Early cinema. Vol. 02

Selected and compiled by the British Film Institute Film and Video Library, this 2 part series on early cinema presents a variety of films from the pre-1910 period. The selection tries to represent issues that are currently written about and refutes claims that “primitive” filmmaking was a series of progressive movements towards classic narrative cinema. Titles from the Hepworth Manufactury Company include: “How it feels to be run over” (dir. Cecil Hepworth); “Explosion of a motor car” (dir. Hepworth); “Rescued by Rover” (dirs. Lewin Fitzhamon and possibly Hepworth); “The Other side of the hedge” (dir. Fitzhamon); “That fatal sneeze” (dir. Fitzhamon). Titles from the Cricks and Martin Studio include: “A Visit to Peek Frean and Co.’s biscuit works”. Titles from the Kineto Production Company include: “A Day in the life of a coalminer”. Titles from the Pathe Freres studio include: “Par le trou de serrure (Peeping Tom)”; “Histoire d’un crime” (dir. Ferdinand Zecca); Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs” (dir. Zecca); “Reve et realite (dir. possibly Zecca); “La Revolution en Russie (Les Evenements d’Odessa/Le cuirasse Potemkine/Revolution in Odessa)” (dir. Lucien Nouquet); “Aladin ou la lampe merveilleuse”; “Le Cheval emballe” (dir. Zecca); “The Physican of the castle”; “Magic bricks” (dir. Gaston Velle). Titles from the Edison Manufacturing Company include: “Dewar’s - it’s scotch”; “The Gay shoe clerk” (dir. Edwin s Porter); “The Great train robbery” (dir. Porter); and “The Dream of a rarebit fiend”. A voiceover provides a brief overview of each production studio prior, and during the presentation of films the studio has produced. Piano accompaniment by Neil Brand.