The Barbershop
- 1894
- 1m
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
Customer gets a lightning-fast shave.Customer gets a lightning-fast shave.Customer gets a lightning-fast shave.
- Directors
Photos
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe barber on the film is an uknown Greek immigrant. That means that he is the first Greek "actor" in cinema history.
- ConnectionsEdited into Landmarks of Early Film (1997)
Featured review
Pleasant Footage of a Once-Familiar Scene
This simple footage of "The Barbershop" is pleasant to watch, and like many other features of its time, it preserves forever a view of a once-familiar scene. In itself, the action is nothing exciting, but the camera is positioned well, and for such a short running time it does capture many details. Like a carefully composed still picture, it presents every aspect of the scene, while in this case showing you the complete action of the doings that it depicts.
Originally, the film-makers set out to capture a scene that their audiences would have observed every day. But, like a number of movies of its era, it now allows us to get a more intimate view of ways of life that are no longer common to our experience in this case, to feel what it was like to visit an old-fashioned barber shop of the era. The footage does well in conveying this feel, capturing not only the man getting a shave, but also the leisurely interactions in the foreground an efficient and well-conceived piece of cinematography.
The double footage may seem like something of an odd idea, but it would be interesting to know how many of its original viewers noticed it. And, beyond that, we are quite fortunate that the earliest film-makers had such a spirit of experimentation, and that they were so willing to try even offbeat ideas. Early efforts such as this, as plain as it may now look to some viewers, did more than their part in getting cinema history moving.
Originally, the film-makers set out to capture a scene that their audiences would have observed every day. But, like a number of movies of its era, it now allows us to get a more intimate view of ways of life that are no longer common to our experience in this case, to feel what it was like to visit an old-fashioned barber shop of the era. The footage does well in conveying this feel, capturing not only the man getting a shave, but also the leisurely interactions in the foreground an efficient and well-conceived piece of cinematography.
The double footage may seem like something of an odd idea, but it would be interesting to know how many of its original viewers noticed it. And, beyond that, we are quite fortunate that the earliest film-makers had such a spirit of experimentation, and that they were so willing to try even offbeat ideas. Early efforts such as this, as plain as it may now look to some viewers, did more than their part in getting cinema history moving.
helpful•81
- Snow Leopard
- Mar 14, 2005
Details
- Runtime1 minute
- Color
- Sound mix
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