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| An Affair of Honour (GB 1904) Fixing the Swing (GB 1904) Her Morning Dip (GB 1906) Eccentric Burglary (GB 1905) The Robber’s Ruse, or Foiled by Fido (GB 1909) Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcellona. Please click on the photos to expand them on the largest screen. |
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| [Drill of the Reedham Orphans] (GB, c. 1904-1912) Venice and the Grand Canal (GB 1901? 1904?) Edge’s Motor Boat. The Napier Minor (GB 1904) Automobile Fête Before King Alfonso and Princess Ena (GB 1906). Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcellona. Please click on the photos to expand them on the largest screen. |
Grand piano: John Sweeney.
Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Early Cinema, 11 Oct 2023
Rosa Cardona Arnau (GCM 2023): " It is a commonplace in the early history of cinema in Spain that the first moving images and equipment came from France. They were certainly not the only ones, but the French films that arrived in Spain via Barcelona or Valencia were those that were most covered in the press. "
" On 11 May 1896, a year after the presentation of Edison’s Kinetoscope, and only a few days before the Lumière shows in Madrid, Robert W. Paul’s Animatograph was featured for the first time at the Circo Parish, and that summer W. H. Short filmed the 18 short items of Paul’s A Tour in Spain and Portugal, of which only Sea Cave near Lisbon has survived. For many reasons, they had a far lesser impact than the Lumière Cinématographe shows and the films shot by Alexandre Promio in Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville. Lumière, and especially Pathé and Gaumont, built a solid distribution network dedicated to the sale and rental of films, which clearly dominated the Spanish market until at least the mid-1910s. "
" A wider perspective is proposed by historians such as Begoña Soto-Vázquez, who reflects on this cultural bias and investigates the exhibition circuits through the Atlantic route, and Jean-Claude Seguin, who has extensively documented the exhibition and production of Warwick and Urban films shot in Spain on the website GRIMH (Grupo de reflexión sobre el mundo hispánico). "
" Within the framework of a preservation and research project on the early films in our collections, we have focused on the identification and restoration of the British films contained in the GK Collection, donated to the Filmoteca in 1994. "
" The GK Collection has its roots in what was the private collection of Eduardo Gimeno Correas, a key figure in early Spanish cinema, a pioneer in the exhibition business from his time as a fairground worker in 1895 to the establishment of cinemas in Madrid that were active until the mid-1980s. Gimeno was the director of one of the first Spanish films, Salida de misa del Pilar de Zaragoza, shot in 1899. "
" Of the 220 films in the GK Collection (dated between 1896 and 1911), 39 have been identified as English productions. "
" Through contemporary press reports and documents in the Madariaga Collection held in the Filmoteca Española, we can work out how Gimeno may have acquired his films: directly from foreign producers (Lumière, Méliès), through customs agents (F. Yglesias in Irún), importers of precision or electrical equipment such as the Barcelona-based González Ricart & Co, or through the connections of Madrid-based Antonio G. [García] Escobar and his monthly photography magazine Graphos Ilustrado, published from January 1906 to December 1907. As for the English companies themselves, we know that from 1901 onwards Warwick appointed Nordbeck in Barcelona as their representative, and Marró Tarré in 1906. Baltasar Abadal became the exclusive representative of the Charles Urban Trading Co. for the Spanish market from 1904. "
" The conservation of the GK Collection began in 1999 with the duplication of materials that had deteriorated, and has been carried out since then in parallel with the identification of the titles – undoubtedly one of the most complex tasks in an archive, cutting across disciplines, requiring historical research and physical inspection of the materials. It has truly been a team effort; from the first steps we were fortunate to have the invaluable expertise and collaboration of Bryony Dixon, silent film curator at the BFI National Archive. "
" The identification of many of the British films presented in this programme was slow, compared to the productions of other countries, particularly those of Pathé or Lumière, with clearer physical characteristics, and in some cases, because the fragility of the material meant that their digitization had to be postponed due to the task’s technical complexity. "
" None of the films retained the original titles, and identification was based on detailed examination of their physical characteristics (a day-to-day realization of the practices of pioneering British preservationist Harold Brown’s invaluable reference handbook, and the excellent new expanded edition by Camille Blot-Wellens). "
" In a few cases, the films retained the original embossed stamp with the company’s trademark, which has helped to identify the two main groups: 8 Warwick productions and 18 Urban films. "
" Digitization and digital restoration were carried out “in house” between 2019 and 2023, on a Northlight scanner at 6K and 4K. The fragile and badly damaged films have been captured with minimal manipulation, using a camera system (Canon 5D-5K) installed on a slider. " – Rosa Cardona Arnau
Bryony Dixon (GCM 2023): " It’s vanishingly rare now to find a whole new cache of films from the early days of film. For a curator this is like Christmas – you get to unwrap each fascinating individual film or fragment. These films, with the exception of a couple of British Gaumont comedies, are all associated with the career of the remarkable Charles Urban, American encyclopedia salesman turned film producer and distributor. In a long career in Britain he ran the Warwick Trading Company – a major distributor owned by Americans Maguire and Baucus – and then struck out on his own to found the Urban Trading Company, which also distributed the films of all the filmmakers represented in this selection from the Filmoteca de Catalunya’s find: George Albert Smith, James Williamson, Cricks and Martin, and Cecil Hepworth. "
" There’s a good variety of films, such as you might have seen in a film show of the 1900s – actualities, comedies, interest films, and even a drama demonstrating the evergreen popularity of the animal rescue film. The earliest film is one most eagerly anticipated – actual film footage of the legendary Volk’s Brighton to Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway, a short-lived tourist attraction christened “Daddy Long-Legs”, that took passengers on a ride through the surf on great tall legs, one of the more delightfully crazy pieces of Victorian engineering. Other marvels are previously unseen comedies of G. A. Smith, Alf Collins, and James Williamson, spectacles such as the parades of Sanger’s Circus, long only known from still photographs, the military-style drills performed by orphans, and an extraordinary “phantom ride” across the Forth Bridge in Scotland very reminiscent of the famous crossing of Brooklyn Bridge made in the same year. There are sporting events, such as skiing in the Alps, children battling in the snow (like the scene in Abel Gance’s Napoléon), and a rigorous cross-country paper chase. The newly motorized world creates almost palpable excitement: there are films featuring motor cars and motor boats, and even Venice’s Grand Canal, serene as ever, has its motorized vaporetto. Only Hepworth’s film looks back to the past, to the old lacemakers of Devon manipulating their bobbins with practiced hands. This selection of films preserved and restored by the Filmoteca in Barcelona is a delightful snapshot of British filmmaking in film’s age of wonder. " Bryony Dixon
BRIGHTON SEAGOING ELECTRIC CAR (GB 1897) dir: George Albert Smith. prod: GAS Films. dist: Warwick Trading Co. (Cat. no. 3025). rel: 3.9.1897. copy: DCP, 45" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 13.8 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2007.
" A view taken from Brighton beach on the Channel coast of the transit of Magnus Volk’s amazing seagoing electric railway, long celebrated as one of the world’s more bizarre railway experiments. All aboard for “A Sea Voyage on Wheels”! "
AA: Non-fiction. Wonders of modern technology in Victorian days. "Rain" on the image.
THE INEXHAUSTIBLE CAB (GB 1899) dir: George Albert Smith. cast: Tom Green (Clown), Laura Bayley (mother with baby). prod: GAS Films. dist: Warwick Trading Co. (Cat. no. 1018). copy: DCP, 1'11" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 21.7 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2020.
" The perennial challenge of how many people can you get in a cab may have started here. George Albert Smith’s lively comedy shows a pantomime Clown packing them in. "
AA: Hyperbolic comedy in Méliès style, filmed on a stage. An impossibly big crowd tries to fit into a cab, and when all fails, the clown is beaten.
DALMENY TO DUNFERMLINE, SCOTLAND VIA THE FIRTH OF FORTH BRIDGE (series) (GB 1899) prod: Warwick Trading Co. (Cat. no. 5398-5402). copy: DCP, 7'18", col. (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 140 m., 16 fps, imbibito/ tinted); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2023.
" A beautiful phantom ride across the Firth of Forth from Dalmeny near Edinburgh to Dunfermline, crossing the famous Forth Bridge, then less than a decade old. The existing print runs 7 minutes; the Warwick catalogue entry lists it as 12 minutes, “all from one continuous negative, the longest, most picturesque and interesting cinematograph film ever photographed”. "
AA: Non-fiction, an exceptionally long phantom ride even in this short version with cuts, meeting an incoming train, crossing a bridge, going through a tunnel. Fascinating perspectives, even bordering on abstraction. Some damage on the image, a duped look.
REVIEW OF LORD GEORGE SANGER’S CIRCUS BY THE QUEEN (series) (GB 1899) prod: Warwick Trading Co. (Cat. no. 5338-5342). copy: DCP, 3' (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 82 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2022.
" Several scenes of Sanger’s Circus parading through Windsor Great Park after meeting Queen Victoria on the terrace at Windsor Castle. This scene is missing, but the rest of the extraordinary cavalcade of circus wagons (or “tableaux carriages”, as they were known) and animals are present. "
AA: Non-fiction. A mighty cavalcade with all the wonders of the circus, under the Union Jack, only the Queen is missing.
SANGER CIRCUS PASSING THROUGH INVERNESS (GB 1900) dir: John McKenzie(?). prod: Warwick Trading Co. (Cat. no. 5789). copy: DCP, 1' (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 18 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2023.
" The parade of carriages, costumed riders, and exotic animals passing over the bridge at Inverness, Scotland, has attracted a crowd, despite the rain. "
AA: Non-fiction, a follow-up to the previous title. A high angle shot covers the bridge at Inverness with circus attractions including elephants, camels and horses of different sizes.
THE “POLY” PAPER CHASE (GB 1900) prod: Warwick Trading Co. (Cat. no. 5948). copy: DCP 1'27", col. (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 26.6 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2023.
" The famous Polytechnic Harriers, one of Britain’s premier athletic clubs, who would later open the 1908 London Olympics, running a paper chase – a gruelling cross-country race in which the “hares” lay a paper trail for the “hounds”. "
AA: Non-fiction. An account of a challenging match of paper chase, a cross country game on a difficult terrain, in mud and through puddles. Long takes, long shots, multiple shots.
THE WINTRY ALPS (series) (GB 1903) photog: Frank Ormiston-Smith. prod: Charles Urban Trading Co. (Cat. no. 1049, 1046, 1047). copy: DCP, 5'06" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 93 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2023.
" Several scenes from this stunningly photographed series filmed for Urban by mountain expert Frank Ormiston-Smith, including The Battle of the Snow, Ski Jumping in the Alps, and Outing of the Ski Club. "
AA: Non-fiction. Long takes, long shots. These scenes partly or all were also included in William Barnes's wonderful Frank Ormiston-Smith programme at the GCM in 2014. Charles Urban had a habit of repackaging compilations, also of his winter sports films, which makes identification difficult. The Battle of the Snow includes a lot of children and women. In the Ski Jumping and Ski Club sections there are a lot of falls. Winter sports can be fun. My memory does not serve, but I guess the visual quality today was superior to the 2014 show in which it was mediocre to awful.
AN AFFAIR OF HONOUR (GB 1904) dir: James Williamson. prod: Williamson Kinetograph Company. copy: DCP, 4'40" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 85.4 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2021.
" A daft comedy of faux Frenchmen who engage in a duel over some slight disagreement and who manage to shoot everyone but each other. Nicely filmed by James Williamson on the South Downs, near England’s famous white cliffs. "
AA: Fiction, comedy, in exteriors. The concept evokes Mark Twain's story "The Recent Great French Duel" (1879) with the memorable suggestion for last words: "I die that France may live".
PERZINA’S TROUPE OF EDUCATED MONKEYS (GB 1904) prod: Charles Urban Trading Co. (Cat. no. 1392). copy: DCP, 2'23" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 43.6 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2023.
" Austrian animal trainer Ernst Perzina puts his educated rhesus monkeys through their paces. This was a popular act in premier music halls such as the Alhambra in London’s West End. "
AA: Non-fiction, straight record of a music hall act. Eight rhesus monkeys in suits give a performance.
ELEPHANTS BATHING IN CEYLON RIVER (GB 1904) dir: H. M. [Harold Mease] Lomas. prod: Charles Urban Trading Co. copy: DCP, 1'16", col. (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 23.4 m., 16 fps, imbibito/tinted); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2021.
" Lomas, a talented photographer specializing in wildlife and hunting subjects, turned his hand to filming for Charles Urban, making several trips to the Far East, including Borneo. Here he is in Ceylon, showing mahouts bathing their elephants. "
AA: Non-fiction, travelogue, nature documentary. Long take, long shot, camera move, there is a cut. Sri Lankan people help elephants wash in the river. Today, there is no Ceylon River. There are 103 rivers in Sri Lanka. Might this be the Mahaweli River? It is a mighty one, and the camera catches its exciting movement.
[DRILL OF THE REEDHAM ORPHANS] (GB, c.1904-1912) prod: Charles Urban Trading Company. copy: DCP, 2'17" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 41.8 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2022.
" An annual event which clearly impressed Charles Urban enough to bring him back several years in a row. These elaborately choreographed exhibition drills in military style were used as fundraising events to support the schools. We haven’t yet pinned down which year this is, but we believe it is somewhere between 1904 and 1912. The Reedham orphanage was located in Purley, Surrey, just outside London. "
AA: Non-fiction, straight record of a performance of strictly disciplined action at the Reedham orphanage. (Inside, I hear the voice of Emilia Unda in Mädchen in Uniform: "Wir Preussen haben uns gross verhungert"). Long shot, a montage of different numbers including pushups, impeccable acts.
VENICE AND THE GRAND CANAL (GB, 1901? 1904?) prod: Charles Urban Trading Co. (Cat. no. 3068). copy: DCP, 1'32" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 28.2 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2023.
" A particularly nice view of Venice from the Grand Canal with well-executed pans, described as “stereoscopic” in the Urban catalogue, taking in the scene as the boat goes under the Rialto bridge and arrives at the Rialto vaporetto stop, looking remarkably like it does today. Made as part of the series “Through Italy with the Bioscope”, by G. A. Smith and Charles Urban himself. "
AA: Non-fiction, travelogue, phantom ride, a cargo of barrels on the vaporetto, destination Ponte di Rialto.
EDGE’S MOTOR BOAT. THE NAPIER MINOR (GB 1904) prod: Charles Urban Trading Co. (Cat. no. 2661).copy: DCP, 1'05" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 20 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2022.
" Powerboat racing was a brand-new sport in 1904. Selwyn Edge initially won the race off Cowes (Isle of Wight) in the British-made Napier Minor as a substitute for the Napier II, but was later disqualified. Clearly the filmmakers thought at the time that they were filming the victor. "
AA: Non-fiction, sport documentary. Exciting camera movement at sea. Scratches on the image.
FIXING THE SWING (GB 1904) dir: Alf Collins. cast: Alf Collins (father). prod: Gaumont. copy: DCP, 1'51" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 34 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2023.
" Filmed in south London, this slight comedy stars director Alf Collins as an exhausted father who bungles putting up a swing for his two small daughters. "
AA: Fiction, comedy, simple joy of movement, dad is too tired to fix the swing, daughers dance of joy when he finally sets to repair it.
ECCENTRIC BURGLARY (GB 1905) dir: Frank Mottershaw. prod: Sheffield Photo Company. copy: DCP, 5'18" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 97 m, 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2023.
" You may find the location for this film familiar if you know the classic Daring Daylight Robbery from the same company in 1903. This is almost a spoof of the former film, using reverse-action and stop-motion effects to turn this burglary into an anarchic comedy. "
AA: Fiction, comedy, trick film, special effects, optical effects (stop motion, reverse motion), chase film. A precursor of Tenet?
HER MORNING DIP (GB 1906) dir: Alf Collins. prod: Gaumont. copy: DCP, 5'29" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 100 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2020.
" Magnificent location work in Margate, on England’s southeast coast, compensates for rather misogynistic comedy in which a well-dressed “young lady” is pursued by every male in the vicinity to the beach, where “she” is revealed to be distinctly scrawny and unattractive. "
AA: Fiction, comedy, on location, cross-dressing. A reversal of expectations: the "she" intrusively surrounded by aggressive males turns out to be a he, as well. Misogynistic perhaps, but the joke is on men. Misanthropic, then?
AUTOMOBILE FÊTE BEFORE KING ALFONSO AND PRINCESS ENA (GB 1906) THE ROYAL SPANISH WEDDING (series) dir: Félix Mesguich. prod: Charles Urban Trading Co. (Cat. no. 3133). copy: DCP, 3'20" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 61 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, Collection Miquel Porter Moix. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2021.
" This elaborate automobile rally was mounted as part of the wedding festivities of the new Spanish King and his bride Ena, Princess of Battenberg, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The King was a keen motorist and participated in the parade of 200 flag-bedecked cars in his Panhard-Levassor. "
AA: Non-fiction, actuality, official ceremony, car historical. The car parade is the attraction of this piece.
LACE MAKING (GB 1908) dir: Cecil Hepworth. prod: Hepworth Manufacturing Company. copy: DCP, 4'20" (from 35 mm pos., 79.5 m., 16 fps, 1.37 optical reduction from 1.33); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, Collection Gremi Téxtil Minorista. 4K digital restoration done from the original 35 mm acetate print, 2020.
" Wonderfully picturesque film by Cecil Hepworth of the lacemakers of Honiton, a small town in Devon, who have made bobbin lace since the 16th century. Particular attention is paid to Mrs. Woodgate, who made lace for Queen Victoria’s wedding dress in 1840. "
AA: Non-fiction, record of arts and crafts. Visual beauty in the coverage of a craft still like in Vermeer's De kantwerkster (The Lacemaker) (1670). An early instance of the essence of Flaherty: the spirit of a person caught in a record of an action in which one totally immerses oneself, forgetting oneself while completely expressing oneself. (Of course all dance movies in early cinema are also in the Flaherty spirit in this sense).
THE ROBBER’S RUSE, OR FOILED BY FIDO (GB 1909) dir: A. E. Coleby. prod: Cricks and Martin. copy: DCP, 5'18" (from 35 mm pos. nitr., 97 m., 16 fps); no titles. source: Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, GK Collection. 4K digital restoration done from the original nitrate print, 2020.
" A lively drama in the vein of Rescued by Rover, in which a young girl is menaced by a burglar disguised as a poor old lady and is saved with the help of the family terrier. "
AA: Fiction, thriller, crime, race to the rescue, dog hero, a subject familiar from literature, introduced to the cinema by Cecil Hepworth and Lewin Fitzhamon in their three Rescued by Rover versions (1905).
AA: For many of us, this was the best show of Le Giornate 2023. Also on my top list. Restored and curated with loving care, this show enhances and deepens our understanding of (British) early cinema. An excellent recommendation for cinematheque programmers as a showcase of early cinema and restoration of the highest order.
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