First up is The Internal Boiling Pot by Mr. Melies...and it's only a minute long!
So Melies has found a pretty successful formula...hand tinted color, smoke, and ghosts. While I love Melies...he's certainly my favorite director of this era...I would love to see something new. He's becoming extremely predictable and eventually I'll start to get annoyed. I don't want to be annoyed by his rather fantastic style so let's hope things improve...or change at the very least!
Next up is Life of an American Fireman by Edwin S. Porter...where there was such potential...sigh just watch.
This could have been fantastic. I mean it could have been really great...and then they repeated footage. When they used the same freaking roll of the fire (wagons?) going to the house I almost threw my computer. COME ON! At this point you should be able to not repeat footage. And...AND! They rescue the mom and child...then cut to the same rescue just from the outside view which also didn't line up with the first rescue...UGH. I can't even comprehend how anyone thought this was a good idea. Oh wait! Porter works for that douche-nozzle Edison.
Moving on to another Melies piece The Magic Lantern before I key-smash.
YAY!!! My film soul is significantly less fragmented because of this fantastic piece of cinema. So these clowns make this magic lantern which projects pictures and creates dancers? I love it!...no smoke, no color, and no ghosts but the special effects were still fantastic. I especially loved the huge wacky inflatable man that was actually some dude in a big costume but still! Anyways A+ for Georges.
Next is of course another Melies piece titled Le Melomane
HAHAHA this was amazingly weird. So Melies stars in this rather interesting piece...where he becomes the music notes. I thoroughly loved the end where the note/heads flew out towards the camera. Not much else to say.
And now for one of the first stories to franchise on every medium possible Uncle Tom's Cabin by Edwin S. Porter...let's hope I don't key-smash.
Okay so thank goodness for titles because it would have been ridiculously difficult to follow along without them. Thankfully Porter did a pretty good job at telling this story. The end was a little confusing with Abe Lincoln and such...I'm going to assume it's a nod to the "future" showing that Lincoln would free the slaves? I don't know...it was just strange. It's not like Porter was truly progressive everyone was in blackface (i'm pretty sure). But I don't blame him it's the 1900s not 78 or something. Fun side note...take a look at the actor who plays uncle tom ( a good view is between 7:20 and 7:40) and then look at this picture of Mickey from Mellerdrammer (a Disney version of Uncle Tom's Cabin):
That would be Mickey the right as Uncle Tom...white gloves, nappy hair, big lips, and blackface. Did I just blow your mind a little bit? Trust me I absolutely love Disney but you can't deny this fantastic little piece of racism...this and Song of the South (which we will get to in about a year or so).
Now for the longest piece to date...and it's about Jesus Vie et Passion du Christ by Lucien Nonguet and Ferdinand Zecca.
So I just gave you the end because the actual film runs at about 44 minutes. A few things about this film ...when Jesus was "born" (or wished which is what it looked like) I totally started singing Circle of Life from The Lion King... I'm pretty sure curtains with rods didn't exist during biblical times...Why was Egypt just as destroyed as it would have been in the 1900s or today?!...So despite popular illustrations of him Jesus was a hefty guy...WHY is every other scene colored some random primary color??!?!?!?...And you couldn't do a better superimposed effect for Jesus walking on water...you did the same thing a few scenes later with having the ghost effect... LOLZ homo.
And last but not least another Porter film titled What Happened in the Tunnel
And that's it for 1903! Sunday we start 1904 which will also be split into two parts. Have an awesome weekend!
