Papai Noel

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....

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.

You can't call this early Smith films' special effects outstanding for the time period, considering that exact same year Georges Melies made a film called "The Four Troublesome Heads" which has even more creative camera tricks. In terms of plot, however, this is pretty sophisticated considering most films at the time were plot-less and merely documented everyday life. In fact, considering its Christmas-y theme, you could call this the first holiday movie. I can imagine children being delighted back in 1898, and it's still a charming little gem even now.

Some children want to stay up on Christmas Eve but a maid tucks them into bed. By the clever use of a matte shot, we see Santa go down the chimney. He then enters the room and fills the children's stockings, disappears, and the children wake up. That's all there is in this movie but you have to admit for 1898 it's really quite good compared to other movies of the era.

A precise sketch about Christmas Eve. Innovative, giving the feeling to see a full - length film , proposing the fair story, in right manner. Short, good chance to discover the art of George Albert Smith . And great recreation of atmosphere in one minute film.

British short film made near the end of the 19th century. Which is very cool to me, by the way, watching something made before my great-grandparents were born. It's a little over a minute long and basically just shows Santa Claus visiting a house on Christmas Eve. Interesting for historical reasons, both for film history and Christmas/Santa history. It's hard to rate a thing like this. For the most part, when I rate a movie or short or TV show, I tend to rate it on a technical level compared to similar pieces of its time or before. I also consider historical importance but ultimately entertainment value trumps all for me. This entertained me as much as a minute and change short from 1898 possibly could, and it has some technical prowess for the time on display. So that's where I'm coming from rating this as high as I did. Others will rate it higher but I just couldn't and I felt like rating it lower would be unfair.