Rip Van Winkle play by Joseph Jefferson and Dion Boucicault
Starring:
Joseph Jefferson
Photography:
G.W. Bitzer
Release Date:
September 1896
Runtime:
4 minutes (in total)
Language:
Silent
Rip Van Winkle is a series of 1896 American short black-and-white films written and directed by William K.L. Dickson. They're adapted from the play by his friend and investor Joseph Jefferson with Dion Boucicault based on the 1819 story of the same name by Washington Irving.
During the mid 1860s, Jefferson and Boucicault created a new version of the iconic American short story "Rip Van Winkle" as a play. However, despite taking several liberties with Irving's original story, such as having a lot more rural comedy -- i.e.: Rip's heavy drinking, and harebrained plans to make money -- the play's impact was so strong the its plot basically overshadowed, and became more well-known than Irving's for American audiences. Then later after William K.L. Dickson co-founded the American Mutoscope Company, and helped design the mutoscope -- a stand-alone machine that displayed flip-cards through a peephole to individual viewers, and used 70mm film, compared to the 35mm used in Edison’s kinetograph -- Dickson and Bitzer using their new film projector, a Biograph, to film Jefferson performing eight scenes from Rip Van Winkle (the ones listed above). They were all photographed in what would today be considered a wide or long shot, in one of two camera setups on either side of a large rock on Jefferson’s estate.
Jefferson’s performance in particular was noteworthy and a sensation. (He went on to play the part for fourteen years straight, and was a very noted and respected actor)
The scenes that were filmed were notably incidents with overly dramatic body and facial movements, which reduced the need for explanatory titles.
These short films were extremely popular, to the point were Biograph edited them together in 1903. Plus, these films, alongside additional hit films, led to the Biograph being the most popular in the country at the time.
The Only Bad Quality
Modern day viewers looking into the films today, will likely not see the films as all that impressive or appealing, especially since for cinema has been raised very high since the short were first released.
*
