DEVELOPMENT OF THE FILM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FILM

PROGRESS MADE SINCE 1893 r-r-rr—; EXHIBITIONS IN NEW YORK The New York Museum of Modern Art has for some time been collecting early examples of the film. They are now to be used as the basis of six programmes which will illustrate the development of the film since the early nineties. The programme will be shown in schools and other places of edu~ cation in chronological order, to enable the progress of the art of the cinema to be studied historically. The six motion pictures in the first programme will show the development of screen narrative, beginning with a sOft. reel entitled "The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots." The picture was produced in 1893 in, or just outside, the first American film studio, the famous "Black Maria" built near Thomas Edison's laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. The "Black Maria" was a. one-room building used for the production of short subjects for the kinetoscope, Edison's "peep-show" machine. "The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots" was a "peep-show" film, but in February, 1894, M. Jean A, Le Roy succeeded in projecting it on a screen. ,

"Wash Day Troubles," produced in 1895, took the motion picture a step beyond the single dramatic incident. This little 50ft. film was a forerunner of slapstick comedy. "A Trip to the Moon," produced and directed in 1902 by Georges Melies in Paris, is one of the most-remarkable of early pictures. ■The story, elaborate scenery, trick camera effects, and fantastic costumes ,were all the work of Melies, who brought the imagination of a Jules .Yerne and the technical ability of a professional magician to the screen. The film was produced in the days when the

average picture ran for only three minutes—"A Trip to the Moon" ran for 10 minutes. Melies played one of the principal characters. The cast also included dancers from the Iheatre _du Chatlet and acrobats from the FoliesBergere. In 1903 Edwin S. Porter, camerman for the Edison Company, wrote and directed an 800 ft. film called '"1 he Great Train Robbery." which has since become known as the first American picture with a plot. It might also be regarded as the forerunner of the gangster and v "G-men" films of to-day, for it combined the silent features of both with a touch of Shirley Temple, in the person of a curly haired child who first prayed over and then unbound the robbers' victim. In 1905 a two-reel film of "Faust',' was produced in France by Pathe. One of its interesting points is an effort to project the thought of character. When Marguerite recalls her meeting with Faust, a vision of the meeting replaces the tapestry on the wall behind the heroine. Sarah Bernhardt, in accepting an in yitation to appear on the screen, io reported to have said: "This is my one chance of immortality." Her part was that of Queen Elizabeth in a four-reel film produced in 1911. This picture was directed by M. Louis Mercanton and shown in America in the following year by Mr. Adolph Zukor as the first of the Lasky "famous plays with famous players." Though "Queen Elizabeth" is a photographed play rather than a film play, its success, due largely to Bernhardt, helped to establish the fulllength film. A complete musical scorn, which has necessitated much research, has been arranged by the Museum to accompany the various programmes, in early cinema history the musical setting was left entirely to tho discretion and talent of the lone piano player, who was in himself ,a complete orchestra, improvising, synchronizing, and providing sound effects, In spite of personal variations in the hundreds of pianists who beat out airs on the tinny pianos of nickelodeon days, a general uniformity of style grew upy-a tradition of film music which consisted of the popular \ "songs of the day, old-time drawing room classics, and incidental music i;. Vhich ran—or rather accompanied—the L tsuxrat of emotion.