*The Human era calendar, first proposed by Cesare Emiliani in 1993 was an attempt to eliminate the confusing distinction of BC and BCE in the Common Era calendar. 11905 HE is the Common Era equivalent of 1905.
In 1905:
The Russo-Japanese War ended;
The Trans-Siberian Railway opened;
Las Vegas was founded;
Albert Einstein published his ideas regarding the special theory of relativity;
The Irish political party, Sinn Féin, was established;
The New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the second World Series;
Rodney Heath won the first Australian Open;
The Cullinan Diamond was discovered in South Africa;
Rotary International was founded;
The crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin mutinied;
Sterling Holloway, Tex Ritter, Kay Francis, Christian Dior, Maria von Trapp, Ayn Rand, Ulf von Euler, Chick Webb, Franchot Tone, Robert Donat, Albert Speer, Joseph Cotten, Henry Fonda, James J. Braddock, Jean-Paul Sarte, Clara Bow, Dag Hammarskjöld, Myrna Loy, Greta Garbo, Fred Trump, Tommy Dorsey, Otto Preminger, and Howard Hughes;
While Lew Wallace and Jules Verne died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite movies released in 1905:
Here, Méliès deemphasizes his usual camera tricks to give us an homage to the Moulin Rouge, laying the groundwork for later acts like The Rockettes and Busby Berkely.
Of course, ever the magician, he frames the dance number as the result of an elaborate magic trick.
While sleeping, a frustrated composer (Méliès) finds inspiration in a mysterious Muse-like character, but his dream devolves into a chaotic combination of hellish imagery and dancing, like an acid-infused version of the Folies Begère.
When the unnamed composer awakens, he dives headlong into the piano, which explodes, highlighting the dark side of creative inspiration and lamenting the plight of the artist.
A lifelong magician, Méliès clearly saw his film work as an extension of his stage persona and a number of his films feel like filmed versions of a stage show, complete with a curtain call.
While not always spectacular films, it’s charming to see the enthusiasm and energy Méliès puts into these performances.
A group of thieves build a coffin, lined with secret compartments to hide their stolen jewels. One of them hides in the coffin as it’s loaded onto a train, and, once safely on board, sneaks out, steals the targeted jewels, then hides in the coffin.
This fun, early heist film helped established many of the tropes of the genre.
6) The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog
Based on a pun often used by grade school children to show their burgeoning sophistication, this short is too long, but it’s funny to think people were laughing about the difference between dam and damn one hundred years ago.
5) I.B. Dam and the Whole Dam Family
This improves on the other film about the Dam family in one important way: it’s much shorter.
A demon (Méliès) finds a comfortable bed, and in order to force the tenant out of the room harasses him with multiple pranks, including making multiple chairs appear and disappear.
Many of his films are excuses to show off the various tricks and optical illusions he’s learned, but this is one of the rare times Méliès combines his arsenal of tricks, his fascination with the occult, and a straightforward narrative.
3) The Nihilist
When the Tsarists imprison a man they suspect of conspiring against them, his family seeks revenge and joins the anti-Tsarist nihilist movement.
While sympathetic to the plight of the bereaving family, this film emphatically condemns violence as a political tool. It’s fascinating to see an American film come down on the side of the Russian political class, and even more so to learn the Nihilist movement employed suicide bombing one hundred years before Islamic extremism adopted it as their modus operandi, implying a link between the modern evil of terrorism and the political ideologies of the eighteenth century.
After an unnamed family eats their Christmas dinner, the children are sent to bed, and, after several false starts, fall asleep.
Meanwhile, Santa loads his sleigh and leads his reindeer from the North Pole to deliver their wares in some pretty impressive miniature work.
The first film adaptation of Clement Moore’s famous poem demonstrates how pliable and universal the 150 year old work remains. The poem’s deep association with our own personal, romanticized Ghosts of Christmas past gives this film a resonance it would not have otherwise. We may stop believing in Santa Clause, but most of us never stop believing in the magic of Christmas.
Méliès is in his element: a magician performing card tricks. Here, he brings the cards to life, first the queen of hearts, then a king. The editing is sloppy; the seams are visible, but Méliès’s unfettered enthusiasm, like a kid screaming for his parents to watch him jump into the pool, is infectious.