Dranem Performs "Five O'Clock Tea"

In this early 20th century screen piece, a popular French comic singer named Dranem steps into the frame to perform the song Five O'Clock Tea while director Alice Guy-Blaché looks on. The film functions as a compact, silent document rather than a narrative story, focusing on a single stage moment rather than a plotted scenario. The camera stays close to the performer, allowing viewers to read timing, expression and craft through movement and gesture instead of sound. There are no elaborate sets or dramatic plot turns, just a straightforward capture of a live performance in progress. The result feels like a bridge between vaudeville style and cinema, a simple record of a moment when film began to document real performers on screen.

Directed by Alice Guy-Blaché in 1906, this short presents Dranem performing the song before the filmmaker. It sits among early experiments that blend musical performance with documentary style, underscoring Guy-Blaché's collaborative approach and the era's interest in showing performers on screen.

Box office data for this tiny early short is not available. In 1906 most films had limited distribution and public revenue records were not consistently kept, especially for single reel pieces. As a result there is no reliable worldwide gross to report.

There are no major awards recorded for this film. The notion of Oscars or equivalent nominations did not exist in 1906, and many Gaumont era shorts did not participate in formal award circuits. The absence of nominations or wins is typical for works of this period.

Reception and interpretation are scarce, but the film clearly shows how early cinema treated performance as screen entertainment. The main themes center on the performer on display and the filmmaker guiding the moment from behind the camera. It offers a snapshot of collaboration between a star of the stage and a pioneering director shaping moving images at a dawn of cinema.