DID YOU KNOW…
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The first film appeared in Paris in 1895. The makers were two French brothers, Louis and Auguste Lumiere, and it only lasted a few minutes, (the first full-light film didn’t appear until 1905), but movies have been popular ever since.
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Between 1907 and 1913, Hollywood in Southern California became the center of the American (and international) film industry – the were was perfect for making films outside!
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Until the late 1920s, movies were silent. Words on the screen told the important parts of the story and in each cinema, a pianist played music at the same time as the film. Great stars of the silent movies included Rudolf Valentino, who was famous as a great lover and the London-born comedian Charlie Chaplin. The great Swedish actress, Greta Garbo, also started her career in silent movies.
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The first ‘talkie’, a film called The Jazz Singer appeared in 1927, and starred Al Jolson. A few years later, the first colour movies appeared.
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Walt Disney designed his first cartoon characters, Mickey Mouse, in 1928. Later, Donald Duck appeared, and in1937 Disney made his first full-lenght cartoon film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
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The most popular film of 1939, Gone with the Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, was the most successful film of all time until Titanic appeared in 1997.
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Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, was the most expensive film ever made – it cost $200 million to make. It also made the most money (1.86 billion in its first year alone) and won the most Oscars of any film (eleven including ‘ Best film’).
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However, film critics often choose the 1941 film, Citizen Kane, starring Orson Welles, as the best film ever.
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You may think that the United States is the centre of the movie world, but isn’t completely true. The indian film industry makes many more films each year than the Americans do (850 compared to 570 in the USA); the Lebanese go to the cinema much more often (35 times a year on average, compared to just 4 times a year in the US) and Beloarussia has more cinemas per million people than the USA!
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