Explosion of a Motor Car
Encyclopedia
Explosion of a Motor Car (AKA: The Delights of Automobiling) is a 1900
British short
black-and-white silent
comedy film
, directed by Cecil M. Hepworth, featuring an exploding automobile scattering the body parts of its driver and passenger. "One of the most memorable of early British trick films" according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "was one of the first films to play with the laws of physics for comic effect." It features one of the earliest known uses in a British film of the stop trick
technique discovered by French filmmaker Georges Méliès
in 1896, and also includes one of the earliest film uses of comedy delay – later to be widely used as a convention in animated films – where objects take much longer to fall to the ground than they would do in reality. It is included in the BFI DVD Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers and a clip is featured in Paul Merton
's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.
1900 in film
The year 1900 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Reulos, Goudeau & Co. invent Mirographe, a 21 mm amateur format.* The Lumiere Brothers premiere their new Lumiere Wide format for the 1900 World Fair...
British short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
black-and-white silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
, directed by Cecil M. Hepworth, featuring an exploding automobile scattering the body parts of its driver and passenger. "One of the most memorable of early British trick films" according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "was one of the first films to play with the laws of physics for comic effect." It features one of the earliest known uses in a British film of the stop trick
Stop trick
A stop trick is a film special effect. It occurs when an object is filmed, then while the camera is off, the object is moved out of sight of the camera, then the camera is turned back on. When the film is watched it thus seems to the viewer that object disappears.Georges Méliès accidentally...
technique discovered by French filmmaker Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...
in 1896, and also includes one of the earliest film uses of comedy delay – later to be widely used as a convention in animated films – where objects take much longer to fall to the ground than they would do in reality. It is included in the BFI DVD Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers and a clip is featured in Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...
's interactive guide to early British silent comedy How They Laughed on the BFI website.
Synopsis
On a quiet suburban road a motor car appears from around a corner in the distance. Two male pedestrians cross the road in front of the vehicle. As the car approaches it is seen to contain a male driver and three high-spirited female passengers waving handkerchiefs towards the camera. The car reaches the foreground and explodes without warning, leaving a smouldering pile of twisted wreckage. A policeman (played by Hepworth himself) happens to be passing, takes out a telescope and looks up to the sky. After a lapse of several seconds he has to dodge out of the way as torsos and severed limbs (but no heads) start to rain down around him. Unperturbed, the helpful policeman takes out his notebook and begins the task of reassembling the assorted body parts, still neatly-clothed, into identifiable human beings, conscientiously making notes as he goes.External links
- Explosion of a Motor Car at CultureWars