Early Cinema - Primitives And Pioneers

A collection of sixty films from the pre-1910 period of cinema is presented here with optional insightful commentary written by revered film historian, Barry Salt. It includes a selection of 35mm films such as Pathe's Ali Baba Et Les Quarante Voleurs and Magic Bricks, plus a newly restored and tinted version of Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery. This set provides an entertaining look at how many of today's film devices such as the close-up, the cut-away and editing, were first invented before the turn of the century by filmmakers such as George Melies (with Voyage A Travers L'Impossible), G. A. Smith (with Mary Jane's Mishap), and the Hepworth Manufacturing Company (with Rescued By Rover). The films, all preserved at the BFI National Film and Television Archive, have been remastered for this collection. This anthology comes with a new isolated, improvised, score in Dolby Digital provided by Neil Brand, John Sweeney and Stephen Horne - pianists at the National Film Theatre in London. Amongst the many gems in this compilation are: 13 shorts by the Lumiere brothers, which formed the first projected film show to a paying public in Britain - at Regent Street Polytechnic in 1896, George Melies' Voyage a travers l'impossible, Birt Acres's Rough Sea at Dover, Nine films by the Pathe Brothers, including Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs and an example of early film voyeurism in Peeping Tom, Five films from the Hepworth Company, including the highly successful kidnapping drama Rescued by Rover, An actuality publicity film commissioned by the biscuit company Peek Frean & Co., A Day in the Life of a Coalminer, a documentary produced by the Kineto Production Company in 1910, From the Edison Company Dewar's - It's Scotch (reputedly the first advertising film), Edwin S Porter's The Gay Shoe Clerk, The Great Train Robbery and the popular The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (adapted from Winsor McCay?s comicstrip). There are also films by R W Paul, George Albert Smith, Sheffield Photographic Company, Walter Haggar, James Bamforth and James A Williamson. New improvised scores provided by Neil Brand, John Sweeney and Stephen Horne, pianists at the BFI's National Film Theatre, accompany the films.