here.
But the clock continues to tick away. . . . So start reading already, and keep watching!
***
As general editor of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I have the honor and the privilege of being able to give thanks in print to all the individuals responsible for ensuring the timely completion and inevitable success of this ambitious, enjoyable, eminently worthwhile project. My sincerest gratitude goes out to Laura Price, Catherine Osborne, and the rest of the remarkably industrious and conscientious staff at Quintet Publishing, a division of the Quarto Group; to Andrew Lockett of the British Film Institute; to the close to sixty contributors from eight different countries who worked under tight deadlines and a slave-driving editor (me) to produce the entertaining and educational film entries that make up this volume; and, as always, to my family, friends, and colleagues, whose support and encouragement continues to be my not-so-secret weapon.
Steven Jay Schneider is a film critic, scholar, and producer, with M.A. degrees in Philosophy and Cinema Studies from Harvard University and New York University, respectively. He is the author and editor of a number of books on movies.
1900s
Contents
Le Voyage Dans La Lune (1902)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
1900s
LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1902)
A TRIP TO THE MOON
France (Star) 14m Silent BW
Director: Georges Méliès
Producer: Georges Méliès
Screenplay: Georges Méliès, from the novel De la Terre à la Lune by Jules Verne
Photography: Michaut, Lucien Tainguy
Cast: Victor André, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet, Jeanne dAlcy, Henri Delannoy, Depierre, Farjaut, Kelm, Georges Méliès
When thinking about A Trip to the Moon, ones mind is quickly captured by the original and mythic idea of early filmmaking as an art whose rules were established in the very process of its production. This French movie was released in 1902 and represents a revolution for the time, given its length (approximately fourteen minutes), as compared to the more common two-minute short films produced at the beginning of last century.
A Trip to the Moon directly reflects the histrionic personality of its director, Georges Méliès, whose past as a theater actor and magician influences the making of the movie. The film boldly experiments with some of the most famous cinematic techniques, such as superimpositions, dissolves, and editing practices that would be widely used later on. Despite the simplicity of its special effects, the film is generally considered the first example of science-fiction cinema. It offers many elements characteristic of the genrea spaceship, the discovery of a new frontierand establishes most of its conventions.
The movie opens with a Scientific Congress in which Professor Barbenfouillis (played by Méliès himself) tries to convince his colleagues to take part in a trip to explore the moon. Once his plan is accepted, the expedition is organized and the scientists are sent to the moon on a space ship. The missile-like ship lands right in the eye of the moon, which is represented as an anthropomorphic being. Once on the surface, the scientists soon meet the hostile inhabitants, the Selenites, who take them to their King. After discovering that the enemies easily disappear in a cloud of smoke with the simple touch of an umbrella, the French men manage to escape and return to Earth. They fall into the ocean and explore the abyss until they are finally rescued and honored in Paris as heroes.
Méliès here creates a movie that deserves a legitimate place among the milestones in world cinema history. Despite its surreal look, A Trip to the Moon is an entertaining and groundbreaking film able to combine the tricks of the theater with the infinite possibilities of the cinematic medium. Méliès, the magician, was an orchestrator more than a director; he also contributed to the movie as a writer, actor, producer, set and costume designer, and cinematographer, creating special effects that were considered spectacular at the time. The first true science-fiction film cannot be missed by a
spectator looking for the origin of those conventions that would later influence the entire genre and its most famous entries.
In a more general sense, A Trip to the Moon can also be regarded as the movie that establishes the major difference between cinematic fiction and nonfiction. During a time when filmmaking mostly portrayed daily life (such as in the films of the Lumière brothers at the end of the 19th century), Méliès was able to offer a fantasy constructed for pure entertainment. He opened the doors to future film artists by visually expressing his creativity in a way utterly uncommon to movies of the time. CFe
See all movies from the 1900s
1900s
THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903)
U.S. (Edison) 12m Silent BW (handcolored)
Director: Edwin S. Porter
Screenplay: Scott Marble, Edwin S. Porter
Photography: Edwin S. Porter, Blair Smith
Cast: A.C. Abadie, Gilbert M. Bronco Billy Anderson, George Barnes, Walter Cameron, Frank Hanaway, Morgan Jones, Tom London, Marie Murray, Mary Snow
Most histories regard The Great Train Robbery as the first Western, initiating a genre that was in a few short years to become the most popular in American cinema. Made by the Edison Company in November 1903, The Great Train Robbery was the most commercially successful film of the pre-Griffith period of American cinema and spawned a host of imitations.
What is exceptional about Edwin S. Porters film is the degree of narrative sophistication, given the early date. There are over a dozen separate scenes, each further developing the story. In the opening scene, two masked robbers force a telegraph operator to send a false message so that the train will make an unscheduled stop. In the next scene, bandits board the train. The robbers enter the mail car, and, after a fight, open the safe. In the following scene, two robbers overpower the driver and fireman of the train and throw one of them off. Next the robbers stop the train and hold up the passengers. One runs away and is shot. The robbers then escape aboard the engine, and in the subsequent scene we see them mount horses and ride off. Meanwhile, the telegraph operator on the train sends a message calling for assistance. In a saloon, a newcomer is being forced to dance at gunpoint, but when the message arrives everyone grabs their rifles and exits. Cut to the robbers pursued by a posse. There is a shoot-out, and the robbers are killed.
Theres one extra shot, the best known in the film, showing one of the robbers firing point blank out of the screen. This was, it seems, sometimes shown at the start of the film, sometimes at the end. Either way, it gave the spectator a sense of being directly in the line of fire.
One actor in The Great Train Robbery was G.M. Anderson (real name Max Aronson). Among other parts, he played the passenger who is shot. Anderson was shortly to become the first star of Westerns, appearing as Bronco Billy in over a hundred films, beginning in 1907.
In later years some have challenged the claim of The Great Train Robbery to be regarded as the first Western, on the grounds either that it is not the first or that it is not a Western. It is certainly true that there are earlier films with a Western theme, such as Thomas Edisons Cripple Creek Bar-Room Scene (1899), but they do not have the fully developed narrative of Porters film. Its also true that it has its roots both in stage plays incorporating spectacular railroad scenes, and in other films of daring robberies that werent Westerns. Nor can its claim to being a true Western be based on authentic locations, because The Great Train Robbery was shot on the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad in New Jersey. But train robberies had since the days of Jesse James been part of Western lore, and other iconic elements such as six-shooters, cowboy hats, and horses all serve to give the film a genuine Western feel. EB
See all movies from the 1900s
1910s
Contents
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Les Vampires (1915)
Intolerance (1916)
Das Kabinett Des Doktor Caligari (1919)
Broken Blossoms (1919)
1910s