Movies

Gugusse et l’Automate: Rediscovery of the first robot film

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If you’ve seen the movie Hugo (and you should), you remember the wonderful scene where a humanoid automaton is restored and goes into action, revealing an important secret. Georges Méliès found these machines fascinating. His 1897 Gugusse et l’Automate presents an automaton (played by an actor) in what has been called the world’s first film about a robot. Bill McFarland brought a box of old films from Grand Rapids, Michigan to the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Virginia, and one of them was a third-generation copy of Gugusse. Film historians had known it existed, but no one now living had seen it. The preservation experts digitized the one-minute film, which I’m sure must have been fragile, and it’s now available freely on YouTube and other sites.

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” at Boskone

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At Boskone 63 in Boston, I stepped in twice as a movie accompanist. The first was a ten-minute film (and I mean film, the 16 millimeter kind) of scenes from the Seattle Worldcon. Then I noticed that on Sunday morning, the 1923 Hunchback of Notre Dame was scheduled, apparently with just whatever music came with the video. I made last-minute arrangements to accompany it. Zero practice, and I hadn’t brought my best keyboard, but I know the movie well.

We’re talking about my accompanying a properly scheduled silent feature film next year.

Upcoming silent film: Peter Pan in Newmarket

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A new venue! On Wednesday, February 11, I’ll be accompanying the 1924 silent film Peter Pan at the Newmarket, NH Library! It went over well when I did it in Plaistow, and the audience participated where they were supposed to.

If Newmarket is more convenient for you than Plaistow, or if you’d just like to see it again, drop in! There’s no charge and no requirement to sign up, and there will be refreshments.

Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood

This entry was posted in Movies and tagged music New Hampshire silent movies on by

That’s the exact title of the 1922 movie — Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood — that I’ll be accompanying at the Plaistow (NH) Library on January 13. They called it that because anyone could make a movie called “Robin Hood” to draw off confused moviegoers, but no one else could legally claim superstar Fairbanks was in it.

Many movies have been made about Robin Hood, and there’s no canonical story. Some emphasize his “stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.” Others show him as a partisan of King Richard, fighting against the encroachments of Richard’s brother John. This movie is in the latter category. Robin Hood is the Earl of Huntingdon, fighting the tyranny John exercises while Richard is away for a Crusade. The first part of the movie shows John plotting for power and achieving it, and Huntingdon becomes Robin Hood only after reluctantly deserting his king. His chief enemies are Prince John and Guy of Gisbourne. The Sheriff of Nottingham is basically a walk-on part.
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