Santa Claus (1898 Film)

	Santa Claus (1898 Film) ''Santa Claus'' is an 1898 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, which features Santa Claus visiting a house on Christmas Eve. The film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "is believed to be the cinema's earliest known example of parallel action and, when coupled with double-exposure techniques that Smith had already demonstrated in the same year's '' The Mesmerist'' (1898) and ''Photographing a Ghost'' (1898), the result is one of the most visually and conceptually sophisticated British films made up to then." It has been described as the very first Christmas movie and a technical marvel of its time. Plot Two children are being placed in bed by a maid. She turns off the lights and the children fall asleep. Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree. He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children. After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
picture info	George Albert Smith (inventor) George Albert Smith (4 January 1864 – 17 May 1959) was an English stage hypnotist, psychic, magic lantern lecturer, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, inventor and a key member of the loose association of early film pioneers dubbed the Brighton School by French film historian Georges Sadoul. He is best known for his controversial work with Edmund Gurney at the Society for Psychical Research, his short films from 1897 to 1903, which pioneered film editing and close-ups, and his development of the first successful colour film process, Kinemacolor. Biography Birth and early life Smith was born in Cripplegate, London in 1864. His father Charles Smith was a ticket-writer and artist.Hall (1964), p. 92. He moved with his family to Brighton, where his mother ran a boarding house on Grand Parade, following the death of his father. It was in Brighton in the early 1880s that Smith first came to public attention touring the city's performance halls as a stage hypnotis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Santa Claus In Film Motion pictures featuring Santa Claus constitute their own subgenre of the Christmas film genre. Early films of Santa revolve around similar simple plots of Santa's Christmas Eve visit to children. In 1897, in a short film called ''Santa Claus Filling Stockings'', Santa Claus is simply filling stockings from his pack of toys. Another film called ''Santa Claus and the Children'' was made in 1898. A year later, a film directed by George Albert Smith titled ''Santa Claus'' (or ''The Visit from Santa Claus'' in the United Kingdom) was created. In this picture, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace and proceeds to trim the tree. He then fills the stockings that were previously hung on the mantle by the children. After walking backward and surveying his work, he suddenly darts at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney. ''Santa Claus' Visit'' in 1900 featured a scene with two little children kneeling at the feet of their mother and saying their prayers. The mother tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]