1901-1910

  • Walter R. Booth – The Sorcerer’s Scissors (1907)

    1901-1910AnimationShort FilmUnited KingdomWalter R. Booth
    The Sorcerer's Scissors (1907)
    The Sorcerer’s Scissors (1907)

    This stunning example of Edwardian cut-and-paste creativity, powered by magical scissors and Hunts Fish Glue, is part of the origin story of British animation. Former stage magician and special effects pioneer Walter Booth was one of the pioneers in adding stop-motion filming frame by frame to make static objects and still images appear to move to the filmmakers armoury.Read More »

  • D.W. Griffith – The Golden Supper (1910)

    D.W. Griffith1901-1910DramaSilentUSA
    The Golden Supper (1910)
    The Golden Supper (1910)

    Quote:
    Lionel and Julian both love Camilla, but she marries Lionel. After half a year, she falls ill and dies. Julian visits her in the tomb, and kissing her hand seems to bring her back to life. Back at the palace, Lionel is nowhere to be found. His heartbreak has prompted him to become a hermit. When Julian sees how Camilla is suffering from Lionel’s absence, he decides to look for him. During a golden feast in honour of Camilla’s return, Lionel comes home. After a touching reunion, the generous Julian once again remains alone.Read More »

  • D.W. Griffith – Rose o’ Salem Town (1910)

    1901-1910D.W. GriffithDramaSilentUSA

    Mark David Welsh wrote:
    A young girl living in Salem attracts the romantic attentions of both a frontiersman and one of the village elders. When she rejects the latter, he attempts to force her to accept him by accusing her of witchcraft…Read More »

  • August Blom – Den hvide slavehandel AKA The White Slave Trade (1910)

    1901-1910August BlomDenmarkDramaScandinavian Silent CinemaSilent

    Quote:
    Anna, a young girl from a poor but honest household, is offered an attractive position as a lady’s companion in London. Her childhood friend is worried, but she goes anyway. To Anna’s horror, the “distinguished house” turns out to be a brothel and her first customer soon awaits her. She manages to smuggle a letter for her parents out of the country, but what she doesn’t know is that her childhood friend Georg is already on his way to save her. Will Anna ever escape the white slave trade?Read More »

  • Louis Feuillade – Le pain quotidien AKA Our Daily Bread (1910)

    1901-1910DramaFranceLouis FeuilladeSilent

    A dour ten minutes during which a young woman takes the job a family man. Mostly of interest as a “glimpse of views on women’s emancipation and employment at a time when they were invading the office world as stenographers and typists” (Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi).Read More »

  • Cecil M. Hepworth – Baby’s Toilet (1905)

    1901-1910Cecil M. HepworthDocumentaryShort FilmUnited Kingdom

    Quote
    Baby’s Toilet is a 1905 British short film directed by Cecil Hepworth. The film features Hepworth’s baby daughter Elizabeth being bathed and dressed by her nurse, and was categorised by Hepworth as a “Domestic Scene”. In the film Hepworth combines a series of shots to produce a narrative depicting the bathing process from beginning to end. He would later acknowledge the influence of the pioneering work of the Lumière brothers on this and other similar films he produced in the 1900s. The print of Baby’s Toilet survives, and Patrick Russell of the British Film Institute observes: “Long after Elizabeth Hepworth’s own death, the affecting innocence of infancy remains a basic human theme. Baby’s Toilet has lost none of its charm.Read More »

  • D.W. Griffith – The Usurer (1910)

    1901-1910D.W. GriffithDramaSilentThe Birth of CinemaUSA

    A wealthy, callous moneylender finds a terrifying way to learn about money’s limitations.Read More »

  • D.W. Griffith & G.W. Bitzer – The Adventures of Dollie (1908)

    1901-1910ActionD.W. GriffithG.W. BitzerSilentThe Birth of Cinema

    On a warm and sunny summer’s day, a mother and father take their young daughter Dollie on a riverside outing. A gypsy basket peddler happens along, and is angered when the mother refuses to buy his wares. He attacks mother and daughter but is driven off by the father. Later the gypsy sneaks back and kidnaps the girl. A rescue party is organized but the gypsy conceals the child in a 30 gallon barrel which he precariously places on the tail of the wagon. He and his gypsy-wife make their getaway by fording the river with the wagon. The barrel, with Dollie still inside, breaks free, tumbling into into the river; it starts floating toward the peril of a nearby waterfall…
    Read More »

  • D.W. Griffith – The Unchanging Sea (1910)

    1901-1910D.W. GriffithDramaSilentUSA

    In this story set at a seaside fishing village and inspired by a Charles Kingsley poem, a young couple’s happy life is turned about by an accident. The husband, although saved from drowning, loses his memory. A child is on the way, and soon a daughter is born to his wife. We watch the passage of time, as his daughter matures and his wife ages. The daughter becomes a lovely young woman, herself ready for marriage. One day on the beach, the familiarity of the sea and the surroundings triggers a return of her father’s memory, and we are reminded that although people age and change, the sea and the ways of the fisherfolk remain eternal.Read More »

Back to top button