Underplayed Gems

Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs with Trotting Horses (1889)

Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs with Trotting Horses poster
Original title
Hyde Park Corner
Directed by
William Friese-Greene
Genre
documentary film, silent film
Country
United Kingdom
Runtime
1 min
Rating
4.4 of 10 from 26 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This is a very short silent documentary film from 1889. It shows a street scene at Hyde Park Corner in London with pedestrians, buses, and horse-drawn cabs. Only a few frames of the original film are known to survive.

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What happens

Leisurely Pedestrians, Open Topped Buses and Hansom Cabs with Trotting Horses (also known as Hyde Park Corner) is an 1889 British short silent actuality film, shot by inventor and film pioneer William Friese-Greene. The film depicts life at Hyde Park Corner in London. Hyde Park Corner is claimed to be the first film set in London, as well as the first to be filmed on celluloid, although Louis Le Prince successfully shot on glass plate before 18 August 1887, and on paper negative in October 1888. It may nonetheless be the first moving picture film on celluloid and the first shot in London. It was shown mainly to several photographic journalists who saw it during their lifetime—including Thomas Bedding, J. Hay Taylor and Theodore Brown. It is now considered a lost film with only 6 possible frames surviving today. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.