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| A Kiss in the Tunnel George Albert Smith | 1899 | 1 min 14 secs The beginnings of narrative editing. Smith uses a pre-existing 'phantom ride' film—a popular early genre of film shot from the front of a moving train—into which he cuts a scene shot in the 'studio' when the train enters a tunnel. The staged scene shows a gentleman (Smith himself) kiss a lady (Laura Bayley, Mrs Smith) with whom he is sharing the carriage. There is the added comic touch of sitting on his top hat as he returns to his seat. Of course, for reasons of visibility, the interior is not as dark as it would be in a railway tunnel; in fact, it was shot in bright sunlight. Whether Smith or his late Victorian audience would have read any Freudian overtones into the tunnel is unknown but unlikely. |
Page created 5 February 2009
Film: public domain; Text © David Fisher