Encyclopedia of Early Cinema（Part D） .pdf

D dance films Thomas Edison once referred to his invention of the Kinetoscope as “a machine to make little pictures that danced.” The statement reveals an affinity between the new invention and our most ancient art. The vast majority of the Edison companys early films recorded trained bodies in motion, principally acrobatic and athletic performers as well as dancers. In 1894, the first year of Kinetoscope production, the dances filmed included: Carmencita in Spanish dances; Scotch Highlanders performing a reel; Ruth St. Dennis performing high kicks; Annabelle Moore performing both a butterfly and a serpentine dance; Sioux warriors enacting several native dances; “The Gaiety Girls” in a number of their well- known dances; Japanese women performing a ribbon dance; Rosa doing a Turkish belly- dance; and Wilson and Waring in an eccentric “tramp” dance. Dance films became one of the most stable genres of early cinema before 1904. Basically, subjects oscillated between foreign, even ethnographic dances, and more familiar theatrical dances. The Lumière company catalogue emphasized the foreign (Tyrolese, Javanese, Russian, Italian, Egyptian, Mexican, Ashanti, Spanish, Scotch), but included some more theatrical performances, such as serpentine dances and a series of films of the Ballet Excelsior. Beginning in 1899, Pathé-Frères offered a series of international dance films (Russian, Abyssinian, Greek, Spanish, belly dances from Tunisia, Egypt, and Greece), but also filmed highly theatrical performances: stars of the Moulin Rouge, a film supposedly of Loïe Fuller, and the ballet companies of the Paris Opera and Châtelet. Richard Abel estimates that fully half of the films Gaumont released between 1900 and 1902 were dance films, including both international dances and ballet numbers. The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company (AM but filmmaking skills seem to have been in short supply. Although the company did not close down until 1918, it consistently was unprofitable and never produced any major successes. CASPER TYBJERG DAnnunzio, Gabriele b. 1863; d. 1938 novelist/poet/dramatist, Italy Italys Belle Epoque was suffused with Gabriele DAnnunzios influence; as was early Italian cinema, even if DAnnunzio was cynical about its possibilities. His late-romantic influence is clear in diva films. In a literary sense, DAnnunzios influence also is visible in the many adaptations of his works, with Ambrosio making no less than six films in the 19111912 season. His most well-known association with early Italian cinema came in the marketing strategy for the epic Cabiria (1914). For 50,000 francs, Itala producer- director Giovanni Pastrone convinced the forever-in-debt DAnnunzio to promote himself as the author of the film, to write the turgid intertitles, and to create some of the exotic names of the characters. These literary pretensions and DAnnunzios aura, Encyclopedia of early cinema 234 however, long delayed recognition of the innovating aspects of the film and of the actual filmmaker. IVO BLOM Dansk Biograf Kompagni The origin of this Danish film company lay in the international success of Alfred Linds De fire Djaevle The Four Devils (1911). German investors enabled one of the men behind this film, actor Carl Rosenberg, to establish a production company in 1912. It was a commercial failure, however, until its backers put Benjamin Christensen in charge. His Det hemmelighedsfulde X The Mysterious X (1914) was a huge hit, and Christensen took over the company and renamed it Benjamin Christensen Film. His subsequent film, Haevnens Nat The Night of Vengeance (1916), also was very successful, but uncertain wartime conditions made him decide to close the company down. CASPER TYBJERG Darling, Alfred b. 1862; d. 1931 engineer, Britain The active 1890s filmmaking scene on Englands south coast, which Georges Sadoul later dubbed “The Brighton School,” owed much to the presence and inventive genius of Darling, a local engineer who manufactured cinematographic equipment for Esme Collings, G.A.Smith, James Williamson, and most notably Charles Urban, for whom Darling began producing equipment in 1898, including the celebrated Watwick Bioscope projector and the Biokam 17.5 mm camera-projector for amateur use. Darlings business prospered, and he was one of the original investors and directors of the Charles Urban Trading Company. His projectors, cameras, tripods, winders and printers had widespread use the world over. See also: amateur films LUKE McKERNAN Davidson, Paul b. 1867; d. 1927 Entries A-Z 235 producer, distributor, exhibitor, Germany After having worked in the textile and security service industries, Davidson built up AKGT, Germanys largest cinema chain (showing mainly Pathé-Frères films) between 1906 and 1910, from which emerged the countrys first vertically-integrated film company, Projektions-AG “Union” (PAGU). In 1913, Davidson re-modelled the U.T.Alexanderplatz in Berlin into the countrys biggest movie palace with a capacity of 1,200 seats, converted his distribution contract with Asta Nielsen and Urban Gad into a long-term production agreement, and contracted Max Reinhardt to produce prestigious Autorenfilme. In 1914 Davidson began his collaboration with Ernst Lubitsch, which lasted well beyond 1918, when he sold the majority of PAGUs shares to the newly founded UFA (Universum Film AG). He committed suicide in a sanatorium in 1927. MICHAEL WEDEL Davis, Harry b. 1861, London; d. 1940, Pittsburgh exhibitor, entrepreneur, USA By 1900, Davis was an important figure in the entertainment industry of Pittsburgh. When a fire destroyed one of his downtown theaters in June 1905, he quickly opened the legendary Nickelodeon; so successful was this venture that, with associate John Harris, he soon financed more storefront theaters in Pittsburgh and other major cities. By 1907, he and Harris owned or managed a chain of twenty-five Bijou Dream moving picture theaters throughout the East and Midwest. Although his fortunes rose and fell several times over the next few years, Davis remained one of the biggest exhibitors in Pittsburgh at least through the 1910s. RICHARD ABEL Dawley, J.Searle b. 1878, Del Norte, Colorado; d. 1949, Woodland Hills, California director, USA J.Searle Dawley gave D.W.Griffith his first screen acting work in Edisons Rescued From an Eagles Nest (1907). He left home as a teenager and was stage manager for a Brooklyn stock company in 1906, when he was hired by the Edwin S.Porter at Edison. In 1913, Dawley joined Porter at Famous Players Motion Picture Company and directed Mary Pickford, Marguerite Clark, and John Barrymore in their earliest feature roles. He later directed for Metro, Fox and others. Illness forced his early retirement. ROBERT S.BIRCHARD Encyclopedia of early cinema 236 de Barros, Luis b. 1893, Rio de Janeiro; d. 1981 filmmaker, Brazil With the longest career in the history of Brazilian cinema, de Barros directed over 100 fiction and nonfiction films. The scion of a bourgeois family, he dabbled in theater initially; during a sojourn in Paris, he met Max Linder and eventually obtained work as an actor with Gaumont. Returning to Brazil in 1914, he dedicated himself to cinema; his first film was the melodrama, Perdida Lost (1915). Later he would explore literary and theatrical adaptations such as Ubirajara (1919) and adventure films and become one of the most respected directors of the early 1920s. In order to sustain production, he filmed sensational nude scenes in Alma sertaneja Soul of the Sertão (1919), commissioned documentaries, and staged revues for Francisco Serradors exhibition chain. Later he directed the first Brazilian talkie and had a successful career in sound films. ANA M.LÓPEZ de Bedts, George William b. ? d. ? inventor, manufacturer, France De Bedts, who first worked in the photographic equipment trade, took an interest in chrono- photography in 1895. In his Paris shop, where Georges Demenÿ and other pioneering figures occasionally stopped, de Bedts (also the franchise holder in Paris for Blair) sold Edison kinetoscope films and negative film stock (to Gaumont, among others, in September 1895). In November 1895, according to Jules Carpentier, de Bedts devised a reversible camera called the Kinétographe which he patented on January 14, 1896. On October 29, 1896, he registered another patent for a non-professional 35 mm camera, which was commercialized in December. He created the first French company exclusively dedicated to the exploitation of “animated images” (January 15, 1896). His film catalog, published in three languages around 1897, featured 310 titles. “All our films were made in our company and with the de Bedts Kinétographe,” de Bedts wrote. Historically a highly interesting figure, he nevertheless remains little known. Further reading Mannoni, Laurent (1995) “George William de Bedts et la commercialisation de la Chronophotographie,” in Michele Lagny and Michel Marie (eds.) Les vingt premières années du cinema français, 3951, Paris: PSN/AFRHC. LAURENT MANNONI Entries A-Z 237 De Grandsaignes dHauterives, Henry b. 1869; d. 1929 lecturer, exhibitor, Quebec/USA A Breton aristocrat ruined by gambling debts, De Grandsaignes dHauterives emigrated to Quebec in 1897 and went into the film business. A talented speaker, he would accompany film screenings with didactic or entertaining comments. His reputation as an exhibitor grew to such a point that he was engaged by major theaters as well as museums and schools, and almost every early moving picture theater in Quebec took up the popular tradition he initiated by featuring its own lecturer. After working as an exhibitor in New York and Saint Louis from 1908 to 1913, he returned to France where he abandoned his cinema activities, and became a civil servant. GERMAIN LACASSE De Liguoro, Giuseppe b. 1869; d. 1944 actor, director, scriptwriter, Italy Following a career as a stage actor between 1894 and 1908, De Liguoro began working at Milano Films in 1909. As a director, he specialized in highly choreographed adaptations of literary, historical, and adventure dramas, such as Edipo Re Oedipus the King (1910) and Il coraggio della paura Courage of Fear (1911). Although not an original artistic talent, De Liguoro nonetheless had a prolific career at Gloria Film, Etna Film, Caesar Film, and Lux-Artis. In 1916, for Caesar, he directed Francesca Bertini in such notable films as Odette Odette and Fedora Fedora. GIORGIO BERTELLINI de Morlhon, Camille b. 1869; d. 1952 filmmaker, scriptwriter, France As a writer-director, de Morlhon made nearly 160 films between 1908 and 1930, but he was especially important to French cinema in the 1910s. Born in Paris of an aristocractic background (his actual name was Louis Camille de la Valette de Morlhon), de Morlhon served as Secretary General of the Automobile-Club de France (18951901), where he met Léon Gaumont. While serving as Henry Deutsch de la Meurthes personal secretary, he began to direct revues and comedies in Paris theaters. Encyclopedia of early cinema 238 In 1908, encouraged by Gaumont, he turned one of his own scripts into a film, which Gaumont then refused to distribute (the plot too reminiscent of the Dreyfus affair). After this debacle, he met Charles Pathé, who immediately hired him as a scriptwriter and director at Pathé-Frères. de Morlhons first films included original scripts such as Le Spectre du passé The Ghost of the Past (1910) and Soldat et Marquise Soldier and Marquess (1910) and adaptations from Frances literary and dramatic heritage, such as Madame Tallien (1911) from Victorien Sardou and LAffaire du collier de la Reine The Affair of the Queens Necklace (1911) from Frantz Funck-Brentano. In late 1911, he went to Algeria to shoot seven films, casting actors from the principal national theaters (Henri Étiévant, Léontine Massart, and Valentine Tessier) in films such as Le Fils prodigue The Prodigal Son and Pour voir les mouquères To See the Women, which met with great success in 1912. An enterprising man, de Morlhon created his own company, Valetta, in 1912, to produce films for distribution by Pathé. His films increased in length, with more elaborate sets, and the screenplays became more complex. Although he engaged many celebrated actorsJean Hervé and Romuald Joubé for Britannicus (1912), Claude Garry and Jane Grumbach for Don Quichotte Don Quixote (1913)his fetish performer was Massart, who starred in films that now epitomize the early 1910s: La Calomnie Slander, LEscarpolette tragique Tragedy in the Stirrup, and Une Brute humaine A Human Beast (all 1913). The following year, he directed two films in Hungary, including La Dette de laventurière The Adventuresss Debt, before the war temporarily halted his production. It resumed in 1915, at a slower pace, but with equally acclaimed films such as Les Effluves funestes Deathly Effluvia (1915), Coeur de Gavroche Street Urchins Heart (1916), LOrage The Storm (1917), and Expiation (1918). In 1917, de Morlhon founded the Société des Auteurs de Films, through which he defended the rights of French filmmakers and wrote legislation as well as numerous polemical articles on authors rights. Although he finished his career collaborating with René Jeanne on radio plays in the 1930s, he died in complete oblivion in Paris on November 24, 1952. Further reading Le Roy, Eric (1997) Camille de Morlhon, homme de cinéma (18691952), Paris: Lharmattan. ERIC LE ROY De Riso, Camillo b. 1854; d. 1924 actor, Italy De Riso had a long theater career before entering the film industry. Beginning at Ambrosio in 1912, he formed a successful comic trio with Gigetta Morano and Eleuterio Rodolfi, contributing a rotund face and the generous look of a bourgeois bonhomme. The Entries A-Z 239 trios films often were based on Italian and French fin-de-siècle pochades or sketches and grew in length over the years. In late 1913, De Riso switched to the Gloria company, where he created the gay epicure and shameless libertine character of “Camillo” and also performed opposite Lyda Borelli in the feature film, Love Everlasting (1913). In the second half of the 1910s, De Riso directed films with such actresses as Leda Gys and Francesca Bertini. He continued working in the light comedy genre into the early 1920s. IVO BLOM Debrie, Joseph and André Joseph: b. ?; d. 1919 André: b. 1891; d. 1967 film equipment manufacturers, France A foreman in the Boucot company, Joseph Debrie made the first film perforation machine for Lucien Reuloss Mirographe around 1898. In 1900, he created his own precision tools workshop in Paris. He commercialized a new film perforation machine called the “Optima” (he provided Georges Méliès with one), then an industrial film contact printer, the “Nova,” in 1905. In 1908, his son André, now his collaborator, devised the “Parvo” camera, a landmark in the history of f