The Year 1905 in Film: The Debuts of Max Linder, China, Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia
A review of significant events in the year 1905 in film and profiles of the principle players behind them. Includes a YouTube playlist of over 13 hours.
Category: Silent Films
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.
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.
