In The Strange Story of Peter Schlemihl written in 1813 by Adelbert von Chamisso, out of necessity of money, the hero decides to sell his shadow to the devil; this shadow is of no use to him; as much as having money. But his life of a being without shade soon becomes unbearable; he is stigmatized as a being apart and is the laughing stock of everyone he crosses. Strange story of a being become strange. So he decides to re buy it back but for that will have to sell his soul to the devil. The shadow (black) is a double that never leaves the Being. The white shadow, negative of the previous one, is obtained by means of a china plate with bas-relief motifs and lit by the back. The expression "White Shadow" thanks to its poetic power became the title of a film by Flaherty, then the name of a bookstore, which was so flourishing that by consulting google today I could not find the origin of the word.
Jean-Michel BouhoursDirector