With 'The Impossible Convicts (1906),' director G.W. Bitzer has some fun with reversing footage, in a manner reminiscent of when I first discovered editing software back in 2002. A group of convicts in prison dress are marched backwards down into their cells and locked in. They stage a desperate prison escape, which morphs vaguely into a Marx Brothers-like farce, with the guards chasing the prisoners, and characters emerging from different cells to those they entered. Like an Escher etching, time and gravity don't obey the rules; sometimes they move forwards, and sometimes in reverse. This three-minute film ostensibly unfolds in one shot, and if you blink you'll miss the shot transitions, and for a dreamlike moment wonder why everybody has suddenly started moving backwards. For its eccentric and novel approach, and its stone staircase that moves when kicked, this early short film (available in the "Unseen Cinema" box-set) is worth your time.
Review of The Impossible Convicts
