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Chaplin's Chaplin

Meet Max Linder. You may not know it but he was one of the earliest recognizable stars in cinema. A french film actor, Linder starred in over 200 shorts and features, both in his native France and in the United States. Linder and his character "Max" greatly influenced a number of comedic actors. This includes Charlie Chaplin, whose Tramp character owes a lot to the Max character in terms of comedic performance. While the Tramp was a stand-in for the lower classes with his shabby clothing, lack of social graces, and aspirations for riches, Max was dapper and very much situated in a middle class milieu. He loved women and alcohol and regardless of what kind of craziness he got himself into he was always smiling.

Even so, Chaplin very much considered himself the disciple to Linder's Master. 

Here's a compilation of some of Max Linder's work, watching it always puts a smile on my face.

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H. S. Bhatavdekar - The First (?) Indian Filmmaker

Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatwadekar, known as 'Save Dada', became possibly the first Indian filmmaker when in 1899 he filmed a wrestling match between Pundalik Dada and Krishna Navi at Bombay's Hanging Gardens (Other sources claim Hiralal Sen was the first Indian filmmaker because he started filming staged plays as early as 1898 -- More on him in a later post).

Bhatwadekar was a photographer by trade and had his own studio in Bombay. After attending a Lumiere Cinematographe screening on July 7, 1896, he was inspired to try his hand at filmmaking. He purchased a camera from the Riley Brothers in the UK. The camera was based on Cecil Wray's Kineotopgraphie, which the Riley brothers had acquired the patent rights to.

In 1899, with camera in hand, he shot footage of the wrestling match. He followed that up with footage of monkeys playing. He had acquired a projector and showcased both his own and imported films to audiences. He even produced what is considered the first Indian newsreel when in 1902 he filmed the return of Ragunath P. Paranjpye, who had received a special distinction in Maths from Cambridge University.

Bhatwadekar never made any fiction films and current research shows that he made six or seven actualities in total. He eventually became the manager of the Gaiety Theatre in Bombay.

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Alice Guy: The First Female Filmmaker

Alice Guy is not only the first female film director, but one of the earliest filmmakers and a pioneer of narrative storytelling in film.

In 1894, Guy started work as a secretary for a photography company. Leon Gaumont, an inventor who also worked there, purchased the company and changed the focus to film production. The company became the Gaumont Film Company. Guy was made Head of Production and quickly churned out short after short. Guy is also credited at this time of having made one of the earliest narrative films, The Cabbage Fairy (1896). While its not a complex narrative it marks one of the earliest instances of a filmmaker shooting something that wasn't just a scenic shot of landscape or documentary footage of everyday life.

In a ten year period from 1896 - 1906 Guy produced, directed and/or wrote over 400 one reel length films. Having found success, the Gaumont Film Company expanded and constructed a new studio in 1906. Guy trained the newly hired staff and filmmakers, and began to focus on making longer narrative films. Most notably she directed "The Birth, Life, and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ" in 1906. An elaborate production at the time, it included twenty five sets and hundreds of extras with a run time of 35 minutes.The movie went on to become one of her biggest hits in France.

In 1908, Guy married Herbert Blaché, who also worked at Gaumont. He was promoted to production manager for the Gaumont USA office and the couple moved to the United States. In 1910 they decided to start their own production company. Partnering with George A. Magie, they formed The Solax Company. Initially set up in Flushing, New York, success allowed the company to build a state of the art production studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey.  Fort Lee was the Hollywood of its time as a number of studios were set up there. 

At Solax, Guy was artistic director and directed a number of films as well. One of the most historically significant films produced by Solax and Guy is A Fool and His Money, notable for being the first film with an all African-American cast. 

The couple divorced after Blaché left for Hollywood with a mistress. At around the same time, The Solax Company closed down as it was not able to compete with the lower costs and better climate associated with shooting in Hollywood. Guy eventually returned back to France, where she tried to get back into the film business but was unsuccessful. She did write children's stories and articles, under various masculine pseudonyms. 

Later in her life, Guy moved back to the United States and passed away in a nursing home at the age of 95.

The National Film Board of Canada produced a documentary about Guy's life and I recommend giving it a watch to find out even more about this filmmaking pioneer.

The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché by Marquise Lepage, National Film Board of Canada

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Lumière Brothers Première Screening - Dec 28, 1895

On December 28th, 1895 one of the most famous and earliest public film screenings took place in the Le Salon Indien du Grand Café, a room in the basement of the Grand Cafe in Paris. The Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, presented ten shorts shot on their cinematographe camera. 

Many have considered this to be the first public screening of motion pictures ever, but that has been disputed. 

The following video features all ten videos for your eyeballs. Enjoy!

The image at the top of this post is actually the poster for L'Arroseur arrosé, one of the films in the program. Illustrated by Marcellin Auzolle, it is thought to be the first film poster to focus on a film rather than the technology of films.

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Film Gun!

Behold the Chronophotographic Gun. Made by Étienne-Jules Marey in 1882 the gun was able to capture 12 consecutive frames a second on the same picture. With this, Marey was able to study the movement and flight of various animals as well as humans.

The results would look like this:

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Feast your eyes on this, the oldest film in existence! Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) is considered not only to be the oldest film still in existence but possibly the first moving picture ever made. The 2.11 second film was filmed on October 14, 1888 by Louis Le Prince, an inventor of some of the earliest film cameras. It features members of his family walking around in circles! 

Now here's where things get really interesting: Le Prince mysteriously dissappeared in September 1890 after having boarded a train for Paris. When the train arrived he wasn't on board. There has been much speculation as to what exactly happened. Some claim it was suicide, while others claim that it was the work of rival inventors who wanted to put a stop to his work and acquiring of patents. Because of his disappearance, his work was never publicly exhibited.

Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers have become associated as the founding fathers of cinema as they were able to successfully exhibit their technology and films to the public. Recent scholarship has begun change this by shedding light onto the significance of Le Prince's inventions and work.