Spanish Silent Films, Part II

Country: Spain
Villalba Films

Spanish Silent Films

Country: Spain
Villalba Films

Carnaval de Torres Vedras - 1935

Country: Portugal
English title: Torres Vedras' Carnival
Production Co: Lisboa Filme
Color: Black and White
Genres: Documentary

Carnaval de Torres Vedras - 1934

Country: Portugal
English title: Torres Vedras' Carnival
Production Co: Lisboa Filme
Color: Black and White
Genres: Documentary

Carnaval de Torres Vedras - 1933

Country: Portugal
English title: Torres Vedras' Carnival
Production Co: Lisboa Filme
Color: Black and White
Genres: Documentary

Ballet Mécanique - 1924

Country: France

Directors: Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy

Writer: Fernand Léger

Stars: Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy and Katherine Murphy

Also known as: Balet mechaniczny (Poland), Charlot présente le ballet mécanique (France),  Gépi balett (Hungary)

Runtime: 19 min  | 16 min (Kiesler version) (20 fps)

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Surrealism | Abstract Film | Dada | Avant Garde | Experimental Film

Genres: Short

A pulsing, kaleidoscope of images set to an energetic soundtrack. A young women swings in a garden; a woman's face smiles. The rest is spinning cylinders, pistons, gears and turbines, kitchen objects in concentric circles or rows - pots, pan lids, and funnels, cars passing overhead, a spinning carnival ride. Over and over, a heavy-set woman climbs stairs carrying a large bag on her shoulder. An Art Deco cartoon figure appears, dancing. This is a world in motion, dominated by mechanical and repetitive images, with a few moments of solitude in a garden. 

Trivia

George Antheil wrote the score for this film, but due to various disagreements - including that Antheil's original version of the music ran 30 minutes while the film was only 16 minutes - the film was premiered without the original music. The film and music were first shown together on 25 August 2000 in Antwerp, Belgium, at the Cultuurmarkt van Vlaanderen. The film print with music was created by Paul Lehrman.

Connections

Referenced in Lekcja polskiego kina (2002)

 -  mentioned in Northfork (2003), Bad Boy Made Good: The Revival of George Antheil's 1924 Ballet Mécanique (2003)

Featured in "Fejezetek a film történetéböl: Az európai film kezdetei (#1.2)" (1989)

Soundtracks

"Ballet Mecanique" by George Antheil

The Counter Jumper - 1922

Country: United States

Language: English

Director: Larry Semon

Writer: Larry Semon (story)

Stars: Larry Semon, Lucille Carlisle and Oliver Hardy

Release Date: 9 December 1922 (USA)

Production Co: Larry Semon Productions, Vitagraph Company of America

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy | Short

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 'counter jumper' was the term used in both Britain and the U.S.A. to describe the lowest dogsbody clerk in a general store or emporium. Here, Semon is employed in that capacity in an Old West general store that caters for desperate characters. As usual for Semon, most of the gag set-ups are deeply contrived and implausible. We get here not one but two separate sequences in which randomly splattered stains just happen to resemble a human face. One of those sequences involves a stereotypical cowardly Negro. I've never found that sort of humour funny. Earlier in the film, a brief glimpse of character actor Jack Duffy grimacing in his usual old-man disguise was much funnier. Duffy was a handsome young man who lost all his teeth at an early age, and (in heavy makeup) he played toothless old codgers. I wish he'd had a bigger role in this movie.

This being a Larry Semon comedy, the general store is filled with crates and pottery which are stacked in utterly implausible patterns, ensuring that Semon's headlong collision with ONE piece of merchandise will cause dozens of objects to hurtle floorward. Plot line? Well, if you insist. Lucille Carlisle (very chic here, and actually a good actress) owns a valuable necklace which is nicked by sneering villain Oliver Hardy. Semon pursues Hardy over hill and dale to retrieve it.

At the climax of the film, there's one exciting overhead shot: the camera points straight down at Semon and Hardy brawling in the sagebrush, the viewpoint revealing that they're at the edge of a very steep cliff and in danger of rolling off it. Sounds good so far, but keep reading. Semon's comedies were notorious for extremely implausible slapstick, filmed with blatantly obvious fakery. Eventually, Semon picks up the much larger and heavier Hardy and flings him over the cliff. This being a Semon film, Hardy is unhurt. Then Semon dives off the same cliff; he too lands unhurt. 

Red Enemy - 1922

Country: United States
This video is about forestry practices in the American Northwest in the early part of the Twentieth Century. It explains how harvesting of trees and processing of the products. Products such as timber and paper. The video explains the products are used for buildings school and ships. The video also shows the processing of paper. According to the video, forestry had employed half the workforce in America at this time. Toward the end of the video, it explains fire prevention and the "Red Enemy" is fire. It also talks about fire lookouts on Mount Hood. It also had images of The Blue Ridge Fire. This video is in the Public Domain. The Master Copy can be found at the National Archives and Records Administration, Room 4000, 8601 Adelphi Road, Hyattsville, MD 20740-6001. The Archival Retrieval Catalog (ARC) number is: 7170.

Breezing Along - 1927

Country: United States

Director: Norman Taurog

Stars: Lloyd Hamilton, Estelle Bradley and Robert Graves

Release Date: 1 May 1927 (USA)

Production Co: Lloyd Hamilton Corporation

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Genres: Comedy | Short

Lloyd Hamilton and his trademark cloth cap star as a job-seeking bumpkin who engages in a series of misadventures at the local unemployment agency. Thanks to his encounter with an unfeasibly large sausage, he comes to the attention of Mrs. De Spout, a moneyed woman who hires him on the spot as chauffeur, butler, and baby-sitter for her addled family. It will come as little surprise that the results are disastrous. Once again, the newly paved streets of Hollywood serve as the primary location for the shoot, but there's a crude attempt at utilizing traveling mattes that is unintentionally hilarious: count how many times you see Earl's Cafe pass in the background!  

The Airship Destroyer - 1909

Country: United Kingdom

Director: Walter R. Booth

Writers: Walter R. Booth (screenplay), Jules Verne (story)

Also known as: Der Luftkrieg der Zukunft (Germany), The Aerial Torpedo (UK - reissue title), The Battle in the Clouds (USA)

Production Co: Urban Trading Company

Sound Mix: Silent

Color: Black and White

Plot Keywords: Explosion | Armored Car | Part Animated

Genres: Short | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

An inventor uses a wireless controlled flying torpedo to destroy enemy airships.

Goofs

Continuity

The burning fuse of one of the explosions near the armored car can be seen on the ground, before we see the streak that is supposed to be the aerial bomb hitting the ground.

Connection

Featured in "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood: Where It All Began (#1.1)" (1995) -  clips shown