在这部Captain Nissen Going Through Whirlpool Rapids, Niagara Falls纪录片/短片片中,一共7张碟： Disk 1: THE MECHANIZED EYE Experiments in Technique and Form The dynamic qualities of motion pictures are explored by cameramen and filmmakers through novel experiments in technique and form. Early cinematographers James White, "Billy" Bitzer, and Frederick Armitage display experimental shooting styles that wowed audiences. Other independent companies further image manipulation through creative staging, editing, and printing, such as a stunning three-screen film that predates Gance's Napoleon. Experiments by photographer Walker Evans, painter Emlen Etting, musician Jerome Hill, and the film collectives Nykino and Artkino record the world in a continual process of flux. A most extreme approach is realized by Henwar Rodakiewicz with Portrait of a Young Man (1925-31), a monumental study of natural and abstract motions. 18 FILMS: 5 Paris Exposition Films (1900)-James White Eiffel Tower from Trocadero Palace (1900) Palace of Electricity (1900) Champs de Mars (1900) Panorama of Eiffel Tower (1900) Scene from Elevator Ascending Eiffel Tower (1900) Captain Nissen Going through Whirpool Rapids, Niagra Falls (1901)-creators unknown Down the Hudson (1903)-Frederick Armitage & A.E. Weed The Ghost Train (1903)-creators unknown Westinghouse Works, Panorama View Street Car Motor Room (1904)-G.W. "Billy" Bitzer In Youth, Beside the Lonely Sea (c. 1924-25)-creators unknown Melody on Parade (c. 1936)-creators unknown La Cartomancienne (The Fortune Teller) (1932)-Jerome Hill Pie in the Sky (1934-35)-Nykino: Elia Kazan, Ralph Steiner & Irving Lerner Travel Notes (1932)-Walker Evans Oil: A Symphony in Motion (1930-33)-Artkino: M.G. MacPherson & Jean Michelson Poem 8 (1932-33)-Emlen Etting Storm (1941-43)-Paul Burnford Portrait of a Young Man (1925-31)-Henwar Rodakiewicz Disk 2: THE DEVIL'S PLAYTHING American Surrealism Edwin S. Porter and other early filmmakers used bizarre sets, fantastic costumes, and magic lantern tricks to illuminate their fantasy films. American parody supplied Douglas Fairbanks with enough unusual material to produce the truly surreal When the Clouds Roll By (1919). The expressionistic Cabinet of Dr. Calagari (1919) influenced American sensibilities throughout the 1920s as seen in Beggar of Horseback (1925), The Life and Death of 9413-A Hollywood Extra (1927) and The Telltale Heart (1928). The emphasis shifted when amateurs J.S. Watson, Jr., Joseph Cornell, and Orson Welles crafted a unique variety of American surrealism on film unfettered by European concerns. 17 FILMS: Jack and the Beanstalk (1902)-Edwin S. Porter Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)-Edwin S. Porter The Thieving Hand (1907)-creator unknown, Vitagraph Impossible Convicts (1905)-G.W. "Billy" Bitzer When the Clouds Roll By (1919)-Douglas Fairbanks & Victor Fleming (excerpt) Beggar on Horseback (1925)-James Cruze (excerpt) The Fall of the House of Usher (1926-27)-J.S. Watson, Jr. & Melville Webber The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1927)- Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapich The Love of Zero (1928)-Robert Florey & William Cameron Menzies The Telltale Heart (1928)-Charles Klein Tomatos Another Day (1930/1933)-J.S. Watson, Jr. & Alec Wilder The Hearts of Age (1934)- William Vance & Orson Welles Unreal News Reels (c. 1926)-Weiss Artclass Comedies (excerpt) The Children's Jury (c. 1938)-attributed Joseph Cornell Thimble Theater (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell Carousel: Animal Opera (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell Jack's Dream (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell Disk 3: LIGHT RHYTHMS Music and Abstraction The rhythmic elements of cinema are explored by artists and filmmakers fascinated by the abstract qualities of light. The American authors of avant-garde classics Le Retour ａ la raison (1923), Ballet mｅcanique (1923-24), Anｅmic cinｅma (1926), and Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (1934), are finally acknowledged for their seminal artistic achievements made in Europe. Pioneer abstract films by Ralph Steiner, Mary Ellen Bute, Douglass Crockwell, Dwinnell Grant, and George Morris are compared and contrasted with Hollywood montages created by Ernst Lubitsch, Slavko Vorkapich, and Busby Berkeley. For the first time on video, composer George Antheil's original 1924 score accompanies Fernand Lｅger and Dudley Murphy's film Ballet mｅcanique, a truly avant-garde cacophony of image and sound. 29 FILMS: Le Retour ａ la raison (1923)-Man Ray Ballet mｅcanique (1923-24)-Fernand Lｅger & Dudley Murphy Anｅmic cinｅma (1924-26)-Rrose Sｅlavy (Marcel Duchamp) Looney Lens: Anamorphic People (1927)-Al Brick Out of the Melting Pot (1927)-W.J. Ganz Studio H20 (1929)-Ralph Steiner Surf and Seaweed (1929-30)-Ralph Steiner 7 Vorkapich Montage Sequences (1928-37)-Slavko Vorkapich The Furies (1934) Skyline Dance (1928) Money Machine (1929) Prohibition (1929) The Firefly- Vorkapich edit (1937) The Firefly-MGM release version (1937) Maytime (1937) So This Is Paris (1926)-Ernst Lubitsch (excerpt) Light Rhythms (1930)-Francis Bruguiｅre & Oswell Blakeston Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain) (1934)-Alexandre Alexeieff & Claire Parker Rhythm in Light (1934)-Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Melville Webber Synchromy No. 2 (1936)-Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth Parabola (1937)-Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth Footlight Parade - "By a Waterfall" (1933)-Busby Berkeley Glen Falls Sequence (1937-46)-Douglass Crockwell Simple Destiny Abstractions (1937-40)-Douglass Crockwell Abstract Movies (1937-47)-George L.K. Morris Scherzo (1939)-Norman McLaren Themis (1940)-Dwinell Grant Contrathemis (1941)-Dwinell Grant 1941 (1941)-Francis Lee Moods of the Sea (1940-42)-Slavko Vorkapich & John Hoffman Disk 4: INVERTED NARRATIVES New Directions in Story-Telling Early directors D.W. Griffith and Lois Weber develop the radical language of cinema narrative through audience-friendly melodramas made for nickelodeon theaters. Experimental fantasies are depicted in such independent productions as Moonland (c. 1926), Lullaby (1929), and The Bridge (1929-30). Depression era films by socially-conscious filmmakers reshape drama as demonstrated in Josef Berne's brooding Black Dawn (1933) and Strand and Hurwitz's biting Native Land (1937-41): each pictures a raw reality. Parody and satire find their mark in Theodore Huff's Little Geezer (1932) and Barlow, Hay and Le Roy's Even as You and I (1937). David Bradley's Sredni Vashtar by Saki (1940-43) boasts an inadvertent post-modern attitude. 12 FILMS: The House with Closed Shutters (1910)-D.W. Griffith & G.W. "Billy" Bitzer Suspense (1913)-Lois Weber & Philips Smalley Moonland (c. 1926)-Neil McQuire & William A. O'Connor Lullaby (1929)-Boris Deutsch The Bridge (1929-30)-Charles Vidor Little Geezer (1932)-Theodore Huff Black Dawn (1933)-Josef Berne & Seymour Stern Native Land (1937-41)-Frontier Films: Leo Hurwitz & Paul Strand (excerpt) Black Legion (1936-7)-Nykino: Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke Even As You and I (1937)-Roger Barlow, Harry Hay & Le Roy Robbins Object Lesson (1941)-Christoher Young "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (1940-43)-David Bradley Disk 5: PICTURING A METROPOLIS New York City Unveiled Only Unseen Cinema DVD released as a SINGLE The DVD depicts dynamic images of New York City and scenes of New Yorkers among the skyscrapers, streets, and night life of America's greatest city during a half century of progress, while at the same time showing changes in film style and the history of cinema experiments. Avant-garde moments pop up in the most unlikely of places including turn-of-the-twentieth-century actualities, commercial and radical newsreels, and Busby Berkeley's "Lullaby of Broadway" from Gold Diggers of 1935. Included are spectacular prints of Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand's Manhatta (1921), Robert Flaherty's Twenty-four-Dollar Island (c. 1926), Robert Florey's Skyscraper Symphony (1929), Jay Leyda's A Bronx Morning (1931), and Rudy Burckhardt's Pursuit of Happiness (1940). 26 FILMS: The Blizzard (1899)-creators unknown Lower Broadway (1902)-Robert K. Bonine Beginning of a Skyscraper (1902)-Robert K. Bonine Panorama from Times Building, New York (1905)-Wallace McCutcheon Skyscrapers of NYC from North River (1903)-J.B. Smith Panorama from Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903)-G.W. "Billy" Bitzer Building Up and Demolishing the Star Theatre (1902)-Frederick Armitage Coney Island at Night (1905)-Edwin S. Porter Interior New York Subway 14th Street to 42nd Street (1905)-G.W. "Billy" Bitzer Seeing New York by Yacht (1902)-Frederick Armitage & A.E. Weed 2 Looney Lens: Split Skyscrapers (1924) and Tenth Avenue, NYC (1924)-Al Brick 4 Scenes from Ford Educational Weekly (1916-24)-creators unknown Manhatta (1921)-Charles Sheeler & Paul Strand Twentyfour-Dollar Island (c. 1926)-Robert Flaherty Skyscraper Symphony (1929)-Robert Florey Manhattan Medley (1931)-Bonney Powell A Bronx Morning (1931)-Jay Leyda Footnote to Fact (1933)-Lewis Jacobs Seeing the World (1937)-Rudy Burckhardt Pursuit of Hapiness (1940)-Rudy Burckhardt Gold Diggers of 1935 - "Lullaby of Broadway" (1935)-Busby Berkeley (excerpt) Autumn Fire (1930-33)-Herman Weinberg Disk 6: THE AMATEUR AS AUTEUR Discovering Paradise in Pictures These home-made films incorporate avant-garde strategies and techniques to achieve a true sense of cinematic intimacy. Glimpses of life caught unawares are found in the home movies of Elizabeth Woodman Wright, Archie Stewart, Frank Stauffacher, and John C. Hecker. Poetic lyricism finds a voice in city symphonies: Lynn Riggs and James Hughes' A Day in Santa Fe (1931) and Rudy Burckhardt's Haiti (1938). Professionally minded films, like Theodore Case's sound tests (c. 1925) and Lewis Jacobs' Tree Trunk to Head (1938), operate from a similar home-spun perspective of sincerity. Joseph Cornell offers an enigmatic but lovely homage to childhood with Children's Trilogy (c. 1938). 20 FILMS: 7 Case Sound Tests (c. 1924-25)-Theodore Case & Earl Sponable Windy Ledge Farm (c. 1929-34)-Elizabeth Woodman Wright A Day in Santa Fe (1931)-Lynn Riggs & James Hughes 4 Stewart Family Home Movies (c. 1935-39)-Archie Stewart Children's Party (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell Cotillion (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell The Midnight Party (c. 1938)-Joseph Cornell Haiti (1938)-Rudy Burckhardt Tree Trunk to Head (1938)-Lewis Jacobs Bicycle Polo at San Mateo (1940-42)-Frank Stauffacher 1126 Dewey Avenue, Apt. 207 (1939)-John C. Hecker Disk 7: VIVA LA DANCE The Beginnings of Cinｅ-Dance Dance and film have shared the aspiration to creatively sculpt motion and time. Some of the first films ever made featured Annabelle's skirt dance, hand-painted in glowing colors. Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis' innovations found their way into Diana the Huntress (1916) and The Soul of the Cypress (1920). Highly cinematic renditions of dance evolved in Stella Simon's Hände (1928), Hector Hoppin's Joie de vivre (1934), and Busby Berkeley's "Don't Say Goodnight" from Wonder Bar (1934). In counterpoint, cinｅ-dances by Mary Ellen Bute, Douglass Crockwell, Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, Ralph Steiner, and Slavko Vorkapich dispensed with actual dancers in favor of color, shape, line, and form choreographed into abstract light-play. 33 FILMS: 7 Annabelle Dances and Dances (1894-1897)-W.K.L. Dickson, William Heise & James White Davy Jones' Locker (1900)-Frederick Armitage Neptune's Daughters (1900)-Frederick Armitage A Nymph of the Waves (1900)-Frederick Armitage Diana the Huntress (1916)-Charles Allen & Francis Trevelyan Miller (excerpt) The Soul of the Cypress (1920)-Dudley Murphy Looney Lens: Pas de deux (1924)-Al Brick Hände: Das Leben und die Liebe eines Zärtlichen Geschlechts (Hands: The Life and Loves of the Gentler Sex) (1928)-Stella Simon & Miklos Bandy Mechanical Principles (1930)-Ralph Steiner Tilly Losch in Her Dance of the Hands (c. 1930-33)-Norman Bel Geddes 2 Eisenstein's Mexican Footage (1931)-Sergei Eisenstein (excerpts) Oramunde (1933)-Emlen Etting Hands (1934)-Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke Joie de vivre (1934)-Anthony Gross & Hector Hoppin Wonder Bar: "Don't Say Goodnight" (1934)-Busby Berkeley (excerpt) Dada (1936)-Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth Escape (1938)-Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth An Optical Poem (1938)-Oskar Fischinger Abstract Experiment in Kodachrome (c. 1940s)-Slavko Vorpapich NBC Valentine Greeting (1939-40)-Norman McLaren Stars and Stripes (1940)-Norman McLaren Tarantella (1940)-Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Norman McLaren Spook Sport (1940)-Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Norman McLaren Danse Macabre (1922)-Dudley Murphy Peer Gynt (1941)-David Bradley, starring Charlton Heston (excerpt) Introspection (1941/46)-Sara Kathryn Arledge SERIES CATALOG "Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1893-1941" Unseen Cinema catalog features 30 essays, articles, and documents and 65 annotated photographs. Authors are scholars, critics, and filmmakers whose knowledge of the early avant-garde derives from either direct experience as a participant or years of scholarly research. Many hard-to-find photographs and sources detail the first decades of American experimental cinema in the United States and abroad. Table of Contents Foreword-Jan-Christopher Horak Words and Pictures-annotated photographs 1. The Grand Experiment-Bruce Posner 2. Hollywood Extras: One Tradition of `Avant-Garde' Film in Los Angeles- David James 3. Emlen Etting: Three Films-R. Bruce Elder 4. The Attraction of Nature in Early Cinema-Scott MacDonald 5. "Le Retour ａ la raison": Hidden Meaning-Deke Dusinberre 6. Music for "Ballet Mｅcanique": 90s Technology Realizes a 20s Vision-Paul D. Lehrman 7. Sara Kathryn Arledge: "Introspection"-Terry Cannon 8. Busby Berkeley and America's Pioneer Abstract Filmmakers-Cecile Starr 9. Joseph Cornell: An Exploration of Sources-Lynda Roscoe Hartigan 10. Discussing D.W. Griffith-Jay Leyda 11. Maurice Tourneur and "The Bluebird"-Jan-Christopher Horak 12. Diva of Decadence: "Salome"-Kenneth Anger 13. W.K.L. Dickson: Pioneer Filmmaker-Paul Spehr 14. Elizabeth Woodman Wright: "Windy Ledge Farm"-Karan Sheldon & Bruce Posner 15. Robert Florey and the Hollywood Avant-Garde-Brian Taves 16. Working on "The City"-Henwar Rodakiewicz 17. Warren Newcombe: "The Enchanted City"-Stephen J. Schneider 18. My Films-J.S. Watson, Jr. 19. J.S. Watson, Jr.: "Nass River Indians"-Lynda Jessup 20. ...And Melville Webber-Dale Davis 21. Making "Twenty-four Dollar Island"-Robert Flaherty 22. Avant-Garde Production in America-Lewis Jacobs (excerpts) 23. Rutherford Boyd and "Parabola"-Douglas Dreishpoon 24. Notes on New Cinema of 1929 and 1930-Harry Alan Potamkin 25. Herman G. Weinberg: "Autumn Fire"-Robert A. Haller 26. Unanswered Questions: Eisenstein's "Quｅ Viva Mｅxico!"-Herman G. Weinberg 27. My First Movie and "The Hearts of Age"-Orson Welles interviewed by Peter Bogdanovich 28. Highway 66: Montage Notes for a Documentary Film-Lewis Jacobs 29. The American Vanguard: Flux and Experience-R. Bruce Elder 30. New Artistic Process-Claire Parker and Alexandre Alexeieff
Here we show Captain N. P. Nissen, formerly known as Captain Bowser, making a trip through the Whirlpool Rapids in his famous twenty-four foot craft known as the "Fool Killer." Captain Bowser is shown embarking in his boat at Niagara Falls, Ontario. After he carefully embarks, the "Fool Killer" is taken in tow by a rowboat and towed out into the stream. Here the captain is seen to go below the whaleback deck and close the hatch. Then the trip through the Rapids begins. One of our cameras, which was operated by a second photographer, was in waiting on a trolley car, and the progress of the "Fool Killer" is followed on its entire trip through the mad waters, and a most realistic picture was secured which absolutely defies description. The boat is seen to pitch, rock and plunge as it is carried at the will of the current in this most erratic of streams, and we secured an absolute picture of a feat that has been heretofore declared impossible to accomplish. This strip is of the highest value from a dramatic, artistic and historical standpoint.
