The Barbershop

Blacksmith Scene (1893)

Barber Shop, The (1893)

These two Edison shorts are more "film like" than previous items from the studio, which were pretty much just camera tests. In the first film we see three men hammering some iron before taking a break and passing a beer around. The second short has three men sitting around a barber shop with one of them receiving a shave. Once again these two are basically going to be for those wanting to see early examples of history so coming to either one of these films for entertainment, as we use the word today, would be quite useless. I find watching these other films to be quite entertaining because of anything Edison could have filmed, they thought audiences would want to see this.

The Barbershop is another short that I saw on the Landmarks of Early Film DVD. A guy walks up to a barbershop, a man is getting shaved, and another man is there reading the newspaper. The newspaper reading man says something to the waiting man and they both start laughing. Then the shave is done. It lasts about 20 seconds. Then the whole scene is repeated again! The exact same scene. It took me a few seconds to realize that I was watching the same thing twice. Although this short doesn't have the amazing insight and stuff of the Lumiere shorts, and seems much more planned and acted, and the insight into the life in only the most narrow of forms, I thought it was a delightful little short, pointing out the hilarious repititions of every day life.

My grade: 7/10

Edison innovators W.K.L. Dickson and William Heise made this short showing a slice of life from end of the nineteenth century. A man is getting a shave at a barbershop, while two other men discuss something in the foreground.

This was the best Edison film up to that point, as it feels almost like a still-life coming alive. Viewers come that time must have felt like they were watching a scene familiar to them come alive. One thing I am curious about is whether the men acting out the short scene are just Edison men fooling around, or whether they are hired actors performing a scene laid out for them.

I give it a 2 out of 10.

This simple footage of "The Barbershop" is pleasant to watch, and like many other features of its time, it preserves forever a view of a once-familiar scene. In itself, the action is nothing exciting, but the camera is positioned well, and for such a short running time it does capture many details. Like a carefully composed still picture, it presents every aspect of the scene, while in this case showing you the complete action of the doings that it depicts.

Originally, the film-makers set out to capture a scene that their audiences would have observed every day. But, like a number of movies of its era, it now allows us to get a more intimate view of ways of life that are no longer common to our experience – in this case, to feel what it was like to visit an old-fashioned barber shop of the era. The footage does well in conveying this feel, capturing not only the man getting a shave, but also the leisurely interactions in the foreground – an efficient and well-conceived piece of cinematography.

The double footage may seem like something of an odd idea, but it would be interesting to know how many of its original viewers noticed it. And, beyond that, we are quite fortunate that the earliest film-makers had such a spirit of experimentation, and that they were so willing to try even offbeat ideas. Early efforts such as this, as plain as it may now look to some viewers, did more than their part in getting cinema history moving.

The history of anything involves trying to discover the accidents of convention that stuck. Movies could have taken off from any of a number of the already mature arts: especially painting. It turned out — much the worse I fear — to have adjusted to become a continuation of drama, probably starting in earnest with "Birth of a Nation."

But here we have a very early film, an experiment really, that shows one link that continues today, the link with dance.

I'm particularly fond of modern films that reconnect with the notions of dance — especially the dancing eye of the camera — whether they have explicit dancing in them.

This is framed as a contemporary photograph, which means it inherits the painterly conventions of composition of the time. But see how well the motion is planned in two layers: a foreground and background. This comes from the dance tradition, especially the choreography of the day.

And it has stuck with us all this time as a basic rule. Pretty interesting, that. And accidental too, I surmise.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.