'Underneath'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
There's also a very surreal dream short called "Dream of a Rarebit Fiend,"
Based on the classic comic strip by Winsor McCay. Who also did one the earliest masterpieces in comic strips, Little Nemo In Slumberland and was also a pioneer in animation (cf., Gertie the Dinosaur).
That's a Winsor McCay story? Cool! I'm very familiar with Gertie, a very sweetly drawn dinosaur.
I'm very familiar with Gertie, a very sweetly drawn dinosaur.
He hand drew every frame. Draftmanship: not what it used to be.
I wish I could have seen one of his presentations with Gertie, when he'd stand on stage, run a clip of the cartoon, and then interact with Gertie by asking her questions, have her "do tricks" on his command, and otherwise use her as a partner in his stage show.
Wow! Gertie
Isn't she sweet? I love how McCay made her like an overgrown puppy. A very engaging character.
Oh, the other short that blew my mind on that Edison collection was a sound film from 1894. 1894!!! Remarkable.
Oh, the other short that blew my mind on that Edison collection was a sound film from 1894.
Is that the one with William Dickson playing the violin? Actually, it made a lot of sense for Edison to experiment with sound-on-disc. He initially saw the cinema as a sort of phonograph-for-the-eyes anyway, hence the Kinetoscope.
Both The Great Train Robbery and Dream of a Rarebit Fiend are by Edwin S. Porter, one of the most interesting characters in early cinema, and arguably the first important American director.
Is that the one with William Dickson playing the violin?
Yep.
The star of The Great Train Robbery (at least, the bad guy featured at the end, shooting at the camera) was Bronco Billy Anderson, who went on to co-found Essenay Studios in Chicago (he was the "A" in S&A = Essanay), where Charlie Chaplin made some of his early films. The studio building is still there, now occupied by a college, and the main studio space is being used as a lecture hall.
Edwin S. Porter, one of the most interesting characters in early cinema, and arguably the first important American director.
Is this the same guy who had Wormwood's Dog and Monkey Travelling Movie Show? It showed the first motion pictures in Nova Scotia, and a much beloved, but now closed rep cinema was named after it.