Detail
Title ID | 8400 | Collection ID | 1189 | ||||||||||||
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Title | Explosion of a Motor Car | ||||||||||||||
Date | 1900 | ||||||||||||||
Collection | Early Films | ||||||||||||||
Genre/Type | |||||||||||||||
Theme | Early film in the South East Transport | ||||||||||||||
Keywords | Accidents Cars Transport Motor Vehicles | ||||||||||||||
Location |
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Credits |
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Format | Black & White Silent | ||||||||||||||
Duration | 00:01:50:16 | ||||||||||||||
Copyright & Access | Copyright restrictions apply, contact Screen Archive South East for details |
Summary
A policeman assesses the scene of an exploded car in this comedy by Cecil Hepworth.
Description
Two men and two women wave from a moving motor car. They disappear in a ball of smoke, leaving a pile of wheels and detritus. A passing policeman inspects the scene, looking up into the sky with a handy telescope. Body parts start to rain down from the sky, the policeman neatly swerving to avoid them. He starts to pick the bodies up, piling them up and taking notes.
Contextual information
Hepworth and Co.'s Explosion of a Motor Car is one of the earliest British films to employ the jump cut, a camera trick pioneered by Georges Melies, as a means to alter reality for comic effect.