1900-1919

The 20th century begins! And with it, so did my adventure.
I began in June 2002 with four movies from the silent era...

The Great Train Robbery (1903) B
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) C+
Intolerance (1916) B+
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) B+

As you can see, I missed out on quite a number of classic titles from the era. This was mainly due to availability issues at the time. I hadn't yet heard of Netflix so I had to work with what I could get a hold of the old fashioned way. I was about to be a Senior in high school and didn't know as much about film as I do now. I had just seen The Birth of a Nation (1915) when I was trying to watch all 100 of AFI's top 100 list from 1998. I felt I had seen it too recently to include on the adventure.

Of the four I chose to watch, I'd say that each has some form of merit for a movie fan. The Great Train Robbery is an exciting little short. Tillie's Punctured Romance is notable for being Charlie Chaplin's first feature. Intolerance is the most ambitious, and it's very impressive. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is certainly the most intriguing with it's German expressionist sets and cinematography.

Over the years, I've managed to see a few films from this era that had escaped me back in '02. Thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I was able to check out some early D.W. Griffith, as well as the famous A Trip to the Moon (1902).

There are still a lot of films that I'd like to see. The early days of silent film offer more gems from film pioneers like D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Lillian Gish, etc. I will go into more detail in future posts.

Also Seen From This Era-
A Trip to the Moon (1902) A
Alice in Wonderland (1903)
The Impossible Voyage (1904)
The Night Before Christmas (1905)
The Adventures of Dollie (1908)
A Corner in Wheat (1909)
The Lonely Villa (1909)
Princess Nicotine; or, the Smoke Fairy (1909)
The Red Man's View (1909)
The Sealed Room (1909)
Those Awful Hats (1909)
Frankenstein (1910)
In the Border States (1910)
The Unchanging Sea (1910)
His Trust (1911)
What Shall We Do with Our Old? (1911)
An Unseen Enemy (1912) A-
The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
The Birth of a Nation (1915) B+
One A.M. (1916)
The Immigrant (1917) B+
A Dog's Life (1918)
Shoulder Arms (1918)
From Hand to Mouth (1919) A-

The Kiss (1896)

Perhaps the most famous of the short, experimental moving pictures of the late 1890s, The Kiss depicts an older, seemingly aristocratic (and let's face it, unattractive) couple kissing. It lasts a mere 20 seconds and was produced by Thomas Edison in 1896.

May Irwin and John C. Rice play the famous couple. This film is actually a reenactment of the final scene of the stage musical, The Widow Jones, in which the actors appeared.

History maintains that this brief image caused an outrage for its 'indecency', prompting an early demand for film censorship. What an impact for what, when compared to 21st century standards, appears to be a slight achievement.

Early Cinema

The whole of my adventure consists of feature-length films (with one notable exception) released after 1900. It is worth noting, however, that there are a number of great short films released before the 20th century that I'd still like to discuss, having seen them since I began 'adventuring'.

Mavericks of technology like Thomas Edison, The Lumiere Brothers, and Louis Le Prince are credited as the most famous early filmmakers. Known for inventing the art of motion pictures, Edison developed the Kinetoscope, which was an early film projector. Edison went on to produce a number of experimental short films in the late 1890s, including The Kiss (1896). His film Blacksmith Scene (1893) is said to be the first Edison company film made for commercial distribution. It is currently the oldest film on the National Film Registry and is given credit as the starting point in the American motion picture industry. Edison followed it with an experimental film called Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894), also known as Fred Ott's Sneeze. It is said to be the first film with a close-up.

The Lumiere Brothers (Auguste and Louis) did a lot with the advancement camera processes, later abandoning motion pictures for photography. One of their major contributions to film is Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896). This film features a train coming towards the camera, which is said to have frightened moviegoers in its day due to its realistic cinematography.

Le Prince (who is said to have mysteriously vanished!) actually preceded them all in filmmaking by using a single-lens camera and paper film to make Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888) and Roundhay Garden Scene (1888). The latter (pictured below) is considered to be the earliest surviving film!

These films, each clocking in at less than a minute, can be seen on YouTube and are fascinating examples of the early days of cinema.

The Adventure Begins

Welcome,

I thought I would open with an explanation of my self-proclaimed 'Adventure Through Movies'. This blog will detail my chronological journey through film that began in June 2002.

I was about to turn 17 and was bursting with a love for the cinema. My movie-watching habits were pretty haphazard. I would watch an assortment of old movies and new movies, while trying to watch as many Oscar-winning Best Pictures as I could. I also tried my best to see as many movies that were considered to be among "the greatest of all time". Eventually, I decided that I needed structure. An idea struck!  I could experience movies chronologically.  I decided to go all the way back to the dawn of film and work my way to the present. 

I wanted to attempt to put myself in the context of the era when film was created and I hoped to experience the passage of time along with the progression of film-making. In effect, I'd experience a history lesson through the cinema. The films that I chose to watch were typically those that I could imagine myself opting to see if I lived in that time period. As my adventure progressed, I began to watch movies based on who made them, who appeared in them, and their critical reception. A big thanks must be extended to my dad's massive film collection, as well as Netflix, and the Penn State libraries for allowing so many renowned and obscure films to be within my grasp.

In this blog, I will detail my experiment by listing each film that I've watched. I'd like to offer insight based on my perspective of the progression of cinema, as well as general thoughts on filmdom, and maybe some reviews. I hope that you will learn a little bit more about film and discover some of these movies that make up my adventure.

This is my life's work. Why not share it?

CinemaAdventurer