San Francisco, A Trip Down Market Street is one of the most magical films you'll ever see.
I'd argue, even more magical than the magnificent Melies.
The whole thing is quite simple really.
It's just a camera, located at the front of a cable car, as it travels down Market Street to the clocktower on the Harbour Building of the Embarcadero.
What makes it such a magical experience, is that it shows us how film can act as a time capsule.
Offering us a glimpse into the past of San Francisco in 1907...4 days before the city would be decimated by, what is arguably, the most infamous earthquake in American history.
The San Francisco of Mark Twain...Adolph Sutro...and Lily Hitchcock Coit.
Not to mention countless hundreds of other not so famous city dwellers of the time.
Before Benny Bufano, Diego Rivera and Herb Cain.
I watched the "upscaled" version re-mastered by Dennis Shiryaev.
He utilized a number of neural network algorithms to sharpen up the image, add a slight bit of colour, and even some sound effects...which really help to bring this bygone era spring to life, as it were only yesterday.
The cobblestone streets, shared by pedestrians, cyclists, horse drawn buggies, early motor cars, and cable cars alike.
Lined with long lost buildings, bustling shops, a legion of newsboys, and people going from here to there.
Men sporting their suits and ties, with grand mustaches and bowler hats; and women in their majestic dresses.
As they wander amongst carriages and buildings adorned with mural sized advertisements for beer, shops, hotels and cigars.
The filmmaker would, again, film this same journey...only 4 days later...to show a rather different scene.
Gone were the buldings, bustling shops, and large scale advertisements.
The people were still there.
But now they were wandering amidst rubble, and half standing structures...as if an atomic bomb had hit and left them in a post apocalyptic wasteland.
Leaving you to wonder, what became all those folks who stopped to stare at the spectacle of this wondrous new mechanism- the film camera- in action?
Did that boy, who spent the entire second half of the film running in front of the camera, up until the car stopped upon the turntable where Market Street meets the Embarcadero, survive to wander these same streets, in their decimated form?
Or grow up to become an actor, or filmmaker himself?
Perhaps the film can't answer all these questions.
But what a privilege it is, for us, to experience this world over 115 years later.
Mindlowing, even.
Props to Shiryaev for his masterful restoration of the film.
As it really helps to bring the film to life, and immerse you in that world.
Would make for an excellent VR experience, I'd think, too...in this newfound form.
Because it already seems to have that effect when I sit and watch it upon my TV in my room.
Lest we forget, that with the magic of cinema...time travel really is possible!
And that, this is, without question, the most important film ever shot on the streets of San Francisco, that we still have today.
10 out of 10.
I'd argue, even more magical than the magnificent Melies.
The whole thing is quite simple really.
It's just a camera, located at the front of a cable car, as it travels down Market Street to the clocktower on the Harbour Building of the Embarcadero.
What makes it such a magical experience, is that it shows us how film can act as a time capsule.
Offering us a glimpse into the past of San Francisco in 1907...4 days before the city would be decimated by, what is arguably, the most infamous earthquake in American history.
The San Francisco of Mark Twain...Adolph Sutro...and Lily Hitchcock Coit.
Not to mention countless hundreds of other not so famous city dwellers of the time.
Before Benny Bufano, Diego Rivera and Herb Cain.
I watched the "upscaled" version re-mastered by Dennis Shiryaev.
He utilized a number of neural network algorithms to sharpen up the image, add a slight bit of colour, and even some sound effects...which really help to bring this bygone era spring to life, as it were only yesterday.
The cobblestone streets, shared by pedestrians, cyclists, horse drawn buggies, early motor cars, and cable cars alike.
Lined with long lost buildings, bustling shops, a legion of newsboys, and people going from here to there.
Men sporting their suits and ties, with grand mustaches and bowler hats; and women in their majestic dresses.
As they wander amongst carriages and buildings adorned with mural sized advertisements for beer, shops, hotels and cigars.
The filmmaker would, again, film this same journey...only 4 days later...to show a rather different scene.
Gone were the buldings, bustling shops, and large scale advertisements.
The people were still there.
But now they were wandering amidst rubble, and half standing structures...as if an atomic bomb had hit and left them in a post apocalyptic wasteland.
Leaving you to wonder, what became all those folks who stopped to stare at the spectacle of this wondrous new mechanism- the film camera- in action?
Did that boy, who spent the entire second half of the film running in front of the camera, up until the car stopped upon the turntable where Market Street meets the Embarcadero, survive to wander these same streets, in their decimated form?
Or grow up to become an actor, or filmmaker himself?
Perhaps the film can't answer all these questions.
But what a privilege it is, for us, to experience this world over 115 years later.
Mindlowing, even.
Props to Shiryaev for his masterful restoration of the film.
As it really helps to bring the film to life, and immerse you in that world.
Would make for an excellent VR experience, I'd think, too...in this newfound form.
Because it already seems to have that effect when I sit and watch it upon my TV in my room.
Lest we forget, that with the magic of cinema...time travel really is possible!
And that, this is, without question, the most important film ever shot on the streets of San Francisco, that we still have today.
10 out of 10.