Comic Faces - Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer

1897
Silent
1m

How many faces can one man pull while drinking one glass of beer? Far more than you might think

Comic actor Tom Green stars in this short 'facial' film directed by GA Smith - an opportunity to blow his face-pulling antics at larger-than-life size on the cinema screen. His theatre audiences wouldn't have been able to enjoy such a good look at his gurning features before, and here he is, impersonating the unmistakably messy effects of a booze-up. The drinker spots a friend in the pub and begins a conversation that veers from friendly to downright rude, all the while slurping his ale.

Inventing Film Language

As with any new technology, it was film’s early adopters whose innovations and discoveries began to map out what is possible.

The first filmmakers had a lot to learn, but they learnt quickly, driven by their own creative ambitions and by audiences' hunger for novelty. Most of the techniques we know today were in place by the end of the Victorian period.

It was the Victorian pioneers who developed the essential building blocks of film; close-ups, pans and travelling shots; editing and principles of continuity. And their ambition spurred them to innovate numerous tricks and effects, from jump-cuts, to double-exposure and even split screen. Generations of later filmmakers would refine these methods, but the groundwork had already been done.