I saw this rather heavily corroded short film today when I visited the German Film Museum in Frankfurt. Now I will admit that it was dry as dust, but you need to understand that for 1898 it was pretty advanced and must have wowed audiences. It consists of a camera mounted to a train that slowly comes towards Conwy Castle (that IS how it's spelled, by the way). And, since train tracks go around the castle, so does the camera. It sure would have been nice if the camera would have turned to show the castle as it passed, but stationary cameras was the norm for the time and more interesting views of scenic life surely would come about when innovations like moving cameras became the standard. Still, I did enjoy seeing the place, as it's been about 6 years since I last saw this amazingly beautiful town.
2 Reviews
Hand-Colored, Wide-View Phantom Ride
Cineanalyst5 October 2020
I saw this at the virtual 39th Pordenone Silent Film Festival, but the film has also been available from the EYE Filmmuseaum in Amsterdam on YouTube, although the restoration of what I assume is the same print seems as though it might be better for Pordenone, which is said to have been an 8k digital one. The same hand-colored tinting takes on entirely different shades in the two transfers, and any glare seems less evident from the Pordenone streaming. Regardless, the hand coloring is remarkable for being for a phantom-ride film (that is, a moving view from the camera being attached to the moving train). There are some scenics that exist today with hand coloring, but usually such extant prints seem to be for dance films, trick films and fictional narratives. Indeed, the only other color film in Pordenone's program "The Brilliant Biograph: Earliest Moving Images of Europe (1897-1902)" seems to be of dancing. The other interesting feature here is that as with the other films in that program, this "Conway Castle" view was photographed on Biograph's 68mm wide film, resulting in an especially clear and detailed picture, as evident in the version from the film festival.
Trains are a prominent feature of early cinema. It makes sense with motion picture and locomotives both being modern inventions that radically changed the way people see the world. If taking a window seat instead of a view from the front of the train, too, one would be exposed to a similar framed picture of passing scenery as one might find on the silver screen. Technology, movement, including shifting views, and, here, color, too, are features of both. Early cinema exhibition, such as the Hale's Tours much remarked upon by film historians, would sometimes incorporate these similarities, including by patrons being seated as though they were in a train viewing the films. These programs, too, would include phantom rides, as well as early story films that feature trains, such as "The Great Train Robbery" (1903). Streaming this film at home, it's worth remembering that these earlier technologies are what made that possible, from the actual traveling by trains to the virtual tourism by film.
Trains are a prominent feature of early cinema. It makes sense with motion picture and locomotives both being modern inventions that radically changed the way people see the world. If taking a window seat instead of a view from the front of the train, too, one would be exposed to a similar framed picture of passing scenery as one might find on the silver screen. Technology, movement, including shifting views, and, here, color, too, are features of both. Early cinema exhibition, such as the Hale's Tours much remarked upon by film historians, would sometimes incorporate these similarities, including by patrons being seated as though they were in a train viewing the films. These programs, too, would include phantom rides, as well as early story films that feature trains, such as "The Great Train Robbery" (1903). Streaming this film at home, it's worth remembering that these earlier technologies are what made that possible, from the actual traveling by trains to the virtual tourism by film.
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