The Year 1906 in Film: The Debuts of Éclair, Feuillade, Bosetti and Finland
A review of significant events in the year 1906 in film and profiles of the principle players behind them. Includes a YouTube playlist of nearly 20 hours.
Category: Silent Films
The Year 1907 in Film: The Debuts of Éclair, Essanay and Kalem
A review of significant events in the year 1907 in film and profiles of the principle players behind them. Includes a YouTube playlist of nearly 18 hours.
The Year 1896 in Film: The Debuts of Georges Méliès, Pathé frères, American Mutoscope, and Gaumont
A review of significant events and principle players in the year 1896 in film. Includes a YouTube playlist of 256 films.
The Year 1908 in Film: The Debuts of Detective Films, Film d’Art, Peplum, Griffith and the Russian Film Industry
The Year 1908 in Film: The Debuts of Detective Films, Film d’Art, Peplum, Griffith and the Russian Film Industry. Includes a YouTube playlist.
The Birth of Cinema, 1874-1895
The Birth of Cinema: a review of the events and players who contributed to the development of the film industry from 1874-1895. Includes a YouTube playlist.
How the Cinema was Reborn in Dumbshow in 1907: Prodigal Sons and Shapely Calves
Historian David Bond explores the connection between French pantomime in the first decade of the 20th Century and one of Europe’s first feature-length films, L’Enfant prodigue (The Prodigal Son).
Tulipomania, Faunophobia and Copyright: a Pathé Mystery
A Pathé film of uncertain date has long been identified as Les Tulipes (1907).
Early Film Pioneers: Alfred Clark and the Birth of the Historical Reconstruction Film
Alfred Clark began working for the Edison Manufacturing Company in 1895 and is the first film-maker known to have used the stop-motion technique and very probably the first to have filmed an historical reconstruction.
The Unbeliever (1918): Edison Bows Out of the Film Business
A wealthy young atheist finds God, love, and loses his sense of class distinction in one the Edison company’s final productions.
Visages d’enfants (1925) Faces of Children
Film review by Dan Willard. Visages d’enfants (Faces of Children) feels more modern than other films from the same era thanks to its realism and naturalistic acting.
