The Sick Kitten

This isn't the most engaging of films, but it is important in the development of cinema technique because of the way in which pioneering British filmmaker George Albert Smith transforms what would otherwise be a flat and somewhat dull film with the simple insertion of a close-up. The film shows two children and a couple of cats, one of which is supposed to be unwell. The cat sits on the girl's lap as a boy in an over-sized hat fetches a jug. The girl spoon-feeds medicine to the little kitten and it is at this point that Smith switches to a close-up of the kitten so that we can see it happily licking its medicine from the spoon. The film then returns to what was the establishing shot to show the boy removing his hat and bowing. It's no great shakes,and is fairly unremarkable when seen today, but it has a place in cinematic history.

Despite the tongue-in-cheek Marxian film-school analysis of the films in THE MOVIES BEGIN DVD set by Ms. Liddell-Hart and the amiable and seemingly unsophisticated enthusiasms of Snow Leopard, these films retain a fascination for those of us who are interested in old films for their own sakes. For those of us who are not fascinated by history, it is still interesting to see that there was cinema before, say, Adam Sandler ... and to see things done for the first time is always interesting. There is a freshness about the first time that sophistication cannot repeat.

But we can also appreciate these films on their own terms, and further, in their ability to engage us today. It is interesting to put oneself in the mind of someone a hundred years ago, and, given the short lengths of these pieces, thirty seconds can give us a complete film.... and is that such a great investment? If we can appreciate the works of Sophocles and Plautus and Shakespeare, why can we not admire the work done by Mr. G.A. Smith?

And, speaking from a historical viewpoint, Smith's work is amazing, since he seems to have invented the 'grammar of cinema' as Lilian Gish claimed D.W. Griffith did, ten years before Griffith set foot on a movie stage! True, his compositions are not as sophisticated as Griffith's, but Smith was an experimental film-maker, while Griffith was trying to use the results of those experiments. He tells little stories that, because of their subject matters, often do not age well. Well then, they are stuck in their times. This year (2002) saw a new film production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST, filled, as comedies of manners usually are, by people who would be spending their time in medical wards under heavy dosages of drugs in today's world. Yet we can laugh at Oscar Wilde's comedy and can, I hope, take pleasure from Mr. Smith's.

It certainly did not take long for cats to break into the movies.

Here we see a kitten sitting in some kind of homemade cat bed when a little girl picks the kitten up and begins to rock her, making it look as though the cat is ill. A little boy in a top hat enters the room, inspects the situation, leaves, and then returns with a bottle of something labeled "fisik". The little girl gets a tablespoon of the "fisik" and feeds it to the kitten who eagerly gobbles it down.

The cat is neither sick nor being fed medicine, for the kitten is not fighting whatever it is they are feeding to her. The mother cat - I assume because of size and resemblance - comes to see what is going on and quickly leaves. She obviously does not think her offspring is in danger.

George Albert Smith was the director, the British counterpart to George Melies as far as experimenting with different techniques for special effects during the early days of cinema. He also patented Kinemacolor, which was the world's first commercial cinema color system, in 1906, which was extremely successful for a time, in spite of the extra equipment needed for projection.

Some might say this rather simple film was an experiment in magic, as you must be a magician to get a cat to eat something if it is not their idea. I say that as a lover and owner of cats for decades.

Known as "The Sick Kitten", the 55 seconds short film presents a boy and girl taking care of two kittens, one of them apparently sick is fed with a spoonful of milk. I use the word apparently because it's very easy to notice the kitten isn't sick, the way she/he drinks the milk with so much energy, almost attacking the spoon and by the way cats aren't so easy to deal with specially with a spoon.

George Albert Smith's "The Little Doctor and the Sick Kitten" works like a small magic trick. There's a problem to be solved (sick kitten), there's one solution (boy playing the doctor bringing the milk) and everyone gets happy and clapping at the ending. There isn't much to be said that this is one of cutest things ever filmed and more than 100 years later is still here for all of us to see it. Mention must be made about the quality of the film which is still impressive even for being from the early ages of film, the images are brilliantly presented, not grainy at all, you can see each scene with precision.

Well, I guess that's it. Now watch it. 10/10

Okay, in 1903 this must have been considered a pretty good film. Back then, many of the films lasted only a minute or two and consisted of very mundane everyday activities--hence this dull film about a little girl feeding her sick cat. However, unlike many of the other raters, I STILL cannot rate this movie any higher than a 4 because there actually were GOOD films with plot, sets, acting and imaginative camera-work that should be elevated far above the boring drivel that was flooding the nickelodeons. Georges Méliès' films (not just his very famous LE VOYAGE DANS LE LUNE) were head and shoulders above the dull fare of the day. And this cat film is certainly one of those dull (but rather sweet) films.