INTRODUZIONE
Il nome "Biograph" viene generalmente associato a quello
di D.W. Griffith, che fu ingaggiato dallAmerican Biograph nel 1908.
Ma nella marea di proiettori dai nomi stravaganti che nei primi anni del
cinema facevano a gara tra di loro per attirare lattenzione del
pubblico, quello denominato Biograph era un apparecchio superiore agli
altri in quanto offriva immagini più nitide, più stabili
e più grandi, suscitando un reale stupore in tutti coloro che le
vedevano. Il segreto del suo successo stava nella pellicola non perforata
larga circa 70mm, cui si aggiungeva il carattere internazionale dei soggetti
presentati e una raffinata e selettiva politica distributiva, con gli
spettacoli che venivano tutti effettuati sotto il diretto controllo della
compagnia.
Sorta nel 1896 con il nome di American Mutoscope Company (il mutoscopio
era un visore a manovella che impiegava le stesse immagini e che portò
allinvenzione del Biograph), nel 1897 la società si espanse
in vari paesi europei: ed è proprio la produzione della Biograph
inglese, olandese, francese e tedesca al centro della retrospettiva delle
Giornate 2000.
I film provengono da due grosse collezioni Biograph conservate presso
il National Film and Television Archive di Londra e il Nederlands Filmmuseum
di Amsterdam, anche se il restauro finale è stato curato dal solo
Filmmuseum. "70mm" è un termine fuorviante, in quanto
la larghezza della pellicola era originariamente indicata in pollici
2 pollici e 23/32esimi, per la precisione e limmagine era
più quadrata di quella del moderno 70mm, più vicina in effetti
al formato IMAX. I film restaurati sono stati comunque stampati su pellicola
a 35mm, con una perdita minima, se non nulla, nellimmagine.
I titoli selezionati per questa retrospettiva a partire dai circa 300
originali conservati nei due archivi e risalenti agli anni 1896-1903 sono
stati suddivisi in undici programmi, in base al tema o alle soluzioni
stilistiche adottate. Ma possono anche essere apprezzati in quanto esemplificativi
della vasta gamma di soggetti che resero famoso il nome Biograph. La comicità
grossolana (The Amorous Guardsman) si mescola con il dramma classico
(King John), la gente qualunque ("The Lane" on Sunday
Morning) con i potenti (Pope Leo XIII); vi troviamo lesempio
salace (Phillis Was Not Dressed to Receive Callers) e quello solenne
(Battleship "Odin" with All Her Guns in Action), la motivazione
commerciale (The Spirit of His Forefathers) e il gusto del bello
(Pelicans at the Zoo). Ci sono importanti servizi sul processo
Dreyfus e sulla guerra anglo-boera. Ci sono molti viaggi in treno. Anche
ridotti a 35mm, questi film ci fanno capire perché il giornalista
R.H. Mere abbia intitolato il suo articolo apparso in Pearsons
Magazine del febbraio 1899 "Le meraviglie del Biograph".
Con le loro dimensioni, la loro nitidezza e la loro iperrealtà
questi film facevano sensazione allepoca e non sono meno sensazionali
oggi.
Oltre ad attestare la varietà dei materiali conservati, questi
undici programmi illustrano allo spettatore vari aspetti del cinema delle
origini. Le copie proiettate hanno le didascalie in inglese al fine di
facilitare la circolazione dei film anche al di fuori delle Giornate.
La selezione è stata stata effettuata da Nico de Klerk, con laiuto
di Mark van den Tempel e di altri collaboratori del Nederlands Filmmuseum.
Liniziativa è stata sostenuta dal Ministero degli Esteri
olandese (HGIS). Uno speciale ringaziamento va a Barry Anthony, che ha
permesso lidentificazione di un gran numero di film, e alle Giornate
del Cinema Muto, il cui desiderio di presentare la collezione Biograph
ha dato il la alla realizzazione di questa rassegna. Luke McKernan
A proposito del formato Biograph
La corretta definizione del formato della pellicola impiegata dalla
Biograph è tuttora controversa. Luke McKernan, co-curatore del
numero speciale di Griffithiana dedicato allAmerican Mutoscope
& Biograph, sottolinea che il termine "70mm" è utilizzato
in tutti gli articoli della rivista e in A Victorian Film Enterprise,
il notevole studio di Richard Brown e Barry Anthony sulla British Mutoscope
and Biograph Company. Negli annunci pubblicitari della Keystone Dry Plate
and Film si precisa che la "larghezza Biograph" è di
"due pollici e tre quarti", pari a 69,85mm (come segnala Mark
van den Tempel in una delle note che accompagnano larticolo da lui
scritto per il succitato fascicolo di Griffithiana). Nel suo Living
Pictures (1899) anche Henry V. Hopwood afferma che la "pellicola
impiegata ha una larghezza di 2 pollici e 3/4, mentre le immagini vere
e proprie misurano circa 2 pollici per 2,5". In una nota tecnica
sulla macchina da presa Mutograph, citata da Gordon Hendricks in Beginnings
of the Biograph (1964), Billy Bitzer si premura di segnalare che la
larghezza della pellicola è non di 2 pollici e 3/4 (ovvero 70mm),
bensì di 2 pollici e 23/32, vale a dire un po meno di 69mm.
Si potrebbe supporre che il formato prescelto avesse la larghezza originale
della pellicola Eastman, la quale piegata in due aveva già portato
al passo 35mm di Edison e dei Lumière. Ma Mark van den Tempel confirma
che "il Filmmuseum (e tra gli altri la Moving Image Society di Londra)
lo definisce come 68mm" e che i campioni misurati a caso dal Filmmuseum
hanno una larghezza variabile da 66 a 68mm. I fautori della denominazione
"68mm" sostengono che nessuno dei film sopravvissuti arriva
a misurare 70mm e che la teoria secondi cui tutti i film a 70mm si sarebbero
ristretti a 68mm non trova giustificazione in un analogo processo di contrazione
del 35mm nitrato, il quale non presenta una contrazione così sistematica
e di proporzioni paragonbili.
Scrive Paolo Cherchi Usai: "Un campione della collezione di Mutoscope
& Biograph conservata alla George Eastman House, misurato con un micrometro
di precisione con Mitutoyo, è risultato avere una larghezza di
67,05mm. Si sa che la pellicola di celluloide si restringe sia in larghezza
che in lunghezza, ma di rado mi sono capitati casi di 35mm con una contrazione
per ciò che riguarda la larghezza superiore al 2 per cento. Se
il Mutoscope & Biograph originale era di 70mm, la contrazione in questo
caso sarebbe del 4,21 per cento, che è decisamente più alta
di quanto io abbia mai potuto verifcare e che, secondo Edward E. Stratmann,
vice conservatore alla George Eastman House, è molto improbabile,
anche se teoricamente possibile. Se la pellicola originale era invece
di 68mm, la contrazione sarebbe allora dell1,39 per cento, che rientra
nei valori normali di contrazione di una copia nitrato."
Altrettanto convincente è Laurent Mannoni: egli ha attentamente
esaminato una delle tre macchine da presa Mutograph appartenenti alla
collezione Will Day conservata alla Cinématheque française,
confermando che la larghezza del meccanismo di trascinamento è
di 70mm esatti, per cui "sarebbe impossibile farvi passare una pellicola
di 70mm senza romperla". Mannoni segnala anche che la pellicola di
58mm usata da Gaumont era normalmente definita, da lui stesso, "60mm".
Tutto ciò considerato, in questo catalogo adotteremo la definzione
di "formato Biograph ridotto a 35mm". David Robinson
Problemi di identificazione
Le Giornate di questanno propongono una selezione di film Mutoscope
& Biograph appartenenti alle collezioni del Nederlands Filmmuseum
e del NFTVA. Noi ci auguriamo che, mentre vedete questi splendidi materiali,
possiate contribuire alla loro identificazione. I titoli in programma
sono qui di seguito elencati. Tra parentesi quadre compaiono i dati su
cui siamo ancora incerti. Se riconoscete un posto, una città, una
persona o identificate un film, potreste comunicarcelo via e-mail o via
posta? Ve ne saremmo davvero grati.
Indirizzo e-mail: Blameris@nfm.nl
Recapito postale: Bregtje Lameris, Postbus 74782, 1070 BT Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Tutte le copie in programma provengono dal Nederlands Filmmuseum, sono
in 35mm e sono state ricavate dagli originali in formato Biograph e saranno
proiettate a 30 fotogrammi al secondo. I dati riguardanti il metraggio
non sono stati forniti.
INTRODUCTION
The word "Biograph" is most strongly associated with D.W.
Griffith, who joined American Biograph in 1908. But amid the welter of
projectors with extravagant names that competed for the publics
attention in the very first years of cinema, the Biograph had established
itself as a product above the others, with a sharper, steadier, and far
larger screen image than any of its competitors, a true source of wonder
in all who saw it. The key to this success was the unperforated film of
approximately 70mm width that the Biograph projector used, coupled with
its choice of international subjects, and a policy of select and classy
presentation, with the company controlling all exhibitions that used this
unique system. There were, in fact, a number of Biograph companies, beginning
in 1896 with the American Mutoscope Company (the Mutoscope being the flip-card
viewer that employed the same images, and inspired the invention of the
Biograph), but in 1897 they expanded into Europe, and it is the product
of the British, Dutch, French, and German Biograph companies in particular
that is the subject of the series of programmes featuring in this years
Giornate.
The films come from two major collections of Biograph films in the
National Film and Television Archive (London) and the Nederlands Filmmuseum
(Amsterdam), though the final restorations were produced by the Filmmuseum
alone. "70mm" is a misleading term, as the film was originally
described in inches 2 and 23/32nds of an inch, to be precise
and the image was squarer than modern-day 70mm, and is closer in fact
to the IMAX format. The restorations, however, are on projectable 35mm,
with little or no image loss. The programmes have been compiled from the
approximately 300 originals dating 1896-1903 held by the two archives,
and have been arranged by the Filmmuseum in broadly thematic or stylistic
themes, though they can be enjoyed just as easily taken as a varied and
random selection of the kinds of films that first made the name Biograph
famous. Low comedy (The Amorous Guardsman) mixes with classical
drama (King John); ordinary folk (The Lane on Sunday
Morning) with the high and mighty (Pope Leo XIII); there is
the salacious (Phillis Was Not Dressed to Receive Callers), the
awe-inspiring (Battleship Odin with All Her Guns in Action),
the commercial (The Spirit of His Forefathers), and the simply
beautiful (Pelicans at the Zoo). There are important news reports
on the Dreyfus trial and the Anglo-Boer War. There are many journeys by
train. Even in their reduced, 35mm form, these films show why journalist
R.H. Mere called his article in Pearsons Magazine of February
1899 "The Wonders of the Biograph". Such films, in their size,
clarity, and super-reality, were the wonders of their age. They are no
less wondrous now.
For this occasion, the Nederlands Filmmuseum has compiled the films
into eleven programmes, in a way that does justice to the variety of the
material, but which also presents several aspects of early film-making
to the viewer. The programmes come in new 35mm projection prints with
English intertitles, to guarantee that these films will also have a life
in cinematheques after the Giornate.The compilations were made
by Nico de Klerk, with the help of Mark van den Tempel and others at the
Filmmuseum. This presentation was supported by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of The Netherlands (HGIS). Special thanks go out to Barry Anthony,
who contributed to the identification of a large number of films, and
to the Giornate del Cinema Muto, whose wish to present this collection
was the starting point to make these programmes. Luke McKernan
A Note on the Biograph Format
The correct designation of the film format employed by Biograph
remains a matter of controversy.
Luke McKernan, co-editor of the special American Mutoscope and
Biograph issue of Griffithiana, points out that in that publication
and in Richard Brown and Barry Anthonys comprehensive study of British
Mutoscope and Biograph, A Victorian Film Enterprise, the convention
of "70mm" has been generally adopted. The contemporary advertisements
of the Keystone Dry Plate and Film Works describe "Biograph width"
as "two and three quarter inches", i.e., 69.85mm (information
cited by Mark van den Tempel in a footnote to "Making Them Move Again",
in the Griffithiana Biograph issue). Henry V. Hopwoods Living
Pictures (1899) also says, "The film employed is 2 3/4 inches
in width, the pictures themselves measuring about 2 by 2 1/2 inches."
In a technical note on the Mutograph camera, cited in Gordon Hendricks
Beginnings of the Biograph (1964), Billy Bitzer is careful to give
the film width not as 2 3/4 inches (i.e., 70mm) but as 2 23/32 inches,
which is a fraction less than 69mm.
It is certainly tempting to suppose that the format chosen would
have been the standard Eastman width, which, split down the centre, had
already resulted in the Edison and Lumière standard gauge of 35mm.
However, Mark van den Tempel confirms that "the [Nederlands Filmmuseum]
(like among others the Moving Image Society in London) refers to it as
68mm" and that random samples measured by the Filmmuseum in the course
of the present restoration varied between 66mm and 68mm. Supporters of
the 68mm designation argue that no film appears to have surivived measuring
as much as 70mm in width; and that the theory that all 70mm film shrank
uniformly to 68mm cannot readily be justified by the analogy of 35mm nitrate
film, which does not exhibit a consistent shrinkage of comparable percentage.
Paolo Cherchi Usai writes, "Measurement of a Mutoscope and
Biograph film sample in the George Eastman House collection using a Mitutoyo
precision micrometer shows a width of 67.05mm. It is known that celluloid
film shrinks in both directions; however, I have rarely encountered 35mm
shrinking lengthwise at more than 2%. If the Mutoscope and Biograph film
was originally 70mm, then the shrinkage rate in this case would be 4.21%,
which is far more than I have ever experienced, and, in the opinion of
Edward E. Stratmann, assistant curator at George Eastman House, very unlikely,
although theoretically possible. If the film was originally 68mm, then
the shrinkage would be 1.39%, which is well within the parameters of a
normal shrinkage rate for a nitrate print."
Equally persuasively, Laurent Mannoni has meticulously examined
a Mutograph camera in the Will Day collection (one of the three held by
the Cinématheque Française) and confirms that the full width
of the transport mechanism (specifically the "débiteur")
is an exact 70mm, so that "it would be impossible to use 70mm film
in this without tearing it". Mannoni also points out that the 58mm
film stock used by Gaumont was and is regularly described as "60mm"
a convenient approximation even adopted by Gaumont himself.
Given
the unresolved question of the precise width of Biograph film, this catalogue
specifies simply "Biograph format, reduced to 35mm".
David Robinson
Problems of Identification
During this years festival
you will see a selection of Biograph and Mutoscope films from the collections
of the Nederlands Filmmuseum and the NFTVA. We invite you to enjoy this
beautiful material, and also to help us by doing a little bit of identification
work. Below is a list of the film titles which are going to be shown in
the various programmes. Some information is between square brackets; this
is information about which we are unsure. If you think you recognize a
place, a town, a person, or maybe even a whole film, please tell us. We
will be very grateful. Please send any information to:
e-mail: Blameris@nfm.nl
postal address: Bregtje Lameris, Postbus 74782, 1070 BT Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Note: All the prints in these 11 programmes are from the Nederlands
Filmmuseum. They are all 35mm, have been made directly from the original
Biograph format, and will be shown at 30 fps. It has not been possible
to ascertain lengths either in the original format or in the 35mm reduction
prints.
FILM IN PROGRAMMA / PROGRAMMES
1.Come rivolgersi al pubblico / Addressing the audience
(total: 1855")
MAXIM FIRING FIELD GUN ALDERSHOT (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, GB 1897) 045".
Hiram Stephen Maxim (1840-1916) was an American-born but British-naturalised
armaments manufacturer and aeronaut, best known for his invention of the
first automatic machine gun in 1884. DR
Nella gran parte dei film a soggetto della Biograph & Mutoscope,
gli attori orientavano il loro corpo, i gesti e gli sguardi frontalmente,
in direzione del pubblico. Molti di questi film prendevano esplicitamente
atto della presenza degli spettatori: per esempio gli attori si rivolgevano
verso di loro ammiccando. Non tutti i film comunque seguivano questo schema:
in alcuni il mondo della finzione è più autonomo.
In most of the Mutoscope & Biograph Companys fiction films,
actors oriented their bodies, gestures, and looks frontally towards
the audience. Many of these films,in fact, took their spectators explicitly
into account by winking, for instance. Not all films, however,
followed this pattern: in some, the fictional world was more self-contained.
[HERBERT CAMPBELL ALS LITTLE BOBBIE] (British Mutoscope
& Biograph Company, GB [1900]) 48ft., 30"
Herbert Campbell (1844-1904): attore del music-hall inglese noto soprattutto
per le annuali pantomime intepretate in coppia con Dan Leno al Drury Lane
negli ultimi due decenni dellOttocento. Rubicondo e corpulento,
egli deliziava il pubblico con i suoi costumi e le sue grottesche caratterizzazioni
di personaggi femminili e di bambini. DR
Herbert Campbell (1844-1904): English music hall comedian, best
known for his stage partnership with Dan Leno in the annual pantomimes
at Drury Lane in the last two decades of the 19th century. A stout, rubicund
man, he delighted audiences with his grotesque female and infant charaterisations
and costumes. DR
[EEN MAN VAN DE WERELD] / [A MAN OF THE WORLD] (British
Mutoscope & Biograph Company, GB [1900]) 035".
NAAR T TOLHUIS / [TO THE TOLHUIS] (Nederlandsche
Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL 1899) 030".
DE ZIEKE GEMEENTE-AMBTENAAR / [SICK MUNICIPAL CLERK] (Nederlandsche
Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL 1899) 030".
RUDGE AND WHITWORTH, BRITAINS BEST BICYCLE (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, GB 1902) 49ft., 030".
HE DIDNT FINISH THE STORY (American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, US 1899) 025".
CHARLIE WANTED THE EARTH (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 030".
HE AND SHE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
035".
A GOOD STORY (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
025".
THE SANDWICH MAN (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US 1899)
025".
THE BARBER SAW THE JOKE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB [1902]) 50ft., 030".
Anche le attualità avevano il loro modo di rivolgersi al pubblico,
ad esempio facendo vedere una scena da una prospettiva migliore di quella
che avevano coloro che assistevano personalmente a quella stessa scena.
Actualities, too, appear to have various modes of addressing their
audiences. There were films that gave the best possible vantage point,
probably even better than the spectators had who visited the event or
witnessed the scene itself.
WATER POLO WORTHING SWIMMING CLUB (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 040".
OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE BOAT RACE (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1899) 1.
A MULTICYCLE RACE (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
[WILHELM II OP KEIZERLIJK JACHT] / [WILHELM II ON ROYAL YACHT] (Deutsche
Mutoskop und Biograph Gesellschaft, D [1899]) 115".
FERRYBOAT AND TUG PASSING GOVERNORS ISLAND, NEW YORK HARBOR / [NEW
YORK HARBOR AND SOUTH BROOKLYN FERRY] (American Mutoscope Company,
US 1897) 50ft., 035".
PANORAMA OF GRAND HARBOUR, MALTA (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1901) 99ft., 1.
In certi soggetti questo punto di vista superiore serviva a far rivivere
unesperienza, a ricreare unemozione come, ad esempio, nelle
"corse dei treni fantasma". Qui lo spettatore veniva a trovarsi
in una posizione davvero unica, come se fosse alla guida di una locomativa,
per cui vedeva il paesaggio sfrecciare ai lati. Ma tutto sommato le attualità
erano un compromesso tra la possibilità di mostrare un evento e
quella di suscitare unemozione.
Some subjects utilized such a viewpoint, moreover, to re-create the
experience, or thrill, of the real event, as in the "phantom ride".
Here, the spectator was put in a unique position, at the front of the
locomotive as it were, thereby allowing him to see the landscape fly by
on both sides. But on the whole, most actualities were a trade-off between
showing an event and providing a thrill.
THROUGH MILLERS DALE (NEAR BUXTON, DERBYSHIRE) MIDLAND RAIL
/ THROUGH THE CHEE TOR TUNNEL IN DERBYSHIRE (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, GB 1899) 168ft., 200".
CLIMBING JACOBS LADDER (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 105".
DOWN MOUNT TOM (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US 1899)
130".
ELEPHANTS AT THE ZOO (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 035".
TAKING ON A PILOT (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 110".
A TUG IN HEAVY SEA (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB
1898) 025".
A BLAST AT THE SOLVAY QUARRIES (American Mutoscope Company, US
1898) 93ft., 1.
2. Dove piazzare la macchina da presa? / Where to place
the camera? (total: 2235")
[CHARGE OF THE CARABINEERS ALDERSHOT] (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB [1898]) 28ft., 020".
In esterni, una volta posizionata, la macchina da presa Mutograph aveva
dei seri limiti per quanto riguarda la possibilità di effettuare
panoramiche. Per riprendere in maniera più o meno completa unazione
preparata o meno che fosse o per seguire soggetti in movimento
lungo una certa traiettoria, gli operatori dovevano premurarsi di individuare
il punto di vista più vantaggioso.
On location, once it was set up, the Mutograph camera was often seriously
limited in making panning shots. In order to record a more or less complete
action - either staged or unstaged - or, more particularly, to follow
objects along a certain trajectory, camera operators were careful to choose
an advantageous, or at least the best possible, vantage point.
[HONDEKARREN] / [DOG PULLS CART IN FRONT OF MILL] (Nederlandsche
Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL [1898]) 045".
THRESHING MACHINE AT WORK (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897)
35ft., 030".
FEESTELIJK BEZOEK VAN HM KONINGIN WILHELMINA AAN ROTTERDAM /[ROYAL
VISIT OF QUEEN WILHELMINA TO ROTTERDAM] (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en
Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL 1899) 045".
[HUWELIJKSSTOET TER GELEGENHEID VAN HET HUWELIJK VAN WILHELMINA EN
HENDRIK] / [MARRIAGE PROCESSION OF QUEEN WILHELMINA AND PRINCE
HENDRIK] (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij,
NL 1901) 055".
JUMPING HURDLES (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
WHEN THE BUGLE SOUNDS CHARGE (Deutsche Mutoskop und
Biograph Gesellschaft, D 1899) 030".
MENAI BRIDGE, THE DAY IRISH MAIL FROM EUSTON ENTERING THE TUBULAR
BRIDGE OVER THE MENAI STRAITS (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 58ft., 040".
Quando si trattava di filmare oggetti che si muovevano velocemente la
scarsa mobilità della macchina da presa era compensata dalla possibilità
di sfruttare la profondità di campo. E se le carrellate erano inattuabili,
una soluzione molto efficace era quella di suggerire la continuazione
del movimento fuori campo oppure quella di far irrompere in campo loggetto
che doveva essere ripreso.
For recording fast-moving objects, the loss in camera mobility was
offset by, for instance, exploiting depth of field. And if, moreover,
tracking shots were impracticable, effective use was made of the frame
by suggesting the continuation of movement off-screen or by having objects
enter the shot suddenly.
LAUNCH OF THE OCEANIC (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Syndicate, GB 1899) 105".
THE ALBANY DAY BOATS (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
[EEN JACHT, EN PROFIL] / [YACHT, IN PROFILE?] (American
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US [1900]) 030".
SHAMROCK AND COLUMBIA (American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, US 1899) 122ft., 120".
[INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACES ON THE CLYDE] (American Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, US [1901]) 030".
[INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACES ON THE CLYDE] (American Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, US [1901]) 040".
COASTING ON SLEDS IN THE STOCKHOLM SPORT PARK ON SUNDAY (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1902) 040".
SHOOTING THE CHUTES (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896) 030".
EMPIRE STATE EXPRESS (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896) 020".
Un altro modo per far fronte alla scarsa maneggevolezza della ingombrante
macchina da presa a funzionamento elettrico era quello di piazzarla sopra
loggetto in movimento. Particolarmente riuscite erano le vedute
Biograph riprese da treni in movimento, le cosiddette "corse fantasma"
film che avevano spesso un effetto cinetico.
Another way to cope with the unwieldiness of the bulky, electrically-driven
camera was to put it on the moving object itself. Biograph was particularly
successful with its views shot from moving trains, so-called "phantom
rides", films which often had a kinetic effect.
BATTLESHIPS MAINE AND IOWA (American Mutoscope
Company, US 1897) 105".
FOUR WARSHIPS IN ROUGH SEAS (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB 1900) 35ft., 025".
[TRAM JOURNEY THROUGH SOUTHAMPTON] (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB [1900]) 99ft., 105".
IRISH MAIL L. & N.W. RAILWAY TAKING UP WATER AT
FULL SPEED (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 120".
FROM VAUDREUIL TO ST. ANNES (American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, US [1900]) 329ft., 345".
[RAILWAY TRIP THROUGH MOUNTAIN SCENERY AND TUNNELS] (American
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US [1900]) 96ft., 105".
ACROSS BROOKLYN BRIDGE (American Mutoscope Company, US 1899) 265ft.,
250".
3. Damigelle del XX secolo / "Twentieth-century
damsel" (total: 1410")
THE WONDERFUL MUTOSCOPE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB [1898]) 035".
Oltre ai film per il grande schermo, laltro importante settore
della Mutoscope & Biograph era la produzione destinata al mutoscopio,
un apparecchio a monetine destinato alla visione individuale: i fotogrammi
di un soggetto filmato venivano tutti stampati in sequenza su cartoncini
che, fatti scorrere, davano limpressione del movimento.
Il mutoscopio rappresentava unalternativa, spesso più economica,
per i soggetti più osé, di solito focalizzati sul corpo
femminile, in quanto non tutti i teatri di varietà in cui si proiettavano
i film Biograph erano disposti a presentare questi soggetti.
Besides film, the Mutoscope & Biograph Companys other major
product was the Mutoscope (also known as "what-the-butler-saw").
A Mutoscope was a slot machine for individual viewing in which all the
frames of a filmed subject were transferred to a flip-card system.
Mutoscopes were an alternative and often cheaper
venue for many of the companys risqué subjects, usually centring
on the female body, as not all variety theatres which featured the Biograph
showed these subjects.
A JUST CAUSE FOR DIVORCE (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 030".
A MOUSE IN A GIRLS DORMITORY (American Mutoscope Company,
US 1897) 035".
THE BLACK CAT AND THE DINNER FOR TWO (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Syndicate, GB [1898]) 035".
TOLHUIS! KIELE! KIELE! (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij,
NL 1899) 030".
THE FEMALE DRUMMER (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US
1899) 040".
HAZING AFFAIR IN A GIRLS BOARDING SCHOOL (American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, US 1899) 030".
THE STOLEN STOCKINGS (American Mutoscope Company, US 1898) 030".
THE NURSES JOKE (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 030".
AN INTERRUPTED SITTING (American Mutoscope Company, US 1898) 030".
[SLAAPKAMERPRET] / [FUN IN THE BEDROOM] (Biograph and Mutoscope
Company for France, F [1899]) 030".
THE FINISH OF MR. FRESH (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 035".
Il contenuto e i luoghi in cui erano piazzati i mutoscopi ci fanno capire
che la produzione della compagnia era rivolta a pubblici diversi, distinti
per ceto sociale. Di conseguenza, subrettine, cuoche e domestiche varie
popolavano le storielle più osé. Si vedono anche donne in
situazioni e ambienti meno rispettabili e più realistici, ad esempio
mentre fumano e bevono in locali pubblici.
The content and placement of the Mutoscopes illustrate that the companys
output was directed at various target audiences, identified by class distinctions.
Concordantly, characters such as soubrettes, cooks, and other servants
peopled the more risqué subjects. They also showed women in less
respectable, even more "realistic" settings and situations,
such as bars, where they smoked and drank in public.
[ONGEWENST VADER] / [UNWILLING FATHERHOOD] (Deutsche
Mutoskop und Biograph Gesellschaft, D [1900]) 040".
[GEEN BEDELAARS IN DE KEUKEN] /[NO BEGGARS IN THE KITCHEN]
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB [1898]) 030".
THE AMOROUS GUARDSMAN (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 040".
THE PRICE OF A KISS (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 030".
A BOWERY CAFE (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
HER FIRST CIGARETTE (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 040".
Nei mutoscopi cera tuttavia spazio anche per rappresentazioni femminili
più accettabili tratte, ad esempio, da opere teatrali o dalle attualità.
In alcune di queste ultime vediamo in particolare donne che camminano
da sole per le strade affollate o che si divertono in piscina.
La maggior indipendenza che le donne "damigelle del XX secolo",
tanto per citare il catalogo Biograph dimostrano in tutti questi
film riflette il cambiamento nelle norme comportamentali e di etichetta
che si era verificato sul finire del XIX secolo.
Nevertheless, such candid images permeated to representations of women
in more acceptable subjects, too: excerpts from stage plays, for instance,
or actualities. A few actualities, in particular, captured the look of
contemporary women as they walked busy city streets unchaperoned, or moved
about freely in a swimming pool.
All these films shared a representation of women "twentieth-century
damsels", in Biograph catalogue parlance as more independent,
a reflection of change in rules of deportment and etiquette in the late
nineteenth century.
DUEL TO THE DEATH (FROM THE MELODRAMA WOMEN AND WINE)
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 030".
[AN INTERRUPTED KISS] (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB [1898]) 040".
LOVES YOUNG DREAM (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897)
030".
ARMOR VS. AMOUR (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US 1899)
030".
UNION SQUARE NEW YORK (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896)
45ft., 030.
VIEW ON BOULEVARD, NEW YORK CITY (American Mutoscope Company,
US 1896) 030".
IN A GERMAN BATH (Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph Gesellschaft,
D 1899) 1.
4. "Les feuilles remuaient au vent" (total:
1635")
AMERICAN FALLS, GOAT ISLAND (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896)
030".
La Mutoscope & Biograph filmò molti soggetti che non avevano
un valore intrinseco, cose non particolarmente degne di nota che si potevano
vedere dovunque, ogni giorno: uccelli in volo, bambini che giocano, biancheria
stesa ad asciugare e fatta agitare dal vento. Naturalmente ciò
che molti di questi soggetti avevano in comune era il movimento, che era
impossibile, o perlomeno difficile, da controllare e predire: il movimento
dellacqua, del fumo, della folla, dei bambini, degli animali.
The Mutoscope & Biograph Company selected many subjects for filming
that lacked any intrinsic value, uneventful things one could see every
day, everywhere: birds flying, children playing, or laundry flapping in
the wind. What many of these subjects had in common, of course, was movement,
which was impossible, certainly difficult, to control or predict: water,
smoke, crowds, children, or animals.
SAD SEA WAVES (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 46ft., 030".
FEEDING SEAGULLS OFF THE IRISH COAST / [FEEDING THE SEAGULLS] (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1899) 47ft., 030".
[FUN ON A SAND HILL] (Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph Gesellschaft,
D [1899]) 035".
SKATING IN CENTRAL PARK (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1900) 050".
[HORSE RACE AT EPSOM] (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB [1899]) 045".
A PILLOW FIGHT (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
[KINDERSPEL] / [CHILDS PLAY] (American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, US [1899]) 035".
EEN KINDERFEEST OP HET EILAND MARKEN / [A CHILDRENS PARTY
ON THE ISLAND OF MARKEN] (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij,
NL [1899]) 115".
AN IRISH PEASANT SCENE FEEDING PIGS (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1899) 030".
A STABLE ON FIRE (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896) 025".
[MAIDENHEAD JUNCTION] (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB [1898]) 035".
Come soggetti filmati, tuttavia, non erano per nulla insignificanti.
Esaltavano infatti le possibilità delle apparecchiature cinematografiche,
quelle Biograph in particolare. Grazie alla velocità di scorrimento
(30 fotogrammi al secondo), al formato più largo (68mm), alla superiorità
delle immagini proiettate (più nitide, più stabili e più
grandi), i film Biograph erano recensiti con ammirato entusiasmo sia che
mostrassero rapidi in corsa ("a sessanta miglia orarie"), lintenso
traffico cittadino ("un trionfo del realismo"), volti ("si
vedono distintamente i lineamenti") o che, come diversivo, venissero
proiettati allincontrario.
As filmed subjects, however, they were not at all insignificant. They
celebrate as it were the possibilities of the cinematic and, in particular,
the Biograph apparatus. Because of its recording speed (30 frames per
second), wider gauge (68mm), and its superior projection (a clear and
stable image of larger dimensions), Biographs films of many different
subjects were reviewed with equal admiration, whether they showed the
fastest trains ("at sixty miles speed"), busy city traffic ("a
triumph of realism"), faces ("one can see clearly every feature"),
or, as comic relief, the world in reverse.
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS THE FATEFUL LETTER (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 035".
KEYSTONE EXPRESS (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 025".
HAVERSTRAW TUNNEL (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 1.
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1897) 030".
[IN THE FRIEDRICHSTRASSE] (Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph GmbH.,
D [1899]) 110".
JUMBO, HORSELESS FIRE-ENGINE (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897)
020".
[MOLENS VAN DE ZAANSTREEK] / [MILLS FROM THE ZAANSTREEK] ([British
Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate], GB? [1899]) 050".
[HOLLANDSE VISSERVLOOT] / [DUTCH FISHING BOATS] (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 035".
AMERICAN FALLS, LUNA ISLAND [reversed] (American Mutoscope Company,
US 1896) 030".
"Les feuilles remuaient au vent", esclamò Georges Méliès
vedendo le foglie mosse dal vento in un film Lumière che mostrava
una scena domestica. Nei film delle origini gli effetti del vento, il
gioco dellacqua, il riflesso della luce el sole potevano attirare
lattenzione dello spettatore anche in scene di evidente interesse
cronachistico, militare o nazionale, e persino in quelle di non fiction.
"Les feuilles remuaient au vent" "The leaves
were moving in the wind," Georges Méliès exclaimed
while watching a Lumière film of a domestic scene. In fact, in
early films the effects of the wind, as well as the play of water or the
reflection of sunlight, may have caught spectators eyes, even in
scenes of obviously topical, military, or national interest, or in scenes
of obviously fictional intent.
NINTH REGIMENT, N.G.N.S.Y. (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 105".
GERMAN GARDE KURASSIERS (Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph Gesellschaft,
D 1900) 010".
AMSTERDAMS VREEMDELINGENVERKEER / [AMSTERDAMS TOURISM] (Nederlandsche
Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL 1899) 030".
STILL WATERS RUN DEEP (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
WATER POLO WORTHING SWIMMING CLUB (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 16ft., 010".
[GERMAN BATTLESHIP KAISER WILHELM II] (Deutsche Mutoskop
und Biograph Gesellschaft, D 1900) 015".
LANDING AT VILLEFRANCHE FROM U.S. CRUISER OLYMPIA (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1899) 030".
5 . Le attualità / Yesterdays news
(total: 1725")
[AMERICAN BIOGRAPH AT THE PALACE] (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1899) 035".
One of the great 19th-century London music halls, the Palace Theatre
was built by Richard DOyly Carte and originally opened on 31 January
1891 as the Royal English Opera House. Less than two years later it was
taken over by the great impresario Sir Augustus Harris, who in turn ceded
the management to Charles Morton, who re-established its fortunes as the
Palace Theatre of Varieties. Attracting some of the most prestigious music
hall acts of the day including the Biograph itself the Palace
flourished as a variety theatre until 1914, after which it turned to revue
and subsequently every kind of show, with emphasis on large-scale musicals.
In recent years it was taken over by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
DR
Molti dei programmi della Mutoscope & Biograph erano basati principalmente
su materiali di attualità. Ieri come oggi le notizie si accumulavano
e i principali fatti di cronaca finivano spesso con loccupare buona
parte del tempo disponibile per le proiezioni. Uno di questi soggetti
fu lincoronazione della regina Guglielmina dOlanda nel settembre
del 1908.
Many of the Mutoscope & Biograph Companys film programmes
consisted largely of actuality material that reflected the events of the
day. Yesterdays news tended to pile up just as today's does; and
the top stories could easily fill a sizeable amount of the film programmes
allotted screening time. One such story was the coronation of the Dutch
Queen Wilhelmina, in September 1898.
PLECHTIGE INTOCHT VAN H.M. KONINGIN WILHELMINA IN AMSTERDAM /
[OFFICIAL ENTRY OF QUEEN WILHELMINA INTO AMSTERDAM ] (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Sydicate, GB 1898) 040".
ARRIVAL OF THE QUEEN AT THE PALACE, AMSTERDAM (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Sydicate, GB 1898) 120".
REVIEW OF THE ROYAL NETHERLANDS GUARDS IN THE COSTUMES OF THE MIDDLE
AGES (British Mutoscope and Biograph Sydicate, GB 1898) 050".
THE ROYAL PROCESSION TO THE CHURCH BEFORE THE CORONATION CEREMONY
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Sydicate, GB 1898) 025".
THE ROYAL PROCESSION FROM THE CHURCH AFTER THE CEREMONY (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Sydicate, GB 1898) 010".
THE QUEEN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER ON THE PALACE BALCONY RESPONDING TO
THE CALL OF THE POPULACE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Sydicate,
GB 1898) 025".
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1880-1962) succeeded to the throne
at the age of 10 on the death of her father King Wilhelm III. Her mother
remained regent until her coming of age in 1898. Her beauty and dignity
enchanted the populace and re-established the waning popularity of the
House of Orange-Nassau. In the First World War she declared the governments
intention to maintain the neutrality and integrity of the Netherlands.
In the Second World War she moved with her government-in-exile to Britain,
where she was a symbol of resistance to Nazism and, with her generally
dowdy appearance, was a figure of great affection and esteem for the British
population. She returned to the Netherlands at the moment of liberation
and was welcomed home with delirious enthusiasm. Ill-health persuaded
her to abdicate in favour of her daughter Juliana in 1948, after which
she retired to her palace Het Loo, near Apeldoorn, Gelderland.
DR
Inserite in un programma di varietà, a loro volta le attualità
Biograph proponevano una varietà di argomenti, unendo il pezzo
serio a quello leggero, la cronaca locale a quella internazionale.
Part of a larger variety programme, the Biograph actualities themselves
were quite varied, too. A Biograph film programme combined heavier and
lighter, local and international, news items.
BLOEMENCORSO TE HAARLEM OP 4 JUNI 1899 / [FLOWER PARADE AT
HAARLEM] (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij,
NL 1899) 030".
THE GREAT OTTAWA FIRE (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1900) 110".
BUMPING RACE (CAMBRIDGE MAY RACES) (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1899) 030".
LA SORTIE DU CONGRES DE VERSAILLES (Biograph and Mutoscope Company
for France, F 1899) 045".
THE MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF CREWE AND LADY PEGGY PRIMROSE
AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1899)
105".
FROM WAR TO PEACE FIRST DEPARTURE OF SS ST. LOUIS
FROM SOUTHAMPTON (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
1.
THE MARDI GRAS CARNIVAL (American Mutoscope Company, US 1898)
150".
A differenza di oggi, le attualità Biograph comprendevano anche
versioni romanzate o metaforiche dei fatti di cronaca. Spesso le immagini
o le vicende proposte erano, quando andava bene, vere a metà. Il
caso Dreyfus, a parte le riprese riguardanti il processo vero e proprio,
ispirò un sacco di materiali del genere.
Very unlike todays news was the inclusion of fictionalized versions
of or allusions to the events of the day. More often than not, such subjects
represented images or stories that were half true, to say the least. The
Dreyfus case, apart from footage of events surrounding the trial itself,
generated a number of such spin-offs.
[DREYFUS, CAPTAIN ALFRED] (Biograph and Mutoscope for France,
F 1899) 410".
[NA DE RECHTZAAK] / [AFTER THE SESSION OF THE COURT] (Biograph
and Mutoscope for France, F 1899) 045".
THE ZOLA-ROCHEFORT DUEL, PARIS (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Syndicate, GB 1898) 045".
AMANN, THE GREAT IMPERSONATOR (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1899) 46ft., 030".
6. Che bella parata! / "I love a parade" (total:
1805")
CHARGE PAR ESCADRONS, EXECUTEE PAR LE 1ER REGT. DE CUIRASSIERS
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1897) 050".
Le parate erano un fenomeno ricorrente nella vita pubblica di fine secolo.
Bambini, studenti, monaci, capi di stato tutti partecipavano
a parate, marce, cortei, sfilate. Le immagini delle parate contrastavano
con il caos della vita urbana che le prime macchine da presa coglievano
così magnificamente. Le parate offrivano un tipo di spettacolo
diverso, in cui lordine regnava in ogni direzione.
Parades were a recurrent phenomenon of turn-of-the-century public life.
Children, students, monks, heads of state everybody participated
in parades, marches, pageants, or processions. Views of parades contrasted
with the chaos of city life that early film cameras captured so beautifully.
But here was a different kind of spectacle, in which order reigned in
every direction.
DE WEESHUIS-QUAESTIE / [ORPHANAGE QUESTION] (Nederlandsche Biograaf-
en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL 1899) 025".
DE LEIDSCHE STUDENTEN-FEESTEN / [STUDENT CELEBRATIONS, LEYDEN]
(Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL 1900) 115".
FAMOUS PROCESSION OF THE CORPUS DOMINI (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 035".
PARADE, AMERICUS CLUB, CANTON OHIO (American Mutoscope Company,
US 1896) 035".
PARADE, SOUND MONEY CLUB, CANTON, O. (American Mutoscope Company,
US 1896) 125".
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND AND PRESIDENT MCKINLEY (American Mutoscope
Company, US 1897) 030".
Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was 22nd and 24th President of
the United States the only President to serve for two non-consecutive
terms, 1885-1889 and 1893-97. The first Democratic President elected after
the Civil War, he was known for his stand against corruption in public
life. In 1895 he initiated arbitration proceedings that eventually settled
a territorial dispute with Britain over the borders of Venezuela.
William McKinley (1843-1901), 25th President of the United States,
was born in Ohio and first elected to Congress in 1876. The markedly imperialistic
policy of his regime led to the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the annexation
of the Philippines. His assassination at the Temple of Music of the Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo, NY, on 6 September 1901 by the anarchist Louis
Czolgosz gave the cinema one of its earliest sensational actualities.
DR
EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF GERMANY (Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph
Gesellschaft, D 1899) 115".
LONDON FIRE BRIGADE, ALARM (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB 1899) 030".
AWAY ALOFT (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
030".
PASSAGE DES PORTIQUES (ECOLE DE GYMNASTIQUE DE JOINVILLE) (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1897) 035".
A sfilare erano innanzi tutto i soldati. La Mutoscope & Biograph
ha ripreso se non allestito una quantità enorme di
scene in cui si vedono fanti e cavalleggeri sfilare o dare la carica in
formazioni talora mozzafiato.
Nello stesso tempo la Biograph era interessata a mostrare le conquiste
tecnologiche dellepoca. Ma sono proprio i film in cui si vedono
gli ultimi ritrovati in fatto di armi a preannunciare la fine di questa
forma di spettacolo militare. In epoca moderna la parata non sarebbe più
stata concepita come una forma di azione militare.
The paraders par excellence were, of course, soldiers. The Mutoscope
& Biograph Company recorded if not staged an enormous
amount of military views in which cavalry and infantry filed or charged
past in sometimes breathtaking formations.
At the same time, Biograph was also interested in showing contemporary
technological achievements.
Ironically, its films of newly-designed weapons spelled this form
of military spectacles doom. The modern age would annihilate the
parade as a significant form of military action.
MILITARY REVIEW AT ALDERSHOT (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1897) 025".
THE ROYAL LEINSTER REGIMENT (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1900) 1.
GERMAN LANCERS (Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph Gesellschaft, D
1899) 105".
[CHARGE OF THE LANCERS ALDERSHOT] (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, GB 1898) 030".
FIRING THE MAXIM GUN (British Mutoscope and Biograph Sydicate,
GB 1897) 045".
Hiram Stephen Maxim (1840-1916) was an American-born but British-naturalised
armaments manufacturer and aeronaut, best known for his invention of the
first automatic machine gun in 1884.
INCH DISAPPEARING CARRIAGE GUN LOADING AND FIRING, SANDY HOOK (American
Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
LAUNCH OF H.M. BATTLESHIP "FORMIDABLE" AT PORTSMOUTH
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 1.
Nei materiali Biograph sulla guerra anglo-boera guerra che combinava
il vecchio e il nuovo le parate hanno solo una funzione cerimoniale.
Anzi finiscono col segnalare le scene predisposte per lobiettivo,
giacché con le nuove armi sarebbe stato impossibile effettuare
certe riprese se non mantenendosi a distanza di sicurezza rispetto al
fronte.
Delle decine di film girati durante questa guerra, sono pochi quelli sopravvissuti.
Li riproponiamo in ordine rigorosamente cronologico.
In Biographs footage of the Anglo-Boer War, a war that combined
the old and the modern, parades only have a ceremonial function. In fact,
they became a sign of staging, as modern weaponry only allowed such scenes
to be taken at a safe distance from the front line.
Of the dozens of films made during this war, only a handful have
come down to us. They are shown here in a strictly chronological order.
PANORAMIC VIEW OF FRERE CAMP TAKEN FROM THE FRONT OF AN ARMOURED TRAIN
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1899) [030"].
BRIDGING THE TUGELA RIVER BY ROYAL ENGINEERS SHOWING BRIDGE DESTROYED
BY THE BOERS (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1899)
030".
RIFLE HILL SIGNAL STATION NEAR FRERE CAMP (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, GB 1899) 46ft., 030".
BOMBARDMENT OF COLENSO BY 4.7 GUNS OF HMS TERRIBLE (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1899) 025".
SEIZING A KOPJE NEAR SPION KOP BY LORD DUNDONALDS TROOPERS (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1899) 030".
OPERATIONS OF RED CROSS AMBULANCES AFTER SPION KOP (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, GB 1900) 030".
GORDON HIGHLANDERS IN LADYSMITH (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1900) 51ft., 030".
LADYSMITH NAVAL BRIGADE DRAGGING 4.7 GUNS INTO LADYSMITH (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1900) 030".
BLOEMFONTEIN: UNFURLING THE FLAG (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1900) 48ft., 030".
7. La gente davanti alla macchina da presa / People in front
of a camera (total: 2035")
[PRINSENGRACHT] (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij,
NL [1898]) 110".
La novità della macchina da presa suscitò fra la gente reazioni
disparate. Mentre certi non sembravano per nulla colpiti e neanche interessati,
altri interrompevano le loro attività per esaminare il nuovo aggeggio.
Alcuni arrivavano persino a interagire con esso.
As a new element in public life, the film camera elicited a variety
of responses. While many people appear not to be impressed or even interested,
others can be seen to interrupt their business in order to examine this
new contraption. Some even stepped up their acknowledgement by interacting
with it.
THE LANE ON SUNDAY MORNING (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Syndicate, GB 1899) 030".
[THE HENLEY REGATTA] (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB 1901) 61ft., 045".
[DE BOULEVARD VAN SCHEVENINGEN] / [THE BOULEVARD OF SCHEVENINGEN]
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 030".
EEN TRAMBESTORMING OP ZONDAG OP DEN DAM / [STORMING THE TRAM AT THE
DAM] (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL
1899) 040".
[AMERICAN BIOGRAPH IN CIRCUS O. CARRÉ] (Nederlandsche Biograaf-
en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL [1898]) 045".
VENICE, FEEDING THE PIGEONS IN ST. MARKS SQUARE (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 050".
THE GEORGETOWN LOOP (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1901) 161ft., 145".
Al fine di evitare che guardassero direttamente in macchina, le persone
venivano filmate mentre erano intente nelle loro occupazioni o mentre
assistevano a cerimonie, predisposte o meno che fossero per le riprese.
Tuttavia, quando qualcuno riusciva a manifestare la propria consapevolezza
di essere davanti a un obiettivo, le esigenze della situazione permettevano
soltanto un rapido sguardo.
People were often filmed while engrossed in professional or ceremonial
activities, either staged or unstaged, effectively preventing them from
looking directly into the camera. Nevertheless, if people managed to show
their awareness of the camera, the demands of the situation, or the required
costume, only allowed a stolen look.
TAPPING A BLAST FURNACE NEWCASTLE (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, GB 1899) 105".
RELIEVING THE GUARD AT ST. JAMESS PALACE (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1897) 045".
THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS: RETURNING TO CAMP (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Syndicate, GB 1897) 030".
THE VATICAN GUARDS, ROME (British Mutoscope and Biograph, GB 1898)
055".
FUNERAL PROCESSION OF THE MISERICORDIA (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 045".
CAPUCHIN MONKS (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
030".
PROCESSION OF ARMENIAN MONKS, INCLUDING THE ABBOT-ARCHBISHOP ST. LAZAR,
VENICE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
035".
RINGRIJDEN VOOR SJEEZEN TE HAARLEM / [DRIVING IN CIRCLES BY GIGS]
(Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL 1899) 025".
CHANGING GUARD (BERLIN) (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1897) 030".
La presenza della macchina da presa determinava spesso comportamenti
incerti, talvolta persino di rifiuto, come si può vedere nelle
riprese di sovrani quali re Edoardo VII, la regina Guglielmina dOlanda,
la regina dItalia Margherita o di altre personalità come
Sir George Newnes (uno dei maggiori azionisti della Biograph), Paul Kruger,
William McKinley, candidato alla presidenza degli Stati Uniti, o il papa
Leone XIII. Le loro reazioni documentate dalle macchine da presa della
Biograph si possono oggi considerare come i primi incerti tentativi di
mettersi o meno in posa davanti allobiettivo.
Acknowledgment of the camera often led to uncertainty, even denial.
This can particularly be witnessed in the on-camera behaviour of royalty
King Edward VII, Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, Queen Margherita
of Italy, among others and celebrities or other people in high
places, such as Sir George Newnes (one of British Biographs major
shareholders), Paul Kruger, American presidential candidate William McKinley,
or Pope Leo XIII. Retrospectively, their responses as caught by Biographs
cameras can be conceived of as being among the earliest, uncertain attempts
to strike a pose (or not) in the film cameras presence.
[KING EDWARD VII AT THE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OF THE KING OF DENMARK]
(Biograph and Mutoscope Company for France, F 1901) 105".
Edward VII (1841-1910), King of Great Britain and Ireland and eldest
son of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort, succeeded his mother
on the throne at her death in 1901. (His coronation was dramatically postponed
until 1902, since he was struck down by appendicitis, a disorder hitherto
hardly known but thereafter positively fashionable.) Celebrated for his
colourful private life rather than for any political skills, his popularity
in France nevertheless did much to encourage the Entente Cordiale of 1904.
His consort was Princess Alexandra of Denmark; his most famous mistress
was the actress Lillie Langtry (1853-1929), "the Jersey Lily".
DR
ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION SIR GEORGE NEWNES FAREWELL TO OFFICERS
AND CREW (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
035".
[KONINKLIJK JACHT TIJDENS DE VISSERSVLOOTREVUE BIJ MUIDEN] / [ROYAL
YACHT] (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij,
NL [1899]) 030".
[PAUL KRUGER IN GESPREK] / [PAUL KRUGER IN CONVERSATION] (Biograph
and Mutoscope Company for France, F [1900]) 030".
Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (1824-1904), popularly known as "Ohm
Paul", was President of the Transvaal from 1883 to 1900. His refusal
to remedy the grievances of the English and other white "uitlanders"
precipated the Second South African War. DR
QUEEN MARGHERITA OF ITALY (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB 1898) 040".
MCKINLEY AT HOME, CANTON, OHIO (American Mutoscope Company, US
1896) 045".
William McKinley (1843-1901), 25th President of the United States,
was born in Ohio and was first elected to Congress in 1876. The markedly
imperialistic policy of his regime led to the Spanish-American War of
1898 and the annexation of the Philippines. His assassination at the Temple
of Music of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, on 6 September
1901 by the anarchist Louis Czolgosz gave the cinema one of its earliest
sensational actualities. DR
POPE LEO XIII:
POPE LEO XIII CARRIED THROUGH THE VATICAN LOGGIA ON HIS WAY TO
THE SISTINE CHAPEL (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB
1898) 035".
POPE LEO XIII IN HIS CARRIAGE, PASSING THROUGH THE VATICAN GARDENS
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 040".
POPE LEO XIII, IN HIS CHAIR (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 050".
POPE LEO XIII, RESTING ON HIS WAY TO HIS SUMMER VILLA (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 105".
POPE LEO XIII WALKING BEFORE KNEELING GUARDS (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 025".
Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903), born Gioacchino Pecci, was elected Pope
in 1878, after a brilliant career as a papal diplomat in Europe, the USA,
and Japan. He was committed to the importance of the churchs role
in matters of social justice, and his 1891 encyclical, Rerum novarum,
lays down the moral duties of employers towards their workers. Leo can
almost certainly claim to be the earliest living person to be recorded
in both sound and image. Some years after Dickson had filmed him for the
Biograph, his voice was recorded on a Bettini cylinder in 1903, the last
year of his long life. DR
8. Lassemblaggio delle riprese / How shots hang together
(total: 2215")
CAPTAIN DEASYS DARING DRIVE, ASCENT (Deutsche Mutoskop und
Biograph Gesellschaft, D 1903) 340ft., 350".
Non di rado la Mutoscope & Biograph realizzava soggetti con due o
più riprese. Cerano vari modi per dare unità a queste
scene. Poteva succedere, ad esempio, che un evento o unazione fossero
troppo lunghi per stare in una sola ripresa. Oppure la suddivisione in
scene poteva corrispondere a sequenze o segmenti. Le sette riprese (di
cui sei sono sopravvissute) della versione Biograph della storia di Rip
Van Winkle costituiscono uno degli esempi più elaborati.
It was not uncommon for the Mutoscope & Biograph Company to produce
subjects consisting of two shots or more. There were various ways in which
these shots could be seen as forming a unit. It could be, for example,
that an action or event was simply too long to be included in one shot.
Or the division in shots could coincide with sequences or segments. The
seven shots of Biographs version of the story of Rip Van Winkle,
six of which have survived, is one of the more elaborate examples.
WORTHING LIFE-SAVING STATION (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 040".
LAUNCH OF THE WORTHING LIFE-BOAT: COMING ASHORE (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 108ft., 110".
ME AND MY TWO FRIENDS (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 040".
SPANISH CORONATION BULLFIGHT (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB 1902) 200ft., 220".
RIP VAN WINKLE:
RIP MEETING THE DWARF (American Mutoscope
Company, US 1896) 43ft., 030".
RIP LEAVING SLEEPY HOLLOW (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896)
45ft., 030".
RIPS TOAST TO HUDSON AND CREW (American Mutoscope Company,
US 1896) 48ft., 030".
RIPS TWENTY YEARS SLEEP (American Mutoscope Company,
US 1896) 47ft., 035".
AWAKENING OF RIP (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896) 76ft., 050".
RIP PASSING OVER THE MOUNTAIN (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896)
48ft., 030".
Joseph Jefferson (1829-1905) was one of a long theatrical dynasty
that had its origins in the theatre of David Garrick in 18th-century England.
Jefferson made his first stage appearance at the age of four, being tumbled
out of a sack by the legendary blackface artist T.D.Rice, creator of "Jim
Crow". Jeffersons richly varied career was to last 71 years,
and encompass many roles, but his most famous part remained that of Rip
Van Winkle in the Dion Boucicault stage version of the Washington Irving
story, which he first played in 1865. Over the years he made the part
his own, revising the text and business until it was hardly recognisable
as Boucicaults original. DR
Durante la proiezione tuttavia niente poteva garantire la coesione di
queste unità precostituite, specie se le immagini non avevano una
loro continuità. Film che in un programma formavano un tutto unico,
in quello successivo potevano essere sostituiti, separati, cancellati,
ed altri potevano essere aggiunti. Tutto questo influiva sulla coesione
dei film. Una serie di vedute su Venezia, ad esempio, poteva diventare
una serie sullItalia con la semplice aggiunta di materiali.
In
exhibition, however, nothing could guarantee these preconceived units
cohesion, particularly if the images were non-continuous. Over the course
of consecutive Biograph programmes, films that were part of a unit could
be replaced, separated, or deleted, and other films could be added. All
this affected the nature of the films cohesion. A series of films
of Venice, for instance, could become a series about Italy, simply by
adding more material.
THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 50ft., 035".
PANORAMA OF THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE; PASSING THE VEGETABLE MARKET
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 040".
[BRUG DER ZUCHTEN] / [BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VENICE] (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 040".
BOYS BATHING VENICE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 51ft., 035".
[VENETIË-HAVENGEZICHT MET GONDELS] / [VENICE, HARBOUR SCENE WITH
GONDOLAS] (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 040".
NEAPOLITAN DANCE AT THE ANCIENT FORUM OF POMPEII (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 035".
Spesso stabilire lordine di proiezione dei film poteva diventare
una forma di montaggio che conferiva loro significati di natura simbolica
o metaforica imprevedibili, persino "invisibili". In mancanza
di materiali più pertinenti, abbiamo abbinato in maniera analoga
quelli che potrebbero suggerire la successione, sul trono di Inghilterra,
di Edoardo VII alla regina Vittoria.
In fact, the ordering of films
into programmes could effectively be turned into editing, sometimes resulting
in unforeseen, even "invisible" meanings, usually of a symbolic
or metaphorical nature. For lack of surviving materials with which actual
examples could be reconstructed, we here suggest Edward VIIs succession
of Queen Victoria in a comparable way.
PANORAMIC VIEW OF WINDSOR CASTLE (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1898) 055".
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN ARRIVING AT SOUTH KENSINGTON ON THE OCCASION
OF THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB [1899]) 120".
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1837-1901, and Empress of India,
1867-1901. Born in 1819, Victoria was the daughter of the Duke of Kent,
son of George III, and her long reign represented an extraordinary transition
between the Georgian era and the 20th century. A highly emotional woman,
her relationships with her ministers were very personal and often prejudiced,
while her popularity with the British public waxed and waned over the
years. Her withdrawal from public life following the death of her consort
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1861 brought her to the lowest
point of public esteem, but her Golden Jubilee of 1887 and Diamond Jubilee
of 1897 restored her to the affection of the nation, and her death in
1901 was an occasion for genuine public mourning. DR
[BUILDING BEING PULLED DOWN] (American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, US [1900]) 77ft., 050".
CORONATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES KING EDWARD VII AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA,
FIRST SCENE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1902)
73ft., 045".
CORONATION OF THEIR MAJESTIES KING EDWARD VII AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA,
SECOND SCENE (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1902)
53ft., 035".
Edward VII (1841-1910), King of Great Britain and Ireland and eldest
son of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort, succeeded his mother
on the throne at her death in 1901. (His coronation was dramatically postponed
until 1902, since he was struck down by appendicitis, a disorder hitherto
hardly known but thereafter positively fashionable.) Celebrated for his
colourful private life rather than for any political skills, his popularity
in France nevertheless did much to encourage the Entente Cordiale of 1904.
His consort was Princess Alexandra of Denmark; his most famous mistress
was the actress Lillie Langtry (1853-1929), "the Jersey Lily".
DR
CAPTAIN DEASYS DARING DRIVE, DESCENT (Deutsche Mutoskop
und Biograph Gesellschaft, D 1903) 179ft., 200".
9. Il mondo messo in scena / Staging the world (total:
1555")
THREE LINOTYPE MACHINES ([British Mutoscope and Biograph Company],
GB? [1900]) 47ft., 030".
Sarebbe ingenuo pensare che le attualità Mutoscope & Biograph
fossero realizzate semplicemente lasciando che la macchina da presa cogliesse
la realtà di fine secolo nel suo svolgersi. La lunghezza della
pellicola spesso rendeva necessaria una compressione degli eventi attraverso
la loro accelerazione oppure presentando simultaneamente momenti diversi
di un avvenimento. Di conseguenza il mondo sembrava un posto molto più
spettacolare che in realtà.
It would be naïve to assume that for the actualities the Mutoscope
& Biograph Company turned out, the camera was simply set up to capture
turn-of-the-century reality as it unfolded. The length of film in the
camera often necessitated a compression of events, either by speeding
them up or by arranging separate or sequential components simultaneously.
As a result, of course, the world looked a much more spectacular place.
AGOUST FAMILY OF JUGGLERS (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 040".
[PARADE BRITSE TROEPEN] / [PARADE BRITISH TROOPS] (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, GB [1900]) 050".
CHARGE DUN ESCADRON DU 27E DRAGONS, CONTRE UNE BATTERIE DU 11E
RÉGIMENT EN POSITION, FAISANT FEU SUR LENNEMI (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1897) 030".
FORT HILL FIRE STATION (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
HOTEL ON FIRE, PARIS (RESCUE WORK BY PARIS POMPIERS) (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 210".
MAN OVERBOARD! (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB 1899) 105".
A CAMP OF ZINGAREE GYPSIES (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1897) 030".
[THE BATTLESHIP ODIN WITH ALL HER GUNS IN ACTION] (Deutsche
Mutoskop und Biograph Gesellschaft, D 1900) 045".
Quando le riprese avvenivano in esterni, lazione era spesso compressa
anche spazialmente, con la conseguenza che le vere locations assomigliano
talvolta al teatro di posa allestito sul tetto delledificio dove
la compagnia aveva sede.
When, moreover, filming took place in real, outdoor locations, the
action was often compressed spatially as well. As a result, real locations
sometimes resembled the companys open-air rooftop studio.
[WHY PAPA CANT SLEEP] (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB [1898]) 040".
DUTCH FISHING BOATS (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 040".
[EEN NAT PAK] / [MAN FALLS IN BATH] ([British Mutoscope and Biograph
Syndicate], GB? [1897]) 030".
BATH SCENE HOLLAND (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 030".
A COUNTRY DANCE (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 43ft., 030".
JARABE DANCE, STREETS OF MEXICO, PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION
(American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US 1901) 030".
[SAILORS OF HMS "BLACK PRINCE" FIRING CANNON AND RIFLES]
(British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB [1900]) 040".
Ma il mondo esterno poteva anche entrare a far parte di quello della
finzione. Il controllo sulla luce, lombra, il vento non poteva essere
totale un teatro di posa allaperto è esposto alle
correnti daria. Tuttavia queste interferenze esterne sembravano
persino gradite per il tocco di realismo che conferivano.
Inversely, the real world also invaded and became part of the fictional
one. Control over light, shadow, and wind was not complete an open-air
studio is a draughty place. But somehow these chance circumstances seem
to have been accepted, perhaps sometimes even welcomed, for the touch
of realism, however small, they provided.
A BAD (K)NIGHT (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US 1899)
045".
PLAYING DOCTOR (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
040".
THE DAIRY MAIDS REVENGE (American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, US 1899) 030".
THE SPIRIT OF HIS FOREFATHERS (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, GB 1900) 035".
A MIDNIGHT FANTASY (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US
1899) 045".
[OP LEVEN EN DOOD] / [ON LIFE AND DEATH] (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Company, GB [1899]) 030".
10. Attrazioni visive / Visual attractions
(total: 2105")
APPLE BLOSSOMS (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US 1899)
035".
Molti dei soggetti Biograph erano mutati dalle altre forme di intrattenimento
teatro, spettacoli di lanterna magica, vaudeville, fiere, luna
park, mostre dedicate alle colonie.
A large number of Biograph subjects were borrowed from a wide range
of other entertainments, such as the legitimate and the magic theatre,
vaudeville, fairground amusements, the circus, amusement parks, or colonial
exhibitions.
KING JOHN (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB 1899) 84ft.,
1.
Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1853-1917) was one of the most prominent actor-managers
of the late Victorian theatre. Starting his career as a clerk in the offices
of his father, an immigrant and successful grain merchant, he became a
professional actor in 1878. After managing the Comedy and Haymarket Theatres,
in 1897 he built Her Majestys Theatre, where for the next 20 years
he presented productions of staggering opulence, in which he generally
played the leading roles. He was knighted by King Edward VII in 1909.
Tree was the first major English-speaking stage star to see the importance
of motion pictures as record. Many years after his pioneer effort to record
a fragment of King John for Biograph, he starred in silent films
of his stage successes Henry VIII (1911, directed by Will Barker)
and Trilby (1914, directed by Harold Shaw). In 1916 he spent a
period in the United States, where he filmed Macbeth (directed
by John Emerson) and The Old Folks at Home (directed by Chester
Withey, with Mildred Harris), and made a walk-on appearance in Griffiths
Intolerance (1916). DR
FENCING CONTEST FROM THE PLAY THE THREE MUSKETEERS (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898) 015".
Lewis Waller (William Waller Lewis, 1850-1915) was one of the great
Victorian actor managers and a romantic idol of his day. His most famous
roles were Monsieur Beaucaire, DArtagnan and Brigadier Gerard, though
he was admired for such Shakespearean interpretations as Henry V and Brutus.
A strikingly handsome man with a fine voice (which is on record) he did
not deserve the slighting title, "The high priest of tushery".
DR
AN INTRIGUE IN A HAREM (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 055".
BAXTER STREET MYSTERY (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 1.
[TWEE CLOWNS BOKSEN ONDERSTEBOVEN] / [UPSIDE DOWN BOXERS] (British
Mutoscope and Biograph Company, GB [1899]) 030".
HAS HE HIT ME? (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
040".
[STEALING A DINNER] (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB [1898]) 040".
HURDLE JUMPING BY TRAINED DOGS (American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, US 1899) 105".
KING AND QUEEN, THE GREAT HIGH DIVING HORSES
(American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, US 1899) 105".
WRESTLING PONY AND MAN (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896) 030".
THE LANDING OF SAVAGE SOUTH AFRICA AT SOUTHAMPTON (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, GB 1899) 50ft., 0"30".
DANCING DARKIES (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896) 48ft., 030".
Lo spettacolo di lanterne magiche era la forma di intrattenimento più
vicina al cinema cui fornì numerosi soggetti e soluzioni tecniche.
E anche se nel cinema lillusione del movimento era più completa,
molti film imitavano la tecnica della lanterna magica o cercavano di emularne
i trucchi. Anche lorganizzazione dello spazio narrativo richiama
talvolta quello della lanterna magica. E in un paio di film viene mascherata
una lacuna rispetto ai vetri per lanterna magica: il colore.
The entertainment closest to cinema the magic lantern show
provided many subjects as well as techniques. And even though cinemas
illusion of movement was more complete, many films copied the magic lanterns
techniques or tried to emulate its tricks. Furthermore, the organization
of a storys space was sometimes reminiscent of the magic lantern,
too. And a couple of films covered up a deficiency compared to lantern
slides: colour.
[CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE] (British Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
GB [1900]) 49ft., 035".
[WARSHIPS AT SUNSET] ([British Mutoscope and Biograph Company],
GB? [1900]) 42ft., 025".
THE ARTISTS DREAM (American Mutoscope Company, US 1899)
035".
PHILLIS WAS NOT DRESSED TO RECEIVE CALLERS (American Mutoscope
Company, US 1898) 030".
A SCANDALOUS PROCEEDING (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 030".
A RURAL COURTSHIP (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896) 51ft.,
035".
lES PARISIENNES (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 020".
CONWAY CASTLE PANORAMIC VIEW OF CONWAY ON THE L. & N.W.
RAILWAY (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1898)
130".
La macchina da presa permetteva un nuovo modo di vedere, senza tuttavia
rendere obsolete le altre tecniche e forme di intrattenimento. La novità
e singolarità del nuovo tipo di immagine che era peculiare del
cinema erano evidenziate dal contrasto con le immagini proposte dai mezzi
più tradizionali.
The camera presented a new kind of view, but it did not render other
techniques and entertainments obsolete. Indeed the novelty and
singularity of the new, very naturalistic kind of image characteristic
of the motion picture was highlighted by contrasts with views of other
more traditional entertainments.
[DEEP SEA DIVERS] ([British Mutoscope and Biograph Company], GB?
[1898]) 15ft., 010".
RARE FISH IN THE AQUARIUM ([Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph Gesellschaft],
D? 1899) 030".
WATERSNOOD IN BUURT YY / [WATER SURFEIT IN DISTRICT YY] (Nederlandsche
Biograaf- en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL 1899) 030".
SURF DASHING AGAINST ENGLANDS ROCKY COAST (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB 1897) 040".
THE TARANTELLA, AN ITALIAN DANCE (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Syndicate, GB 1898) 040".
PELICANS AT THE ZOO (British Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate,
GB 1898) 33ft., 020".
At Regents Park Zoo, London.
THE SMALLEST TRAIN IN THE WORLD (American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, US 1899) 030".
FROM MONTE CARLO TO MONACO (Biograph and Mutoscope Company for
France, F 1899) 230".
11. La programmazione / Making up a programme
(total: 1720")
[DE CONFERENCIER] / [THE COMEDIAN] ([American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company], US? [1900]) 050".
Di norma i film Biograph facevano parte di un programma di varietà
che comprendeva musica, numeri di ballo, giocolieri, attori, cantanti,
ecc. Lo stesso programma cinematografico era alquanto diversificato e
alternava comiche con scene di viaggio, vedute esotiche, fatti di cronaca,
scene sportive, militari e così via.
As a rule, the Biographs film projections were part of a larger
variety show, surrounded by music, dancers, jugglers, comedians, singers,
and the like. The film programme itself also contained a variety of subjects,
alternating comedies, travel and exotic scenes, news and sports scenes,
military views, etc.
TROUT POACHERS (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 030".
AN ORIENTAL HIGHWAY (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1901) 030".
BAYONET VERSUS BAYONET ALDERSHOT (British Mutoscope and
Biograph Syndicate, GB 1897) 040".
MILITARY EXERCISE ALDERSHOT (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Syndicate, GB 1898) 035".
HE GOT MORE THAN HE BARGAINED FOR (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Syndicate, GB [1899]) 040".
[EEN JACHT GAAT OVERSTAG] / [ONE YACHT TACKS] (American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, US [1899]) 030".
HOME LIFE OF A HUNGARIAN FAMILY (British Mutoscope and Biograph
Syndicate, GB 1897) 025".
THE POSTER GIRLS AND THE HYPNOTIST (American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, US 1899) 030".
HARVESTING CORN (American Mutoscope Company, US 1897) 96ft., 105".
A HARD WASH (American Mutoscope Company, US 1896) 48ft., 030".
Esistono tuttora molti dei programmi e delle locandine del Palace Theatre
of Varieties di Londra, dove veniva proposta una selezione cinematografica
con particolari caratteristiche. Di norma, la prima parte prevedeva soggetti
leggeri, mentre nella seconda prevalevano quelli più seri di interesse
nazionale, internazionale o politico. Con le debite eccezioni, naturalmente,
legate agli eventi della stagione.
Many playbills and programmes have been preserved for the Palace Theatre
of Varieties in London, which featured a film programme that had its own
peculiar make-up. As a rule, the first part included lighter subjects,
while in the second more serious subjects of national, international,
or political moment dominated. Exceptions were made, of course, for subjects
reflecting seasonal events.
***
One of the great 19th-century London music halls, the Palace Theatre
was built by Richard DOyly Carte and originally opened on 31 January
1891 as the Royal English Opera House. Less than two years later it was
taken over by the great impresario Sir Augustus Harris, who in turn ceded
the management to Charles Morton, who re-established its fortunes as the
Palace Theatre of Varieties. Attracting some of the most prestigious music
hall acts of the day including the Biograph itself the Palace
flourished as a variety theatre until 1914, after which it turned to revue
and subsequently every kind of show, with emphasis on large-scale musicals.
In recent years it was taken over by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
DR
[KERSTMAN EN FEE] / [SANTA CLAUS AND FAIRY] (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Syndicate, GB [1898]) 105".
[KONINKLIJKE FAMILIE] / [ROYAL FAMILY] (Nederlandsche Biograaf-
en Mutoscope Maatschappij, NL [1902]) 030".
[FUNÉRAILLES DE FÉLIX FAURE] / [PRESIDENT FAURES
FUNERAL] (Biograph and Mutoscope Company for France, F [1898])
010".
A self-made man the son of a furniture maker, he made a fortune
as a tanner and merchant Felix Faure (1841-1899) became sixth president
of the Third French Republic in 1895. He was a personable figure and skilful
diplomat, but his last years were soured by his stiff-necked attitude
in the Dreyfus affair. He died suddenly on 16 February 1899 while closeted
in his study with his mistress, Madame Steinheil. DR
M. GUERINS HEADQUARTERS FORT CHABROL (Biograph and
Mutoscope Company for France, F [1899]) 030".
AANKOMST DER VREDESCONFERENTIE TE HAARLEM, 4 JUNI 1899 / [ARRIVAL
AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT HAARLEM] (Nederlandsche Biograaf- en Mutoscope
Maatschappij, NL 1899) 105".
RÉCEPTION DU PRÉSIDENT KRÜGER À LHÔTEL
DE VILLE / [EX-PRESIDENT KRUGER LEAVING HOTEL DE VILLE] (Biograph
and Mutoscope Company for France, F 1900) 045".
Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (1824-1904), popularly known as "Ohm
Paul", was President of the Transvaal from 1883 to 1900. His refusal
to remedy the grievances of the English and other white "uitlanders"
precipated the Second South African War. DR
LORD KITCHENERS ARRIVAL AT SOUTHAMPTON (British Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, GB 1902) 125ft., 130".
Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916), Lord Kitchener of Khartoum,
was born in County Kerry, Ireland. Promoted to Commander in Chief of the
Egyptian Army in 1892, he acheived prominence with his successes at the
Battle of Omdurman (1898) and the subsequent recapture of Khartoum. He
was chief of staff during the Boer War and subsequently Commander of the
British forces in India, 1902-1909. On the outbreak of the First World
War in 1914 he was appointed Secretary of State for War, and had already
achieved much to modernise the British armed forces when he was drowned
in the wreck of a ship bound for Russia. DR
Per anni i programmi Biograph del Palace Theatre of Varieties si sono
regolarmente conclusi con le cosiddette "corse fantasma" o altri
film con treni. Alle volte ne venivano proiettati anche tre o quattro
di fila.
For years, the Biograph programmes at the Palace Theatre ended
invariably with so-called "phantom rides" or other train films.
Sometimes three or four of these films were shown in a row.
NIAGARA FALLS STATION (American Mutoscope and Biograph Company,
US 1899) 105".
THE CROOKEDEST RAILROAD YARD IN THE WORLD (American Mutoscope
Company, US 1897) 100ft., 105".
At Dedham, Massachusetts.
IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES, NEAR BANFF (American Mutoscope and Biograph
Company, US [1899]) 125ft., 125".
VICTORIA JUBILEE BRIDGE, ST. LAWRENCE RIVER (American Mutoscope
and Biograph Company, US 1900) 129ft., 125".
At Montréal, Canada.
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