Cornaly;
Cinematography	Jean Boffety
Edited by	Robert Enrico; Denise de Casabianca
Music by	Henri Lanoë
Production; companies	Franco-London Films; Sinfonia Films; Les Films du Centaure
Distributed by	Pathé Distribution
Release date	1962;
Running time	28 minutes
Country	France
Languages	English; French

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (French: La Rivière du hibou, lit. 'The Owl River') is a 1961 French short film, almost without dialogue. It was based on the 1890 American short story of the same name by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It was directed by Robert Enrico and produced by Marcel Ichac and Paul de Roubaix with music by Henri Lanoë. It won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards. The film was later screened on American television as episode 22 of the fifth season of The Twilight Zone on 28 February 1964.

Plot

A handbill posted on a burnt tree, dated 1862, announces that anyone interfering with bridges, railroads or tunnels will be summarily executed. Union troops prepare a civilian prisoner, Peyton Farquhar, for death by hanging from a rural railroad bridge. The soundtrack contains only bird noises and brief military orders. As the rope is adjusted about Farquhar's neck, a vision of his home, wife and children flashes before him.

When Farquhar is dropped from the bridge, the rope breaks and he falls into the river. He frees himself from his bonds, removes his boots, and begins swimming downstream as the troops fire at him. Farquhar is swept through rapids and crawls ashore exhausted but laughing with relief. Glimpses of tree branches, sky and crawling insects are interrupted by a distant cannon shot which sends him running through a forest, then along a linear and orderly lane. Finally arriving at the gates of his home, he pushes his way through foliage. Farquhar reaches open lawn and runs toward his wife as she walks toward him, smiling and weeping.

Just as the couple are about to fall into each other's arms, Farquhar stiffens and gasps, and his head snaps back. The scene cuts back to his body hanging from the bridge, his entire escape and reunion with his wife revealed to be an illusion experienced in the moment of the drop.

Cast

Roger Jacquet as Peyton Farquhar
Anne Cornaly as Abby Farquhar
Anker-Spang Larsen as Union Officer (as Anker Larsen)
Stéphane Fey as Union Captain
Jean-François Zeller as Union Sergeant
Pierre Danny as Union Soldier
Louis Adelin as Union Soldier

Production

The film was part of a trilogy of short films that Enrico directed, adapted from Bierce short stories, the two others being "Chickamauga" and "The Mocking-Bird." Together, the trilogy film was released in 1963 as Au coeur de la vie (In the Midst of Life).

Famed jazz drummer Kenny Clarke was among the musicians for the film, and contributed the drum solo accompaniment to Farquhar's escape through the forest.

Twilight Zone airing

On February 28, 1964, three years after its production, the film was shown on American television as an episode of the fifth season of the fantasy/science fiction show The Twilight Zone.

The episode's introduction is notable for Rod Serling breaking the fourth wall even more than usual, as he explains how the film was shot overseas and later picked up to air as part of The Twilight Zone. Serling's introduction is as follows, delivered while sitting on a soundstage next to a movie camera:

Tonight, a presentation so special and unique that for the first time in the five years we've been presenting The Twilight Zone, we're offering a film shot in France by others. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival of 1962, as well as other international awards, here is a haunting study of the incredible from the past master of the incredible, Ambrose Bierce. Here is the French production of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."

Serling's closing narration states:

An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, in two forms: as it was dreamed ... and as it was lived and died. This is the stuff of fantasy, the thread of imagination ... the ingredients of the Twilight Zone.

Awards

1962 Cannes Film Festival: Best Short Subject
1963 Academy Award, Best Live Action Short Film^[2]

Preservation

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.^[3]

References

^ "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Unifrance. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
^ "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-10-23. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.

Sources

Zicree, Marc Scott (1982). The Twilight Zone Companion. New York: Bantam. ISBN 0-553-01416-1.
Barrett, Gerald R. (1973). From Fiction to Film: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Encino, CA: Dickenson Publishing. ISBN 978-0-822100-83-6.
DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links

[1] "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Unifrance. Retrieved 27 August 2022.

[NY_Times-2] "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-10-23. Retrieved 2008-05-22.

[3] "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes
Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"
Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"
Season 5	"In Praise of Pip" "Steel" "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" "A Kind of a Stopwatch" "The Last Night of a Jockey" "Living Doll" "The Old Man in the Cave" "Uncle Simon" "Probe 7, Over and Out" "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" "Ring-a-Ding Girl" "You Drive" "The Long Morrow" "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" "Black Leather Jackets" "Night Call" "From Agnes—With Love" "Spur of the Moment" "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" "Queen of the Nile" "What's in the Box" "The Masks" "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" "Sounds and Silences" "Caesar and Me" "The Jeopardy Room" "Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Encounter" "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" "The Brain Center at Whipple's" "Come Wander with Me" "The Fear" "The Bewitchin' Pool"

v t e Short Film Palme d'Or winners
1950s	White Mane – Albert Lamorisse (1953) Blinkity Blank – Norman McLaren (1955) The Red Balloon – Albert Lamorisse (1956) Courte Histoire – Ion Popescu-Gopo (1957) N.Y., N.Y. – Francis Thompson (1959) Zmiana warty – Halina Bielinska & Włodzimierz Haupe (1959)
1960s	La Petite cuillère – Carlos Vilardebo (1961) La Rivière du hibou – Robert Enrico (1961) À fleur d'eau – Alexander J. Seiler & Rob Gnant (1963) Le Haricot – Edmond Séchan (1963) La douceur du village – François Reichenbach (1964) The Price of Victory – Nobuko Shibuya (1964) Nyitany – János Vadász (1965) Skaterdater – Noel Black (1966) Sky Over Holland – John Fernhout (1967) Cîntecele Renasterii – Mirel Iliesiu (1969)
1970s	The Magic Machines – Bob Curtis (1970) Le Fusil à lunette – Jean Chapot (1972) Balablok – Bretislav Pojar (1973) Ostrov – Fyodor Khitruk, Eduard Nazarov & Vladimir Zuykov (1974) Lautrec – Geoff Dunbar (1975) Metamorphosis – Barry Greenwald (1976) The Struggle – Marcell Jankovics (1977) Rowing Across the Atlantic – Jean-François Laguionie (1978) Harpya – Raoul Servais (1979)
1980s	Seaside Woman – Oscar Grillo (1980) Moto perpetuo – Béla Vajda (1981) Merlin ou le cours de l'or – Arthur Joffé (1982) Je sais que j'ai tort mais demandez à mes copains ils disent la même chose – Pierre Levy (1983) Le Cheval de fer – Gérald Frydman & Pierre Levie (1984) Chiri – David Takaichvili (1984) Jenitba – Slav Bakalov & Rumen Petkov (1985) An Exercise in Discipline - Peel – Jane Campion (1986) Palisade – Laurie McInnes (1987) Vykrutasy – Garry Bardin (1988) 50 ans – Gilles Carle (1989)
1990s	The Lunch Date – Adam Davidson (1990) Z podniesionymi rekami – Mitko Panov (1991) Omnibus – Sam Karmann (1992) Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California – Jim Jarmusch (1993) El héroe– Carlos Carrera (1994) Gagarin – Alexij Kharitidi (1995) Szél – Marcell Iványi (1996) ...Is It the Design on the Wrapper? – Tessa Sheridan (1997) L'Interview – Xavier Giannoli (1998) When the Day Breaks – Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis (1999)
2000s	Anino – Raymond Red (2000) Bean Cake – David Greenspan](2001) Esö után – Péter Mészáros (2002) Cracker Bag – Glendyn Ivin (2003) Trafic – Cătălin Mitulescu (2004) Podorozhni – Igor Strembitsky (2005) Sniffer – Bobbie Peers (2006) Ver Llover – Elisa Miller (2007) Megatron – Marian Crisan (2008) Arena – João Salaviza (2009)
2010s	Barking Island – Serge Avédikian (2010) Cross – Maryna Vroda (2011) Sessiz-Be Deng – Rezan Yeşilbaş (2012) Safe – Byoung-gon Moon (2013) Leidi – Simón Mesa Soto (2014) Waves '98 – Ely Dagher (2015) Timecode – Juanjo Giménez (2016) A Gentle Night - Qiu Yang (2017) All These Creatures – Charles Williams (2018) The Distance Between Us and the Sky – Vasilis Kekatos (2019)
2020s	I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face – Sameh Alaa (2020) All the Crows in the World – Tang Yi (2021) The Water Murmurs – Jianying Chen (2022) 27 – Flóra Anna Buda (2023) The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent – Nebojša Slijepčević (2024)