The year 1900 in film involved some significant events.
Events
* Reulos, Goudeau & Co. invent
Mirographe The Mirographe, sold by Reulos, Goudeau and Co. around 1900, was, with the Chrono Pocket Gaumont, one of the French amateur film cameras to use the reduced format.
Film stock
Its films measured 6 meters by 21mm wide and had 80 frames per metre. T ...
, a 21 mm amateur format.
* The
Lumière Brothers
Lumière is French for 'light'.
Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to:
*Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People
*Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV
* Institut Lumière, a ...
premiere their new Lumiere Wide format for the
1900 World Fair. At 75 mm wide, it has held the record for over 100 years as the widest format yet developed.
*
Raoul Grimoin-Sanson Raoul Grimoin-Sanson (1860–1941) was an inventor in the field of early cinema. He was born in Elbeuf, as Raoul Grimoin; he added the surname Sanson later. He had an early interest in stage magic as well as photography.
In the 1890s, Grimoin ...
also creates a sensation at the 1900 World Fair with his multi-projector
Cinéorama
Cinéorama was an early film experiment and amusement ride presented for the first time at the Exposition Universelle (1900), 1900 Paris Exposition. It was invented by Raoul Grimoin-Sanson and it simulated a ride in a hot air balloon over Paris. ...
spectacle, which uses ten 70 mm projectors to create a simulated 360-degree balloon ride over Paris. The exhibit is closed before it formally opens, however, due to legitimate health and safety concerns regarding the heat of the combined projectors ons, and releases the format as La Petite.
* Gaumont-Demeny release their own 15 mm amateur format, Pocket Chrono.
* Release of the first film version of ''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'', an adaptation of the duel scene, with French actress
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
playing the title rôle (''sic.'') and accompanying recorded sound.
* Making of the first film to feature the detective character
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
, ''
Sherlock Holmes Baffled
''Sherlock Holmes Baffled'' is a very short American silent film created in 1900 with cinematography by Arthur Marvin. It is the earliest known film to feature Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes, albeit in a form unlike th ...
'', by the
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, ...
.
*''
Jeanne d'Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
'' becomes the first film of considerable length (10 mins) to be shown entirely in colour.
*
William N. Selig
William Nicholas Selig (March 14, 1864 – July 15, 1948) was a pioneer of the American motion picture industry. In 1896 he created one of the first film production companies, Selig Polyscope Company of Chicago. Selig produced a string of co ...
made ''The Chicago Stockyards—From Hoof to Market'' for Chicago-based
Philip Danforth Armour
Philip Danforth Armour Sr. (16 May 1832 – 6 January 1901) was an American meatpacking industrialist who founded the Chicago-based firm of Armour & Company. Born on an upstate New York farm, he made $8,000 in the California gold rush, 185 ...
, a prominent businessman in the
meatpacking industry
The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is general ...
, showing the full meatpacking process from cattle being unloaded at the stockyards to
canning
Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although u ...
. Studio lights didn't exist yet so stage spotlights had to be borrowed from the
Richard Mansfield
Richard Mansfield (24 May 1857 – 30 August 1907) was an English actor-manager best known for his performances in Shakespeare plays, Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and the play '' Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''.
Life and career
Mansfield was born ...
Theatrical Company to film inside the
slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility.
Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
.
Notable films released in 1900
#
* ''20,000 Employees Entering Lord Armstrong's Elswick Works, Newcastle upon Tyne'', produced by
Mitchell and Kenyon
The Mitchell & Kenyon film company was a pioneer of early commercial motion pictures based in Blackburn in Lancashire, England, at the start of the 20th century. They were originally best known for minor contributions to early fictional narrative ...
– (
GB)
A
* ''
Army Life; or, How Soldiers Are Made: Mounted Infantry'' (lost), a documentary directed by
Robert W. Paul
Robert William Paul (3 October 1869 – 28 March 1943) was an English pioneer of film and scientific instrument maker.
He made narrative films as early as April 1895. Those films were shown first in Edison Kinetoscope knockoffs. In 1896 he s ...
– (
GB)
* ''
As Seen Through a Telescope
''As Seen Through a Telescope'' (AKA: ''The Professor and His Field Glass'') is a 1900 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring an elderly gentleman getting a glimpse of a woman's ankle through a telescope. ...
'', directed by
George Albert Smith
George Albert Smith Sr. (April 4, 1870 – April 4, 1951) was an American religious leader who served as the eighth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Early life
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territor ...
– (
GB)
* ''
Attack on a China Mission
''Attack on a China Mission'' is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by James Williamson, showing some sailors coming to the rescue of the wife of a missionary killed by Boxers. The four-shot film, according to Michael Brooke of ...
'', directed by
James Williamson – (
GB)
* ''Automobile Parade'', directed by
William C. Paley – (
US)
B
* ''Battle of Mafeking'', directed by
James H. White
James Henry White (March 1872 – 1944) was a Canadian film pioneer, who worked as a film director, director, film producer, producer, and cinematographer. He also appeared as an actor in several movie, films. He was employed by the Edison Manufac ...
– (
US)
* ''
The Beggar's Deceit
''The Beggar's Deceit'' is a 1900 British short film directed by Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Milton Hepworth (19 March 1874 – 9 February 1953) was a British film director, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the British ...
'', directed by
Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Milton Hepworth (19 March 1874 – 9 February 1953) was a British film director, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the British film industry and continued making films into the 1920s at his Hepworth Studios. In ...
– (
GB)
C
* ''Chinese Magic'' (aka ''Yellow Peril''), directed by
Walter R. Booth
Walter Robert Booth (12 July 1869 – 1938) was a British magician and early pioneer of British film. Collaborating with Robert W. Paul and then Charles Urban mostly on "trick" films, he pioneered techniques that led to what has been descri ...
– (
GB)
* ''The Clown and the Alchemist'', directed by
J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941) was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to ...
and
Albert E. Smith – (
US)
D
* ''Danse Serpentine (In a Lion's Cage)'', directed by
Alice Guy
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
– (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
* ''Davy Jones' Locker'', directed by
Frederick S. Armitage – (
US)
E
* ''
The Enchanted Drawing
''The Enchanted Drawing'' is a 1900 silent film directed by J. Stuart Blackton. It is best known for containing the first animated sequences recorded on standard picture film, which has led Blackton to be considered the father of American animati ...
'', directed by
J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941) was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to ...
– (
US)
* ''
Explosion of a Motor Car'', directed by
Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Milton Hepworth (19 March 1874 – 9 February 1953) was a British film director, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the British film industry and continued making films into the 1920s at his Hepworth Studios. In ...
– (
GB)
F
* ''
A Fantastical Meal (Le Repas fantastique)'', directed by
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was well known for the use of ...
– (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
* ''
Faust and Marguerite'', directed by
Edwin S. Porter
Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over ...
, based on the 1859
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
by
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
– (
US)
G
* ''
Going to Bed Under Difficulties (Le Déshabillage impossible)'', directed by
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was well known for the use of ...
– (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
* ''
Grandma's Reading Glass
''Grandma's Reading Glass'' is a 1900 British short silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a young Willy who borrows a huge magnifying glass to focus on various objects, which was shot to demonstrate the new technique of ...
'', directed by
George Albert Smith
George Albert Smith Sr. (April 4, 1870 – April 4, 1951) was an American religious leader who served as the eighth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Early life
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territor ...
– (
GB)
H
* ''How He Missed His Train (Le Réveil d'un monsieur pressé)'', directed by
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was well known for the use of ...
– (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
* ''
How It Feels to Be Run Over'', directed by
Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Milton Hepworth (19 March 1874 – 9 February 1953) was a British film director, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the British film industry and continued making films into the 1920s at his Hepworth Studios. In ...
– (
GB)
J
* ''A Jersey Skeeter'', directed by
Arthur Marvin
Arthur Weed Marvin (May 26, 1859 – January 18, 1911), was an American cinematographer who worked for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in which his brother Harry Marvin was one of the four founders (the others being Herman Casler, ...
– (
US)
* ''
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
(Jeanne d'Arc)'', directed by
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was well known for the use of ...
– (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
K
* ''The Kiss'', directed by
Edwin S. Porter
Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over ...
– (
US)
L
* ''Ladies' Skirt Nailed to a Fence'', produced by
Bamforth & Co Ltd
Bamforth & Co Ltd was a publishing, film and illustration company based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, England.
History
Bamforth & Co Ltd was started in 1870 by James Bamforth, a portrait photographer in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. In 1883 he beg ...
– (
GB)
* ''
Let Me Dream Again
''Let Me Dream Again'' is a 1900 British Short film, short silent film, silent drama film, directed by George Albert Smith (inventor), George Albert Smith, featuring a man dreaming about an attractive young woman and then waking up next to his ...
'', directed by
George Albert Smith
George Albert Smith Sr. (April 4, 1870 – April 4, 1951) was an American religious leader who served as the eighth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
Early life
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territor ...
– (
GB)
M
* ''Messrs Lumb And Co., Leaving The Works, Huddersfield'', produced by
Mitchell and Kenyon
The Mitchell & Kenyon film company was a pioneer of early commercial motion pictures based in Blackburn in Lancashire, England, at the start of the 20th century. They were originally best known for minor contributions to early fictional narrative ...
– (
GB)
* ''Eine moderne Jungfrau von Orléans'', directed by
Max Skladanowsky
Max Skladanowsky (30 April 1863 – 30 November 1939) was a German inventor and early filmmaker. Along with his brother Emil, he invented the Bioscop, an early movie projector the Skladanowsky brothers used to display a moving picture show to a p ...
– (
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
)
* ''The Mystic Swing'', directed by
Edwin S. Porter
Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over ...
– (
US)
O
* ''
The One-Man Band
''The One Man Band'' (french: L'Homme-Orchestre) is a 1900 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès. It was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 262–263 in its catalogs.
Synopsis
On an empty stage, a magicia ...
'', directed by
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was well known for the use of ...
– (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
R
* ''Reproduction of the McGovern and Dixon Fight'', starring
Terry McGovern Terry McGovern may refer to:
*Terry McGovern (boxer) (1880–1918), boxer who held the world bantamweight and featherweight titles
*Terry McGovern (actor)
Terence McGovern (born May 11, 1942) is an American actor, television broadcaster, radio pe ...
and
George Dixon – (
US)
* ''Rough Sea'', produced by
Bamforth & Co Ltd
Bamforth & Co Ltd was a publishing, film and illustration company based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, England.
History
Bamforth & Co Ltd was started in 1870 by James Bamforth, a portrait photographer in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. In 1883 he beg ...
. – (
GB)
S
* ''
Sherlock Holmes Baffled
''Sherlock Holmes Baffled'' is a very short American silent film created in 1900 with cinematography by Arthur Marvin. It is the earliest known film to feature Arthur Conan Doyle's detective character Sherlock Holmes, albeit in a form unlike th ...
'', directed by
Arthur Marvin
Arthur Weed Marvin (May 26, 1859 – January 18, 1911), was an American cinematographer who worked for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in which his brother Harry Marvin was one of the four founders (the others being Herman Casler, ...
– (
US)
* ''
Soldiers of the Cross'' (lost), directed by
Joseph Perry – (
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
)
* ''
Solser en Hesse'' (lost), directed by
M.H. Laddé – (
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
)
T
* ''
The Two Blind Men
''The Two Blind Men'' (french: Les Deux Aveugles) was a 1900 French short silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films ...
(Les Deux Aveugles)'' (lost), directed by
Georges Méliès
Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema.
Méliès was well known for the use of ...
– (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
U
* ''Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel'', directed by
Edwin S. Porter
Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over ...
– (
US)
* ''Uncle Josh's Nightmare'', directed by
Edwin S. Porter – (
US)
V
* ''Le village de Namo – Panorama pris d'une chaise à porteurs'', directed by
Gabriel Veyre
Gabriel Veyre was an early film director and photographer born in France, but mainly known for his work in Mexico, Indochina and Morocco.
Biography
Veyre graduated in pharmacy from Lyon University. In 1896, he traveled along with Claude Ferdi ...
– (
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
)
Births
Date unknown
Juanita Angeles
Juanita may refer to: Names/places
*Diminutive of Juana, a female given name in Spanish
*Mummy Juanita, or "The Ice Maiden", 15th-century Inca mummy discovered in 1995
*Juanita, Kirkland, Washington, a neighborhood of the city of Kirkland
*Juanita ...
, Filipina pre-war and silent film actress
Deaths
* November 22 –
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...
, producer of musicals, half of the team of
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
(born 1842)
* November 30 –
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
, playwright whose works were made into films (born 1854)
* December 31 –
Hannibal Goodwin
Hannibal Williston Goodwin (April 21, 1822 – December 31, 1900), patented a method for making transparent, flexible roll film out of nitrocellulose film base, which was used in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, an early machine for viewing mot ...
, retired minister, in 1886 invented
nitrate film
Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...
roll. (born 1822)
Debut
*
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
*
Benoit Constant Coquelin
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1900 In Film
Film by year
Articles containing video clips