“It's spooky! It sounds… unholy!”The Unholy Three (Tod Browning, 1925)
May
6
Tweedledee (Harry Earles), Hercules (Victor McLaglen), and Echo – The Ventriloquist (Lon Chaney). DP: David Kesson.
– Echo
“It's spooky! It sounds… unholy!”The Unholy Three (Tod Browning, 1925)
May
6
Tweedledee (Harry Earles), Hercules (Victor McLaglen), and Echo – The Ventriloquist (Lon Chaney). DP: David Kesson.
– Echo
L'eclisse del 17 aprile [An Eclipse of the Sun] (1912)
Apr
17
1912
Scientists in impeccable suits observing the 1912 solar eclipse. The colour used for tinting this scene, a turquoise, indicates moonlight/dusk. Image source: Cineteca di Bologna (via).
कालिया मर्दन [Kaliya Mardan / The Childhood of Krishna] (Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, 1919)
Apr
1
April Fools' Day
Shri Krishna (Mandakini Phalke, the director's seven-year old daughter), playing his flute with a twinkle in his eye. DP: Dhundiraj Govind Phalke.
A fool or jokester for April Fools' Day
As a child, Shri Krishna, the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu, was a prankster. The Lord and his childhood friends would steal makhan and, if there was too much to eat all at once, would share it with the monkeys.
Kaliya Mardan is one of the handful films from India's early cinematic output that has survived. Do check your attic
უჟმური [Ujmuri / Мрачная равнина / Cheerless] (Nutsa Gogoberidze, 1934)
Mar
3
Florida – 1845
A young woman, dress and arms covered in swamp water, raises a muddy shotgun. DP: Shalva Apaqidze.
A swamp (or The Everglades) on that day in 1845 Florida became the 27th state.
The swamp dwellers' trust in shaman Uzhmuri, the Queen of Frogs, prohibits the authorities from draining the wetlands in their fight against malaria.
Even: As You and I (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay + LeRoy Robbins, 1937)
Feb
27
A film editor struggling with a long strip of celluloid. DP: Hy Hirsh.
”'I know how you feel,' Reiko says quietly. 'And I will follow you wherever you go.'”憂國 [Yūkoku / Patriotism or the Rite of Love and Death] (Yukio Mishima, 1966)
Feb
26
1936
Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka) walking through her lover's blood, her kimono drenched. DP: Kimio Watanabe.
Covers February 26–28, 1936.
– intertitles
“Feast your eyes. Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness.”The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, Lon Chaney, Ernst Laemmle + Edward Sedgwick, 1925)
Jan
28
Gaslights
An enormous gaslit chandelier dangles over the Paris Opéra audience's heads. DPs: Milton Bridenbecker, Virgil Miller & Charles Van Enger.
Gaslights for the first recorded public street lighting powered by gas, demonstrated in Pall Mall, London, on 28 January, 1807. The introduction of gaslight had a major influence on theatre and opera, including the new Paris Opera (1875), which was lit by no less than 960 gas jets. Thanks to the brilliant light, stage actors could tone down their mannerisms and stage makeup.
– The Phantom
However, in the dark dungeons under the Opéra lives a pitiful creature, doomed to dwell in darkness. His makeup, provided by The Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney, was both grotesque and eerily real .
“… as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”Egged On (Charles R. Bowers, Harold L. Muller + Ted Sears, 1926)
Jan
17
inventions
Charley working his Rube Goldberger-esque egg-rubberizing contraption.
An invention for Benjamin Franklin's birthday. Inventor Charley (Charles R. Bowers) comes up with an ingenious method to make eggs break-proof for transport by rubberizing them.
– Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography
Bowers was an almost-forgotten silent era comedian, filmmaker, and animator. In more recent years, his groundbreaking stop-motion comedy has found a new, well-deserved, interest.
– Now, see! You kill-a de monk!
– Pay him for that baboon… or I'll run you in!The Cameraman (Edward Sedgwick + Buster Keaton, 1928)
Jan
14
National Dress Up Your Pet Day
Buster (Buster Keaton) with Josephine the monkey on his shoulder. DPs: Reggie Lanning & Elgin Lessley.
A funnily dressed pet for National Dress Up Your Pet Day (USA) (please don't!).
After cameraman Buster accidentally knocks over a monkey, he has no choice but to take the sailor-suited simian along on his movie shoots.
“Art and science encounter each other when they seek exactitude.”Escrime [Fencing] (Étienne-Jules Marey, 1890)
Jan
4
revolvers
Footage of Marey at work. Note the mobility of his invention. (via).
A revolver to commemorate Samuel Colt's sale of 1 000 revolvers to butcher Captain Samuel Walker in 1847.
– Étienne-Jules Marey
However, where there is bloodshed, there can be art. Scientist Étienne-Jules Marey studied movement, and further adapted an existing revolver-style camera gun invented by astronomer Jules Janssen in 1874. The revolution in Marey's invention was not in the least in its mobility. Unlike Muybridge, whose locomotion experiments required a huge, cumbersome setup, Marey could strap on his “gun”, and shoot moving footage while following his target around. His chronophotograph Escrime can be considered Marey's first successfully captured moving footage.