{"id":16404,"date":"2024-04-27T21:00:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T01:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=16404"},"modified":"2024-04-24T10:28:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T14:28:11","slug":"some-pre-1908-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/16404","title":{"rendered":"Some Pre-1908 Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"

Films Chronophotographiques (1889-1904, \u00c9tienne-Jules Marey)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I, who am easily amused, spent a Saturday night watching 1890s motion tests while listening to the new Maya Shenfeld album. After dropping cats from a height to see how they land, it focused on naked musclemen walking and jumping and doing olympic sports, which was less of interest. I felt like rewatching Nope<\/a><\/em>, Katy brought up All Light, Everywhere<\/a><\/em>. The editor saved the best for last (birds).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nThe Little Match Seller<\/em> (1902, James Williamson)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like how adding film grain helps digital compositing look more natural, falling snow makes the dreamy matchlight photo effects hold together. The actor’s gesture – hands reaching out to the phantom roast turkey to hands over face crying – is really good. Even shorter than other versions<\/a> I’ve seen.<\/p>\n

–
\nThe Big Swallow<\/em> (1901, James Williamson)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early meta-film, guy with appallingly large collar gets agitated and swallows the camera and crew, beautifully done.<\/p>\n

–
\nSomething Good: Negro Kiss<\/em> (1898, William Nicholas Selig)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Something good: the woman has crazy shoulders on her dress, resists his advances for a few seconds then gets into it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nThe Merry Frolics of Satan<\/em> (1906, Georges M\u00e9li\u00e8s)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alternating between sepia-toned and hand-tinted, a proto-Monty Python comedy – this is a movie that opens with an ass-kicking machine. Trick props and sets, a phantom carriage, everything transforming then demons coming out of nowhere. I put on Stereolab’s “Soop Groove #1” into “Metronomic Underground”, opened my eyes wide, and lost my mind completely. No idea what Satan is up to here, then it ends abruptly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nThe Mysterious Retort<\/em> (1906, Georges M\u00e9li\u00e8s)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quite short, and I was still recovering from the satanic spell cast by the previous movie, I have no recollection of this. A lab experiment gone wrong?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

–
\nThe Witch<\/em> (1906, Georges M\u00e9li\u00e8s)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t like to say “that artist crazy, he on drugs,” I like to respect the creative process, but Georges Melies crazy, he on drugs. Lovely coloring, I dunno what to say about story – I looked up from typing that last sentence and everyone had turned into frogs or snakes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Films Chronophotographiques (1889-1904, \u00c9tienne-Jules Marey) I, who am easily amused, spent a Saturday night watching 1890s motion tests while listening to the new Maya Shenfeld album. After dropping cats from a height to see how they land, it focused on naked musclemen walking and jumping and doing olympic sports, which was less of interest. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[838,842,2445,541,320],"class_list":["post-16404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie","tag-1900s","tag-devil","tag-horses","tag-melies","tag-witches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16440,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16404\/revisions\/16440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}