1908 was a year of high profile international events for Britain's capital,
not least of which were the Olympics, which took place in a specially-built
stadium originally constructed as part of the White City site for the really
important event of the year, the Franco-British Exhibition. Running from May to
October and including a state visit from the French President, this very visible
celebration of the entente cordiale perpetuated the anti-German bias of British
foreign policy. The arms race between the two navies continued apace, as we see
illustrated in films such as The Birth of a Big Gun, which aimed to impress with
the sheer scale of the naval guns under manufacture. The films of 1908 reflected
these grand public events, as well as recording interesting features of daily
life around the Empire. A keen interest in the natural world is also
demonstrated in the surviving examples.
In fiction, the trend towards quality continued. In France, the establishment
of the Film d'Art company reflected an interest in bringing the great classics
of the theatre and literature to the screen. In Britain, this was already
happening, as is well illustrated by Clarendon's clever adaptation of
Shakespeare's The Tempest in a series of well known scenes from the play in a
condensed form with which audiences would have been familiar from such
publications as the Charles and Mary Lamb's 'Tales from Shakespeare'.
Animation techniques progressed in the output of Arthur Melbourne Cooper's Alpha Trading
Company. His Dreams of Toyland added depth and complexity to the format
established by W.R. Booth, using the device of the child's dream to present a
fantastical world of living toys. As with the non-fiction films, the interest in
the natural world and animals in particular was ever present and in this genre
we meet again Rover, played by 'Blair' the Hepworth family dog, who takes
command of a motorcar to rescue the baby from dastardly kidnappers in the
descriptively titled The Dog Outwits the Kidnappers.
In the film business, the commercial jostling which was about to result in a
patents war in the USA and a fierce competition for market share in Europe
hadn't yet affected the volume of production. Some 608+ films were produced in
Britain in this year. Principally, these were the bread and butter output of the
established companies of the pioneers like Charles Urban, James Williamson and
the partnership of George Howard Cricks and John Howard Martin, producing
non-fiction films, short dramas, comedy films and animations which ran for a
single reel and were presented in a mixed programme.
As well as the great
music hall circuits, the films were increasingly being presented in
purpose-built or adapted venues, so much so that the following year would see
legislation to ensure the safety of audiences in these halls. 1908 also saw the
establishment or commercialisation of quite a few film companies, and the launch
of The Bioscope, a film trade paper to rival the Kinematograph and Lantern
Weekly. The film business was changing fast, and the fight for dominance of the
international trade was about to begin in earnest.
Bryony Dixon
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