"The immaculate camera work, incisive editing and attractive titling of Frank E. Gunnell have flowered into a new and superior beauty in Down Mexico Way. Here, in two full reels which seem like less, are all the standard Mexican Meccas — the capital city, the pyramids of Teotihuacan, Cuernavaca and the rest — each suavely sequenced and beautifully filmed. Added to these is a wealth of human interest, in smoothly planned records of such odd Mexican folklore as the self threaded needle cut from a maguey cactus, or the red dye concealed in the silvery cochineal wood louse. Mr. Gunnell's most superb triumphs, however, are in his moody and magnificent studies of Xochimilco and Taxco, Mexican communities which have beckoned to countless movie makers, but which only a few have answered with genuine eloquence and distinction." Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 563-564.
"Film record of a journey to Egypt and a four day holiday in Cairo. The film begins at Croydon Airport, recording the activities of the ground crew and the arrival and departure of two Imperial Airways planes, the Heracles and the Hengist. The film records a stopover in Crete on the journey to Cairo where the plane is moored close to a yacht. The final section of the film records street scenes in Cairo and an excursion to the Great Pyramid and Sphinx, returning to the city by Marg and Old Heliopolis." East Anglian Film Archive.
"Ruth Stuart's Travel picture 'Egypt and Back With Imperial Airways,' was not only a fine example of consistent photography, but also showed a keen knowledge of editing and cutting that let the pictue breeze along in an entertaining fashion." American Cinematographer, Dec. 1933, 321.
"W. R. C. Corson, close friend of the late Hiram Percy Maxim, FACL, Founder of the Amateur Cinema League, and for several years an invalid, demonstrates his loyalty to the cause of personal filming and his determination to achieve in that field by a revision of travel footage made in a more active period. As its name might indicate. Elysium is a remembrance of happier days, containing sequences chosen for their beauty or evocation of delightful times, and haphazardly geographical. Scenes filmed from the air are interspersed with records of faraway places as Mr. and Mrs. Corson are seen wandering here and there. Here is the gallant and intrepid accomplishment of a pioneer movie maker who is still "in the game."" Movie Makers, Dec. 1944. 496.
"a soggetto breve"/ short fiction
"EVA E LA MACCHINA
Eva e la Macchina soggetto e regla di Leone Viola, fotografia e montaggio di Fernando De Marzi, interpreti Parisina Poggi, Carlomaria Dermal, Guido Cerato, svolge come tema il contrasto e nello stesso tempo il rapporto tra il maschio in possesso della femmina e il motociclista nel possesso della sua macchina. L'ambiente e per una parte primitivo e naturale, per l'altra invece si svolge presso un ponte di ferro e un passaggio a livello. I due motivi corrono parallelamente sino alla fine, allorché il Viola persegue il motivo della macchina sola, sino al finale gocciolare dell'olio, il cui parallelo rimane soltanto presunto. Eva e la Macchina si avvale di un ottimo ritmo di montaggio, dove al crescendo assai bene ottenuto della parte centrale succede il finale altrettanto realizzato nella sua calma compostezza."
"EVA AND THE CAR
Eva e la macchina (Eva and the Machine), screenplay and direction by Leone Viola, photography and editing by Fernando De Marzi, starring Parisina Poggi, Carlomaria Dermal, Guido Cerato, develops as its theme the contrast and simultaneous relationship between the male in possession of the female and the motorcyclist in possession of his machine. The environment is on the one hand primitive and natural, and on the other, the film takes place near an iron bridge and a level crossing. The two motifs run parallel until the end, when Viola pursues the motif of the machine alone, until the final drip of oil, whose parallel remains only presumed. Eva and the Machine avails itself of an excellent rhythm of montage, where the very successful crescendo of the central part is followed by the finale equally successful in its calm composure."
— Il ventuno 24 (Review of the G.U.F. of Venice) January 1935, p. 15
"Amateur silent film of a boy scout troop making a fiberglass canoe step by step from a mold, from start to finish. Boy scouts all help in each part of the process. They then take their finished canoes on a trip where they learn how to row their new canoes and camp out on the river." Chicago Film Archives
"Romantic narrative by Rochester homemaker Marion Gleason that was used by Kodak to introduce home-moviemaking to the public." filmpreservation.org
‘A frantic, speeded-up journey in a red Vauxhall Victor F-type, registration B90 F. The unidentified gentleman driver, presumably the filmmaker, hurries from the main Post Office in the High Street at Clacton-on-Sea, jumps in the car and heads north into Holland Road, through Holland-on-Sea to the Frinton Road, onwards to Kirby Cross and eventually to Glebe Way in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. On reaching his destination, he parks in the drive and hurries indoors.
Vauxhall produced over 390,000 Victor cars between 1957 and 1976. It was a popular family-sized four-door saloon which became a huge success for the company with exports to all corners of the globe. The first version, branded the F series, offered an American-style curved windscreen and rear window, with additional ‘imported’ features, including the chromed front bumper design and sloping windscreen pillars. The exhaust pipe was concealed in the rear bumper detailing, visible below the offside lamp cluster towards the end of the film. The driving sequence of the film is shot at a slow frame rate, perhaps 6 or 8 frames-per-second, so that when projected at 24 frames-per-second the action is speeded up’ (BFI Player).
"dis. an. didattici"/animated educational doc
"doc. turistico"/tourism documentary
Total Pages: 9
Amateur Cinema