Sunday, April 11, 2010

Earliest known single lens motion picture, 1888



Nearly as amazing as watching movie footage (inch-age?) from the time of Jack the Ripper is reading the not-so-subtly sarcastic IMDB comments about Roundhay Garden Scene's epic cinematic story economically rendered within its two-second length.  The public demands sequels and Blu-ray releases post-haste. 

However, I believe the true measure of this film's power is that its shocking nature so gripped one viewer's mind that he was compelled to butcher Whitechapel prostitutes, going so far as to write to a local paper, "I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled."  Newspapers, then as today, hyped the belief that new technologies in mass media produce serial killers (which in turn sells more newspapers).

People are funny.

via IMDb :: Boards :: Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)