Good film historians are right in not calling this experiment as the first sonorous picture. It's just like flight of Icarus, it's a almost there kind of thing. And I wonder who watched this back in 1894 since this wasn't released at all.
The sound of a violin is the one featured here and it was captured by a cylinder, most precisely an Edisonian recording cylinder, that was repaired and synced by the great editor Walter Murch (of "Apocalypse Now" fame). 17 seconds of a guy playing a violin and two other guys dancing together, cheek to cheek, enough reason for much controversy among dull viewers. The whole discussion about them is pointless, just look at the time this was made, things were different and even now there's nothing wrong with that.
We can't possibly know if what Murch made in 2002 was close to the effect the unknown director made in 1894 but what we have is an incredible sound perfectly matched with the images, and this was way before "The Jazz Singer" (1927) placed his mark on films as the first talkie.
It's just an experiment, a trying and a good one. 7/10
The sound of a violin is the one featured here and it was captured by a cylinder, most precisely an Edisonian recording cylinder, that was repaired and synced by the great editor Walter Murch (of "Apocalypse Now" fame). 17 seconds of a guy playing a violin and two other guys dancing together, cheek to cheek, enough reason for much controversy among dull viewers. The whole discussion about them is pointless, just look at the time this was made, things were different and even now there's nothing wrong with that.
We can't possibly know if what Murch made in 2002 was close to the effect the unknown director made in 1894 but what we have is an incredible sound perfectly matched with the images, and this was way before "The Jazz Singer" (1927) placed his mark on films as the first talkie.
It's just an experiment, a trying and a good one. 7/10