Monday, June 30, 2008

Cento anni fà: i film del 1908: USA 1908 - Edison e altri

Curator: Tom Gunning. Viewed in Bologna, Cinema Lumière 1, 30 June 2008. Piano: Donald Sosin.
The Sculptor's Nightmare. US 1908. PC: Biograph. SC: Joseph Golden. 16mm. /16 fps/ 11 min. Print: LoC (from paper print?). Interesting clay animation in the sculptor's dream.
The Thieving Hand. US 1908. PC: Vitagraph. 107 m /16 fps/ 6 min. Print: GEH. - The loose arm has an independent, criminal mind of its own. This comedy has the same concept as Orlacs Hande, Die Hand (Unheimliche Geschichten), and The Beast with Five Fingers.
Fireside Reminiscences. US 1908. PC: Edison. D: J. Searle Dawley, Edwin S. Porter. /16 fps/ 7 min. Deutsche Zwischentitel. NFM. - A complex flashback as moving images projected in the flames of the fireplace.
Francesca di Rimini. US 1908. PC: Vitagraph. D: J. Stuart Blackton. /16 fps/ 10 min. Print: LoC. - The Dante story in tableau style.
Cupid's Pranks. US 1908. PC: Edison. D: J. Searle Dawley. 183 m /16 fps/ 10 min. Print: MoMA. - Funny comedy of Cupid interfering in romantic moments.
The Hebrew Fugitive / Im Lande der Unterdruckung. US 1908. PC: Lubin. 200 m /16 fps/ 11 min. Deutsche Zwischentitel. Print: BFINA. - A stark mini-drama of pogroms in the Pale of Settlement, and the flight to the land of liberty. Final scene of arriving in the USA can be compared with Chaplin (The Immigrant), Kazan (America, America), and Coppola (The Godfather Part II), I heard the Nino Rota score swelling in my mind.

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