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 by | George Albert Smith |
| Produced by | George Albert Smith |
| Cinematography | George Albert Smith |
Production company | G. A. Smith |
| Distributed by | Warwick Trading Company |
Release date |
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Running time | 59 seconds |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | Silent |
Production
editThe film was shot in Furze Hill, Hove, England outside the entrance to St. Ann's Well Gardens, where Smith had his studio.
References
edit- ^ Brooke, Michael. "As Seen Through a Telescope". BFI Screenonline Database. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
- ^ Fisher, David. "As Seen Through a Telescope". Brightonfilm.com. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2011.