The Life and Passion of Christ - silent movie; 1903

This is a film I discovered while watching a documentary this morning...

It is a silent film (but with lovely orchestral/choir music) - and it was originally in French (the title cards), but then released in the USA in 1904 with English title cards.

From a movie-making perspective, it's quite hilarious - but it's also quite innovative for its time. It is colorized using stencils and tints - the acting is really stilted, and the costumes and appearances/disappearances of angels, stars, etc. are really cheesy by our standards.

Still - in 1903?? Not bad.

Thought you all would enjoy having a peek at it.



I found it to be fun. Funny, even. (Not the story - we all know the story, and that's not the point of this thread). In the other video the filmmaker did a comparison of different Jesus movies...

Starting with this one, and going on through some other cheesy 'classics', and then to Gibson's very bloody version.

In case anyone is interested in the documentary (it was first posted here on ATS in 2009):



The very beginning he shows a fast-motion bunch of clips from the silent movie -
in a quick 6 minute rundown of the story ...

Anyway - some interesting viewing during a deadly heat wave here....

Enjoy!

Cool. I love old school cinema. It's amazing to me it ever got off the ground considering what they had to work with.

originally posted by: skunkape23
Cool. I love old school cinema. It's amazing to me it ever got off the ground considering what they had to work with.

same could be said of the first airplane.

ba dum tss.

originally posted by: TzarChasm

originally posted by: skunkape23
Cool. I love old school cinema. It's amazing to me it ever got off the ground considering what they had to work with.

same could be said of the first airplane.

ba dum tss.

Or the first lunar landing. Let's just assume they really did it. They were working with computers that make the Atari 2600 look like HAL from 2001.

Okay, I was just checking the thread - and pulled up the second video....

for me, it starts partway in????

ANyway, if you want to watch the entire thing (if it's happening to you that your view misses the first few minutes)....
go to youtube and reload it.


Also- THANKS to those who've responded....

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

it's pretty awesome that the babies did their own stunt work back then


did you see the way the bad guy dangled the real infant by his foot?

a reply to: Poppcocked

LOL!!!
I did! Yes!

It sure looked like a real baby to me - but, yeah - holding it up by the heels?
The rest of them looked like dolls, though....
the ones they were flinging.