Breakers
- 1896
Crude Set Comedy
A basic bit of early comic storytelling on film
This comic scene features two men in a makeshift bar, drinking and tormenting the pot boy. It's clearly a very early film and not easy to identify. An educated guess might lead us to Birt Acres, because of its early date. It appears to be filmed in the back garden of an urban street with a lace curtain standing in crudely for the wallpaper of a bar. There are some basic props and larking about, but no very clear narrative.
Tags
Victorian Mysteries
A selection of some of the most enigmatic of early British films. Can you help us unlock their secrets?
We can learn a lot about early films from producers' and exhibitors' catalogues, in contemporary accounts in newspapers or the trade press, or by examining the original celluloid film. But try as we might, archivists and historians sometimes draw a blank. Where and when was this film shot, and who by? Is it British? French? American? Egyptian?
We've collected here some of the earliest films in the BFI's collections, which we wish we knew more about. So grab your deerstalker and your magnifying glass, and put your observational skills to the test on this enigmatic assortment. Can you recognise a building, a landscape, a military uniform?
12 videos in this collection
1
Breakers
2
Indian Scenes
3
Unidentified Chinese Men (c.1900)
4
Soldier Shooting
5
Panorama of the Ophir before Leaving Sydney Harbour
6
Wedding Ceremony in a Church
7
Crude Set Comedy
8
Woman and a Pram Hood
9
Street Scene in unidentified European city
10
Unidentified Factory Gate (c.1900)
11
Unidentified Factory Gate Exit in Lancashire (c.1900)
12