Santa Claus

In 1898, the cinema is still a baby and it seems it's happy to play with its first gifts: the special effects! Back then, it was a true art that asked for inspiration, craft and intelligence! A bit like a Lynch's movie, here we got vision, mysterious drape and a fantasy character! But don't be afraid, as written in the title (again an innovation), it's only our dear good and friendly Santa!

Thus, this time, it's an English movie as it was then mostly AngloSaxon culture! It's great to see how the home were furnished: the chimney was used to heat but only in upper classes buildings!

Finally, the camera is still motionless and like the future security one, shots what happens in front of....

When you look at films from before the 20th century or so, you need to keep them in context to properly enjoy them. First, most all films of the time were less than two minutes long (like this one). Second, a traditional style narrative was unusual...often the films just shows snippets of everyday events. But in "Santa Claus", the filmmakers have done something different...they have a fictionalized story AND it's pretty charming...albeit short.

The story begins with a servant putting two kids to bed. Soon, Santa arrives and he's holding a small Christmas tree. He enters the kids' room, deposits small toys in their stockings and simply disappears.

In 1898, Santa was not the ever-present symbol he later became and Santa's look wasn't so codified. This one looks a bit more like Father Christmas but nevertheless, you will recognize him and what is happening. Rather sweet and charming despite its brevity.

Santa brings a pack of goodies to the little kiddos and all are delighted in the holiday of the year. Admirable special effects for the time and the sheer vintage quality of the film offer undeniable appeal in this minute-sized glimpse from the distant past.

Merry Christmas to all. :-)

Although D.W. Griffith is usually honored as the inventor of modern film grammar, most of the groundwork was laid down a decade earlier by George Smith of England. This is one of his early films.

But even this particular Athena did not spring fully born from the mind of Zeus, and we can see that Smith is using a lot of magic lantern grammar -- the children dream of Santa and he appears in a small circular image in the upper right corner, straight out of the preceding technology's grammar. This particular technique would not vanish for another decade and a half -- and arguably is still in occasional use in such peculiarities as SHERLOCK JUNIOR and its successor THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO as well as Jeunet's UN LONG DIMANCHE DE FIANCAILLES.

Another point of interest is the title of this movie. Although Clement Clarke Moore's poem, 'A Visit from Saint Nick' was well known and popular, it's a Dutch and New York and hence American phenomenon. What was an Englishman, with their Father Christmas, doing playing with the idea? It seems to me that Smith may have been a far more important figure in popular culture than even I thought.

This interesting look at a vision of Santa Claus from the late nineteenth century is notable for a number of reasons. First is obviously its age. I think it's the first piece of movie-making from the nineteenth century that I've ever seen, and the quality and clarity was quite surprising, given that age. There's some decent enough use of special effects (extremely primitive by today's standards, but surprisingly effective when placed in their historical context.) The image of Santa Claus gives us a bit of a picture of how the jolly old man has evolved over the years. In this vignette, he has the traditional white beard but his clothing appears to be more of a robe than a suit, and he's very thin compared to the image of Santa we have today. In a little over a minute, filmmaker G.A. Smith was able to tell us the story of a Christmas Eve when two young children are put to bed. It seems to me that the first appearance of Santa is meant to be a dream that the children are having, as Santa appears hovering over them in the corner of the screen. As the children dream of Santa, he then comes through the darkness and into their bedroom to leave them with candy. It's really a delightful little film, fascinating from a historical point of view. I find it difficult to rate, because I really have nothing to compare it to from that era, but I'd say somewhere around 8/10 seems right.