World Famous Comics: Landmarks of Early Film, Vol. 1
Landmarks of Early Film, Vol. 1
Directed By: Thomas Edison, Lumiere Bros., Various Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: Image Entertainment Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Release Date: November 26, 1997 Running Time: 117 minutes Theatrical Release Date: October 04, 1902
Amazon.com: A magnificent collection for anyone interested in the earliest days of film history, this compilation of films spans the years from 1886 to 1913, from the first experiments in "serial photography" to the emergence of narrative shorts and the dawn of the feature-length film. It's a veritable archive of nearly every important film from the birth of the medium, including Edison Kinestoscope films (1894-96), films by the brothers Lumière (1895-97), the magical movies of French special effects pioneer Georges Méliès, documentary "actualities" from 1897 to 1910, and selected short films from 1903 to 1913. The two-hour collection offers a fascinating study of how motion pictures quickly developed a variety of applications and a means of artistic and practical expression, with their own emerging language of camera style, editing, and cinematography. Watching these films is like stepping into a time machine to witness the infancy of motion pictures, which would rapidly evolve to become the most powerful medium of the 20th century prior to the development of television. --Jeff Shannon
Great Examples of the Birth of Film This dvd gives great examples of the first films -- many of the most famous and notable ones. There is no commentary and the music is not original. However, a good resource for film students.
Yes a great collection... but... Perhaps it's not fair for me to judge this collection. I'm looking at this DVD with an upscaling DVD player on a High Definition Video Projector on a huge screen, so I'm seeing many more transfer flaws than most people, and really that was my only complaint. I was specifically looking for a good copy of George Melie's Trip to the Moon, and I was certainly happy to also get copies of many famous and Historic films, such as the Lumiere' and Edison films, but I know there can be better transfers of these films. If you are looking at this collection on a standard HDTV or TV, you'll be fine, but if you are using a projector and a huge screen, like me, you'll want to try some other copies of these films. For instance, the new George Melie's collection from David Shepard is stunning in comparison. I'm talking about the quality of the Video Transfer it's self. These films are very old and I know it's hard to find good elements to use when they make DVD's, but I've seen much better transfers. I know it can be done.
Landmarks of Early Film, Vol 1 My Husband and I really enjoyed this DVD. It is very interesting, and fun to watch, and too cool! It feels like you are going back 100 years, as it would have been at a mid day show at a small theater. Just great, highly recomended!!
An excellent choice for history buffs This is an amazing collection of early films, ranging from 1877 to 1913. While some are longer pieces, most -- especially the early ones -- are just quick vignettes. I could see why A Trip to the Moon is considered to be such an important film as it was the first film on the disc to tell a story. Previous films were just scenes -- someone getting sprayed with a hose, men playing cards, a father feeding his baby lunch -- but not long narratives like A Trip to the Moon (which is fourteen minutes in length.)
The quality of these old films is excellent. Given the age of the film, these are some of the clearest, best-maintained old bits of film I've ever seen. The musical soundtrack laid over them is non-intrusive and pleasant and seems to have been carefully fit to the images rather than the hack-and-paste job of matching music to silent film I've seen on too many other discs.
One drawback to this disc is that there is a voice-over narration for A Trip to the Moon. The narration does make it much clearer what's occuring in the shots but I would have liked more information about the narration. How old is it? Was it taken from an original source or was it written in modern times? The narration was presented in English with a French accent that was sometimes a strain for me to follow.
If you are at all interested in the history of cinema, this would be an excellent disc to pick up. the films are arranged in chronological order, allowing the viewer to experience the evolution of film in its infancy. I was impressed to see how quickly both the use of the medium and the quality of the technology improved in the first twenty or thirty years of movie-making.
This is also a good choice for general history buffs as many of the vignettes are apparently unstaged scenes of daily life: women in big hats leaving the factory after a day of work, riders on horses swimming a river, a legless beggar being pulled in his cart by a dog, the milkman delivering milk and cream to housewives, and so on. A scene of two babies fighting over a toy is breathtaking for the lace Edwardian clothing the children wear and the beautiful toys they are quarrelling about.
(nudity warning: the first vignettes on the disc are series photography pieces of naked or topless women walking up and down stairs, hopping on one foot, etc. I assume these came from the early coin-operated, hand-cranked pornography machines.)
Taken as a collection, I couldn't give this disc higher praise. It is an excellent archive of early film history.
A glimpse into a vanished world This DVD is very similar to a VHS tape issued by another distributor, Kino Video, "The Movies Begin, Vol. I." That the contents are similar is no surprise, as both are derived from the Film Preservation Associates' archives. The DVD is longer than the VHS tape (117 min. vs. 75 min.), and contains more material. Missing from the DVD is a wonderful sequence found in the VHS: "Moscow in the Snow" (1908). This Pâté documentary provides panoramic shots of pre-revolutionary Moscow, as well as vignettes of the inhabitants. It is such a delight that its exclusion represents a serious loss.
The earliest example included are "pre-movies-movies" consisting of a sequence of E. Muybridge's stills (1885) assembled into films. The effect is very interesting, even today. Muybridge used trip-wires and multiple cameras to obtain a sequence of stills. When Muybridge first published his stop-action motion studies they were positively revolutionary. One of Muybridge's accomplishments was to settle -- once and for all -- the question whether a running horse ever has all four feet off the ground (It does! Unfortunately this segment is not included.) Incidentally, Muybridge's sequences also provide a glimpse of the feminine figure of 100 years ago, and how it might differ from today's ideal.
This is followed by selected Edison Kinetoscopes (ca. 1894); of these I found the "serpentine dances" most interesting. (A dance form no longer practiced, except perhaps in Chinese opera.) Later on there appear additional vignettes. Some, such as the one of President McKinley, the San Francisco Earthquake, and gold prospectors crossing over the Chilkoot Pass, have obvious historical interest.
Five sequences are of special interest:
1) S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery," is a seminal work which set the framework for countless westerns to follow.
2) "A Girl and her Trust" is similar to the above, but better. It even has "feminist" elements.
3) "Nero, or the Fall of Rome" is entertaining, if historically inaccurate: Nero did fall, but Rome did not fall until several centuries later. Nero's troubled relationship with Poppaea Sabina is the subject. Perhaps what it intends is that Nero's evil was amplified by Poppaea, and this set the tone for future emperors, eventually resulting in Rome's downfall. (The historian Josephus however tells of a very different Poppaea: A deeply religious woman who urged Nero to show compassion.)
For me, without question the two best works on this tape are: 1) George Melies's "Le Voyage dans la Lune" (Voyage to the Moon) of 1902; and 2) S. Chomon's "Le Scarabee d'Or" (Golden Beetle) of 1907.
The "Golden Beetle" is a fantasy piece, with similarities to Rimsky-Korsakov's fairytale operas - except of course there is no singing, and it is only 2 minutes long. Synopsis: A sorcerer captures a golden beetle and by means of a magic fire cauldron turns it into a woman. Or perhaps she is a fairy, as she has three pairs of wings. From his unbounded glee, we suspect the sorcerer's intentions are not quite honorable. The fairy however, turns out to be more than the sorcerer had bargained for. My means of two assistants (whose miraculous appearance is unexplained) she throws the sorcerer into the fire cauldron, from whence he disappears. The moral? Perhaps it is similar to "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (remember Mickey and the brooms): don't mess with powerful things you don't fully understand. Or maybe that old men should not have an interest in young women. But ultimately it does not matter, because the plot seems merely a backdrop for the technical wizardry. Segundo de Chomon worked closely with Melies, and was heavily influenced by him. Chomon's specialty was early experimentation with color film, of which "Golden Beetle" is a good example. The coloring process involved hand coloring of individual frames, and was obviously very labor intensive. Chomon also experimented with more automated color techniques.
For me the piece de resistance of this collection is George Melies's "Le Voyage dans la Lune" (Voyage to the Moon) of 1902. This work has great historical interest as the first science fiction film produced. But the genre is peculiar: it is slapstick science fiction - a form occasionally still used, such as in "Mars Attacks."
After slapstick, the film is best characterized as an amalgam of J. Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" and H. G. Wells's "First Men in the Moon." The first part of the movie roughly follows Verne's novel: a group of scientists use a giant canon to travel to the moon. The second part roughly follows Wells: the moon travelers discover a civilization of intelligent beings living under the surface of the moon. The travelers manage to get home safely among great rejoicing.
Melies had an abiding interest in science, especially astronomy, and science fiction. It is of interest to note that his scientists tend to be absent-minded, eccentric, and even buffoonish. They are unable to function without the help of down-to-earth assistants (e.g., telescope carriers). All this is very reminiscent of Swift's "flappers" from the "La Puta" section of "Gulliver's Travels."
Why slapstick? Probably Melies thought the audience of 1902 was not ready for a more scientific approach. This had to await "Die Frau im Mond" of 1929, and "Destination Moon" of 1950.
The science in this movie is best described as "absolutely pathetic" (possibly intentionally so). The movie is good training for school children assigned to "find all the mistakes." Two egregious examples: 1) the travelers have absolutely no problem breathing on the lunar surface; and 2) to return to Earth they simply fall off the edge of the Moon (ouch!).
Many viewers are familiar with at least one scene from this movie: the space capsule hitting the man-in-the-moon smack in the eye. This sequence has been excerpted many times - though most people may not know its origin. A second, almost as famous, sequence is the chorus line of beauties giving the travelers a spectacular send-off. (Should NASA consider such a format for its launches?)
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
