Alice in Wonderland (1903) Directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow

          

     I had to do this one because it is the first film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's tale of a little girl named Alice falling into the rabbit’s hole and her adventures in Wonderland. This was actually considered lost but then was found, partly anyway, so its just a short, choppy version of the story but you still get to see some creative camera tricks and the first characters ever on film inspired by the original illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Caroll) died in 1898, so he never got to see his tale come to life on screen but I’m sure he would have enjoyed it.

Watch the first film adaptation of Alice's adventure in Wonderland

        Cecil Hepworth was an early pioneer in British cinema and he went on to direct some very important films. I’ll definitely be revisiting his career as I carry on along the decades of great cinema.

Henrettelsen (1903) Directed by Peter Elfelt

A.K.A. Capital Execution, Barnemordersken, Child Murderess

     Henrettelsen is based on a true story of the execution of a French woman who is sentenced to death for killing her two children. Though part of the film has been lost, little of what is left is still a very important part of early cinema. The early stages of plot progression and reference to things happening off screen make this antique film a stepping-stone in movies to come. The director, Peter Elfelt was the pioneer of Danish cinema making over 200 films in the early 20^th Century. He was the only filmmaker in the first decade of Danish film actually making movies. Henrettelsen was the first Danish drama, and a major influence in those early days, widening the scope and development of the story beyond what was captured by the camera. This effect intensified the drama. Very original and important to the history of film.

I couldn't find a full version of the film on the web

The Great Train Robbery (1903) Directed by Edwin S. Porter

Nickelodeon: a movie theatre with an admission fee of one nickel.

Cross-cut editing: an instance of alternating between two or more sequences when editing

       Edwin S. Porter was a pioneer in early cinema. He made early comedies and trick films for Thomas Edison’s company, Edison Manufacturing Company. Porter made a name for himself with his innovative editing techniques in Jack and the Beanstalk (1902) and Life of an American Fireman (1903). But the pinnacle of his career was his western, The Great Train Robbery.

         The Great Train Robbery is a milestone in film history. The 11 minute long film depicts a gang of outlaws robbing a train and the passengers then fleeting. It was a groundbreaking film with the director’s use of cross-cutting editing technique to show action happening in different places simultaneously. It was also the formation of cinematic narration in the United States. No film before this had such a variety in scenes or as swift from scene to scene. Porter invented dissolves from one scene to another in this film for the first time. Edwin Porter made an entirely new experience for the audience using creative camera movement and on location shooting. There are also scenes throughout that have color; several explosions, pretty girls in bright yellow dresses, epic gunfights with colored gun smoke. The end of the film is the leader of the gang of outlaws raising his revolver and pointing it directly at the camera and emptying the barrel.

         No film had been made like The Great Train Robbery before. It was very popular and caused sensationalism among viewers, establishing the motion picture as commercial entertainment in the U.S Two years later it was used as the premier film in the very first nickelodeon. Today’s cinema wouldn’t be the same today without this historical, sensational little gem. It’s a PRETTY DAMN GOOD film.

Voyage to the Moon (1902) Directed by Georges Méliès

AKA: Le Voyage dans la lune, A Trip to the Moon, A Trip to Mars

Science Fiction (Sci-Fi): a fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets.

Parody: an imitation of the style of a particular artist or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect; to mimic humorously.

watch Voyage to the Moon

         Georges Méliès had a background in show business and he was a skilled magician/illusionist. So he was always trying to go to fantastical heights in his films. He was really shooting for the moon in this one…. literally. This short (actually pretty long for it's time) running a little under 15 minutes, is a milestone in Sci-Fi and in the history of film. The film depicts a group of astronomers building a spacecraft to go to the moon. They come up with a mechanism, basically a giant gun; they use to shoot their bullet shaped space ship to the moon. In a scene, that is infamous in the history of Sci-Fi cinema, their makeshift spacecraft cannon blasts the cadets into the eye of the moon with a spurt. There’s also an incredible under water scene of the space ship crashing back into the earth, splashing into the ocean. Very beautiful and very inspiring for me.

          Méliès started it all with his elaborate set designs, thought up and painted by Méliès himself, combined with constructed props gives a great depth to the atmosphere. His films were almost made to parody, that’s why they have that outlandish, campy feel and that’s what it took to push the limits of Méliès’ talents. His originality and his peculiar taste in theater planted the seed in psychological thrillers, surrealism, sci-fi, camp, horror, and the comedy genres. Georges Méliès was the greatest director/writer/producer/star/production designer of the turning of the century.

December 8, 1861 – January 21, 1938

         Though ‘Voyage to the moon’ is widely accepted as the first science fiction movie, this is not so. Méliès made several early films with elements in sci-fi. Check out ‘The Astronomer's Dream’ and ‘The Man on the Moon’ both made in 1898, four years before ‘Voyage to the Moon’

Blue Beard (1901) Directed by Georges Méliès

A.K.A. Barbe-Bleue

   Georges Méliès directed over 500 films so I'm not planning on reviewing all of these amazing pieces of cinema, but I'll try to stick to whats important. After his House of the Devil (1896)  he produced the first mummy in film with Cleopatra (1899) and I'm sure theres a lot of firsts with his early, rare shorts (Cinderella in 1899 and Joan of Arc in 1900) but I'm moving on to the early signs of plot progression with Blue Beard. 

  The wealthy Lord Bluebeard is looking for a wife. He introduces himself to a room of women (of noble families) and bribes the bachelorettes with mass wealth. He eventually succeeds when one of the fathers grabs the hand of his daughter and urges her to be Lord Bluebeard's eighth wife. She gives in reluctantly and they celebrate. There's a great scene of servants hauling supplies to celebration through the kitchen, then rough housing ensues among the kitchen crew they end up accidentally knocking the cook into a brewing cauldron. They try to save the man, but fishout only his clothes. Gotta love the dark humor. 

   Lord Bluebeard reveals that he will be leaving town and gives his new wife keys and the freedom to roam his castle with one exception. That being, one forbidden room. He leaves and she is immediately tempted. She starts debating if she should go into this forbidden room….then a creepy looking imp jumps out of a large book in a poof of smoke. Definitely one of the creepiest scenes in film history. He crawls around the room menacingly urging  the wife to open the door. She does so, and the demon jumps back into the book. She enters the dark room and fumbles for the light for a few seconds…..the light reveals Bluebeard's seven former brides hanging by the neck from the ceiling. There's also an axe propped up in the room in a puddle of blood.

slasher film: is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner.

click here to check it out

  I consider this short the first slasher movie. It definitely is a huge inspiration in the horror genre. I love the work of  Georges Méliès and Ill continue with a few more of his films. But Blue Beard might be my favorite of his simply because of the shocking horror and creepy vibes that radiate from this 9minute long masterpiece. PERFECT.

The House of the Devil (1896) Directed by Georges Méliès

Click HERE to watch the video!

A.K.A. Le Manoir du Diable, The Haunted Castle, The Manor of the Devil, The Devil's Castle, The Devil's Manor

 You can click HERE to watch it.


   No one was making films like Georges Méliès in the 19th century. His genius became clearer with every film he made. His 3 minute long, The House of the Devil is considered the first in the horror movie genre. It opens with a bat flying into a castle, then in a puff of smoke he appears to be  a man in a black suit. Maybe the devil, or the first vampire on film. I think it's amazing to see the roots of horror cinema and how much these early films inspired others. This is how I set the standard for what I consider a "good" film and Méliès sets the standard high….and higher with every project. If you love bats, vampires, demons, ghosts, and goblins you need to check out this short and the rest of his work. The next few shorts I review up through the very early 1900's will be by Georges Méliès films. 

His films have been released remastered and hand colored, looks pretty sweet actually.

   

  

    

A Terrible Night (1896) Directed by Georges Méliès

 In the 1830's, the first moving images were produced using revolving drums and disks. Soon, versatile inventors stamped the century with their remarkable talents. Simon Von Stampfer of Austria, responsible for the Stroboscope, Joseph Plateau of Belgium with the Phenakistoscope, and William Horner of Britain with the Zoetrope are all noted for their contributions to the age. It wasn't until 1895 that a more efficient way to create movies was discovered. In France, Auguste and Louis Lumière designed a hand held motion picture camera they called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere Brothers soon held the first public screening of short films in Paris at a profitable admission fee. The presentation featured ten films, each seventeen meters long, running for approximately fifty seconds. Standing in the audience that day was an aspiring film maker named Georges Méliès.

        

Defining:

Slapstick- comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions

Dark Comedy- a comic work that employs black humor

Camp (cheesy)- an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of it's bad taste and ironic value; derives from a french term meaning "to pose in an exaggerated fashion"

   Georges Méliès was the world's first "Cinemagician." It's said that Méliès accidentally discovered how to create an effect on screen that could not be recreated in an onstage play. The early films made by the Lumière Brothers were pretty simple and typically featured the characters acting out everyday life. Méliès' devised complex special effects using camera techniques expanding his eccentricity with every film. The traits that I look for in film started with his 1 minute long project, A Terrible Night. This piece features a restless, bearded man just trying to get a good night's sleep. Then this giant bug crawls across his bed and up the wall. He proceeds to smash the creature with a shoe in a very comedic fashion. This piece definitely used dark humor to capture the audience and I consider it the first film in the  "camp" genre that wasn't officially defined until 13 years later. The exaggeration on the size of the beetle reminds me of the creature flicks that boomed in the 1950's. A Terrible Night is the seed for all films considered cheesy, dark, and just uncomfortably creepy. Its one of four of this stylish director's early works that survived the years, It's definitely worth a MINUTE of your time.

This is How Much I Love Movies-An Introduction/ The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895)

    I spend a lot of energy searching for the perfect film. It's an obssession. In order to understand this madness, throughout this blog, I will take the time to dissect, then define my opinion of a perfect film. I'll take into account certain situations and hardships faced by each film to relay a creative and informed review. My favorites are those not adequately recognized for the significance that they deserved. Mostly because they were misunderstood. As time has passed, many of these obscure films have attained popularity and even developed into mainstream icons. Upon exposure, younger generations will see the genius in these humble films, previously scorned simply because they were way ahead of their time.
     I'll try to make this as organized as much as my messy mind possibly can. I'll be defining terms as we go along the decades searching for these hidden treasures of film history. The good, the bad, the camp, the gore, and oh so much more!

The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) Directed by Alfred Clark

This is the most epic 18 second long film I’ve ever seen. Produced by Thomas Edison, ‘The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots’ is just that. It’s the first footage using trained actors and the first decapitation on film.

This is the first editing trick ever used for a decapitation on film and that makes this simple, 18-second film very important for the progress of the horror genre and cinema history in general.

watch the first decapitation on film here