The Big Swallow (1901)

Director:

James Williamson

Release Date:

September 1902 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

A man, objecting to being filmed, comes closer and closer to the camera lens until his mouth is all we see. Then he opens wide and swallows camera and cinematographer. He steps back, chews, and grins.

Plot Keywords:

Mouth | Breaking The Fourth Wall | Self Referential | Cameraman | Film Camera

Cast

Sam Dalton

Also Known As:

A Photographic Contortion (USA)

Runtime:

1 min

Country:

UK

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Company:

Williamson Kinematograph Company

Trivia:

Director James Williamson's 1901 catalog describes the film thusly: "I won't! I won't! I'll eat the camera first."

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood" (1995)

Not about a large bird.

A delightful experiment in self-reflexivity from the days of early cinema, when enquiry about this new form was still encouraged before the standardisation of production and genre. A man finds he's being filmed; angered at this intrusion of his privacy, he approaches the camera and its operator, and eats them both!

The slow, looming mouth is a parody avant la lettre of horror films, an ordinary person turned into a monster, a giant by the cinema, in the same way ordinary people suddenly became huge when projected on a screen. Here we see that film doesn't just record things, it can enlarge, focus in close-up, distort, simply by magnifying a familiar feature. Maybe this is what the Indians meant in decrying soul-destroying photography; here, this ordinary man's soul becomes, punningly, negative.

Of course, the conceit isn't fully worked out - while it's lovely seeing the munching satisfaction of the avenging diner, especially as the shrunken cameraman was slurped up like so much spaghetti, it would be impossible for a camera in a man's belly to film the man from outside. There is always a second camera, filming silently on. This is the concerted power of cinema - you can do what you like, even eat its minions, but it'll still be there, like a Gothic doppelganger, immovable, watching your every move.