James Williamson

Description

Between the release in 1895 of Louis Lumiere's first films, which established the kind of pictorialism we now think of as cinema, and the appearance in 1905 of Lewin Fitzhamon's Rescued by Rover, which initiated the age of editing, the infant international film trade experienced its first great flowering, during which the international film narrative came into being. Although many filmmakers contributed to it, a figure of unique and central importance was James Williamson (1855-1933), active at the British resort city of Brighton from 1898 to 1909. Examined in this well-illustrated study is the British film market and its American counterpart, which - especially the latter - were Williamson's chief customers until his retirement. Evidence is presented of basic differences in the two markets and of how these often resulted in a need for two versions of each British release - one for Britain, one for America. A man of unusual talents and energies, James Williamson was father of the multishot chase and of the race-against-time. He was the first filmmaker to cut from one shot to another for dramatic effect, and the earliest to have a reasoned view of screen acting. He laid the foundations for all subsequent movie realism in three brief films of 1902 and 1903: The Soldier's Return, A Reservist Before and After the War, and Wait till Jack Comes Home. This study gives an extended account of his work as a pioneer of the film narrative and identifies the contexts out of which it grew. Note is taken of the implications for drama of the way the film's first storytellers chose to frame their images, and a process is suggested whereby Williamson and the other heirs of Lumiere transformed a fairground novelty into the chief popular art of the twentieth century.

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