Jack and the Beanstalk

This early version of Jack and the Beanstalk may look, to the modern eye, as if it is a simple stage play, but it is hardly that. In reality it mixes grammars from three different forms of entertainment: the stage, Georges Melies' film grammar (which at this stage used a good deal of stage techniques, but also included stopping the camera to allow things to appear and disappear) and magic lantern grammar.

Notice how the story is structured so that some of the visions appear as a circle in the center of the screen. That is straight out of standard magic lantern productions, which were still enormously popular in this period. Indeed, this particular bit of magic lantern grammar survives in occasional use today. I have noticed it most recently in Jeunet's A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, in which the main action appear over most of the screen, but thoughts of the lost love appear in the upper righthand corner.

Films were just starting to find their way at this point. It was an enormously exciting period in the movies as many techniques were tried out.

I'm writing a book about "folding" in film, a situation which in its simplest form is seen as a movie within a movie.

This is the earliest example I know. The movie itself is about 12 minutes long. There are no dialog cards because presumably all viewers would know the story in detail already. Modern audiences will find the presentation pretty hokey.

But there are two episodes within this that have an interesting effect. There is a fairy godmother which to my knowledge is not in the original story. She is invented just for the movie. She manipulates events somewhat. Among her interventions are the creation of visions for our hero.

The first time is in a dream, and the second in "real life" (or perhaps a dream). Both illustrate what is to come. These are presented in the movie as a movie that the fairy "projects" onto the background. At the end she appears again to merge the two worlds. Ted's law of abstraction holds even in this early example: the distance between our world and the world of the movie is the same as that between the movie and the world of the movie within.

Ted's Evaluation -- 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.

For its era, this was rather an ambitious and creative attempt to film the story of "Jack and the Beanstalk" with as much visual detail as possible. Certainly, few of the camera effects are going to impress anyone now, but they are not at all bad given the limitations. It's really a children's story, and any children who saw this in 1902 would probably have enjoyed it more than enough to justify the effort of making it.

For all that the technical limitations are obvious, and the visual effects in the rudimentary stage, this version does clearly communicate the basic story in a generally entertaining fashion. To be sure, even in 1902 there were pioneers such as Méliès who were already doing more impressive things. But this one is by no means bad, and features like this, while their defects are obvious, still hold their appeal for those of us who enjoy seeing what the earliest movies were like.

Jack and the Beanstalk (1902)

*** (out of 4)

Nice version of the famous story from Edison with direction by Edwin S. Porter who was close to making his landmark film THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. The story is about as well-known as you can get but young Jack (Thomas White) trades his cow for some magic beans, which end up growing high into the sky. He ends up climbing up where he encounters the bad guy who he must destroy. If you're looking for anything ground-breaking then you're not going to find it here. I'm sure many people will look at this 1902 film and see it as hokey but it's doubtful these people would be overly interested in the history of film. Those who are interested will find this to be a pretty interesting version of the classic story. Porter does a very good job at telling the story, although without any title cards they're certainly expecting you to already know the story. I really loved the visual look of the film including the special effects of the beanstalk growing. The "vine" used for the stalk was even attempted to look realistic, which wasn't always the case in this early films. The cow in the story is a man in the outfit, a common practice for the day and I can't help but feel this adds a bit of surrealism today.

. . . BOTH Jack and the Beanstalk (1902) AND Fractured Fairy Tales: Jack & the Beanstalk (1959) in order to provide meaningful insights about either picture. Obviously, the Fractured crew was intimately well-versed about the earlier Edison\Porter flick, as they make on-screen references to how megalomaniac Old Tom Edison stole the Goose Laying Golden Eggs and the Singing Harp from Jack's late father, as well as filching a bulging sack of gold coins from the beleaguered Beanstalk clan. Such Edison victims were Legion, as the Ogre of Men-Low Park swiped everything in his sight. Fracture pictures Old Tom as an elderly senile doddering colossus, which seems particularly apt.