As Seen Through a Telescope

As Seen Through a Telescope (AKA: The Professor and His Field Glass) is a 1900 British short silent comedy film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring an elderly gentleman getting a glimpse of a woman's ankle through a telescope. The three-shot comedy, according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "uses a similar technique to that which G.A. Smith pioneered in Grandma's Reading Glass (1900)," and, although "the editing is unsophisticated, the film does at least show a very early example of how to make use of point-of-view close-ups in the context of a coherent narrative (which is this film's main advance on Grandma's Reading Glass)." "Smith's experiments with editing," Brooke concludes, "were ahead of most contemporary film-makers, and in retrospect it can clearly be seen that he was laying the foundations of film grammar as we now understand it."[1][2]

As Seen Through a Telescope
Screenshot from the film
Directed byGeorge Albert Smith
Produced byGeorge Albert Smith
CinematographyGeorge Albert Smith
Production
company
G. A. Smith
Distributed byWarwick Trading Company
Release date
  • September 1900 (1900-09)
Running time
59 seconds
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageSilent
As Seen Through a Telescope

Production

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The film was shot in Furze Hill, Hove, England outside the entrance to St. Ann's Well Gardens, where Smith had his studio.

References

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  1. ^ Brooke, Michael. "As Seen Through a Telescope". BFI Screenonline Database. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  2. ^ Fisher, David. "As Seen Through a Telescope". Brightonfilm.com. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
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