Coronation Durbar at Delhi

1902-12-29
Silent
2m

Pomp and circumstance marking the coronation of King Edward VII as Emperor of India.

On New Year's Day 1903 a spectacular Durbar was held to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra as Emperor and Empress of India. The second of three Delhi Durbars (the others were held in 1877 and 1911), this was the most spectacular. Masterminded by Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, a deserted plain was transformed in just a couple of months into a magical tented city. However, Edward failed to turn up for the festivities, sending his brother, the Duke of Connaught, instead, much to the chagrin of Curzon.

This short film doesn't quite capture the scope or opulent excess of the event, but records the arrival of some of the dignitaries - including the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, Lord Curzon, and Countess Curzon - and a handful of the countless elephants.

Robert Paul: Giant of Early Film

The most prolific filmmaker of the pioneer period of British film

The multi-talented Robert Paul (1869-1943) was the first British filmmaker to project film for a paying audience, in 1896. A contemporary of the Lumiere brothers, Paul had been producing film, in partnership with Birt Acres, for his own brand of Kinetoscope viewer since April 1895. Shortly after, he began producing for his Theatrograph and Animatographe machines, enjoying a long run at the Alhambra in Leicester Square. As an engineer, Paul made a number of significant innovations - such as an intermittent mechanism for efficiently projecting film. But he also made key innovations in film language, such as the first two-shot fiction film, Come Along Do! (1898). To cap it all, he was a shrewd businessman, with an instinctive grasp of audience tastes.