Friday, May 04, 2018

Let's Go to the Movies (The Nitrate Picture Show)

Tholen Gladden, US 1949
Print source: Library of Congress, Culpeper, VA
Running time: 9 minutes
Viewed at The Nitrate Picture Show (NPS), George Eastman Museum, The Dryden Theatre, Rochester, 4 May 2018

NPS: "About the print: The difference between stock footage from previous productions and new footage shot for this film is noticeable, but the print itself is in very good condition. Shrinkage: 0.7%

About the film: The first in the series of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ documentary shorts celebrating the art and craft of motion pictures, this film features clips of several groundbreaking productions and beloved stars."
(NPS)

AA: A quick ride through many stages and aspects of film history and production. Kinetoscope, pre-cinema flicker cards, Méliès, The Great Train Robbery, Nickelodeon, Mary Pickford, The Birth of a Nation, sound cinema: from sound cylinders of wax to Al Jolson in blackface belting "Mammy", John Barrymore in 1929 as Richard III, Night Song (1947), location shooting Key Largo, 80 000 theaters everywhere, the arts and the crafts. An ultra rapid run-through of electronics, exhibition, distribution, acting, sound, music, and editing.

A fine print.

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