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Sheer Trickery (1924)
 

Courtesy of Moving Image Communications

Main image of Sheer Trickery (1924)
 
35mm, black and white, silent, 800 feet
 
DirectorAdrian Brunel
Production CompanyAtlas-Biocraft
PhotographyAdrian Brunel
 Crispin Hay

An introduction to the armoury of tricks and sleight of hand used by the contemporary filmmaker.

Show full synopsis

This 'picture of cinematographic devilry' celebrates the power of the movie camera to manipulate reality. It harks back to the early years of cinema and draws upon the technical tricks used by pioneers such as George Albert Smith, Cecil Hepworth and James Williamson.

The first section of Sheer Trickery develops gags around aspects of British life, such as traffic jams, organised religion and the efficiency of British workmen. Stop-camera effects, slow motion and acceleration are used in conjunction with conversational intertitles to create a type of deadpan humour that director Adrian Brunel had already explored in earlier films such as The Bump (1920) and would go on to develop in burlesques such as Crossing the Great Sagrada (1924).

The second half of the film consists of a loose narrative in which a man eats lunch backwards, recalling films such as Smith's The House That Jack Built (1900). The unfortunate epicure then undergoes a series of breakneck taxi and train rides that utilise the once-popular concept of the 'phantom ride' (in which a camera is fixed to the front of a moving vehicle). Cranked up to top speed, the journey and film swiftly descend into speed-induced anarchy, culminating in a final chaotic intertitle - "CRIKEY!"

Nathalie Morris

Click titles to see or read more

Video Clips
1. Backwards meal (2:34)
2. Alarming train ride (2:20)
GALLERY / SCRIPTS / AUDIO
SEE ALSO
Crossing the Great Sagrada (1924)
House That Jack Built, The (1900)
Brunel, Adrian (1892-1958)