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Robert Paul: Giant of Early Film

The most prolific filmmaker of the pioneer period of British film

The multi-talented Robert Paul (1869-1943) was the first British filmmaker to project film for a paying audience, in 1896. A contemporary of the Lumiere brothers, Paul had been producing film, in partnership with Birt Acres, for his own brand of Kinetoscope viewer since April 1895. Shortly after, he began producing for his Theatrograph and Animatographe machines, enjoying a long run at the Alhambra in Leicester Square. As an engineer, Paul made a number of significant innovations - such as an intermittent mechanism for efficiently projecting film. But he also made key innovations in film language, such as the first two-shot fiction film, Come Along Do! (1898). To cap it all, he was a shrewd businessman, with an instinctive grasp of audience tastes.

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Fatal HandFatal Hand

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Edward VII and Queen Alexandra open new buildings at Marischal College, Aberdeen

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A boy being supervised by his grandmother sees a chance for mischief

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The lengths that some people will go to, just to avoid a speeding ticket… in this case to Saturn and back.

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Top-hatted pedestrians and horse-drawn traffic pass over Blackfriars Bridge in London

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A pioneering example of filmed news: from Epsom to the screen in record time

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Pomp and circumstance marking the coronation of King Edward VII as Emperor of India.

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Chaos reigns as the removal men do their worst…

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Non-Fiction18982 minsSilent Location: Blackwall

The launch of H.M.S Albion, which was marred by the collapse of a gangway which resulted in many spectators drowning.

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Non-Fiction18960 minsSilent

A handful of passers-by watch waves breaking gently onto a shore

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Fragment of an epic, starring the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment

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A river tragedy is narrowly averted in this early dramatic scene

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A particularly enigmatic fragment of Jubilee film.

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Four-year-old girl and boy dance a mean cakewalk

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Crime18971 minsSilent

A Victorian gentleman is robbed at gunpoint, not just for his wallet but for his hat and suit as well. Oh, the humiliation

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A drunken spouse gets his just desserts in a timeless scene

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Military hero Lord Kitchener is presented with the Freedom of the City of London.

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Non-Fiction18950 minsSilent

Waves crash onto a jetty on the Kentish shoreline in one of Britain's earliest surviving films

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Non-Fiction18960 minsSilent

The hypnotic spectacle of waves breaking over rocks

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A reconstruction of a Boer War atrocity made by one of early cinema's greats.

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Trick film18950 minsSilent

Quick on the draw: Victorian cartoonist Tom Merry does a rapid sketch of Kaiser Wilhelm II

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Non-Fiction18981 minsSilent

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Comedy19042 minsSilent

An Edwardian father-to-be is the star of this RW Paul caper.

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Non-Fiction18971 minsSilent

Queen Victoria can just be made out under her umbrella in this sequence filmed in St Paul’s Churchyard during her Diamond Jubilee.

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Tommy Atkins in the ParkTommy Atkins in the Park

Comedy18981 minsSilent

A soldier takes boisterous revenge when an unwelcome stranger interrupts his romantic moment

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Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee - Paul - York Road - Front of ProcessionQueen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee - Paul - York Road - Front of Procession

18971 minsSilent

Carriages full of well-heeled guests continue in Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee procession, filmed for RW Paul.

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18971 minsSilent

A clear view of the head of the procession at Westminster

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The Gordon Highlanders parade over Edinburgh's (brand) New North Bridge

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These two little lovelies were captured on screen by RW Paul and were the hit of his 1896 Alhambra show.

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Comedy19021 minsSilent

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Non-Fiction191110 minsSilent

A film produced to celebrate the coronation of George V as King-Emperor at the Imperial Durbar of 1911.

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The fabulous Deonzo Brothers in a spectacular barrel-jumping stage act

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Non-Fiction18960 minsSilent

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This burlesque film fantasy has striking sexual overtones - and a surprising feminist twist

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When a couple's home is burgled, the missus proves her mettle by confronting the culprit, come what may

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18971 minsSilent

Unusually detailed shots of the Jubilee procession

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