The Other Hollywood

As narrator Kenneth Branagh reminds us, although Hollywood is generally considered the cinematic capital of the world, it is not the site of film's birth. Cinema--small clue: a French word--began with the Lumière brothers in Paris, circa 1895. By 1900, as some of the amazing clips shown in the first volume (lovingly collected here by film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill) demonstrate, the "art" of movies had already progressed considerably. In "One Man Band," for instance, a 1900 short, the director films himself--using multiple exposures--playing over half a dozen band members simultaneously (nearly a century before Multiplicity), while that same year saw "The Big Swallow," in which a man walks toward the camera, opens his mouth and appears to swallow the apparatus as the screen goes black (an early critic, perhaps). The opening hour surveys the impressive achievements in early cinema throughout Europe, with the next four hours assessing Swedish, German, French and British efforts, respectively, and the finale examining the dawn of the sound era. A good retrospective, filled with simply incredible early treasures, The Other Hollywood is recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)