2 January, Paris: Éclair has released the first film directed by former actor Maurice Tourneur, Le Système du Dr. Goudron et du Professeur Plume. 10 January, California: Filming has commenced at Venice Beach of Kid Auto Races. Directed by Henry Lehrman, the film is a vehicle for the British comedian Charlie Chaplin, who completed his first film Making a Living last week. 17 January, Paris: Charles Pathé, who has just received the Legion of Honor, has released Napoléon: du sacre à Sainte-Héléne. The film, directed by the Belgian Alfred Machin, was made with the participation of the Russian and Belgian armies. 24 January, Paris: The Italian firm Celio Films is distributing a film with music, Histoire d'un Pierrot, starring Francesca Bertini and from the producer Count Baldassare Negroni, who is better known for his high society films. 31 January, Berlin: The Little Angel, produced in Germany by Urban Gad and starring his wife, Asta Nielsen, is now on view to the public. 2 February, London: Opening of The World, the Flesh and the Devil, a film in Kinemacolor with Frank Esmond and Rupert Harvey. 10 February, New York: The Famous Players Film Co. has released the first of its films to be made in California, Hearts Adrift, directed by Edwin S. Porter and starring Mary Pickford. 27 February, Paris: The first issue of Le Film, by André Herzé and Georges Quellien, is now on sale. 5 March, St. Petersburg: Screening of The Child from the Big City by Evgeni Bauer, with Ivan Mosjoukine. 8 March, New York: D. W. Griffith's most ambitious film yet, Judith of Bethulia, has opened today at the Fifth Avenue Theater. Based on Thomas Bailey Aldrich's play, in turn derived from the biblical Apocrypha, it marks Griffith's first venture into the longer, four-reel format. (It was, in fact, cut down from six reels.) The film tells of a respectable young widow, anxious to contribute to the defense of her surrounded and starving city, willing to undertake the mission her elders impose on her -- namely, to offer herself to the Assyrian commander Holofernes in order to obtain the opportunity to kill him and thus disorganize his army so that it can be defeated by the Bethulians. Blanche Sweet brilliantly portrays the terrible inner conflict of Judith, with excellent performances from Henry B. Walthall as Holofernes, Robert Harron and Mae Marsh as the young lovers, and Lillian Gish as a mother desperately attempting to find food for her baby as the 40-day siege wears on. But it is the heroic spectacle that creates the most excitement: the attack on the walls of the city with battering rams and ladders, and the Assyrian army in full flight. Judith of Bethulia cost $36,000, about twice the figure at which Griffith had originally budgeted the film. The exteriors were shot in Chatsworth Park, California, and the interiors at the Biograph Studios in New York. The former were filmed in tremendously high temperatures, so that many of the extras suffered painful sunburn. So did Blanche Sweet, whose costume in a scene that required her to ride a horse, was made of crepe paper. Before filming Judith's arrival at Holofernes' camp, Griffith spent a great deal of time on an orgy scene featuring semi-nude dancing girls. The director also insisted that the well at which the young lovers meet should contain real water. As the well was a fake, Griffith had a new tank of water delivered at a cost of $80. However, this splendid, tragic love story is bound to make a profit for Biograph. Use this link to access the University of New Orleans' page with 3 clips from Judith of Bethulia. 20 March, Paris: The very last film of the Danish Nordisk company is being released on Parisian screens today. Entitled Atlantis, it concerns a full adaptation of the celebrated German play by Gerhardt Hauptman, directly inspired by the recent sinking of the Titanic. For the reconstruction of the tragedy, the Danish production company has not stinted. A wreck was built for the incredible sum of 10,000 marks, the shooting lasted more than three months, and it required 80 first-class actors and no fewer than 500 extras.      Unfortunately, director August Blom envisaged it on too grand a scale. According to Blom, at first, the film was to have been between 4,000 and 5,000 metres long, representing four or more hours of projection, which is obviously unacceptable to most exhibitors. At the time of the Danish release last 26 December, not more than 2,450 metres remained, but it was still too long. The public in Copenhagen and its surroundings wanted nothing to do with this super-production. The Italian film version measured only 1,600 metres, the French version 1,500 metres and the English 1,000. It has been a patent failure, and one wonders if Nordisk has come to grief because of this over-ambitious undertaking. 23 March, Copenhagen: Benjamin Christensen has produced his first film The Mysterious X, with himself in the leading role. 29 March, Paris: Sarah Bernhardt has refused a role in Abel Gance's play La Victoire de Samothrace. Her film Adrienne Lecouvreur, directed by Louis Mercanton, has just been released. 11 April, New York: The Spoilers, a Selig production by the director Colin Campbell, was screened for the opening of the new Strand Theater here. The first purpose-built movie theatre for new releases, it is able to seat 2,900 people. 18 April, France: Various cinema organizations have published pamplets attacking the cinema tax voted in by the Chamber of Deputies on 23 March. 18 April, Turin: With Cabiria, the new film by the Itala Film company and director and administrator Giovanni Pastrone, the Turin public is witnessing the birth of a new cinematographic style. The project dates from the beginning of last year. Pastrone had decided to make a long film, an epic on the Punic Wars, and to display a mise-en-scène of unrivaled magnitude. All the technical means were at his disposal: sophisticated lighting, overhead cranes -- a decidedly modern concept -- cameras mounted on trolleys, special effects, etc. Cabiria took more than six months to shoot. The director had the assistance of Gabriele d'Annunzio, the most famous living Italian writer, who was paid a generous fee for his services. Although the novelist was limited to the writing of intertitles, the publicity for the film is centered on his exceptional collaboration. In addition, d'Annunzio conceived some very curious names for the characters in the story: Cabiria (which means "born of fire"), Croessa and Maciste. The latter is a good giant for whom the audience feels great sympathy. The part is played by Bartolomeo Pagano, an ex-dockworker from Genoa. Hard up for money, this 36-year-old man took part in Itala's recruitment competition and won hands down, thanks to his powerful muscular physique. His first appearance in the film is significant -- camped on a rock, with his arms crossed in such a posture as to show off his biceps, he resembles an antique statue. The adventures of Cabiria, the Sicilian slave gir, and Maciste, her strongman companion, include Hannibal's army crossing the Alps and Archimedes firing on ships with his burning glass. 24 April, Paris: Louis Aubert has released the Danish film Opium Dreams, by Forest Holger-Madsen. 4 May, California: Release of Charlie Chaplin's Caught in the Rain. This is the first film entirely written and directed by him. 4 May, Los Angeles: Home Sweet Home has been released by Reliance-Majestic, with the Gish sisters, Mae Marsh and Henry B. Walthall. The film was directed by D. W. Griffith in the company's Hollywood studios. 22 May, Paris: In Le Film, Rémy de Gourmont criticizes film versions of literature. He feels "it is a shame to see the classics reduced to trembling shadows." 23 May, Paris: Pathé has just brought out Maudit soit la guerre! (A Curse on War). The courageous though quite brutal film, made in Belgium by Alfred Machin, has been finished since 1913; however, Pathé held back its release fearing that the underlying pacifist message might offend. 30 May, Paris: Gaumont has released Louis Feuillade's Le Calvaire, with Musidora, a dancer from the Folies-Bergère. May, New York: The French director Maurice Tourneur has arrived in Fort Lee to take up his position as director of Èclair's American production. 3 June, Paris: Raymond Poincaré unveiled a monument in memory of Etienne-Jules Marey at the Parc des Princes. According to Charles Richet, winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, Marey invented the cinematograph. 8 June, New York: Opening of the Ebbets Field Theater, the first drive-in movie theater. 1 July, Paris: The director André Antoine has been signed up by Pathé. 4 July, California: After months of preparation and having raised a budget of $40,000, D. W. Griffith has started filming The Clansman. 5 July, Paris: Despite the many regulations imposed by the Commissioner of Police, it frequently happens that technicians, actors and directors find themselves in the streets of the capital in order to shoot the exteriors for a film. Victor Méric, in the magazine Le Bonnet Rouge, has expressed concern about the "curious scenes" that movie troupes have provoked when they take to the streets. Murder, kidnapping and fights in the middle of Paris have frightened pedestrians, who are terrified by the spectacle of gangs of ruffians battling with one another or of Inspector Juve firing at the fleeing Phantômas. From now on, one can easily loot a shop, pillage a house or attack an innocent passerby, while a policeman yells, "Come on, come on. Keep moving. You can see it all next Sunday at the Ciné-Folies." 15 July, New York: A giant new distribution company has just been born, under the name of Paramount Pictures. The brainchild of W. W. Hodgkinson, it intends to operate as a nationwide distribution network with a central office located in New York City. The venture brings together a number of well-known independents, grouped under the Paramount logo of a snow-capped mountaintop surrounded by stars. Members include Adolph Zukor's Famous Players and Lasky, also Oliver Morosco, Bosworth and Pallas. Hodgkinson arrived in New York earlier this year where, drawing on his experience in operating film exchanges in the far West, he was soon involved in negotiations that led to the formation of Paramount. Not only is this new company designed to challenge such rival distribution combines as Mutual and Universal, but also to institute a new, more efficient system of exploitation and distribution to replace the current "states rights" arrangement. This latter refers to the leasing of exclusive film rights to exchanges operating in the different regions of the US. It is then the responsibility of each exchange to promote the film in its own area and to rent it out to individual exhibitors in order to earn a profit. However, in the case of Paramount, Hodgkinson has created a system with the member companies whereby an advance of around $30,000 would be paid for the rights to each feature film handled by the company, with the rental earnings received from exhibitors to be divided with 65 percent to the original producer and 35 percent to Paramount. If this new arrangement proves successful, it will have a major influence on all future film deals in America. 10 August, Hollywood: With the release of the latest Lasky production The Call of the North, the continuing success of his company is assured. This entertaining and dramatic adventure Western stars Robert Edeson, Winifrid Kingston and Theodore Roberts and was directed by Cecil B. De Mille. As it name implies, the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Co. has made its mark by concentrating its efforts on feature-length films of real quality, especially Westerns. Set up less than one year ago, the company got off to a good start earlier this year with the highly successful called The Squaw Man, co-directed by De Mille and Oscar Apfel. Then each director was given his own project. Apfel did well with a lively comedy subject, Brewster's Millions, while De Mille opted to produce another Western, The Virginian, adapted from the well-known novel by Owen Wister and re-teaming the two lead players from The Squaw Man, Dustin Farnum and Winifred Kingston. Apparently, The Virginian has turned out so well that the company has held back its release until early next month to take advantage of its new distribution deal with Paramount, and prefers to screen first De Mille's most recently completed feature (The Call of the North). Although De Mille enjoys filming Westerns on location in California, as director-general of the Lasky company he, too, obviously wishes to avoid being typecast and consequently has already begun shooting his first comedy subject, What's His Name?, adapted from the novel by George Barr McCutcheon. Having previously announced a policy of completing one film per month, Lasky has already contracted to deliver double this amount for Paramount release -- a tall order for a new company, but it has come such a long way in so short a time that anything seems possible. 16 August, Austria-Hungary: The Government is worrying about the impact of the cinema on public opinion. From now on, only patriotic films may be shown. Films from enemy countries are banned. 25 August, France: Abel Gance, who is serving as a stretcher-bearer, is horrified by the sight of the first wounded arriving from the Front. He was exempted from active military service for health reasons. 1 September, New York: Damaged Goods, an early, dramatic sex-hygiene (venereal disease) educational film opens today. It is typical of an early exploitation film with sensational content told with an educational slant; it tells how young lawyer George Dupont (Richard Bennett) contracted syphilis from a prostitute (Adrienne Morrison, Mrs. Bennett in real-life), and passed on the disease to his fiancée-wife [Senator Locke's daughter Henriette (Olive Templeton)] and baby (against Dr. Clifford's (Louis Bennison) advice). By film's end, Dupont commits suicide by drowning himself. It is a smash-hit at the box-office when re-released in 1915 by the Mutual Film Corporation, with $2 million, and causes a wave of similar films for the rest of the decade; a silent British version of the film was directed by Alexander Butler in 1919. Other films in this sub-genre include The Spreading Evil (1918), The Scarlet Trail (1918), Open Your Eyes (1919), The Solitary Sin (1919), and Wild Oats (1919). 5 September, California: Having exceeded his budget, D. W. Griffith has temporarily stopped production on The Clansman. 15 September, New York: Winsor McCay has created a new cartoon heroine, Gertie the Dinosaur, whose adventures are the toast of the town. The inspiration sprung from an approach made to the artist by the American Historical Society to draw pictures of prehistoric animals. The 10-minute cartoon is made up of 10,000 drawings, and this is the first of McCay's films to have a detailed background, all of which has been created by the hand of John Fitzsimmons. Gertie makes a shy debut, peering from behind some boulders. But she soon asserts herself as she devours trees, rocks and fruit, then drinks a lake dry, tosses a mammoth over her shoulder and dances. When she is admonished for her boisterous behavior, she bursts into tears, melting the stoniest of hearts. The cartoon is accompanied by a live action sequence in which McCay and some of his cronies visit New York's Museum of Natural History and prowl through the dinosaur exhibits. Later, resplendent in tuxedoes, they visit a restaurant where McCay bets that he can make a dinosaur movie and sets to work drawing. Gertie has also become part of McCay's vaudeville act. He invites Gertie to eat an apple that he holds up. She lowers her neck and swallows the fruit to the delight of the audience. 30 September, Austria-Hungary: Rival film companies are engaged in a ruthless battle for the sale of newsreel footage of the war. 7 October, St. Petersburg: Vladimir Gardine has released Anna Karenina, adapted from Tolstoy. 31 October, New York: Pathé America is now a production and distribution company under the new name Pathé Exchange. Charles Pathé, who is retaining 60 percent of the capital, was in the States last month to reorganize the brach, which had been put in financial difficulty by the Edison Trust. 31 October, Pasadena, CA: D. W. Griffith has finished filming The Clansman. The scenario, based on two of Thomas Dixon's stories, The Clansman and The Leopard's Spots, concerns the history of two different families, the northern Stonemans and the southern Camerons. Griffith's intention was to recount the whole truth regarding the Civil War in order to rehabilitate the Southerners. This was an ambitious and expensive project, financed by the Mutual Film Corporation and its head Harry E. Aitkin. The final cost was over $100,000, but the film had gone over budget, and only loans from friends permitted its completion. The shooting of the film was done mainly at the Reliance-Majestic studio in Pasadena and lasted nine weeks. The number of war scenes, for which Griffith needed approximately 500 extras, often take place where the actual battles occurred. Perched on a 10-metre high tower, Griffith gave out his orders like a great military strategist. When the noise of the cavalry and the booming of cannons grew louder, the instructions were totally inaudible. Extras placed at more then three kilometres from the camera were directed with the aid of mirrors and luminous signs. During the shooting, Griffith made constant use of Mathew Brady's Civil War photographs for historical reference. For example, the surrender of General Lee at Appomatox, the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and Sherman's march to the sea have been very faithfully reconstructed from some of the negatives. He also had to recreate the interior of Ford's Theater where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Lincoln is played by a near-perfect double, Joseph Henabery, while Raoul Walsh with a revolver in hand is the reincarnated personification of the murderer, John Wikes Booth. One of the most spectacular scenes is the uprising of the riders of the Ku Klux Klan towards the climax of the film. For this sequence, Griffith had a hole dug under the place where the horses passed by, so that he could film the clamoring hooves a ground level. The film is set to be premiered under the title The Birth of a Nation on 8 February 1915 in Los Angeles. Some images from Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. Use this link to access the University of New Orleans' page with several clips from The Birth of a Nation. 14 November, Belgium: The German director, Stellan Rye, who was wounded in the fighting at Ypres, has died in a French hospital at Flanders. 19 December, Washington, DC: Cartoonist Earl Hurd has registered his animated cartoon technique of superimposing figures drawn on "cellulos" over a background. 30 November, Hollywood: Charlie Chaplin has just signed a contract with Gilbert M. Anderson and George K. Spoor, directors of the Essanay company. The 25-year-old actor is bidding farewell to Keystone, where he enjoyed his first success in the movies. When his contract with Keystone's boss Mack Sennett came up for renewal, Chaplin demanded a raise from $175 to $1,000 a week. Sennett replied with a counteroffer of a three-year contract at $500 in the first year, rising to $1,500 in the third, but Chaplin had already decided that it was time to move on. Essanay, which up till now has thrived on a diet of Anderson's "Broncho Billy" Westerns, has offered him $1,250 a week plus a $10,000 bonus. In addition, Anderson and Spoor have promised Chaplin complete artistic control of his films, of which he will be the star. Chaplin has truly come a long way in a year. With 35 Keystone films behind him, 23 of which he directed himself, he has already created his own comic universe. Now he will be exchanging the balmy climate of sunny California for breezy Chicago where Essanay are still making films in their original studio. 20 December, New York: Among this year's output of motion pictures was the first ever American film to be directed by a woman -- Lois Weber's screen version of The Merchant of Venice for the Rex Co. 31 December, Berlin: An actor from the Deutsches Theatre, Emil Jannings has made his screen debut in Im Schützengraben (In the Trenches). He was motivated to find film work by financial need. 31 December, Paris: Parisian movie theaters have been patronized by 788,000 spectators since they reopened in November. 31 December, Peking: Cinema is just one of the victims in a country that is becoming increasingly isolated internationally. Because of the war in Europe, the young republic of Sun Yat-Sen has for some time experienced every greater difficulties in obtaining the most basic materials from the West. Unused film stock has become an extremely rare commodity because of the fact that the ingredients that constitute film, and also the money needed to then manufacture it, have ceased to arrive in Peking. As a result, local production -- still in its infancy -- has sadly diminished. Unfortunately, in this context, the pioneer Chinese works such as the films of Spanish cameraman Antonio Ramos or of Ling Shao Po or the Li brothers might well become relegated to the secret dungeons of cinema history.