I call the 1910's the In Between Teens because this era was the questionable adolescence of cinema. Cinema was unsure about itself like the lead character in a bad John Hughes movie (or all John Hughes movies) and was searching for a voice. These years were formative for the entire world; imperialism was the diplomacy of choice; Empires were falling and being created everyday; the world was at war for the later half of the decade; the number of political movements growing and dying in America alone were creating turmoil, but also making the era truly exciting. Taking a nod from the decade they were made in, films were never sure what was going to happen next. It was in this decade that such celebrated filmmakers as Cecil B. DeMille, D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chpalin, Yakov Protazanov, and Giovanni Pastrone got their start and cinema became a real contender (ANYBODY CATCH THE REFERENCE??) as an art form even without CGI, color, sound, or Botox.
My first favorite year in this crazy decade is 1914, the year War broke out in Europe and plenty of people in the U.S. were hesitant about getting involved. 1914 marked three watershed events in cinema that also happen to be three of my favorite movies. ROLL THE REEL, JOHNNY.
1914
I. KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE (Released Feb. 7th, 1914)
Directed by Henry Lehrman
Ah, Chaplain you strange little man with a controversial mustache. This film marked Chaplain's first appearance as his now iconic "Little Tramp" character that has been copied, covered, spoofed, mentioned, stolen, and emulated by everybody from Robert Downey, Jr. (in a film about Chaplain so I guess it makes sense) to Stanley Kubrick.
Kid Auto Races at Venice is literally just 6 minutes of Chaplain getting booted off camera for getting in the way of almost every shot the director is trying to get of cars zooming past at a Venice Beach drag race. What makes this film golden is the fact that it was actually improvised and he really was annoying the crowd (not the director who was in on the whole thing). The facial and physical comedy, fluid editing, and camera movement were unheard of for comedy and are still too complex for most silly, brutally stupid, slapstick comedies of today (The Tooth Fairy anyone?).
This film (along with Chaplain's debut Making a Living which came out literally 5 days before) established Chaplain as a superstar in the United States and every director, actor, bowler hat enthusiast, and movie lover can thank him and the silly cops and executives at Keyston Studios for that.
II. GERTIE THE DINOSAUR (Released September 14th, 1914)
Directed by Winsor McCay
Like all good children of the '90's, I'm an animation junkie. If I could move into Rocko's Modern Life or into Dexter's Laboratory, I'd be typing this from the sketchbook of Joe Murray/Genndy Tartakovsky in a heart beat. I've got an IV full of Spongebob and it's never leaving my mainline. But enough of this Clinton-era nostalgia! Were it not for this film, I'd be talking about going outside or some nonsense like that.
Gertie the Dinosaur although is not the first animated feature film, is one of the most influential pieces of animation to ever spill out of the mind of someone with a name as nerdy as Winsor McCay. The film is simply the chronicles of a dinosaur named Gertie and how she goes about her day in a prehistoric, animated world. She's a very mischievous dinosaur and often gets scolded by the big bad director, who ultimately ends up jumping into her world to ride on her head into the sunset.
Everyone from Walt Disney to Terry Gilliam to Trey Parker & Matt Stone have noted this film as an influence on their animation style for its playful nature with subtly subversive humor. This groundbreaking piece of animated cinema was one of the first films to be recognized as a "masterpiece", and if you watch it, o fair reader, you'll see exactly why.
III. CABIRIA (Released April 18th, 1914)
Directed by Giovanni Pastrone
When it was re-screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Martin Scorsese filmed an introduction about its beauty and importance to Italian cinema and all cinema. This five part film odyssey is to Italy what Birth of a Nation is to America: the first film epic (...and a tool used by hate groups to get people to join their savage ranks but that's besides the point don't worry about it). It forged new grounds for cinema in terms of scale, cinematography, and story that had yet to be tried and that most filmmakers are still fearful of today.
Cabiria tells various stories from the history of the Roman Empire all woven into the life and love of one girl named Cabiria. I do not want to spoil the plot of the film, nor do I want to spend the next 8 days typing, so I can only say WATCH IT. Although it's denser than Proust and longer than a 2 day acid flashback, it's one of the most amazing feats of film that you'll ever feast your eyes on.
This movie is, like the others that I listed above, one of my absolute favorites and one of the major jumping points for film. It came at a time when cinema was looking for a voice, and it gave movies a voice as epic and cool as James Earl Jones singing Rolling Stones songs in the shower. This one raised the bar and remains an amazing, awe-inspiring sight today, which is not something that can be easily accomplished. If I were to make a comparison, we watch this movie today the same way my 128 great great great grandkids (whose great great grandparents I didn't know existed or "paid child support" for) will look at The Lord of the Rings series; NOT Avatar or Titanic because everyone in the future will have run James Cameron back into the woods far away from movies where he belongs.
This marks the beginning, folks.
Stay tuned as Merrick's March Movie Madness continues with my next favorite year in cinema:
1915!
Follow me on Twitter ( @DylanMerrick6 ) for all the best movie info and news (plus some other stuff too from time to time). And always remember!
~Viva amigos,
~D. Merrick
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