I am re-watching the Cinema Europe series, which was an eye opener to me when I watched it six or seven years ago. At the time, I declared it the best documentary series on film ever made.
On a second viewing the first episode, "Where It All Began," proved nearly as remarkable as the first. I did not know that one hundred and forty people died in a charity showing in Paris due to the film catching fire. I did not know of an early British re-staging of the Battleship Potemkin story. I did not know that the British were the first to use separate shots for close-ups. I did not know that the practice of shooting multiple endings dated from the first decade of the twentieth century (a long way from DVD extras). Finally, because of this first episode, I know want to see: The Mysterious X (1913), Germinal (1913), and Night of Revenge (also 1913), and The Abyss (1910), starring European cinema's first sex goddess, Asta Nielsen.
This first episode lived up to my memory of it.
On a second viewing the first episode, "Where It All Began," proved nearly as remarkable as the first. I did not know that one hundred and forty people died in a charity showing in Paris due to the film catching fire. I did not know of an early British re-staging of the Battleship Potemkin story. I did not know that the British were the first to use separate shots for close-ups. I did not know that the practice of shooting multiple endings dated from the first decade of the twentieth century (a long way from DVD extras). Finally, because of this first episode, I know want to see: The Mysterious X (1913), Germinal (1913), and Night of Revenge (also 1913), and The Abyss (1910), starring European cinema's first sex goddess, Asta Nielsen.
This first episode lived up to my memory of it.