Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood

Episode 1

Where It All Began

58 mins

This first program traces the birth of the industry in Europe from the first moving pictures screened in 1895 through to the First World War. It contains glimpses of the hand-colored fantasies of George Melies, the sly comedy of Max Linder, the epic vision of Abel Gance, war films from Italy, early action films from Denmark and propaganda films from Britain and Germany. Going to the cinema in the last years of the 19th century wasn't much fun. You would probably be treated to such gripping titles as Leaving the Factory at Lyon or The Baby's Meal in a damp overcrowded tent that was likely to burn down (film being highly flammable). Things soon picked up, though, as this meticulous history of European cinema shows: by 1910, audiences were enjoying comedy, epics, romances and fantasies, some of them hand colored, some of them even with sound.