0:01:14 > 0:01:18Imagine a world without moving pictures.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26Cinema began in 1895.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Moving pictures projected onto a big screen.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Among the very first movies shown was this,
0:01:32 > 0:01:34the world's first screen comedy.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40The boy stands on the hosepipe, blocking the flow of water.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42When he removes his foot...
0:01:45 > 0:01:48A running hosepipe on stage would ruin the scenery
0:01:48 > 0:01:53or soak the audience but on film it's not a problem.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55It's...It's only a problem
0:01:55 > 0:01:58if you're the person on film that's being soaked.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00The first special effects in the movies
0:02:00 > 0:02:02was running the film backwards.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04If you watch a film like Demolishing A Wall,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07you see the action backwards and you see things
0:02:07 > 0:02:09that no human being has ever seen before.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13I think it's going to rain!
0:02:26 > 0:02:29Simple, but effective.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50On December the 28th 1895,
0:02:50 > 0:02:54the Lumiere brothers demonstrated their invention of motion pictures
0:02:54 > 0:02:56for the very first time in this room.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59They hung up a cloth screen, they put a projector in a stall.
0:02:59 > 0:03:04100 chairs were optimistically laid out. In fact, 33 people attended.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06The press had been invited, but didn't turn up.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09But word of mouth was so strong that within a few days
0:03:09 > 0:03:122,000 people were outside this building trying to get in.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Before cinema we had machines where we looked into a little aperture,
0:03:20 > 0:03:22turned a handle and saw moving images
0:03:22 > 0:03:26but the first time they were shown on a cinema screen
0:03:26 > 0:03:28was in 1895 in Paris.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30And we're going to see now the very first film,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34that these people saw in Paris, that they were startled by.
0:03:38 > 0:03:39So this is all it is at this stage,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42but this is what absolutely astonished people
0:03:42 > 0:03:44because, to us, it's just a simple shot
0:03:44 > 0:03:47of people not looking at a camera, just coming out.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50You'll see a dog in a minute that livens it up.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53He's the best thing in it. There he is!
0:03:53 > 0:03:56He's your actual first film star. He's the star of this picture.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58The rest is just people walking.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02To us, now, it doesn't seem to be even worthy of comment
0:04:02 > 0:04:06but at the time people were absolutely astonished by this.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09So that was basically the very first film that was shown.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13The next film, this is A Train Coming Into A Station.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16This film I suppose is probably the first sensational film
0:04:16 > 0:04:18in the history of cinema.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20People were terrified, particularly people
0:04:20 > 0:04:23sitting where you are, that side of the cinema there.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Let's run A Train Coming Into A Station.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37So it's round about this point that people over there
0:04:37 > 0:04:39just started to get a bit worried
0:04:39 > 0:04:41and apparently people did scream and shout
0:04:41 > 0:04:44because they did think they were going to get run over
0:04:44 > 0:04:48by a silent, two-dimensional black and white train.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54That moment of horror was satirised in this British comedy from 1901.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57The Country Man is scared by a moving image
0:04:57 > 0:05:00in a way that he wouldn't haven't been scared by a photograph.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06A photograph was a very exciting thing, but it was static.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09If you moved you became a blur.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Oooh, nearly went off then.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20In very early photographs of this period
0:05:20 > 0:05:23we catch bizarre images - part human, part ghost,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27flashing across monochrome landscapes.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29This is very nearly a horse.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32Theatre audiences in the 19th century
0:05:32 > 0:05:35enjoyed magic lantern shows like these.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38This is a zoetrope.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47In 1872, Eadweard Muybridge was asked to settle a bet
0:05:47 > 0:05:48one way or the other.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52At any point in a horse's gallop, are all four legs off the ground?
0:05:52 > 0:05:56Five years later, in 1877, Muybridge settled the bet
0:05:56 > 0:05:59by setting up a system of 12 separate stills cameras,
0:05:59 > 0:06:01spaced 21 inches apart.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Each camera ran on trip wire that was triggered by the horse's hooves.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Here a succession of photographs gives the impression of movement,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12the very basis of film.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16This early experiment was delayed by the fact
0:06:16 > 0:06:18that Muybridge shot his wife's lover dead,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20but was acquitted due to justifiable homicide.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32The Lumiere brothers were just two of many people
0:06:32 > 0:06:35working on the principle of projecting moving photographs.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Both in Europe and America, inventors were separately
0:06:38 > 0:06:42and simultaneously racing towards the invention of cinema.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49In 1891 the American inventor Thomas Edison
0:06:49 > 0:06:52had perfected the Kinetoscope.
0:06:55 > 0:07:01A year later, in 1892, Emile Reynaud projected the first animated film
0:07:01 > 0:07:03on his Praxinoscope.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16In England, two pioneers Robert W Paul and Birt Acres
0:07:16 > 0:07:22had invented the first British 35mm camera in 1895.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Robert W Paul demonstrated his projector, the Theatrograph,
0:07:25 > 0:07:30on 21st February 1896, the same day that the Lumieres' system
0:07:30 > 0:07:32was displayed in London.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37His most successful early film was The Derby,
0:07:37 > 0:07:41shot four months later in June 1896.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45When Robert W Paul showed his film the day after the race
0:07:45 > 0:07:47at two music halls it caused a sensation.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51It is one of the earliest examples of newsreel.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55In Germany, Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59had invented the Bioscope and had shown a paying audience in Berlin
0:07:59 > 0:08:03projected moving images two months before the Lumieres' screening.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08But the Skladanowsky system was technically inferior
0:08:08 > 0:08:11to the Lumiere's Cinematographe and it became a dead duck.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16The Cinematographe was a much more reliable system.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20Oh, it's, it's much smaller than I would have imagined.
0:08:20 > 0:08:21I've seen pictures of it
0:08:21 > 0:08:23but I imagined it to be a bigger thing.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26In Paris, Eric Lange and Serge Bromberg
0:08:26 > 0:08:29showed me the Lumiere brothers' invention.
0:08:31 > 0:08:32So this is in camera mode?
0:08:32 > 0:08:35How does it, how can you change it into a projector?
0:08:35 > 0:08:37Quite easy. Uh-huh.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45You just got to change the lens also.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50Wow, look at that.
0:08:52 > 0:08:53Genius.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09The majority of silent films were always shown with live accompaniment
0:09:09 > 0:09:12and we are thrilled to have one of the greatest exponents
0:09:12 > 0:09:16of accompanying silent films, will you please welcome Mr Neil Brand!
0:09:16 > 0:09:18APPLAUSE
0:09:22 > 0:09:25So we're at the stage where we have the invention of film
0:09:25 > 0:09:28but of course there were no cinemas because is such a new invention.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31So films were often shown in music halls between the variety acts.
0:09:31 > 0:09:36A lot of these early films utilised those same variety acts
0:09:36 > 0:09:38and put them on screen as subject matter.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40This is an act called The Serpentine Dance.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44This was very popular at the time. Here are two examples of it.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46PIANO PLAYS
0:09:52 > 0:09:55This has to be said - it's not much of an act.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59It's basically like trying to watch a woman put a cover on a duvet.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Let's have another look at the The Serpentine Dance,
0:10:02 > 0:10:04this time under more extreme circumstances.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21You can see there was no culture of health and safety at all.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24She is in that cage with a couple of lions,
0:10:24 > 0:10:26doing her "putting a cover on a duvet" routine,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29and I suppose at the time, it was seen as a way
0:10:29 > 0:10:32of enlivening the act because, of course, cinema is about novelty
0:10:32 > 0:10:35and once you've seen somebody put a duvet cover on,
0:10:35 > 0:10:38you have to do something different with it.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41Let's see a couple of the odder variety acts filmed at the time.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44You'd have seen these films in the middle of a music-hall bill.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47The first one's fairly straightforward,
0:10:47 > 0:10:49and the one after that's a bit special.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56This is Miss Dundee and her performing dogs.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05It took these dogs six months to train Miss Dundee.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Isn't that utterly grotesque?
0:11:50 > 0:11:52It's the most extraordinary costume.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55This was a very popular act in France in the 1900s,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57a very popular act indeed.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00But remember, don't have nightmares, it's just a man in a costume...
0:12:00 > 0:12:03who's trying to kill you. Don't worry about it.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07Those were clips of two variety acts as they existed at the time.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10We're going to look at another couple of pieces here
0:12:10 > 0:12:12where they seem to be variety acts,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15but they're actually filmed using cinematic techniques.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19The first one involves a chicken and the second one doesn't.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33In answer to the question, which came first, the chicken or the egg?,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36in this film, it's both.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58This Spanish film has been hand-coloured,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01each separate frame individually painted.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06These incredibly vivid images are over one hundred years old.
0:14:22 > 0:14:27Here's another example of early colour, from 1907.
0:14:27 > 0:14:28Women use to do this all the time.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Here's a version of Madame Butterfly.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Is this every woman's secret dream?
0:14:42 > 0:14:44APPLAUSE
0:14:44 > 0:14:47Attending that first Lumiere showing
0:14:47 > 0:14:50was a theatre owner and stage magician Georges Melies.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54He went onto become the most famous of all the early film-makers.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57When he was younger Melies wanted to become an artist,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00but his father, who was a luxury shoe manufacturer, said no.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03He wanted his son to follow in his luxury footsteps.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05So instead, he sent Georges to London, where,
0:15:05 > 0:15:09instead of concentrating on his work manufacturing ladies' bloomers,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Georges became interested in magic tricks.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Georges Melies' trademark style was filming the fantastic.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27About a hundred years ago, Georges Melies imagined the future.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29We're heading towards the Channel Tunnel now.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Melies made a film about a Channel tunnel about a hundred years ago.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37He imagined the future, but he didn't imagine it quite like this.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42Yes! Although some of what I said was meaningless.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Melies, like many other early film-makers,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06enthusiastically embraced hand-colouring.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27The films of Georges Melies often starred Georges Melies.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04And such tricks as double exposure turned the camera into a magic box.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Double exposure meant the same actor
0:17:06 > 0:17:08could appear twice in the same scene.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10"This is like looking in a mirror."
0:17:10 > 0:17:13"Give us a hug." "All right!"
0:17:15 > 0:17:18And this is the real Melies.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29How is this magical effect achieved?
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Melies stops the camera here,
0:17:32 > 0:17:34he places the black cloth over his head
0:17:34 > 0:17:38and throws a fake head up in the air.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40He stops the camera again
0:17:40 > 0:17:43and substitutes his own head for the fake head.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58'Film collector and conservator Serge Bromberg told me
0:17:58 > 0:18:02'about Georges Melies' attempts to buy his first movie camera
0:18:02 > 0:18:04'from the Lumiere brothers.'
0:18:04 > 0:18:06When he said to the Lumiere brothers,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08"I'd like to buy a machine like this,"
0:18:08 > 0:18:11because he knew he could use that kind of device
0:18:11 > 0:18:14on stage between the magic acts.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17The Lumiere brothers wanted to keep the system for themselves,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21and said, "Oh, it has no commercial future. Don't bother."
0:18:21 > 0:18:23And this is why Melies, who knew English,
0:18:23 > 0:18:29he could speak very good English, bought his first camera in England.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32So he takes it back to Paris, um, English camera,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35and he discovers something about this English camera, doesn't he?
0:18:35 > 0:18:38He discovers one of the early film techniques.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Well, one day he's filming the Place de L'Opera,
0:18:41 > 0:18:47and a car is entering the shot and, all of a sudden, the camera stops.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49"Oh, what's going on?"
0:18:49 > 0:18:51He fixes it and then resumes shooting.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56But the car had disappeared and when he watched the film,
0:18:56 > 0:18:58all of a sudden, the car...instantly is...
0:18:58 > 0:19:01"Oh! But this is a magic trick."
0:19:01 > 0:19:04So, basically, Melies was a magician,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07by pure chance discovered the first magic trick ever.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10So, does it also say that because he couldn't get a French camera,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12he bought an English camera,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15and the English camera wasn't so good cos it broke down?
0:19:15 > 0:19:16I didn't say it!
0:19:16 > 0:19:20So if the Lumiere brothers had said, "You can have one of our cameras,"
0:19:20 > 0:19:23- he may never have discovered that? - That's quite possible.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30In this film, Melies deploys seven multiple exposures.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34His camera man has to rewind the film in the camera seven times
0:19:34 > 0:19:37to exactly the same position.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39BAND PLAYS
0:19:51 > 0:19:55In 1897, Georges Melies built the world's first film studio,
0:19:55 > 0:19:57here in Montreuil.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13I'm here in Montreuil, on the outskirts of Paris.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17Georges Melies' film studio was a few hundred yards that way.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21This studio was built by Charles Pathe in 1904.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26The glass ceiling allows natural daylight to flood in.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29At that stage, electric light wasn't powerful enough.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32And because no sound was being recorded,
0:20:32 > 0:20:37you could make a couple of films at the same time in the same studio.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48Pathe's motto was, "Produce more, and quicker!"
0:20:48 > 0:20:51Soon they were producing 16 films a month,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54employing up to 1,700 people,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57and with a worldwide distribution network,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01a cottage industry became a global phenomenon.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Meanwhile, back across the Channel,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11the English were being equally silly.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21In England, another film pioneer called George
0:21:21 > 0:21:23was blazing his own trail.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26George Albert Smith was a stage hypnotist
0:21:26 > 0:21:27and magic lantern exhibitor.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Here's one of the magic lanterns he would have worked with.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34George was the English Melies, or, if you prefer,
0:21:34 > 0:21:36Melies was the French Smith.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38Both men were experienced stage performers
0:21:38 > 0:21:42and both wanted to make films that were entertaining and amusing.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44Here is one of Smith's earliest efforts.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47This is The Quaker Maidens,
0:21:47 > 0:21:53a simple, single set-up, so typical of very early cinema.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Here at the Hove Museum and Art Gallery, near Brighton,
0:22:22 > 0:22:28I'm transfixed by this Mutoscope, designed for the single viewer.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31George Smith lived in Brighton.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34'Suzie Plumb, the museum's curator,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37'here shows me a special-effects camera
0:22:37 > 0:22:39'specifically built for George Smith.'
0:22:39 > 0:22:44And he wanted to make close-up shots and reverse motion shots,
0:22:44 > 0:22:46so this camera was designed to do that.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50- These plates would have been put over the lens.- Can you show me that?
0:22:50 > 0:22:53It would have created the effect of looking through something,
0:22:53 > 0:22:55so a telescope or a magnifying glass.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59But at this time, this is hugely pioneering.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02This breakthrough film made by George Smith in 1900,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04Grandma's Reading Glass,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07shows the young boy's point of view of grandma's eye
0:23:07 > 0:23:10as he looks through the magnifying glass.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Here, we are seeing the first building blocks of editing.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16In terms of film technique at this time,
0:23:16 > 0:23:19English George is far ahead of French Georges.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24And yet, in comparison, his name is hardly known.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28This is how the French talk about Georges Melies.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Melies - poet, magician, potato,
0:23:32 > 0:23:34light, dark,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37macaroon, genius.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41And this is how the English talk about George Smith.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45< I wanted to ask you about the film pioneer, George Smith.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48I don't want any trouble, love. Move, before I set the dogs on you.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50Woof, woof. Down, Janice, down.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Killers, absolute killers.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59George Smith influenced other Brighton film-makers at this time,
0:23:59 > 0:24:01particularly James Williamson.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04He, too, made bold choices.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08This is The Big Swallow, from 1901.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39James Williamson was a chemist working in Hove,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42and he also developed photographic film and film,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46so this is how he started to know the pioneer film-makers
0:24:46 > 0:24:50working in the city, and he later went on to build a film studio.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52- This is it here, yes?- This is it.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55- This is their house and the studio. - Oh, right, yes.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57We've got the glass ceilings, letting the light come in.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00Yes, and this is Williamson here, and his crew.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03His family was involved with his films, so his sons appear.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05Here's one of them, Tom.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07He features in Our New Errand Boy.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10And the important thing about Williamson,
0:25:10 > 0:25:12he was very influenced by Smith's work.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15But he took it further. He developed the film narrative,
0:25:15 > 0:25:17so he was one of the first film-makers
0:25:17 > 0:25:20to develop multi-shot films
0:25:20 > 0:25:22and also, for dramatic effect,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25cutting from one shot to another,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28from different cameras and different camera angles,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31- to create a dramatic effect. - Can you give me an example of that?
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Well, one of the earliest ones is Fire,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38using multi-shots to develop the dramatic sense of the film.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Yes, yes. And particularly this shot here, in Fire here,
0:25:41 > 0:25:46this horse-drawn fire engine gets remarkably close to the camera.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51George Smith collaborated with his wife,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55the stage actress Laura Bailey, in many of his early comedies.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58In Mary Jane's Mishap, made in 1903,
0:25:58 > 0:26:03George employs a close-up to show us the can marked "paraffin".
0:26:03 > 0:26:07It also allows Laura's personality to come across.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11Close-ups were still very rare at this time.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28George cuts to a punch line on a tombstone.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32It also shows the passing of time.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Here in George Smith's Let me Dream Again,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38we go from a man dreaming of fun
0:26:38 > 0:26:44to his bitter married reality, by throwing the edit out of focus.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55George Smith not only uses extreme close-up, but in Let Me Dream,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57he employs a cut to reveal the gag.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03These things make you look ridiculous.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05Back to France.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29On the other side of the Channel, in 1897,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33a woman called Alice Guy was making film history.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46Here in France, Alice Guy became
0:27:46 > 0:27:49one of the world's first female directors and producers
0:27:49 > 0:27:51when she started making films for Gaumont.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53And like a lot of film pioneers,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56she became fascinated by the tricks of the camera.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58- Non. Out of date.- Out of date?
0:28:13 > 0:28:20Alice Guy began making films for Gaumont in either 1896 or 1897.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22By either date, she's a pioneer.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25She was a very accomplished film-maker
0:28:25 > 0:28:27with a keen sense of humour.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31This is How Monsieur Takes His Bath, from 1903.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59How do you introduce novelty into a standard street scene?
0:29:01 > 0:29:03Well, Alice does this.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12This is Alice Guy in Spain in 1905.
0:29:12 > 0:29:17Compare these people's reaction to her camera with a modern crowd.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21Today, individuals wave their hands, and yell and pull faces.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Some of these people aren't even aware they are being photographed.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35Here is Alice in some extremely rare footage
0:29:35 > 0:29:37of an early silent film studio at work.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40In the foreground, she plays a gramophone record
0:29:40 > 0:29:42to provide the dancers with music.
0:29:44 > 0:29:49Every so often in these early films, we see an inexperienced actor
0:29:49 > 0:29:52looking directly at the director when they are spoken to.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56In The Cruel Mother, it happens several times.
0:29:59 > 0:30:00This is my favourite.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02"Hello."
0:30:03 > 0:30:07In Alice Guy's wonderful film The Race For The Sausage,
0:30:07 > 0:30:10she shows complete mastery of the comedy chase.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41If you thought the baby in the pram in that last film
0:31:41 > 0:31:43was harshly treated,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46you'll find that this scene from a British film is in a similar vein.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49This is Blood And Bosh, from 1913.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52If you like babies, look away now.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05At a time of high infant mortality,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08babies were often used as comic props.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11In this Fred Evans film, once the baby is knocked out of the pram,
0:33:11 > 0:33:14it is then used as a fan.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23Fred Evans was a very popular English comedian
0:33:23 > 0:33:26whose career had begun in the music hall.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28A predominantly working-class entertainment,
0:33:28 > 0:33:32the music hall provided ready-made acts for the early years of cinema.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Fred specialised in parodies of dramatic stories.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40In 1913, a British film company produced The Battle Of Waterloo,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44but here is Fred Evans' version, released in the same year.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50MUSIC: "La Marseillaise" played on piano
0:34:02 > 0:34:04PLAYING FALTERS
0:34:05 > 0:34:08PLAYING RESUMES
0:34:37 > 0:34:39PAUL LAUGHS
0:34:40 > 0:34:45Here is Fred Evans, appearing as his very popular character, Pimple.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Meanwhile, back on the other side of the Channel in France,
0:35:21 > 0:35:25the brilliance of Georges Melies revealed its limitations.
0:35:27 > 0:35:30By 1909, Georges Melies was outdated.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34The action was so far away from the camera it was very difficult to get
0:35:34 > 0:35:37personality across and audiences love personality.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41The first comic star of the cinema was Andre Deed
0:35:41 > 0:35:44and he had personality by the bagful.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49He was a music hall comedian, acrobat and clown in France.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52And, as early as 1901, he appeared in a couple
0:35:52 > 0:35:57of Georges Melies films and so studied camera tricks first hand.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01He was spotted on stage by Charles Pathe, founder of the Pathe Film
0:36:01 > 0:36:05Production Company, and was given a chance to star in his own films.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39This is how Pathe were happy to advertise their company
0:36:39 > 0:36:41around the world.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45Andre Deed nailing a dead duck to a door.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49Andre Deed left Pathe in 1908.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53He joined Itala, an Italian film company.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57This is an extract from an Andre Deed film. Let's have a look at him.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05We've had Neil accompanying these films brilliantly and beautifully,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08but not always were these films accompanied by music,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10they also had sound effects to them.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14For our next film, please welcome to the stage Miss Suki Webster.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16APPLAUSE
0:38:18 > 0:38:21Now, for this, Suki's going to be on hammer and tray.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24- Real skill.- Real skill.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26- Shall I get this out now?- Yeah.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28There's a bucket of water there, OK?
0:38:32 > 0:38:35And so Suki is on tin tray, hammer and bucket of water.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Neil is on piano and I'm on clarinet.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42I cannot play the clarinet, but it doesn't matter too much, I hope.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46So this is a film from 1912, a French film.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49This is called Arteme Swallows His Clarinet.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57HE PLAYS CLARINET BADLY
0:39:40 > 0:39:42CLARINET PLAYS TUNEFULLY
0:40:13 > 0:40:15CLARINET TOOTS
0:40:46 > 0:40:48Suki Webster!
0:40:48 > 0:40:50When Andre Deed left Pathe in 1908,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53he gave the chance to another star to rise.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57Max Linder was born in 1883. He'd been a stage actor
0:40:57 > 0:41:00before making his first film appearance in 1905.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04Unlike Andre Deed, Max was a recognisable human being,
0:41:04 > 0:41:07behaving along recognisable lines.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10He was handsome, charming, seductive.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13He was a well-dressed man about town.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39Here is Max with his real life sister
0:41:39 > 0:41:42at the family home in south west France.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54One of the first things you notice are his eyes, powerfully expressive.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58He's inventive, creating gags that other comedians would remember
0:41:58 > 0:42:00and later use themselves.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23And here's Buster Keaton in The Goat.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33Within a couple of years of Max's debut,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36he was the most popular comedian in the world.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04The Work of Max Linder will hopefully be celebrated
0:43:04 > 0:43:07in a new institute that's the brain child
0:43:07 > 0:43:09of Maud Linder, Max's daughter.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13I had so many women saying how wonderful your father was.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16I mean, he was certainly a good lover.
0:43:16 > 0:43:23But anyhow he, at the beginning, really had signed
0:43:23 > 0:43:28- to do one very short film a day. - In a day?- A day.
0:43:28 > 0:43:30Something like six, seven, ten minutes.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33He'd took his own experiences.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36So an incident that might have happened to him in real life,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39- he develops into a comedy?- Yeah.
0:44:11 > 0:44:15In this film, Max is equally stuck to a lioness.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21I get the impression when I see him on the screen,
0:44:21 > 0:44:24he seems a very sort of physically brave man.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27There's a story about him in Spain isn't there, when he went to Spain?
0:44:27 > 0:44:30Can you tell me about that?
0:44:30 > 0:44:33He had a bet with a journalist that had said that he never did
0:44:33 > 0:44:40something that was dangerous, so he said, "I do everything myself.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44"If it's dangerous, I do it, if it's not, I don't."
0:44:44 > 0:44:47So someone said, "Why not a bull fight?"
0:44:47 > 0:44:49He said, "OK, I'll do a bull fight."
0:44:49 > 0:44:52- The bull isn't enormous. It's a little bull.- I've seen it, yeah.
0:44:52 > 0:44:54- But it's a bull.- It could still...
0:44:54 > 0:44:59It's still a bull. It's still a bull and he does kill it as you have to
0:44:59 > 0:45:03- kill a bull with that...and I have the sword here.- Do you?- Yes.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09- What we have here is the sword that he actually used.- He did, yes.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16Here Max plays a scene in which he stabs his wife.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21It's unusual to see Max play such a heavy dramatic role.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24But there is a twist.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45A camera move reveals the reality.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50When the audiences first saw him on the screen in 1905, 1906,
0:45:50 > 0:45:55what was it about him that led to his enormous success at that point?
0:45:55 > 0:45:57I'd think one thing.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00He's one of the first ones that was natural on the screen.
0:46:00 > 0:46:06He didn't act, he just lived in front of a camera, and I believe that
0:46:06 > 0:46:11all the sort of little stories he did of his life, they liked it.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15People liked little stories that come every week
0:46:15 > 0:46:19and every week someone had another little story of Max.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30Here is Max in Max And The Lady Doctor.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33He starts off ticklish before becoming aroused...
0:46:57 > 0:47:00When Max was travelling to the studio if he ever had an idea
0:47:00 > 0:47:04or some inspiration, did he make a note of it there and then?
0:47:04 > 0:47:06Yes, generally on his cuff.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09How do you say? Shirt cuff?
0:47:09 > 0:47:12He had a little pen and wrote on the clothes
0:47:12 > 0:47:15so he kept the ideas that he had.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Some ideas took on a life of their own.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47EXPLOSIONS
0:47:54 > 0:47:581914. The First World War.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18During the Great War, most able bodied men volunteered
0:48:18 > 0:48:22and sought active service, including many people from the film industry.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25Fred Evans provided entertainment for army recruits.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Max Linder also volunteered.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31He was shot through the lung above the heart in the Battle of Aisne.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36The Washington Post said "Movie King Killed".
0:48:36 > 0:48:38And then three days later,
0:48:38 > 0:48:43the same newspaper reported a totally unexpected twist.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47Max Linder, who was reported as having been killed, telephoned today
0:48:47 > 0:48:49saying that he was ill, but he's convalescent
0:48:49 > 0:48:51and soon will return to the service.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55As if by magic, Max had come back to life.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01The photographs of him in recovery are odd and disturbing,
0:49:01 > 0:49:03he doesn't look like Max.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10He was in sort of - how do you call it? - a hole by a...
0:49:10 > 0:49:12- A bomb crater.- Yes.
0:49:12 > 0:49:18And this probably, he probably stayed a few days or few nights or whatever,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21in the cold and in the water.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24So he was out of there
0:49:24 > 0:49:26and I heard many different things,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30but I do believe that he was really almost dead,
0:49:30 > 0:49:33and that someone said,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37"but this guy, in between all the dead, this looks like Linder."
0:49:37 > 0:49:41And someone looked at him and he probably was pulled out of the...
0:49:41 > 0:49:44all the people that were there,
0:49:44 > 0:49:48dying there and he probably got saved like that.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56Max's injuries led to bouts of depression and reoccurring illness.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01In 1917, he met his only comedic rival in terms of worldwide fame,
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Charlie Chaplin.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Charlie signed this photo for Max.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08"To the one and only Max, the Professor,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12"from his Disciple, Charlie Chaplin."
0:50:13 > 0:50:15Here are the two of them together.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19On the left in 1917, Max looks healthily robust,
0:50:19 > 0:50:21but four years later he is gaunt.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24This shows the ravages of the physical and mental trauma
0:50:24 > 0:50:26he must have endured.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34There are two Max Linders, the one before and the one after the war.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38Would the younger Max recognise the older man?
0:50:44 > 0:50:47In Seven Years Bad Luck,
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Max's servant has smashed a mirror and pretends to be Max.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18When Hollywood took over as the leader of world cinema at the end
0:51:18 > 0:51:22of The Great War, the language of cinema was already fully formed.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25Not only had early film pioneers invented the moving picture camera
0:51:25 > 0:51:29and projector, they'd also invented film techniques.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31Editing.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35Fades.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37Screen wipes.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Double exposure.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44And early systems for colour and camera movement.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46APPLAUSE
0:51:47 > 0:51:49At the end of the war,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52the previous dominance of the European Film Industry was over.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55Hollywood took the lead and it never gave it back.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57It became the new centre of the film industry.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00So what about other film pioneers?
0:52:00 > 0:52:04Fred Evans made his last film in 1922.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08He then returned to his stage origins with his brother Joe,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10performing a puppet act!
0:52:10 > 0:52:15Andre Deed made dozens of short films well into the 1920s,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18when his career began to fade.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Before the First World War, he'd been one of the highest earners,
0:52:21 > 0:52:26but he ended up working as a night watchman at the Pathe studios.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28Perhaps he wandered around the studios at night
0:52:28 > 0:52:31after everybody else had gone home torch in hand,
0:52:31 > 0:52:34and pretended that he was still making movies,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37nailing imaginary ducks to imaginary doors.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48The 1920s saw Georges Melies running a toy shop
0:52:48 > 0:52:51on a railway station in Paris.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58After the war, Pathe owned actually his property in Montreuil
0:52:58 > 0:53:02and in 1923 the sad thing is that Melies
0:53:02 > 0:53:04had to leave his pavilion in Montreuil.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08He was so depressed that he dug a hole in his garden
0:53:08 > 0:53:11and burnt the 500 negatives of all his films.
0:53:11 > 0:53:16So, basically, the reason for which Melies' films are so rare
0:53:16 > 0:53:21- is simply because he destroyed them. - He destroyed them himself?- Yes.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39The Trip To The Moon, shot in 1902,
0:53:39 > 0:53:41was one of the most famous films at the time, you know.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45But that film has remained, with the moon and the rocket in the eye...
0:53:45 > 0:53:48- One of the very famous images of early cinema.- Absolutely.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51And that film only survives in black and white and very bad print,
0:53:51 > 0:53:55so we try to locate prints all over the place. We found two or three.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58But one day in Barcelona,
0:53:58 > 0:54:01I must admit this was the big time of our life,
0:54:01 > 0:54:05we found the Holy Grail of all the archives,
0:54:05 > 0:54:09a print of Trip To The Moon, 1902, in colour.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11- In colour?- In colour.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14Women workers hand painting with a brush each frame.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16It's like 13,000 frames.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18This is an enormous thing.
0:54:18 > 0:54:23Unfortunately, the print wasn't exactly in good condition.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28I have to be very careful, it breaks like glass.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30And this is... Can you watch this?
0:54:30 > 0:54:32- Oh, look at that.- Isn't it amazing?
0:54:32 > 0:54:35The delicacy of just painting those individual...
0:54:35 > 0:54:40- I mean the detail in each frame is just stunning.- That's wonderful.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44Even if there's half of a frame, this is important,
0:54:44 > 0:54:47I mean, probably, we can work through that.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49You can take a bit of this frame and put it into there.
0:54:49 > 0:54:55Yes, absolutely. That's one of the most elaborate restoration processes.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58It'll probably take six months of continuous work
0:54:58 > 0:55:00and an enormous amount of money,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04but this is the first ever worldwide success in feature film,
0:55:04 > 0:55:08and one of the most important science fiction films ever!
0:55:08 > 0:55:13Every archive in the world wishes to find a film of that significance.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17And we've been very lucky.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20Beautiful and sad at the same time.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23The world will have to wait a little longer
0:55:23 > 0:55:27to see George Melies' Trip To The Moon in colour.
0:55:36 > 0:55:37APPLAUSE
0:55:37 > 0:55:40And what of Max Linder? What happened to him?
0:55:44 > 0:55:49In 1923, he married 17-year-old Jean Peters.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51They had a child and called her Maud.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57There's no easy way to tell you what happened next.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02In 1924, Max attempted suicide, and tried to take his wife with him.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05They were found in time and revived.
0:56:09 > 0:56:1319 months later, he tried again.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15This time, there was no revival.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18World War I had claimed two more victims.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23I don't want to end Max's story like this.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25One of cinema's first effects was running the film backwards,
0:56:25 > 0:56:29putting the beginning at the end, the end at the beginning.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33Let's give Max a happier ending.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46And today you can watch whatever comedy you want
0:57:46 > 0:57:48on film, DVD, TV and the internet.
0:57:48 > 0:57:53A vast ocean of entertainment, which began as a simple trickle
0:57:53 > 0:57:58from a gardener's hosepipe in the world's first film comedy.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02APPLAUSE
0:58:30 > 0:58:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd