"For nearly ten years, the Passions were the longest films made. They were also the first multi-shot films and thus they provide an exemplary form of montage.... Derived from the medieval mystery plays, the Passions remained popular until the First World War, this in spite of their theatrical and old fashioned appearance. Yet, it is this very 'primitive' form of representation which differentiates the Passion films from other early films. From the very beginning, the public's familiarity with the story imposed a linearity on filmic narrative structure which was uncharacteristic of other films. But at the same time, the tableau format of the Passions resisted the increasing fragmentation of the filmic space after 1903. It has been argued (by Noel Burch) that in a paradoxical way, the Passions were instrumental in the transformation of the system of representation of early cinema into what became the classical narrative films precisely because they were organized around a very specific (continuous, i.e. chronological) narrative order. It would thus appear that, in this emphasis on narrative continuity, they anticipated the results of a transformation that would come with Griffith, into a system of representation achieved through the disruption and increasing fragmentation of the autonomy of individual scenes." Bertrand Augst This version, directed by Maurice-André Maitre in 1913, uses a number of "special effects" including fades, double pans, superimpositions, even photograms to simulate lightning. Maitre worked for Pathé as early as 1906 and directed films for Pathé in Russia from 1907 to 1910.