5 January, Paris: Eclipse has released the film Dans la solitude, which was produced by Méliès' American Wild West Films. 16 January, Norway: H. Nobel Roede has released a documentary, All for Norway. Strangley enough, despite the rich theatrical tradition in this country, fiction films are non-existent. 19 January, Paris: Éclair has released Au pays des ténébres, made by Victorin Jasset and based on Zola's novel Germinal. 24 January, St. Petersburg: The producer Yakov Protazanov has filmed Anfissa, an adaptation of Leonid Andreyev's play. 27 January, Paris: Gaumont has released a Western, Cent dollars mort ou vif, filmed in the Camargue by Jean Durand. 1 February, Budapest: The Hunnia Co. has opened the first studio in Hungary. 8 March, Paris: After the failure of Tosca, Sarah Bernhardt, aged 60, is making a comeback with her La Dame aux camélias, filmed by Henri Pouctal and Paul Capellani. 9 March, Paris: From now on, Abel Gance is devoting himself to the cinema. He has published his first article in Ciné-Journal under the title "What is the cinema? A sixth art form!" 18 March, Paris: The Congress of the Federation of Businesses Against Pornography, presided over by Senator René Bérenger, opened its doors for two days. The cinema was one of the subjects discussed. Members of the church and the bourgeoisie complained about the popular pastime being "a stratagem used by the devil" that "competes with alcohol for the ruin of the public." Risqué films of "piquant interest" as well as comic scenes unleashed much anger. "Immodesty is spread shamelessly everywhere, religion is ridiculed in a manner that is most odious. It attacks the church's history, its sacraments and its ministers." The spicy films produced by Pathé or Mendel are nothing compared with the type of pornography that circulates undercover. On 7 March last, Valet, the head of the mobile brigade of Paris, accompanied by six inspectors, threw 25 kilometres of licentious films into the Seine. Unwarned, a policeman of the river brigade decided to bring court action against them for "the throwing of refuse" into the river. 1 April, Monaco: Maess and Richmann, cameramen from Pathé-Journal, have succeeded in filming a hydroplane race. They filmed aboard the flying machine of Eugene Renaux at an altitude of 50 metres. 13 April, Paris: Eclair has released a new series Les Bandits en automobile, inspired by the misdeeds of the "Bonnot band." 21 April, New York City: Director Enrico Guazzoni's version of Quo Vadis? opens here after premiering in Stockholm last week. Guazzoni's arena scenes introduce epic scale to the screen, especially in terms of the number of extras in the stands, the variety and action of the performers (including wild animals), and the depth of composition. Guazzoni keeps his camera static -- there's not so much as a single panoramic shot here -- so the epic mode is generally utilized by passing elements through the frame: marching soldiers, a massive boat floating by Nero's summer home, people fleeing the fires of burning Rome. In a couple of sequences, we see some experiments in cutting the action into smaller angles, including point of view shots, but these are the exception to the rule, which involves static medium-wide shots separated by title cards -- which are more often than not redundant in merely telling us what we're about to see. The original story is a bit more complicated and shaded than is able to be communicated in this film, despite the epic number of reels -- twelve, a new record for the cinema, making this film the very first "feature-length" movie. Thus while this film expands the possibilities of cinema, it also bumps up against the limitations of the era      It will take an American filmmaker named D. W. Griffith to expand the possibilities of cinema further. Inspired by the Italian epics, Griffith will combine the revolutionary techniques he's been experimenting with and the Italian sense of scale to make his own bit of epic history. 30 April, Denmark: Nordisk's director Urban Gad has married his favorite actress, Asta Nielsen, the woman he brought from stage to screen. They are leaving for Germany to make several films for producers there. 3 May, Paris: Bison Life is distributing a new Western from Thomas H. Ince, The Battle of the Redskins, a follow-up to Indian Mother. 4 May, Paris: Gaumont has released a newsreel that boasts that it tells The Whole Story of the Tragic Capture of the Bonnot and Dubois Bandits. 11 May, Paris: SCAGL-Pathé have released Tragique amour de Mona Lisa, written by Abel Gance. 15 May, Berlin: A municipal by-law has been passed forbidding smoking in movie theaters. It also forbids entry to children. 17 May, USA: It appears to be the case that a total reorganization of the American film industry has been taking place during the past few months. Most important of all, the leading independents have regrouped themselves into two powerful consortia. The rivalry between them seems likely to set the pace for future developments within the industry, with Edison's monolithic trust the Motion Picture Patents Co. left behind.      First of the key developments was the formation of the Mutual Film Corporation, headed by Harry Aitken and John R. Freuler and backed by a number of leading financiers. As an independent film exchange, it now handles pictures from a large number of companies that include Thanhouse, Reliance, American, Majestic, Great Northern, Eclair, Lux and Comet. But at this very moment, Carl Laemmle is putting the final touches to his own new and formidable company, set to rival Mutual in the indepedent sector. Known as the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, it will merge Laemmle's IMP with Pat Powers' Picture Plays, Bison Life and Rex, along with Nestor and Champion. The independents are obviously flourishing, and Edison's domination has been broken. 18 May, Bombay: The first Indian fiction film entitled Pundalik, by R. G. Torney and N. G. Chitre, is showing in the city. 24 May, Paris: The young actor and scenarist Abel Gance has signed a contract with the firm of Alter Ego for the shooting of four films. The latest, The Mask of Horror, will be screened tonight. It features the celebrated actor Edouard de Max, a friend of Gance's. Everything is strange and bold about this film. The scenario is unlike anything audiences have seen before. A mad sculptor, searching for the perfect realization of "the mask of horror," places himself in front of a mirror after smearing blood over himself with the glass of an oil lamp. He then swallows a virulent poison to observe the effects of pain. Gance, using multiple variations of color, changes the screen from blue to blood red as the stricken face of the actor moves menacingly toward the spectator. An avant-garde, intense, frightening and spectacular work. 14 June, Lyon: Criminatlity on the screen is causing anxiety. Mayor Edouard Herriot has forbidden the screening of films depicting criminal acts. 28 June, Paris: SCAGL-Pathé have released Les Mystères de Paris (The Mysteries of Paris), by Albert Capellani, adapted from Eugène Sue. 12 July, Paris: In competition with Pathé-Journal, Eclair has brought out the very first issue of its own weely newspaper, Eclair-Journal. 12 July, New York: There was a gala evening last night at the Lyceum Theater here in New York. The new organization called the Famous Players Film Co. and founded last April by Daniel Frohman, Adolph Zukor and Edwin Porter, presented to a select public Queen Elizabeth, Sarah Bernhardt's latest film. The four-reel spectacle, produced by the Franco-German firm Eclipse and directed by Louis Mercanton in London, is the longest cinematographic work presented in the US to date. The scenario, based on a play by Emile Moreau, retraces the last moments in the life of Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603. The re-creation is brilliantly done, with the tints and color evoking the tonalities of certain paintings by Rembrandt. The film has helped give artistic dignity to the cinema. An appropriate musical accompaniment, composed by Joseph Carl Breil and interpreted by the Lyceum Theater Orchestra, added solemnity to the proceedings. One can judge the French tragedienne's enormous popularity in this country from the public's reactions. The spectators only have eyes for Bernhardt, although her partners Lou Tellegen, Max H. Maxoudian and Marie-Louise Dorval, among others, reveal their worth.      The new administrator of the Famous Players Film Company, Adolph Zukor, fought tooth and nail for the acquisition of this sensational film. He obtained, for a certain fee, the exclusive film rights for the world premiere. The work was therefore presented here for the first time before both London and Paris, where the film will not be seen until August. After lengthy negotiations, Queen Elizabeth received the visa of the Motion Pictures Patent Co. with a license to operate. Zukor, who had wanted to do something sensational, has proven the interest of the American public in long films, provided that they are as attractive as this one. The showman has also given proof that the cinema can leave the nickelodeons behind and survive in large theaters before discerning audiences. The latter are ready to hand over more than the habitual 25 cents to see a film -- something that evidently doesn't seem to spoil their pleasure. 24 July, San Francisco: Gaston Méliès, with his wife and the team from the Gaston Méliès Manufacturing Co., are aboard the Manuka en route for Tahiti -- part of a world film tour. 5 August, Turin: Giovanni Pastrone is not only the enlightened administrator of Itala Film as well as a talented director who has already offered us the spectacular The Fall of Troy -- notable for its skilled handling of crowds -- but he is also an unrivaled engineer. The proof is his latest invention, the Carello, whiich he recently patented. The Carello is a platform mounted on wheels constructed to hold the camera, permitting it to be moved around the film set without jolting it. Therefore, the movement of the apparatus, if manipulated by a vigilant cameraman, can give rise to stereoscopic effects of extraordinary originality. The image obtained, when projected on a screen, gains in depth and scope. Giovanne Pastrone, who has a practical mind, is to put his invention to work in his next film, provisionally entitled The Flaming Roman. 28 August, Los Angeles: Mack Sennett and his troupe have started filming the first Keystone comedies. Some of the team, Fred Mace, Ford Sterling and Mabel Normand, left Biograph to work with Sennett. 1 September, New York: Adolph Zukor, who presented the French film Queen Elizabeth with Sarah Bernhardt, has founded a new company called Famous Players. 6 September, Paris: The music-hall stars Mistinguett and Maurice Chevalier are sharing the top billing in Pathé's film, La Valse renversante (The Amazing Waltz). 9 September, New York: Biograph has released An Unseen Enemy. Directed by D. W. Griffith, it stars 16-year-old Lillian Gish and her 14-year-old sister Dorothy. 14 September, Budapest: Release of Odon Uher's The Sisters (Noverek). It is the first full-length fiction film to be made in Hungary. 23 September, Hollywood: The newly-formed Keystone Pictures Corp. has released its first two films, Cohen Collects a Debt and The Water Nymph. The driving force behind this newcomer, that will specialize in comedies, is a refugee from Biograph, Mack Sennett, born Michael Sinnott in Canada in 1880. As a youth Sennett had ambitions to be an opera singer, but his search for fame and fortune in New York brought him only modest work as a chorus boy in Broadway musicals and a performer in burlesque. But his luck changed when he began working at the Biograph Studios in Manhattan. He was soon taking lead roles in one-reelers directed by D. W. Griffith, contributing scripts and eagerly absorbing all the technical aspects of the new medium of cinema from men like cameraman Billy Bitzer. By the winter of 1910 Sennett was directing as well as acting in Biograph films.      When Sennett decided to strike out on his own this year, he had gained the experience to gather around him a stable of remarkable performers who had cut their comic teeth at Biograph: Ford Sterling, Fred Mace and, above all, the enchanting Mabel Normand, whom Sennett had directed in many films at Biograph and whose vibrant personality has already turned her into a big favorite with movie audiences. Sennett has a particularly soft spot for Normand, whom he has described as being "as beautiful as a spring morning." On 4 July the die was cast for the troupe of comedians to gain their own independence. It was on that day that Sennett finalized his business agreement with two former bookmakers, Charles Baumann and Adam Kessell, to form the Keystone production company with a working capital of $2,500, and the Keystone cameras are set to roll in California, in the old Bison Life studio in the Edendale district of Hollywood. In the meantime, profiting from sunny weather, Sennett's team have been filming a project at Coney Island. Cohen Collects a Debt is set in the make-believe world of Luna Park and much use is made of its scenic railway. In a side-splitting comic chase, an unfaithful man is relentlessly pursued by a jealous woman. The Water Nymph has a similar premise, with Mabel Normand cast as a bathing beauty harassed by a group of old satyrs. Max Linder's influence can be detected in these early Sennett offerings, but they also have a frenzied energy that owes much to the vaudeville experience of the director and his talented troupe. 1 October, Hungary: Sandor Korda, a young journalist, has founded a magazine here called Le Cinéma de Pest. 1 October, Los Angeles: Thomas H. Ince has created Kay Bee Motion Pictures with Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann. 14 October, Budapest: The young actor Mihaly Kertesz has directed his first film, Today and Tomorrow (Ma es Holnap). 17 October, New York City: Release of From the Manger to the Cross, Or Jesus of Nazareth, directed by Sidney Olcott, with Robert Henderson-Bland as Jesus and Gene Gauntier as The Virgin Mary. Filmed in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other locations in the Holy Land and Egypt, this American version of the life of Christ seems very naturalistic and human when compared to earlier European versions, although almost every scene is a single wide shot, intercut with Scripture verses on title cards. Olcott does not attempt to illustrate miracles and visions. Instead, they are portrayed through the use of lighting and close-ups of the principals' faces. There is a documentary-like realism in the power of just one or two cuts that must be astonishing to the viewer. Then again, one wonders what this motion picture Gospel must mean to people who have never seen any depictions before this of Jesus with the wind blowing his hair, or his very human collapse of face into hands to weep over Lazarus. 1 November, New York: D. W. Griffith has used a panning technique to produce a panoramic effect in The Massacre. The film is showing here today. 15 November, Spain: Pathé's stars Max Linder, André Deed and Stacia Napierkowska are touring the country. Max, dressed as a matador, drove the public wild at the arena in Barcelona by fighting a calf with fake horns. The memorable scene was filmed. 5 December, New York: The New York Hat is now showing. It was made by D. W. Griffith with Mary Pickford and a relative newcomer to films, Lionel Barrymore. 12 December, Paris: A big internal stuggle has blown up at Gaumont. Louis Feuillade has terminated the contract of little Anatole Clément Mary, the pint-sized star of the Bébé series. Feuillade loves children but his patience has reached breaking point. Anatole Clément Mary has played Bébé in 77 films, appearing in turn as an apache, a Negro, a morialist, a millionaire, an insurance agent, a socialist and a sleepwalker. But in spite of Bébé's vast popularity, he remains a mere employee of the studio. His parents have decided to take matters into their own hands, presenting Gaumont with their own assessment of Bébé's commercial value and pestering Feuillade with repeated demands for a salary increase for their son. However, Gaumont's artistic director is cunning: To speed the painless removal of Bébé's name from the Gaumont catalogue, he has acquired the services of yet another child, the four-year-old René Poyen. As Bout-de-Zan (Licorice Stick) Poyen made his debut alongside Bébé in Bébé Adopts a Little Brother and Bébé, Bout-de-Zan and the Thief. The undermining of Bébé went ahead smoothly because his parents were unaware of Feuillade's scheming. Once Bout-de-Zan had proved his worth, Feuillade was free to kiss Bébé goodbye. His departure has caused Feuillade some regret as Anatole Mary possesses genuine talent. He can continue his career, nonetheless, but only under another name, as that of Bébé has been copyrighted by Gaumont. Mary now has to cede supremacy at the Gaumont studio to his four-year-old rival, for whom stardom is now beckoning. 24 December, London: Despite a downturn in British production, quality films are being made. The latest of these is Oliver Twist, a film version of Dickens' novel released by Cecil Hepworth. 27 December, Paris: The Swedish firm Svenska has released Mauritz Stiller's The Black Masks, starring Victor Sjöström. 31 December, New York: Charles Chaplin has been offered a contract by Keystone but has had to refuse owing to his stage commitments with the Fred Karno troupe. 31 December, Peking: Benjamin Polaski has set up here a branch of the Asia Film Company. 31 December, Prague: The architect Max Urban and his wife, the actress Anna Sedlackova, have founded the Asum company. 31 December, Warsaw: Several actors, including Apolonia Chalupiec, have gotten together under the direction of the filmmaker Alexander Hertz to form their own production company, Sfinks. 31 December, Berlin: Paul Davidson's production company, Projection-AG Union (Pagu), has transferred its offices to Berlin. Work has started on the Tempelhof studios.