The Global Cinema Before World War I

Based on my book Traum und Exzess. Die Kulturgeschichte des frühen Kinos. Vienna 2011

 Film library in progress. Comments are welcome.

Please, search by entering text (e.g. film titles or names) into the search box at the right. Click the links at the right to search by country, or use the lists below to look for ‘Pioneers’ or film genres

INDEX               NEW: £ 100 Reward            BEST HITS


 

This unique online research archive of films before 1915 is of immeasurable value to anyone working on early cinema. Searchable by country, director, genre, and keywords.

(WeimarCinema.org)

 

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The Pioneers

AUGUSTE AND LOUIS LUMIERE
GEORGES MÉLIÈS
ALICE GUY
LOUIS FEUILLADE
MAX LINDER
SEGUNDO DE CHOMÓN
ALBERT CAPELLANI / LÉONCE PERRET
EDWIN S. PORTER
DAVID W. GRIFFITH
CHARLES CHAPLIN 1914/15
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Genres

RAILWAYS, PHANTOM RIDES  –  CIRCUS, VARIETÉ, MUSIC HALL 
SOUND AND COLOUR EXPERIMENTS
LANDSCAPES, URBAN VIEWS  –  RE-ENACTMENTS   
EARLY DOCUMENTARY FILMS I    –   EARLY DOCUMENTARY FILMS II
DANGEROUS CARS AND AIRPLANES  –  CHASE FILMS  –  EXCESS, DREAM, PARANOIA
DRAMA / MELODRAMA I  –  DRAMA / MELODRAMA II  
ADVENTURE   –   HISTORY  –  WESTERN  –  SOCIAL DRAMA
SLAPSTICK AND BURLESQUE  –  COMEDY I  –  COMEDY II
SERIALS   –  THRILLERS: GANGSTERS AND DETECTIVES
MYTHS, MYSTERY, FAIRY TALES   –  TRICK FILMS AND CARTOONS 
MONUMENTAL AND BIBLE FILMS    –    EROTICA AND PORNOS  –  COMMERCIALS
SHAKESPEARE ON SCREEN   –  HORROR: MONSTERS AND SHADOWS 
CATASTROPHE AND DISASTER   –   WAR

Stars

Roscoe Arbuckle / Theda Bara / Lionel Barrymore / Sarah BernhardtFrancesca Bertini / Lyda Borelli / Annie Bos / John Bunny / Lon Chaney / William F. Cody / Maurice Costello / Dorothy Davenport / Marie Dressler / Marcel Fabre (i.e. Marcel Perez) / W.C.Fields / Flora Finch / Margarita Fischer / Gene Gauntier / Lillian Gish / Dorothy Gish / Suzanne Grandais / William S. Hart / Gale Henry / Alice Joyce / Florence La Badie / Florence Lawrence / Mae Marsh / Pina Menichelli / Tom Mix / Asta Nielsen / Mabel Normand / Mary Pickford / Valdemar Psilander / Lydia Quaranta / Wallace Reid / Ruth Roland / Mac Sennett, / Al St. John / Ford Sterling / Gloria Swanson / Blanche Sweet / Norma Talmadge / Alma Taylor / Florence Turner / Henry B. Walthall / Kathlyn WilliamsClara Kimball Young / Vera Yureneva

Bibliography: The Early Silent Cinema


Archive: 1595 films
July 2024
Establ. Nov. 2012


About:
Prof. Dr. Klaus Kreimeier, Berlin
Film historian and writer
Author of Die Ufa Story. München: Hanser 1992 / The Ufa Story. NY: Hill and Wang 1996; Berkeley: UCP 1999
“The Ufa Story” online
Biography

ShootFilmDontKillIt


Articles, Essays, Reviews (in German)

Walter Benjamin und der Film (2018)
Blicke im Kino – Blicke im Film (2018)
Am Anfang war das Chaos. Filmgenres und ihre Genese im frühen Kino (1895–1914) (2017)
Entfesselung und Steuerung. Blickstrategien in der frühen Kinematografie (2014)
Als das Morden im Kino begann (2014)
Eine technische Tour de Force. Thomas A. Edison und seine Mitarbeiter (2010)
Der geheimnisvolle Club von Joseph Delmont (2007)
Die doppelte Verdopplung der Kaiser-Ikone (2002)
Vom Vampir zum Vamp (2000)
Filmstandort Berlin (1998)

Magic Moments in Early Film History
Reviews
Ma l’amor mio non muore
Le Mystère des roches de Kador
The Musketeers of Pig Alley
Posle smerti (Nach dem Tod)
Det hemmelighedsfulde X (Das geheimnisvolle X)

Further Reading
Klaus Wyborny:
ELEMENTARE FILMGESCHICHTE
ELEMENTARE SCHNITT-THEORIE
RANDOM NOTES ON THE CONVENTIONAL NARRATIVE FILM
Impressum

Mail to the Editor