 |
 |
1909 - CURTAIN
POLE. Biograph 1909. Working for D.W.
Griffith, Mack Sennett made this short, the roots
of Keystone comedies. Slapstick comes to American
cinema. (Louis Black)
More
information |
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
1912 - THE SHORTS
OF D.W. GRIFFITH: The Musketeers of Pig Alley. |
|
|
|
 |
|
1915 - THE SHORTS
OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN: THE EDISON KINETOSCOPE
A Night in the Show. Essanay. Here Chaplin reprises
his vaudeville routine but it is not really Chaplin
as the tramp and there are more poetic choices. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| 1915 - THE TAKING
OF LUKE MCVANE, Thomas H. Ince. Most of the
William S. Hart shorts are strong, this one is impressive,
Hart co-directed. Here lie the roots of the Italian
Spaghetti Western and the filmography of Clint Eastwood. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| 1916 - FATTY AND
MABEL ADRIFT. Mack Sennett Studios/Keystone
1916. Mabel Normand was one of the first female comic
stars, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was a wonder
of physical and facial comedy. Together they were a
great team and this is one of their finest. Every time
she talks to him the title cards may say “Fatty”
but she says “Roscoe.” If the list was just
personal favorites I’d go with He Did and He Didn’t
Mack Sennett Studios. |
|
|
|
 |
|
| 1916 - THE MYSTERY
OF THE LEAPING FISH. Keystone, Triangle. Douglas
Fairbanks is Coke Ennyday in this early drug parody
Sherlock Holmes spoof. Culturally fascinating, frenetic
and Fairbanks is almost always great. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
1922 - BUSTER KEATON
SHORTS:
Cops. First National. The list could just be Buster
Keaton and I’d be okay and if others want to argue
for different Keaton shorts, well they’re all
great. Again, my personal list would have one of the
Arbuckle and Keaton shorts done for Paramount. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
1926 - EMAK-BAKIA
d. Man Ray
In Emak Bakia, the mischievous dadaist and surrealist Man Ray pioneered the technique of cameraless filmmaking, exposing lengths of film to light after sprinkling them with pins, grains of salt and other common objects. In its playful use of disparate materials – animation, non-objective shapes, rayograms, unfocused and optically fragmented images – Emak Bakia remains fresh and inspiring nearly 80 years after it was made.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| 1926 – CLASSIC
FOREIGN SHORTS Classic Foreign Shorts, Vol.
1, 2, 3 |
|
|
