Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze

I have seen this film numerous times in documentaries about the history of the silent film. I have always loved the history of the silent film and this is undoubtedly the seed from which some of the great comedies of our time have been based. I feel sneezing (nowadays) has become an overdone gimmick in comedies and this film started it even though I laughed at it. My final word on this film is this, IT BLEW ME AWAY!!! (HA HA)

This ultra-short feature has historical significance in addition to its novelty value. As one of a number of surviving features that the Edison Company made not for exhibiting commercially, but as experiments or for other purposes, it is part of the interesting historical record of the very earliest stages of motion picture development.

Made just a couple of months before Edison's Kinetoscopes were opened for public viewing, this feature was originally filmed for a magazine article, in which the individual frames could illustrate the way that the Kinetoscope would produce the effect of motion. Naturally, for such a purpose they did not need or want more than a few seconds of film.

One thing that is interesting about the earliest movies is their choice of material. A good many of the Edison Company's movie subjects, whether commercial or experimental, are either offbeat or provocative. This contrasts with, for example, the early Lumière movies, which featured so many aesthetically pleasing and even lyrical sights. This subject is one of the offbeat ones, recording Edison employee Fred Ott in the act of sneezing.

For its original purpose this was a suitable subject, since the action would all be contained within a narrow camera field, and it would last only a very short time. Now, so many years later, it is useful in a different way, as a record of one of the many steps on the way to commercially-made movies. It should also be noted that the footage, very short and simple though it is, succeeds in recording motion clearly and smoothly.

This is it. This is ground zero. This is what led to Gone With The Wind, The Godfather, Star Wars and Titanic. You could arguably call it the first successful action movie. No idea what the gross was or what the overseas receipts were but certainly many a coin was spent by early film patrons to witness the most basic of human acts... the instinctual expulsion of invading micro-particles for the maintenance of Fred Ott's health. But, did Fred Ott fake it? Was he truly the first stunt man? No matter, its brevity and succinctness are exemplary to this day. It is better than some 3 hour epics in today's multiplexes.

This film was purely made for publicity purposes, as a series of still photographs to accompany an article in Harper's weekly, so it wasn't even supposed to be even ever shown as a motion-picture in the first place. It must have been a real blast for Edison and Co. to make this movie and I'm sure it good a good laugh out of people at the time.

To me the sneeze itself really didn't seemed real, also because of the reason that of course in those days they couldn't shoot for several minutes straight, in order to wait for Fred Ott to finally sneeze. But who knows, maybe that really is how people sneezed over 100 years ago. It was a very highly sophisticated looking sneeze. A real gentleman's sneeze.

The movie isn't looking of the greatest quality but this is of course all due to the fact that this film was never meant to be shown as a motion-picture in the first place.

The film is historically interesting for a couple of reasons 1. It of course is the first ever recorded sneeze, as if that is really historically significant. 2. It was the first ever motion picture to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office and 3. It's the first film to feature a close-up of a persons face. So without really knowing at the time, and without those intentions I would guess, this movie has become part of film-history.

8/10

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Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)

**** (out of 4)

If entertainment is what you're seeking then don't take my four-star review meaning a great movie. The word entertainment might not fit too well with these early films but on a historical level this here is one of the all time greats. Running just five seconds we see a man sneeze. Yes, that's all there is to it. This is famous for many reasons including it being one of the earliest films made by Edison. According to records it was filmed on January 7th, 1894 and became the first movie to have a copyright two days later.