A sketch artist dressed as a clown does a 'lightning sketch' stage act in which he draws a woman's bust.... and then takes the bust and places into on a table. He then draws arms and adds them, until an entire woman is revealed. It's a Melies film, is it not? Fans of early films have seen various Melies pieces like this..... but did Melies invent this sort of novelty film, or was it created across the Channel, in Robert Paul's studio by ex-stage magician Walter Booth? Who did what first and who stole it from whom? Was it even theft, when there was no such thing as copyright for films for more than decade afterward? It's hard to tell who invented what in this period, but enquiring minds want to know -- and may never find out. Never mind. It's fascinating to watch.
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boblipton2 December 2006
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JoeytheBrit27 November 2009Robert Paul is a largely forgotten name today, but he was a major pioneer of British cinema, and was quick to grasp the commercial potential of cinema in ways that better known pioneers such as William Friese-Greene were not. He was more of a mechanic than a filmmaker making, with Birt Acres, his own camera on which to shoot films in 1895, and also Britain's first projector, the Animatograph, with which to screen them in 1896. Early in the 20th century he had a custom-made studio built in Muswell Hill.
Artistic Creation is a very clever trick film in which a Pierrot draws a woman's face which comes to life on the canvas. The Pierrot lifts the face off the canvas and places the head on the table beside him. He then does the same with the body, arms and legs until he has created a fully-formed lady – with whom he is getting on famously until he draws a baby, which unaccountably seems to scare the lady away