Directed by: George Albert Smith
This film builds upon the close-up technique introduced in Grandma’s Reading Glass (1900) by assuming audiences understand how to interpret continuity of shots and removing the black overlay intended to signal a particular point-of-view. The training wheels are off! Thus, we are introduced to the setting via a medium shot, get close on the action as the kitten is fed “FISIK” and end the scene with a medium shot as the child doctor concludes his business with a polite salutation.
While The Sick Kitten is noted as being released 1903, it is quite possibly a remake or an abridged version of The Little Doctor (1901) which is currently considered a lost film. Therefore, the origins of this technique could be even earlier.
It seems that after The Boxing Cats (1984), another cat video crops up in our journey though film history, this time with the addition of little kids being silly (dressed in oversized clothing and pretending to be adults) – another element of contemporary fascination. It seems the things we consider cute and silly haven’t changed all that much over the years.
Bibliography
Brooke, M. (n.d.). ‘The Sick Kitten (1903)’, BFI screenonline. Available at: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/443164/index.html [Accessed: 27 January 2022].
IMDb contributors (n.d.). ‘The Sick Kitten (1903)’, IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000469/ [Accessed: 27 January 2022].
Kramer, F. (2018). ‘The Sick Kitten (1903) A Silent Film Review’, Movies Silently, 2 September. Available at: https://moviessilently.com/2018/09/02/the-sick-kitten-1903-a-silent-film-review/ [Accessed: 27 January 2022].
Reel Lessons 