Underplayed Gems

Santa Claus (1898)

Santa Claus poster
Directed by
George Albert Smith
Genre
drama film, silent film, Christmas film
Country
United Kingdom
Runtime
1 min
Rating
6.2 of 10 from 62 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

Santa Claus visits a house on Christmas Eve in this short silent film from 1898. It uses early special effects like double exposure to show magical moments.

historicalshortsilentwhimsicalinventivenostalgicsimplecharming

What happens

Santa Claus is an 1898 British silent trick film directed by George Albert Smith, which features Santa Claus visiting a house on Christmas Eve. The film, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "is believed to be the cinema's earliest known example of parallel action and, when coupled with double-exposure techniques that Smith had already demonstrated in the same year's The Mesmerist (1898) and Photographing a Ghost (1898), the result is one of the most visually and conceptually sophisticated British films made up to then." It is sometimes described as the first Christmas film and a technical marvel of its time, although American Mutoscope released Santa Claus Filling Stockings and The Christmas Tree Party a year earlier, in 1897. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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