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The Olympic Games Held at Chamonix in 1924 (1925)
The golden age of extreme sports
This is an excellent documentary on the history of winter sports. It contain very early footage of hockey, ski jumping, bobsleigh and figure skating. If the latter demonstrates all the grace of the sport, the others make us feel rather the danger and the peril of the race for the gold medal.
The hockey players, including the goalies, wear very rudimentary equipment, which of course does not include a helmet. Bobsled racing takes place directly on snow and the sleds are virtually a prototype of those used 100 years later. And while accidents are terrifying (including a competitor breaking both legs), those in ski jumping are even more so.
All this action is taking place in a magnificent snowy setting, and the spectators on the roofs of buildings or perched in the trees add a unique charm to the competitions.
La hantise (1912)
Not really about the Titanic
Madame Trévoux is told by a psalmist that either her son or her husband is gonna tragically die, just before the husband travels aboard the Titanic. However, the husband survive the sinking, and nothing serious happen to the child, which means that the psalmist was wrong.
The real historical events concerning the Titanic are barely presented, and the sinking hilariously lasts less than 30 seconds. It's also weird to think that the movie was release only a few months after the tragedy. It feel very exploitative.
Once the movie is over, we realize that the main subject is not the 2000 innocent victims who died because of gross negligence, but rather the criticism of clairvoyants and belief in the occult.
Because of this bizarre mix of themes, the exploitative and historically inaccurate nature of the movie, and the very average cinematography, I recommend this short film only to those who are very interested in the Titanic and it's representation in the media.
King of Hockey (1936)
The first hockey movie
According to Wikipedia, this is the first hockey movie ever made. Not a bad start for a movie made almost 20 years before the first televised NHL game.
This short film is simple, charming and funny at time. There's definitely some original ideas (I don't think I've ever seen a story about a hockey player going blind), but the love story isn't much different from a ton of other 1930s movies.
The hockey scenes are what made this film truly enjoyable. For a 1936 movie, the on-ice cinematography is extremely surprising. It's fast, dynamic, agressive, and full of action shots. Some of them are exaggerated (especially the wall jumps that you will absolutely never see in a real hockey game), but still entertaining in the same way that the boxing scenes in Rocky are fun to watch. The 1930s arena is also a fun and rare thing to see if you like hockey history.
If you are a hockey fan, I recommend it.