15 Extremely Groundbreaking Films From Early Cinema
This is a list of films from the silent era that were extremely groundbreaking for their time. Looking at them today they look primitive, but films such as these helped make moving pictures as they are today.
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- DirectorLouis Aimé Augustin Le PrinceStarsAnnie HartleyAdolphe Le PrinceJoseph WhitleyIn the garden, a man asks his friends to do something silly for him to record on film.The Very First Celluloid Film Ever, by Louis Le Prince.
- DirectorLouis LumièreStarsFrançois ClercBenoît DuvalAn impudent child plays a prank on a gardener innocently watering his plants.The first true comedy film.
- DirectorAlfred ClarkStarsRobert ThomaeMrs. Robert L. ThomasThis short film, one of the first to use camera tricks, depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.Probably the first film using a substitution splice.
- DirectorAuguste LumièreAlexandre PromioA train is leaving a railway station at the outskirts of Jerusalem. From the very end of the train a barren, rocky landscape is seen, and some ruins of very old buildings,. Five men walk along the track, tipping their hats when the train departs. When it approaches the station building more people are seen, people of different ethnicity and religion. Some men wear fezzes on their heads and canes in their hands. A Franciscan monk comes walking in the middle of a mixed group of people. The platform outside the station is crowded with people waiting for the next train. Among them is a man with a sword at his side. The big windows of the station are covered with shutters. After the station the train passes a long fence, enclosing a lumberyard.The first Phantom Ride film.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsJeanne BradyJehanne d'AlcyThe first film to ever show a nudity scene on screen is a simple presentation of a servant preparing a bath for another woman.The first presentation of nudity on film.
- DirectorCecil M. HepworthStarsMay ClarkCecil M. HepworthIn one glorious point-of-view shot, a vehicle dashes full-speed into an ill-starred passer-by.The first known use of subtitling in a film.
- DirectorGeorge Albert SmithStarsHarold SmithA boy looks through glasses at various objects, seen magnified.The first use of a POV shot with masking.
- DirectorGeorges MélièsStarsGeorges MélièsVictor AndréBleuette BernonA group of astronomers go on an expedition to the Moon.Melies's most popular film, a spectacular production with a running time of 13 minutes.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterStarsGilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' AndersonA.C. AbadieGeorge BarnesA group of bandits stage a brazen train hold-up, only to find a determined posse hot on their heels.Considered as the first Western.
- DirectorLewin FitzhamonCecil M. HepworthStarsBlairMay ClarkBarbara HepworthA dog leads its master to his kidnapped baby.The beginning of the dog-rescue pictures.
- DirectorEdwin S. PorterA panorama of Coney Island, taken at night: the camera sweeps across the scene from a vantage point well above the area. It then moves in for closer views of Dreamland and Luna Park.The first short to capture glowing lights, courtesy of a special camera by Porter.
- DirectorCharles TaitStarsElizabeth TaitJohn TaitNicholas BrierleyOriginally 70 minutes in running time, only 17 minutes of the world's first full-length narrative feature film survived in stills and other fragments and tell the story of Ned Kelly, an infamous 19th-century Australian outlaw.The first true full-length film, surviving only as fragments.
- DirectorArturo AmbrosioLuigi MaggiStarsAlberto CapozziLydia De RobertiMirra PrincipiRoman emperor Nero is used to getting what he wants. He has grown tired of his wife Octavia, and has become infatuated with Poppea. He succeeds in making Poppea the new empress, but soon he faces opposition from an outraged populace.The beginning of the Italian Cinema.
- DirectorMack SennettStarsFord SterlingMack SennettFred MaceHoffmeyer is harassed by creditors, but thinks his troubles are over when he receives a legacy of $500. He sneaks away from his wife to make a "flash" around town, and comes home at 2 A.M., feeling happy. His joy is short-lived, however, when he finds the door locked, and his spouse on the other side demands the money before she will permit him to enter. He takes half of it and hides it under a barrel, and his wife, peeping behind the curtain, sees him. After he has retired she goes out to get the rest of the money, and Hoffmeyer locks the door and refuses to let her in until she sends in the money. Clad in her nightgown, she is being thoroughly chilled, when she sees men approaching and runs away. Frightened, Hoffmeyer, clad in his pajamas, goes out to bring her back. The chase is joined in by neighbors and police, presenting ludicrous situations, until Hoffmeyer catches up with his spouse and is arrested with her. The police magistrate in the night court suffers an injury to his dignity when the struggling pair are brought before him, but he quickly counts the money taken from them and fines them $500.The first appearance of the Keystone Kops.
- DirectorD.W. GriffithStarsLillian GishMae MarshHenry B. WalthallThe Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.A 3-hour production, extremely long for its time. D. W. Griffith's first true masterpiece.