Like the kind of curio you unearth behind that large woodworm-ridden cupboard in dusty antique shop, this documentary while charming and following through on what the title of promises – a taste of what it meant to catch a movie one hundred years ago – will delight some but bore others.
Culled from the BFI National Archive, this series of shorts, comedies and news reels, accompanied by a new score by Stephen Horne, who has long since being the go-to accompanist for silent film scores, is a veritable treasure trove. There's an oddball comedy about a wife and husband coming to blows over a face-pulling contest sandwiched between more sombre news reels of Ernest Shackleton pre Antarctic trip and Emile Pankhurst at Buckingham Palace. There's also a delightful Fred Evans comedy starring his popular character Pimple, and a little something from the American serial The Perils of Pauline.
But everything is overshadowed by the Great War, which is where A Night At The Cinema in 1914 takes on a narrative. First there are news reels showing the wedding of the ill-fated Archduke Ferdinand and wife Sophie, moving on to Lord Kitchener inspecting troops in Egypt, followed by outrage over the Germany bombing of a Belgian library, and then a peek inside of allied trenches at Christmas.
But by far and away the highlight of the piece is saved for last. In surely what must be the first film about a film, an early outing from Charlie Chaplin has his Tramp fall for a Hollywood starlet, blag his way on set, and create havoc as the director tries to put the finishing touches to his picture. A wonderful insight into filmmaking at the time, one scene sees the director put the heroine through her paces, as off screen, just over to the left of frame, cast and crew of this movie within and movie mingle and chat.
While the whole enterprise highlights the difference between then and now and thus the limited attraction this will have for today's audiences - not everyone is a fan of the bric-a-brac one discovers in forgotten shops - but for those looking for something off the beaten track can't go far wrong with this.
