1896 – Coucher de la mariée / Bedtime for the Bride

Directed by: Albert Kirchner

Whenever a new form of media is introduced, someone will inevitably think of ways to use it for smut. And so, this film from 1896 is largely considered the first erotic film.

It stars Louise Willy, upon whose burlesque act it is based on. We see the groom wait and grow impatient as the bride removes layer after layer of clothing behind a screen. The way the shot is set up emphasizes her role and places the groom to the side, almost like a footnote whose reactions are comedic but also reflect the audience’s increasing excitement. He passes the time by reading the newspaper, then begins to peek over the dressing screen. The bride continues to undress, occasionally caressing herself as she glances at the camera. The groom grows increasingly restless– and then the film abruptly ends, the remaining minutes left to our imagination. It is thought to have been 7 minutes long, though only less than 2 minutes survive (possibly because police raids in venues that showed “risqué” and “stag” films resulted in footage being destroyed).

There is an element of playfulness throughout and a sense of anticipation heightened by the bride purposely removing articles of clothing slowly. The striptease is performed with awareness of an audience, effectively breaking the fourth wall.

More hardcore films would be produced over the years – often cited early examples include A L’Ecu d’Or ou la Bonne Auberge / At the Golden Shield or the Good Inn (1908) and El Satario / The Satyr, which has been dated as early as 1907 and late as 1930 (produced either in Argentina or Cuba). While pornography seems trivial in the history of film, it was a deciding factor in VHS winning over Betamax and Blu-ray over HDDVD!

Bibliography

Bradford, I. (2016). ‘Friday Video: “Bedtime for the Bride”, 1896’, Two Nerdy History Girls, 1 April. Available at: http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com.ee/2016/04/friday-video-bedtime-for-bride-1896.html [Accessed: 28 December 2021].

Dirks, T. (n.d.). ‘History of Sex in Cinema: The Greatest and Most Influential Sexual Films and Scenes’, filmsite. Available at: http://www.filmsite.org/sexinfilms1.html [Accessed: 28 December 2021].

Geltzer, J. (2015). Dirty Words and Filthy Pictures: Film and the First Amendment. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Glass, J. (2014). ‘8 Ways Porn Influenced Technology’, thrillist, 14 February. Available at: https://www.thrillist.com/vice/how-porn-influenced-technology-8-ways-porn-influenced-tech-supercompressor-com [Accessed: 28 December 2021].

IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘Coucher de la mariée (1896)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1728115/ [Accessed: 28 December 2021].

Wikipedia contributors (2021). ‘El Satario’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 August. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Satario [Accessed: 28 December 2021].

1896 – Le Manoir du Diable / The House of the Devil

Directed by: Georges Méliès

It is also known as The Haunted Castle and The Devil’s Castle – however, it should not be confused with Méliès’ remake Le château hanté / The Haunted Castle (1897). It is also possible that George Albert Smith made a version of the film in 1897, but as no copies exist, it is likely that it was merely misattributed to him.

The film continues to showcase Méliès’ fascination with the fantastical and mastery of special effects, this time combining the two into a narrative. The first third establishes the location as otherworldly: a bat appears and transforms into the devil who then proceeds to conjure objects and creatures. The scene returns to normalcy by the time two men arrive. One of them is quickly scared off by the devil’s assistant and the other remains to endure further pranks and apparitions. In the end, he confronts the villain with a crucifix.

By most accounts, it is considered the first horror film and a strong case can be made for it being the first vampire film. Although the antagonist is the devil, he possesses attributes associated with vampire lore: he transforms from a bat to human, summons demonic brides and other creatures who serve him (displaying mesmeric control), and is ultimately banished with a cross.

Bibliography

Flowers, T. S. (2016). ‘Universal Monsters in Review: The Silent Era (1895-1929)’, Machine Mean, 21 September. Available at: https://machinemean.org/2016/09/21/universal-monsters-in-review-the-silent-era-1895-1929/ [Accessed: 27 December 2021].

IMDb contributors (n.d. a). The Devil’s Castle (1897)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213033/ [Accessed: 27 December 2021].

IMDb contributors (n.d. b). ‘The Haunted Castle (1897)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000153/ [Accessed: 27 December 2021].

IMDb contributors (n.d. c). ‘The House of the Devil (1896)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000091/ [Accessed: 27 December 2021].

Jones, J. (2015). ‘The First Horror Film, George Méliès’ The Haunted Castle (1896)’, Open Culture, 27 October. Available at: http://www.openculture.com/2015/10/the-first-horror-film-george-melies-the-manor-of-the-devil-1896.html [Accessed: 27 December 2021].

Wikipedia contributors (2021). ‘The Haunted Castle (1897 British film)’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 February. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haunted_Castle_(1897_British_film) [Accessed: 27 December 2021].

1896 – La Fée aux Choux / The Cabbage Fairy

(Note: Due to the 1896 version being lost media, the video here is a remake by Alice Guy from 1900. It is often incorrectly cited as the 1896 original.)

Alice Guy was born in Paris on July 1, 1874, and began her career as a secretary for inventor and industrialist Léon Gaumont in 1894. She directed La Fée aux Choux as a means of demonstrating the possibilities of the camera manufactured by Gaumont, in the process not only producing quite possibly the first fantasy film but becoming the first female film director!

The film was based on a French children’s tale that boys are born in cabbages and girls in roses (a cabbage supposedly resembling a baby’s head). It was quite long for its time, clocking at 1 minute! Guy was soon promoted to the company’s head of motion picture production and directed most of their films until 1905. She not only experimented with cinematic techniques (running film backward, double exposure, etc.) but also used Gaumont’s Chronophone to produce around 100 “sound” films between 1906 and 1907.

Over time, a lot of her accomplishments were forgotten or attributed to her male colleagues. Today only a few of films she produced remain.

Bibliography

IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘La fée aux choux (1896)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223341/ [Accessed: 22 December 2021].

Noble P. et al. (2013). ‘Languages of love: 10 unusual terms of endearment’, BBC News, 30 May. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22699938 [Accessed: 22 December 2021].

popegrutch (2014). ‘Cabbage Fairy (1896)’, Century Film Project, 28 May. Available at: https://centuryfilmproject.org/2014/05/28/cabbage-fairy-1896/ [Accessed: 22 December 2021].

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (2021). ‘Alice Guy-Blanché’. Encyclopædia Britannica, 27 June. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Guy-Blache [Accessed: 22 December 2021].

1896 – L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat / Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat

Directed by: Auguste Lumière, Louis Lumière

Two versions of the film exist, both marked as Lumiere #653. They are differentiated by two distinguishing features: in one, a man disembarks the train, takes a couple of steps towards the camera, seems to notice it and then walks backwards until he is outside of the frame; in the other, two women holding hands with little girls run alongside the train. The placement of the camera remains the same, with the main emphasis on the train. The angle chosen produces a dramatic effect as the train gradually increases in size and finally moves past the audience’s imagined left. It is possible the camera was intentionally left on after the train had stopped to provide sufficient time for relief after the climactic arrival.

A popular cinema legend claims that during screenings of the film, some audience members panicked and ran from their seats believing they were about to be run over by the approaching train. There are no confirmed reports of this and the story is most likely a publicity stunt or an exaggerated description of emotions taken literally. Regardless, it illustrates a very real concept regarding the medium’s ability to elicit an emotional response from audiences, despite being illusory or even presenting outright fiction. We laugh, we cry, and we get frightened by make-believe due to our immersion in stories and suspension of disbelief.

Bibliography

Grundhauser, E. (2016). ‘Did a Silent Film About a Train Really Cause Audiences to Stampede?’, Atlas Obscura, 3 November. Available at: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/did-a-silent-film-about-a-train-really-cause-audiences-to-stampede [Accessed: 18 December 2021].

IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘The Arrival of a Train (1896)’, IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000012/ [Accessed: 18 December 2021].

Vorontzov, D. (2011). ‘L’arrivée d’un train en gare de la Ciotat, 1895’. Cinemaven, 16 March. Available at: http://cinemaven.org/larrivee-dun-train-en-gare-de-la-ciotat/ [Accessed: 22 September 2017].