Post by Capo on Jan 23, 2007 8:25:04 GMT
Dreams of Toyland
Arthur Melbourne Cooper / Robert W. Paul 1908 UK
A boy is taken by his mother to the toy shop and has many toys bought for him. Later that night he dreams his toys have come to life, and are all burned in a fire.
Early shorts often run the risk of having a longer synopsis than review; that is incredibly telling of how brilliant some of them are. Fascinatingly simple scenarios which, because the experiments are often self-absorbed with the possibilities of the camera itself, are self-evident and need little explanation. Here, though, we get to see 'interiors' shot outside (picture frames swing on the wall, the sun casts shadows in all the wrong places, hair blows in the wind); some fantastic stop-motion animation of toys attacking one another; and the notion that Cinema belongs in the imaginary, in the dreams... in childhood?
Arthur Melbourne Cooper / Robert W. Paul 1908 UK
A boy is taken by his mother to the toy shop and has many toys bought for him. Later that night he dreams his toys have come to life, and are all burned in a fire.
Early shorts often run the risk of having a longer synopsis than review; that is incredibly telling of how brilliant some of them are. Fascinatingly simple scenarios which, because the experiments are often self-absorbed with the possibilities of the camera itself, are self-evident and need little explanation. Here, though, we get to see 'interiors' shot outside (picture frames swing on the wall, the sun casts shadows in all the wrong places, hair blows in the wind); some fantastic stop-motion animation of toys attacking one another; and the notion that Cinema belongs in the imaginary, in the dreams... in childhood?