I recently (re)watched several early and classic Georges Méliès films. These pictures are incredibly ingenious for the time - the cutting room floor plays a key role in the development of each as we see Méliès's chaotic and imaginative world filled with magic and intrigue. His cinematic landscape is often disordered and scrambled with characters … Continue reading Georges Méliès Short Films (1896-1912)
Month: April 2019
The Short Films of the Edison Studio
On the Short Films of the Edison Studio Blacksmithing Scene (1893) Director: W.K.L. Dickson This short clip is significant for being the first publicly shown Kinetograph motion picture in May 1893. It features a still camera recording of three blacksmiths hammering, pausing for a moment to share a drink of beer, and then continue. The … Continue reading The Short Films of the Edison Studio
Coeur fidèle
Coeur fidèle (Faithful Heart) (1923) Director: Jean Epstein Coeur fidèle is a beautiful and slow-moving French Impressionist film. Jean Epstein once said: its purpose was "to win the confidence of those, still so numerous, who believe that only the lowest melodrama can interest the public... to create a melodrama so stripped of all the conventions ordinarily … Continue reading Coeur fidèle
The Peloponnesian War, Book V: Battle Recommences and Melos Enslaved
Book V opens at the conclusion of the truce between Athens and the Spartans. Cleon leads the Athenians in an attack on Thrace. A double surprise attack is launched against Cleon and the Athenians by Brasidas of of the Spartans, catching Cleon off guard and kills him en route, as well as Brasidas. After this … Continue reading The Peloponnesian War, Book V: Battle Recommences and Melos Enslaved
3 Bad Men
3 Bad Men (1926) Director: John Ford Early cinema was filled with the Western archetype and its accompanying tropes: trains, cowboys, stagecoaches, Indians, covered wagons, and so on. Audiences were enthralled by the American pioneering spirit. However, by the late 1920s and early 1930s, Western films had become a box office dud. John Ford, the … Continue reading 3 Bad Men
Octyabr
Octyabr (1927) Director: Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov In English the film is called "October: Ten Days That Shook the World". The addition of the 'ten days that shook the world' was only part of the release in English for the popular John Reed book of the same name. He was an American Soviet sympathizer who … Continue reading Octyabr
