Carmencita

"Carmencita Dancing," one of a series of Edison short films featuring circus and vaudeville acts, displayed the... um... "talents" of a zaftig belly-dancer who agreed to undulate before the camera of the famous "Black Maria" studio. The dance was originally intended to be played in a Kinetoscope, a single -person arcade viewer connected to Edison's more famous invention, the phonograph. Through a pair of crude headphones, the latter device supplied an asynchronous soundtrack of "hootchie-cootchie" music. The Kinetograph camera here employed is so new -- even to its inventors -- that director Dickson has drastically "overcranked" the film, unintentionally producing one of the first examples of slow-motion. Carmencita's titillating movements were considered by many to be scandalous. Thus, the film prompted some of the earliest discussions of film censorship.

Objectively, there's nothing really WRONG with this film. It sets out to do something extremely simple, and it achieves that goal flawlessly, but that goal isn't really compelling unless one accounts for the film's age. It is said that this isn't only one of the first films ever made, but also one of the earliest films to feature a female "star" I suppose. I'm not sure how true this claim is, but it's not very hard for me to believe. The actress featured in this film is rather charming and dances in a vivid and exuberant manner, making this film be one of slight excitement thanks to the wild, cheerful movements made. It'definitely be really boring if it were an hour, but films of such a length were unheard of back in this day, so dwelling on such hypothetical situations is quite pointless. All in all, this is a pretty enjoyable way to spend less than a minute of your time and is recommended for fans of film in general as it is short and enjoyable enough to intrigue almost anyone.

In Carmencita, we get the story of a dance, and that's all. It's a great thing that the first woman who was ever photographed on celluloid was seen doing what she loves, doing it relatively well (I can't judge how the dancing was by 1894 standards, but she never appears to slip up), and is not being exploited for the sake of it. Here is a MOTION PICTURE, so here's motion and here's a picture of it. Simple. Awesome. I hope women seeing it today are empowered by it. Or if they want to scream "Patriarchy" and be mad that it's not showing a woman doing something that isn't meant to only appeal to men I understand. But it is splendid and exciting to see, especially in the not-quite 24 frame per second film speed it has been preserved at, and I think it's amazing to watch past the film history of it.

PS: on IMDb this is title url 0000001

This film is part of the series of short Edison films featuring circus and vaudeville acts. Subject in this movie is the American dancer Carmencita. She was quite popular as a dancer at the time and a much asked painting subject for painters. She was also the first every woman to appear in front of the camera in an Edison film, which also makes her the first every woman to appear in an American shot movie. But that's about as historically interesting as this movie gets.

The image quality isn't the greatest but the movements look at all times smooth and that's of course what was most important for Edison and Co. at the time. Camencita shows some twirling, with kicks and high arm movements. Her arms got out of the frame at times and the camera also didn't seemed to be steady. Perphaps it was standing on the same stage as Carmencita was dancing on, which caused the light camera shaking?

Interesting for those wanting to check out the early Edison Manufacturing Company films, but it's nothing too great or significant.

6/10

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"Carmencita" was not only one of the first vaudeville acts Edison filmed for his Kinetoscope ("Sandow No. 1" was the very first), it also appears to contain the earliest appearance of a woman in an American film. Of course, this did not make her the first known woman to appear in motion pictures period; don't forget, Louis le Prince had shot the first celluloid film as early as 1888, and that short contained two women. (Although if Edison had completely succeeded in proving his company to have invented the first motion pictures, he no doubt would have attempted to erase that landmark from history altogether and given himself the credit). Not only that, it also began a new genre in the Edison studios: the famous 'dance' genre, one of the biggest things the company is remembered for today.

Like the various boxing movies created from 1891-1895, the different dancers Edison hired to perform in his studio also became quite popular and frequently filmed. There was Annabelle Moore, the well-known serpentine dancer (who deserves a genre of films herself considering she did at least three different acts for the studio). Fatima the muscle dancer (don't be fooled, she was actually a belly-dancer) also falls in this genre. And don't forget Amy Muller, who specialized in dancing on her toes, and the Sarache Sisters with their imperial Japanese Dance. Even the Indian dances recorded by Edison in 1894 could count as being part of the 'dance' genre. (I could go on). In this case, the dancer of the title who started it all (real name Carmen Dauset Moreno) is shown to be performing a routine she had been practicing since February 1890 (funnily enough the year Edison began experimenting with motion pictures) at Koster and Bial's Music Hall, New York City. Involved in the choreography are twirls, kicks, spins, and at the end, a bow. Lasting at only 21 or so seconds, the film here presumably documents an excerpt instead of the entire thing, which would have run on much longer.

Finally, there's one more thing that this film is important for: it was one of the earliest films that began discussions of film censorship. With a dancer who constantly shows her ankles and legs, how could anyone not object? And that's not to say it was a shocker the Edison Co. produced such naughty material for the first time; violence and sex would sadly enough become a common trend among the company. The first such film to cause people to raise their eyebrows was probably the aforementioned "Sandow No. 1", which featured plenty of skin and was no doubt a temptation to women. Continuations of these naughty film elements include the "Cockfight" films, the said boxing films, further entries to the dance genre, and the notorious "The May-Irwin Kiss" of 1896.