Description
All but one of the picks from Lawrence Napper, senior lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London, come from the huge trove of discovered Mitchell & Kenyon films. These fascinating records of everyday life in Victorian and Edwardian England and the United Kingdom lead to an array of exciting tangents, while Lawrence also uses his one fictional choice to make a resonant comparison between repeat film viewing and traditional religious ceremonies.
Lawrence’s publications include The Great War in Popular British Cinema: Before Journey’s End (2015) and Silent Cinema: Before the Pictures Got Small (2017). He is a regular on the KinoQuickies podcast and occasionally blogs at https://atthepictures.photo.blog/. Currently he is developing a book length study of The Opening of the Benton New Bank Tram Route (1913). Lawrence also hosts the annual British Silent Film Festival Symposium each spring at King’s College London.
Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1901!
Films and resources mentioned:
Ride on the Tramcar through Belfast (1901) - unknownPanoramic View of the Morecambe Sea Front (1901) - unknownManchester Band of Hope Procession (1901) - unknownScrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901) - Walter R. BoothBailey’s Royal Buxton Punch and Judy Show in Halifax (1901) - unknownRescued by Rover (1905) - Cecil HepworthA Daring Daylight Burglary (1903) - Frank MottershawMary Jane's Mishap (1903) - George Albert SmithBuy Your Own Cherries (1904) - Robert W. PaulThe Big Swallow (1901) - James WilliamsonThe Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Brian HensonMegalopolis (2024) - Francis Ford CoppolaLa Chienne (1931) - Jean Renoira href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfv7xdQdbUY"...
Tristan has been the grateful viewer of many an eye-popping restoration from Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam on YouTube. He expresses his thanks to Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, Curator of Silent Film at Eye, before the two mostly discuss comedy films, with the broad genre nevertheless inspiring many...
Published 10/23/24
Grazia Ingravalle, Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Film at Queen Mary University of London, focuses her 1901 picks in relation to colonialism. She creatively tackles the premise of this show by talking not of the “best films” of the year, but “quite the opposite,” in her own words, to...
Published 10/16/24