The year 1904 in film feels light; like a little breathing space between the fierce energy of the pioneer days and the coming of the more competitive environment of the purpose-built cinema. The production of films rolled on in a comfortable way, with pleasant subjects of moderate interest to patrons of the music halls and fairgrounds. Films about outdoor pursuits continued to be produced in great numbers. As viewed through the films, British babies played in the water meadows on the banks of the Thames while the farmers brought in the hay as they always had, while the gentry hunted deer in Exmoor as they had since time immemorial.
Babies in Coney Island played in much the same way and further afield Gujerati schoolgirls perform a choreographed dance for visitors from the Salvation Army, an organisation progressive about gender equality. Travelogues continued but became longer, as filmmakers, happy with their genre, took their time. A surviving section of Charles Urban’s beautifully photographed series of London scenes shows the untroubled daily patterns of activity of the great city in a golden summer.

Bryony Dixon