Reviews

This short depicts busy London with a still camera surrounded by carriages and men. The film's production has also improved over the past couple of years. Its fact, this film feels like a snapshot. It's like a piece of history. Looking at what Cinema's baby steps were at this time is truly amazing, while at the same time looking at what the world was like back then just to put it into perspective.

I think' reviewing' these old experimental shorts (such as this and the passage of venus) by adding star ratings to them and the like in a modern context is nothing short of weird. These were not films that were made for fun, for artistic purposes, to spread a message, or even to be' nice' as we currently understand the idea. This short was made especially for checking camera equipment! So, after watching this, two things come up in my mind: 1) The fact that this film still exists today is nothing short of a miracle. Whether it is actually entertaining or interesting (outside the sense of its making that is) is one thing, but it is literally awe-inspiring to see moving images like this from so long ago. 2) Cinema was created not because some artist had a story he / she wanted to tell, but because he / she felt that the available mediums were not up to snuff; it was invented because Eadweard Muybridge and some other weird guys thought it was fun! I can't imagine there was a lot of reason in 1878 to set up a bunch of cameras to see a horse in slow motion (that's how I think this short counts as the first use of slow motion), and Muybridge's kind of went roundabout. The methods used to produce this film do not qualify as filmmaking as we think of it today, (although using several different cameras to take an individual shot each represents the techniques that would later be used to construct the sequence of ' bullet time ' in The Matrix) meaning some contend as one of the first films ever made. It's true that Muybridge didn't set out with a camera and shot video that he then cut together (isn't it weird that there's a' pre-editing' period in the cinema?) but in my opinion the most basic cinematic concept is movement, and this short certainly captures a sense of movement that would have been impossible to imagine beforehand in film. If it's true that Muybridge basically made this short to win a bet (i.e. when all four legs were off the ground, there was a point in a horses gallop, then I think it's a perfect way to start a hulking, grotesque, stunning, art form like cinema.

This is probably the oldest film on IMDB. Whether this is a film or not, it's hard to say, as this is 6 seconds of images put together. This technique may have been performed before by other men, but this is the oldest record we have. The initial intentions were not to catch movement for its own sake, but multiple shots were required because you were unable to specify the exact time of the Venus passing in the sky. It still makes me think, though, how far we have come 145 years later. It brings a combination of joy and sadness to see these images, it makes me wonder what was that day in Jules Janssen's mind. When listening to Alexander Graham Bell capturing his own voice, projecting to the future, this set of pictures makes you feel like history was made on that very day.