User Reviews

The title of this film is partly misleading: although it does give us a view of Blackwell's Island in 1903, it is not a panoramic shot but filmed from a boat speeding along the river alongside the bank. The camera shows us a bleak landscape - emphasised perhaps by the grainy quality of the film - littered with buildings but only a few briefly-glimpsed people. The buildings the boat passes are described in the film's summary as a lighthouse, brewery, lunatic asylum, workhouse, almshouse, prison and charity hospital. It's not exactly the most interesting of subjects but obviously has worth as a social document. It would be interesting to see a modern film retracing that long ago journey to see just how much the area has changed.

My thanks to the New York City chapter of the American Institute of Architects for enabling me to screen this rare film. 'Panorama of Blackwell's Island' has an inaccurate title; I define 'panorama' to mean a 360-degree view, all the way round something: what we see here is quite interesting, but it's less than one-half of the coastline of its subject.

For those of you not familiar with New York City: Blackwell's Island is now cried Roosevelt Island. In recent years, it has served as an elite residential enclave within New York City: an islet between Manhattan and the borough of Queens, which enjoys all the benefits of urban life without the high crime and influx of homeless people. The island is now accessible via bridge, Metro and tramway ... although (at the time that I write this) the tramway's service was recently suspended, and it may soon be decommissioned altogether.

When this film was made in 1903, Blackwell's Island served largely to house various municipal institutions which were necessary but not desirable, such as a penitentiary, a workhouse and a charity hospital: the sort of institutions which now prompt cries of 'Not in my back yard.'

The print which I viewed is only a couple of minutes long; there is one break in the action (and shift of perspective) which appears to be an intentional cut, as we now define the term. Another gap in the surviving print's action is much briefer ... and is clearly caused by an actual break in the film, with the loss of a couple of frames.

'Panorama of Blackwell's Island' is historically significant for early use of a moving camera ... although the effect is achieved by placing a static camera aboard a moving vehicle. Edwin S Porter's camera is on the deck of a riverboat heading south along the eastern shore of Blackwell's Island. At the island's northern tip, we see the lighthouse designed by James Renwick, Jnr. Proceeding southward, we encounter — in this order — the New York City lunatic asylum, the workhouse, the almshouse, quays for the Queensborough Bridge, Blackwell's House, the penitentiary and the charity hospital. The film ends before we reach the southern tip of the island ... so, we've seen less than one-half of the shoreline. But what we glimpse here is fascinating.

The Queensborough Bridge links Manhattan and Queens, but its central caissons are located in this island. The bridge's Manhattan terminus is near 59th Street: yes, this is the bridge mentioned in the title of Simon & Garfunkel's popular '59th Street Bridge Song' ... though I'm damned if I know why, since the bridge is never mentioned in the song's lyric.

Viewers who are interested in New York City's history (or old-time architecture in general) will be fascinated by this brief film, which lasts only a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, none of the architectural works can be seen in sharp detail. For its historical value, I'll rate this movie 7 out of 10.

One should beware of trying to impose one's notion on others of what a word means, especially when one is referring to other periods of history.

A panorama: A panorama (formed from the Greek for "all" and "sight"), is simply any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images or a three-dimensional model. The word was originally coined in the 18th century by the Irish painter Robert Barker to describe his panoramic paintings of Edinburgh and London. The motion-picture term panning is derived from panorama. (Wikipedia)

In cinema-history the word is coined in 1896, to describe views that were taken from moving vehicles such as trains and boats (although it could also be trolley-cars, lifts, balloons etc.), what is now usually called a "travelling shot" (although not all "travelling" are necessarily panoramas). The first panorama known to have been so shot was by Edison cameramen in July (from a train) but, although a rave review appeared in the papers (presumably a plant), the films taken at this time did not come out properly and had to be re-filmed (without panorama). Georges Méliès in France filmed a panorama of Le Havre(from a boat) in August 1896 but the film is sadly lost. The first panorama (from a trolley-car) to have been actually screen seems to have been taken by the Mutoscope operators and screened in September.

The Lumières' star cinematographer, Alexandre Promio, was in the US at this time, shooting films for his own company to screen there but would doubtless have known of the Mutoscope film. What is certain is that, immediately on his return to France, in October 1896, he made his way to Venice in Italy, where, with the assistance of the Lumières' chief engineer (but without the knowledge of Louis Lumière himself), he filmed a famous panorama of Venice from a gondola and this is generally credited (incorrectly) as "the first travelling shot" in cinema history. Promio was very anxious about the reaction of Lumière to his film but in fact the boss was delighted and urged all Lumière operators to make such films. During the period 1896-1900, the panorama became therefore something of a trademark both of Promio (who shot them wherever he went) and of the Lumière company in general.

US companies, obsessed with using travelling shots to make what were known as "ghost rides" (where you follow the trajectory of the train but see virtually nothing of the surrounding countryside) were rather slow to adopt the panorama. Everything changed after the Paris Exposition of 1900 when all the companies present (including the Lumières, Méliès and Edison) vied with other to produce panoramic views, including what were known as "circular panoramas" which did indeed aim to take the viewer all the way round to the point where they had started.

Between 1901 and 1907, the Edison catalogue is absolutely packed with such panoramas, shot both at home and abroad. The real "panorama" specialist (the American Promio as it were) was the cinematographer A. C. Abadie (known as "Primo") but the particular set of New York panoramas to which this film belongs seem to have been filmed by Edwin S. Porter. This fact is recorded on the IMDb database but, due to a frustrating oversight in the system - no cast details available for films that have no known director, writer or actors, when, Oh when, will this be corrected - cannot be seen unless one goes to the separate entry on Porter.