Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)
Landmark film should probably be better known than it is but I'm sure every film buff has seen it at least once. If you haven't seen it then you're lucky as it's posted all over the internet and is easy to come by. The film runs 22-seconds and is the earliest surviving example of trying to put sound to film. We see a man, Dickson, playing a violin while two men dance at the top of the frame. The entertainment here is certainly in the history that this film captures. It's funny to think that it would take another thirty-three years before THE JAZZ SINGER would come along yet here we have the earliest attempt at something historic. The film has a surreal nature to it just because of the men dancing and how slowly and rather hypnotic it all is. The Kinetophones that this movie used to pull off the "sound" never really took off as only 45 were produced but thankfully this film remains to show us where the dream of talking pictures started.
Landmark film should probably be better known than it is but I'm sure every film buff has seen it at least once. If you haven't seen it then you're lucky as it's posted all over the internet and is easy to come by. The film runs 22-seconds and is the earliest surviving example of trying to put sound to film. We see a man, Dickson, playing a violin while two men dance at the top of the frame. The entertainment here is certainly in the history that this film captures. It's funny to think that it would take another thirty-three years before THE JAZZ SINGER would come along yet here we have the earliest attempt at something historic. The film has a surreal nature to it just because of the men dancing and how slowly and rather hypnotic it all is. The Kinetophones that this movie used to pull off the "sound" never really took off as only 45 were produced but thankfully this film remains to show us where the dream of talking pictures started.