Systemsprotect Reviews

THE SILENT DVD: RW Paul. The Collected Films 1895-1908

At the insistence of many who have written to me via comments, via e-mail staff, asking them to introduce a section on the DVD of silent films, opened here this section, although I have actually talked about releases in this regard to address the outstanding collections of the Danish Film Archive in our series dedicated to this film. Although not a follower of the new dvd itself, has also encouraged me as well of interest to readers of this blog, to see on the shelves of malls movies launch in Spain have claimed here, especially ... And The Crowd or Wings. There will be time to talk about them. Now to begin would like to dedicate some articles to talk about compiling dvd creations of pioneers such as Edison and its directors, or directors Méliès British, especially RW Paul, with which we began this journey.

Robert William Paul (1869-1943) played a leading role in starting the film in the UK. Manufacturer of scientific instruments, kinestocopio is interested in the Edison and discloses an imitation of it by 1895. Through a partnership with Birt Acres and use a camera invented by him, filmed and produced the first films of British cinema, including Rough Sea at Dover (1895), The Derby (1896) or loss A Soldier's Courtship (1896). By 1897 it was recognized fought his Animatograph, who was named to his society also Paul's Animatograph LTD. Detached from Acres, with which came to rival, produced and filmed many current films (mostly parades), comedy (especially featuring naughty children) parodies devoted to spiritualism in vogue at the time, films that dramatized the lyrics of popular songs, films and adventures cutting trick fantastic as The Magic Sword (1901) and The ? Motorist (1906), to close its production with an advance of the British school led by Grierson documentary two decades later: Whaling Afloat and Ashore (1908).

The DVD, hosted by the British Film Institute, whose archive preserves most of the pieces, Paul meets 62 titles, some of just half a minute, another of about half an hour. You have the option to view all followed, in chronological order or to see them individually by going to the menu of years and there accessing the specific title. It is also possible to see directly, without any information or supplement your viewing with commentary with subtitles (in English), audio commentary by Professor Ian Christie and the reading of 24 illustrated pages of this specialist. From experience, perhaps it's best to move through the menus of the year, seeing films without any comment and then view them again with the subtitles. These captions summarize the plot, placed in context, introducing a story (a few) and speak mostly of the genus to which they belong and their equivalent yields of the Edison, Lumière and Méliès.

How will we meet? First, we must have patience and know its true value in the first titles to better appreciate the evolution of Paul behind the camera. The first piece is the aforementioned Rough Sea at Dover (1895, pictured), a fixed camera view of rough seas pounding the coast, a piece that will undoubtedly have an opening character. Later would roll A Sea Cave Near Lisbon (1896), where the cave in which the camera is placed also serves as a picture frame set by the water of the sea. Other films of an documentary facing their target from a prone position with a fixed camera to achieve a great perspective. This is the case The Derby (1896), who filmed this sporting event and social event of national collecting the arrival of horses to target and assault the crowd back on track. In Hyde Park Bicycling Scene (1896), from a similar perspective is reflected continuous passage of cyclists and carriages in Hyde Park. That same year, are pieces that depict the passage on bridges, as Blackfriars Bridge (pictured below) or Westminster Bridge. Same perspective takes Scene on the River Thames, or Up the River (1896), although in this case the passage of a boat on the river complete with a scene of rescue and some confusion. From another position in Royal Train (1896), covers the train to the royal family and many flocked back to the camera to view, stopped by a row of guards, with their distinctive hats pomp.

The shows, for propaganda purposes, leading to film over the carriages of Queen Victoria in several short series Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897) or, with a tinge of colonialism, the visit London's British representative in Egypt in Sirdar's Reception at Guildhall (1898). Egypt also provides the framework for a series of exotic prints that rolls on the premises, which Women Fetching Water from the Nile (1897), is one of the few that survive and shall represent a group of women carrying jars from next to the pyramids. Less exotic is Fishermen and Boat at Port Said (1897), with scenes of fishermen along the jetty pier of the Arab port. More important are the movies that have as their reason the Boer War. Given the difficulties of filming in the area, Paul and his team filmed recreations with actors in their own land. Of these, we have two on dvd: A Camp Smithy (1899), A brief overview of the rest of the soldiers in camp, and Attack on Piquet (1899), recreation of an ambush with melee. And filmed in situ, with actual troops, many films today are in advertising. Thus, a piece Survivor Series Army Life (1900) represents the mounted infantry in full gallop, while Colonel Beevor wheel to Paul troop movement and triumphal parades in parts Cronje's Surrender to Lord Roberts and Entry of the Scots' Into Guard Bloemfontein, both from 1900. The colonial triumphalism can still be seen in titles filmed in India in 1903 as Coronation Durbar at Delhi or The Delhi Durbar, where the usual military parade adds the exotic touch of the elephants. And the devotion to the monarchy, linked to the colonial, in Return of TRH the Prince and Princess of Wales (1906), which documents the return of the princes of Wales, after his tour of various colonies in Asia and Oceania. There will be room for an event at home, as the half-hour documentary that includes parades and official ceremonies at the University of Aberdeen to commemorate its founding in Aberdeen University Quarter Centenary Celebrations (1906).

Regarding this whole parade of monarchy and colonialism, it could place a piece of fictionalized The Extraordinary Waiter (1902), certainly odd, where a waiter indestructible black (painted black) resists all attacks of a colonial client.

Returning to the documentary pieces, one of the best on this DVD is undoubtedly The Launch of HMS Albion (1898). What at first was going to be filming the christening of a ship by the Duchess of York, just being witness to a tragedy which caused 38 victims. The small film reunites several points of view that begins with a dolly to the boat people who enjoy and Duchess trying to hold his hat pushed by the wind. Suddenly, after a cut scene of confusion was happening and attempted rescue. In comments accompanying the film explains that Birt Acres, formerly of Paul, and then arch-rivals criticized him harshly for this film by "unprofessional" because, apparently, Paul stopped trying to save film lives. How far from amateur cameras that record today with mobile tragedies without the slightest gesture of generosity towards the victims! Another facet

documentary film Paul is to collect moments of public activity mostly fun and games. One of the earliest examples is Comic Costume Race (1896), who is shooting a career picturesque costumes. With A Switchback Railway (1898) public entertainment, a roller coaster, I used to experience, albeit from a fixed camera position. In Tetherball, or Do-Do , 1900, several crew members of a boat playing a kind of badminton in the deck of a boat. It was part of a series depicting movie entertainment in transport. Another is An Exciting Pillow Fight (1900), which portrays the struggle as several men game uploaded to a log trying to topple using pillows.

The desire to collect all that could keep the film takes Paul to be prepared to put dvd movies also for Filoscope, whose equivalent would be the flips or movies that are passing a finger on pages of a small book with different frames, the Kinetoscope also base. Examples are the aforementioned Westminster Bridge (1896), Andalusian Dance (1896), with a pair of dancers dressed in folk costume and dancing, and Chirgwin the White-Eyed Kaffir (1896), a clown dressed and makeup, black and white motif. Showbiz, but with a richer art will be represented in The Deonzo Brothers in the Wonderful Jumping Act (1901), a number with two brothers who perform acrobatics on drums. Another unique document, apart from the typical topics of the producer, is Hammerfest (1903), shot in the Norwegian town, with a large panoramic view that goes from the rooftops of town to the port.

Before these documentary pieces, we will have the opportunity to see a fiction title, Footpads (1895), filmed on camera and studio sets, in which a man with an umbrella is assaulted by robbers and aided by a policeman who is not also good standing. Another film with A thief is Compelled to disrobe Partially Wayfarer (1897), where a man is naked by order of the villain who assails him pointing a gun.

The best-known comedy of Paul in the beginning was The Soldier's Courtship (1896), unfortunately lost. To follow his trail have in the dvd remake a shot by Paul himself entitled Tommy Atkins in the Park (1898). Here, as in the film lost a pair of lovers (one nurse and a soldier) try to recreate in your love on a park bench. The sudden arrival of an elderly woman wanting to read a book sitting on the bench will stopped and the soldier after a struggle just getting to throw down the old, not exactly lightweight.

Very popular were the comedies of Paul with naughty children. The oldest is The Twins' Tea Party (1896) in which two children "angelic" bother each other in their attempt to eat together at a table. Another fight of children is to A Domestic Scene Favourite (1898), also known as Nursery : some children get to play before going to sleep and end up locked in a battle of pillows, making back in anger his nurse. The room is shot in a simple and typical interior cash, window to play with spaces inside and outside and a door, which is repeated with change of scenery, but not in space, in countless films Paul of this cut. Thus, that same space, become a domestic rural interior, chairs His Only Pair (1902), in a fight of children, some of which have already appeared in the film from the false leaning outside the window. A similar space is also serving a child to do tricks on his grandmother in Drat That Boy (1904). Not all are naughty children, for Kiddies Cakewalk (1903) staged two girls, this time angelic, with a pretty funny dance.

Paul typical space is repeated with little variation in the movies based on popular songs that recreate the story told in his letters. So Come Along Do! (1898), based on the song of the same title, enacts the story of two old men who decide to go to an exhibition and there are made to dress the naked sculptures.

Other domestic comedies put on a woman with her husband or a man who haunts, scenes that often make a nod to a social context marked by feminist demands. In 2 AM, or The Husband's Return (1896), a woman tries to put in place a husband who comes home drunk. In Cupid at the Wash Tub (1897), a man wants to kiss a woman while she washes the clothes, but she scores well in the situation to the man's head submerged in water. The character "feminist" is still better His Brave Defender (1900). Here, a burglar enters through the window and catches a couple in bed. While the husband is hiding under the sheets, and then under the bed, his wife attacked the thief, but it only makes the tying runs at the foot of the bed, which will be released by "her daughter? and a policeman. The feminist touch, very sarcastically, is fully evident in Artistic Creation (1901), where a woman is taking shape from the successive drawings which creates a magician, once built, the wizard thought to lack the final touch: a baby in her arms, but the woman had managed to flee in time. To address the issue, there are rudiments of animation (this time for stop-motion) and tweaks, with whom he has flirted in A Railway Collision (1900), where a train collision is represented with a model trains and visibly toy.

A hot topic at the time, spiritualism, and his claim as a farce, Paul serves on several titles to experiment with the trick. So in Upside Down or The Human Flies (1899, pictured), before the start of the seance, the organizer disappears and makes the guests end up walking through the roof. A reverse camera and a painted decoration in the best position to contribute to this effect see the actors moving upside down, many years before Fred Astaire dancing on the walls and ceiling in Royal Wedding (1951), Stanley Donen . It will be one of the first pieces in which Paul will produce films whose main author is Walter R. Wizard Booth.

Tweaking And obviously, as in the case of Méliès, but also Porter for Edison or Chomón for Pathé, will take to address issues of fantasy and science fiction. So in The Cheese Mites, also called Lilliputians in a London Restaurant , 1901, a man, affected by what you eat, have a strange sight: he sees a series of tiny beings in the table. In The Over-Incubate Baby , the same year, a scientist has created a machine for an hour a baby becomes a child of one year, a rookie apprentice scientist causes a failure in the machine and a small fire , from which a child with a beard. Also in 1901, is a fantasy comic film within a film, entitled The Countryman and the Cinematograph (1901, pictured), similar to Uncle Josh's Nightmare (1900), Porter, film partially lost, which shows a man who does not know what film looking at the pictures too close to a screen. First make fun of a dancer, but then the approach of a train in the direction he just scared and confused later to see himself flirting with a woman.

An amazing experience is certainly Undressing Extraordinary (1901), the nightmare of a man trying to undress, but over and over again to be dressed with many different costumes. When it gets to stay in bed gown appears in a skeleton becomes chair, to go to bed, it disappears and he is back with a suit. The bed is being rebuilt with another hallucination. The same actor, this time disguised as a magician, protagoniaza The Waif and the Wizard (1901), a title which, in addition to the efficacy of the trick, has a special plane, an umbrella just serving as a transition between the meeting beggar with a child magician to ask him to help heal his sick sister and the stage of healing. The umbrella is the child transformed into that object to teleport next to the magician, but also, as shown, is an effective narrative tool assembly. I remember that we are in 1901.

At this point, the dvd starts to happen more and more sophisticated fantasies, some with literary roots. Thus, The Haunted Curiosity Shop (1901) reminds his title British viewers to Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens, but not more than a succession of transformations different ending with a haunting phantasmagoria. More connected to the territory Dickensian is the first adaptation of Christmas Carol entitled Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901), with a large domain transparency. But I have a great use of transparencies and tweaks The Magic Sword (1901, pictured), where a fairy gives a magic sword for a knight to rescue his beloved from the clutches of a giant. Superb fairy medieval atmosphere.

The magic is also present in A-Day Quarter Lively (1906), as a solution to the problems that they face a few characters to decorate a room. A wizard helps with their gear to perform this task. A funny detail is the magician's clothing going alone to the closet, while he was lying in bed preparing to sleep.

One of the major titles within the Paul's productions A Chess Dispute (1903). Despite the title, chess players do not fight at the board, but on the floor and clean punch. Stated thus, it might seem in line with other similar disputes, "card games" various coffee or brawls, a recurrent theme in the pioneers. The novelty here, which gives great value and some modern film, is that most of the fighting takes place outside the field, with fleeting appearances of rivals that gives us an idea of \u200b\u200bhow the confrontation. Great wisdom

film also have a series of films that combine effectively with studio-filmed scenes outside the British streets. The moral drama Buy Your Own Cherries (1904) and make that intention in that game, though curiously is shot all inside, including "outside." Chronicles the evolution of an alcoholic father who manages to stop drinking on advice from the Church, which also improves the environment and the prosperity of his family. It gave a number of different environments, reflecting the state of the characters and were intimately tied to their situation. Dramatic play different environments was also in Mr. Pecksniff fetches the Doctor (1904), about a doctor who is late for delivery. It included some exterior scene real, although it was essentially a reworked interior film. The main street itself would be part of a movie with great staging as An Extraordinary Cab Accident (1903), where a man is hit by a cab while crossing the street when everyone thinks you're dead, up and flees with his beloved. The inside-outside combination, this time both real spaces, there is finally comedy The Unfortunate Policeman (1905). After a joke, shot in a set that represents a jewelry-watches, on the outside (ie, is a false shot in study abroad, see photo below), a cop goes in pursuit of the painter joker and his step, the police demolished the casting of two washers, coils and encounters an old woman with a milkman, who follow him and end up giving him a beating.

A film that refers to the same time with this quest for dialogue between spaces, with fantastic side and also with the complaint of spiritualism is Is Spiritualism a Fraud? (1906). Here, the organizer of the session with the help of a foreign subsidiary to get to those attending the session, and before us, a series of spectral images of great impact. One of the attendees away with the illusion to turn on the light and wonder to aide in full trick. The phony organizer session is bound and vilified in the street. Indoor real (well, with the idea of \u200b\u200bseeming) spectral interiors, outdoor ... It would be a good overview of Paul's film, but it was because that year was The? Motorist whose visual strength overwhelms almost everything. The

? Motorist (1906) begins as a chase movie with police following the offender, in this case a motorist and his partner go too fast. In his escape, the biker with his car up the facade of a building and passes through the city sky, the moon comes up and goes through the rings of Saturn (picture on the cover of the dvd). Returning to Earth, crosses the room where a trial takes place and is about to be arrested by the police, when their vehicle becomes briefly in a horse carriage. Turned back on a bike, the offender and his beloved return to flight. A frenetic film full of fantasy that combines reason, gaffs and other areas targeted in his productions.

remains an encore on the DVD. It was the last movie was Paul, but the last of which are preserved. Minted in 1908, the year in which they are pulling many European film, but in which the British are on the verge of the abyss, after being one of the leaders of pioneering cinema Whaling Afloat and Ashore (1908) is a serene and accurate documentary on the capture and subsequent cutting of whales. The capture is done with a camera adapted to the vagaries of sailing. Then, once captured, the impact of the dimensions of the great whale chairs the screen to make way immediately after a careful monitoring of industrial process plants, without forgetting the human and social side who performed with between whalers caught dancing (all men) and their amusements, sack races and other games.

As stated in the DVD commentary, the film moves forward a few decades the British documentary. It is true, as is also that many of parts that houses the DVD are related or are initiators of technical and thematic aspects of the diverse film pioneers laid the foundations on which in the decades of 1910 and 1920 he built the cinema, both in the documentary field, as in the structure of comedies and dramas, as well as visual imagery of fantasy. Some mischievous kids, a motorist passing Saturn, a whaler tearing an enormous whale, a policeman beaten, two players fighting away from the camera, a woman fleeing her mother's role tax or a man trying to get rid of their costumes, including others, contributed.