Telegraph on Oberammergau Play

I meant to blog about this year's Oberammergau Passion Play at some point before Easter, but as it runs until October then that's probably OK.

Meanwhile, Tim Auld of the Daily Telegraph has written quite a long piece on the once-a-decade play which also features a slideshow of images from this year and previous years. There's no mention of the 1898 film that was named after the play (but not filmed at it - instead it was famously shot on a New York roof top), but as this is the first performance since The Passion of the Christ it's not surprising that much of the article discusses the play's relationship with anti-Semitism (including a photo of Hitler approving of the 1934 production).

"Reel Religion" Exhibition at MoBiA

New York's Museum of Biblical Art has just opened an exhibition about Bible films. Reel Religion opened on the 6th February and runs through until May 17th.

The exhibition's centrepiece is a collection of 80 vintage film posters belonging to Father Michael Morris - Professor of Religion and the Arts at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in California. There are also a number of costumes from various films, and a Doré Bible.

There's a nice piece on the exhibition by Ben Walters of The Guardian who talks, in particular, about the ground breaking poster for 1898's Passion Play of Oberammergau the dimensions of which remain the standard today. There's also a light-hearted piece in Time Out New York

1898 The Passion Play of Oberammergau

I recently got hold of a copy of "The Guinness Book of Film Facts and Feats". Whilst it's only the 1979 edition, and as a result many of the records will now have been broken, many of the entries are "the first film to do X", and so, baring new evidence, they still hold.

A number of the entries I've come across already relate to bible films, and the following one grabbed my attention in particular. The 1898 Passion Play was apparently the first film to separate the functions of producer and director (p.133).

The entry goes on to note how said director, Rich G. Hollaman, had never actually seen a movie, and so tried to make a series of still shots instead, rushing onto the set to shout "Hold it" whenever the cameras were rolling. Eventually, the film was shot in his absence in the early evening thanks to the cameraman convincing him the light had gone to get rid of him. Eventually they made it to two reels in time for it's opening at Eden Musee in January 1898. It seems stange that the first film to have a director was also possibly the first to have no director at all.