Film revival from a century past

For the first public event at its Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday will present “A Century Ago: The Films of 1903.”

The 90-minute program will feature Thomas A. Edison’s seminal narrative western, “The Great Train Robbery,” directed by Edwin S. Porter, as well as “Life of an American Fireman” and “Rube and Mandy at Coney Island.” Some of the films run just a couple of minutes. “It is the most primitive of primitive,” says program coordinator Randy Haberkamp. “A lot of them are set up like little gag movies -- a guy who is trying shoes on a woman and tries to peek up her skirt.”

Movie theaters didn’t exist as such in 1903. The term nickelodeon wasn’t even coined until 1905. A century ago, people saw movies in the penny and nickel machines at arcades or on the bottom of the bill in a vaudeville program. As peopled tired of trick films and actualities, which were a crude form of documentary, “They needed something new,” says Haberkamp.

The academy’s program illustrates the leaps and bounds that film expression experienced in 1903. The year began with a traditional actuality, “Life of an American Fireman,” and ended with the landmark one-reel (15-minute) thriller, “The Great Train Robbery.”

“It’s interesting to see all of these things in one night,” says Haberkamp. “You get a sense of the hodgepodge of things going on and how they were using the medium.”

Tickets for “A Century Ago,” which starts at 7:30 p.m., are $5 for the public and $3 for academy members and students. The theater is at 1313 N. Vine St., Hollywood. Information: (310) 247-3600.

-- Susan King