• Bible Films Blog

    Looking at film interpretations of the stories in the Bible - past, present and future, as well as preparation for a future work on Straub/Huillet's Moses und Aron and a few bits and pieces on biblical studies.


    Name:
    Matt Page

    Location:
    U.K.












    Friday, August 11, 2006

    First Feature Length Film

    Another fact from "The Guinness Book of Film Facts and Feats". The 1912 film From the Manger to the Cross is often cited as (one of) the first feature film(s) ever made. Here (p.17) it lists the earliest feature films made in the US, and From the Manger ranks fourth, with Oliver Twist being released in 7 months earlier in June 1912.

    But it appears that both of those films were well beaten to the tile of first ever feature length film by a 1906 Australian Film about Ned Kelly, The Story of the Kelly Gang. Also ahead of the From the Manger is the 1909 French film L'Enfant Prodigue (which sounds like another bible based film and was the first European feature length film). Interestingly, there's no mention at all of The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ, which some have also claimed was the first feature length film.

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    2 Comments:

    • At 9:01 am, September 16, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said…

      This time I want to speak about
      the scene visualiations of this
      film with James Tissot's Bible
      ilustrations. As far as I know,
      the moment when John the Baptist
      says "Behold the lamb of God" is
      same made by Tissot and same made
      by Olcott, the director of the
      film.The same situation is with
      the nailing on the cross.In Tissot's bible Jesus in tied on
      his chest and nailed, and on the
      movie he's only tied on his hands.

       
    • At 8:54 am, November 09, 2007, Blogger Matt Page said…

      Thanks for those details,

      Matt

       

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