Rough Sea

1900
Silent
2m

Breaking waves at an unidentified coastal location.

Rough seas were a popular subject for early filmmakers keen to demonstrate the thrilling new medium of moving pictures. The mesmerising shots of breaking waves now appear like artists’ films.

This film was produced by the pioneering Bamforth company, set up by James Bamforth and based in Holmfirth, Yorkshire. Having worked as a as a studio photographer and producer of magic lantern slides, Bamforth was well-placed to move into the film industry in 1898. Ever entrepreneurial, his company, Bamforth & Co., later diversified into the production of saucy seaside postcards, which proved a successful line of business until the 1990s.

Sea Wave Films

The 'sea wave' genre might be one of the more surprising genres to come out of early film. But for Victorian audiences there was something hypnotic about these compact studies of movement.

Surely most of us, if we've ever stood before the sea have found ourselves transfixed by the rhythms of gently lapping waves. The violent churn of a really rough sea gives us something else again - a real sense of the ocean's magnificent, sometimes alarming power.