Silent film historian Bruce Calvert has been collecting silent film memorabilia for 30 years, showcased on his site The Silent Film Still Archive. He shares his story of how he came to develop this interest and addresses how supporting materials can help us understand how incomplete, missing, and even fully surviving movies were made, seen, and received.

Bruce is also a moderator of the classic film discussion site NitrateVille.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1903!

Films and resources mentioned:

• The Melomaniac (1903) - Georges Méliès
• Eccentric Waltz (1903) - unknown
• A Search for Evidence (1903) - Billy Bitzer
• Mary Jane’s Mishap (1903) - George Albert Smith
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Ella Cinders (1926) - Alfred E. Green
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• The One-Man Band (1900) - Georges Méliès
• The Great Train Robbery (1904) - Siegmund Lubin
• Star Wars (1977) - George Lucas
• Napoléon (1927) - Abel Gance
• A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen - Daniel Blum
• The Film Preservation Society
• Cinema’s First Nasty Women

Neil Brand has been a silent film accompanist for nearly 40 years. He shares his musical expertise, which also includes composing new scores for silent film re-releases, while exploring exciting threads of fantasy, comedy, and violence in his five picks.

Neil regularly plays at the Barbican and BFI National Film Theatres in London and film festivals around the world. His scores include Blackmail (1929), Underground (1928), Easy Street (1917), Robin Hood (1922), and The Lodger (1927) and he is also a prolific writer, television presenter, and Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1903!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Alice in Wonderland (1903) - Cecil Hepworth
• A Desperate Poaching Affray (1903) - William Haggar
• A Chess Dispute (1903) - Robert W. Paul
• The Infernal Cake Walk (1903) - Georges Méliès
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) - Alfred Hitchcock
• Blackmail (1929) - Alfred Hitchcock
• The Third Man (1949) - Carol Reed
• The Exorcist (1973) - William Friedkin
• Rescued by Rover (1905) - Cecil Hepworth
• The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper (1908) - Lewin Fitzhamon
• First Prize in Cello (1907) - unknown
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• The Impossible Voyage (1904) - Georges Méliès
• Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema - Maggie Hennefeld

The law (at least in America) had a significant effect on the development of film genres, aesthetics, production, and viewing practices from 1903 on. The world over, tightly run studios were becoming more and more prevalent, shifting story films further and further into the spotlight, and dedicated filmviewing spaces were cropping up. It's difficult to define any one calendar year as fundamentally shifting the development of cinema, but as guests will demonstrate, new techniques, technologies, and industrialization make the case for an exciting year.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1903!

Films mentioned:

• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès

It's not like the established actuality suddenly evaporated in 1902, but as guests have pointed out throughout this season, a diversification of film topics, aesthetics, and technology fostered new genres and production styles. In this season finale, Tristan briefly summarizes the common threads of his conversations and puts together the most selected 1902 films.

Films mentioned:

• The Treasures of Satan (1902) - Georges Méliès
• The Spring Fairy (1902) - Ferdinand Zecca
• Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants (1902) - Georges Méliès
• Jack and the Beanstalk (1902) - Edwin S. Porter
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs (1902) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (1902) - Edwin S. Porter
• How to Stop a Motor Car (1902) - Cecil Hepworth
• The Eruption of Mount Pelee (1902) - Georges Méliès

Tristan welcomes two guests to one episode for the first time: the husband-and-wife film historian, archivist, and curator duo of Tamara Shvediuk and Federico Striuli. The pair showcase spectacle with their five picks, from the féerie to chronicles of a significant political change.

Tamara has curated film programs for several events, including the Moscow International Festival of Archival Films and the Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna. She also has collaborated with archives such as the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique, the Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and the Cineteca di Bologna.

Federico holds a Ph.D. in Art History with a focus on Film Studies from the University Cà Foscari, Venice. He has lectured in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Poland, and Russia, and has curated film programs for prestigious festivals, including the Pordenone Silent Film Festival.


Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1902!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902) - Ferdinand Zecca
• Jack and the Beanstalk (1902) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Coronation of Edward VII (1902) - Georges Méliès
• Bradford Coronation Procession (1902) - Mitchell & Kenyon
• The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ (1902) - Ferdinand Zecca and Lucien Nonguet
• The Ring (1927) - Alfred Hitchcock
• Serenade to the Moon (1902) - unknown
• The Fairy of the Stars (1902) - unknown
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• Mary Jane's Mishap (1903) - George Albert Smith
• Execution of Czolgosz with Panorama of Auburn Prison (1901) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Story of Victorian Film - Bryony Dixon

Vanessa Toulmin, Chair in Early Film and Popular Entertainment at the University of Sheffield, is an expert on variety theater, circus, travelling exhibitions, fairgrounds, and other aspects of the history of show business. She brings this expertise to her five picks from 1902, ranging from her vast experience with the Mitchell & Kenyon films to an intriguing connection between A Trip to the Moon and an early amusement park ride.

Vanessa has published 11 books including Electric Edwardians: The Films of Mitchell and Kenyon and four books on Blackpool's entertainment heritage and was the curator of the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection for the BFI and the Crazy Cinematograph project for the City of Luxembourg.  She is Chair of the Morecambe Winter Gardens Preservation Trust, an independent charity which is currently restoring that unique entertainment complex in northwest England.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1902!

Films and resources mentioned:

• Hull Fair (1902) - Mitchell & Kenyon
• Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs (1902) - Alice Guy-Blaché
• The Six Sisters Dainef (1902) - unknown
• How to Stop a Motor Car (1902) - Cecil Hepworth
• A Trip to the Moon (1902) - Georges Méliès
• Freaks (1932) - Tod Browning
• Sandow (1894) - William K.L. Dickson
• Carmencita (1894) - William K.L. Dickson
• The Dancing Pig (1907) - unknown
• The Countryman and the Cinematograph (1901) - Robert W. Paul
• Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (1902) - Edwin S. Porter
• Explosion of a Motor Car (1900) - Cecil Hepworth
• The Life of Charles Peace (1905) - William Haggar
• The '?' Motorist (1906) - Walter R. Booth
• The Automatic Motorist (1911) - Walter R. Booth
• Liverpool Street Scenes (1901) - Mitchell & Kenyon
• Kiri-Kis (1907) - Segundo de Chomón
• Show more...