O Beijo no Túnel

I'm going to be fair with both versions of this comedic subject: I liked the Phantom Ride in this film better, but the kiss in the Bamforth film (see my review for that film) is more romantic. However, BOTH are extremely important in the history of cinema because in 1899 most films were only one shot long--and this film has three: the train going in the tunnel, the kiss, and the train coming out. Yes, the plot is really weak, but it's actually well above average for 1899.

G. A. Smith would later become even more important for his uses of closeups and cutting, but even by 1899 he was already getting pretty innovative, as evidenced by this movie. Both versions of this 'comedy' are worth looking at simply for comparison, but for modern audiences today there's nothing especially great to see in either one.

This G.A. Smith film has a lively feel to it, and it also features some clever and imaginative technique. The subject is simple enough, but Smith demonstrates some creative ideas that would have been creditable even in a film-maker of a later generation.

The actual "Kiss in the Tunnel" is the middle part of the movie, and it is preceded by a creative shot from the front of a train as it enters a tunnel, making the audience feel as if they were the ones entering the tunnel. It works quite well, and because Bamforth and Company soon afterwards released a remake with a different opening, you can compare the two to see how well Smith's idea works. It often happens that the implied can be more effective than the overt, and this is one example.

The footage with Smith and his wife is quite lively, and Mrs. Smith seems to have taken particularly well to being on screen. This is not the only feature of Smith's that she added some energy to (another particularly good performance being in "Mary Jane's Mishap"). This one also has something of a gentle, impish suggestiveness that Alfred Hitchcock would have been happy with. All in all, this is a nicely made little feature.

I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place – but that's about it.

Not unlike my feeling when I saw Lumiere shoot form a leaving train, I was taken by the smooth movement into the tunnel that the film opens with and likewise the exit at the end. I liked it technically but also as a story telling device because it tells the viewer that the middle part of the story in the carriage is occurring in this tunnel. Essentially it has put the viewer on the train. It is an effective narrative tool but you need to remember that at this time there were no set narrative devices like we have now. The conventions of cinematic story telling are so set that we now only notice them when they are shunned. So here this is interesting to watch in regards seeing this early device used.

However the middle section is not as good. A simple static shot that has a man kiss a woman on the cheek with a lot of fuss leading up to it. It is not funny or interesting and seems out of place with the technical strength at the start. Worth a look to appreciate the narrative device but not much more than that.

A cheeky little short but also highlights film techniques that we now taken for granted.

The train enters the tunnel but we see this from our point of view shot and as we head down the tunnel we see the train going the other direction.

Once the train enters the tunnel we switch from the exterior location to the carriage scene that has been filmed in the studio.

Here we see a man and woman, presumably married. The man is smoking and as the train enters the tunnel he makes a daring move to kiss the woman.

A simplistic film and presumably seen as risqué at the time and no doubt based on a lantern slide show.

This is quite a sophisticated little feature for its time. Phantom rides, where a camera was fixed to the front of a train and then filmed the passing scenery as the track disappeared beneath it were extremely popular for a while in the late 19th century, and George Albert Smith, one of the Brighton School filmmakers, used this format to fashion a clever little film by inserting a shot between two phantom views of a train entering and leaving a tunnel of a couple (played by Smith and his wife) enjoying a couple of kisses. Metaphors - whether intended or otherwise - abound, and have done ever since, especially in the hands of Hitchcock. It no doubt proved quite saucy to a Victorian audience still conditioned to believe that displays of affection between husband and wife should be confined to the boudoir.