The Vintagent Classics: The films that inspired us.
Motorcyklisten (1908) aka The Non-Stop Motorcycle (English)
Run Time: 3:35
Producer: Nordisk Films Kompagni
Director: Viggo Larson
Director Of Photography: Axel Sørensen
Key Cast: Knud Lumbye, Petrine Sonne, Frederik Buch
FILM MAKERS
From dogsleds in Copenhagen to spaceships bound for Mars. Discover the golden age of Danish silent films at stumfilm.dk. From around 1910, the Danish film industry was a world leader, both commercially and artistically, with Nordisk Films Kompagni (now Nordisk Film) at the forefront. Stars like Asta Nielsen, Valdemar Psilander and Fy & Bi were famous way beyond their home country, and Denmark’s greatest film director, Carl Th. Dreyer, was prolific during this period as well. Now the Danish Film Institute has launched stumfilm.dk (Danish Silent Film), where everyone can follow the digitisation of more than 400 works from the 1897–1928 period. As the films are digitised, they will be streamed on the site, accompanied by posters, photos, thematic articles, scripts and contemporary reviews.
Running over the next four years, this film-archaeological project will be both wide-ranging and unpredictable. Some of the old reels have not been viewed since the 1920s, but creating their path to stumfilm.dk also means that we are building the infrastructure continuously until the end of 2023.
We will contextualize the films in thematic collections, which highlight the fascinating, mysterious, awesome, sexy and funny stories hiding in the archive. Whether you are a researcher, enthusiast or just curious, you can dive into the early star culture, get an insight into the digitization process, or just browse your way through the cornucopia of cinematographic treasures.
Stumfilm.dk is the biggest film-dissemination effort ever in Denmark. A three-year Danish-German research project affiliated with the digitisation effort will map the cross-border traffic of ideas and people between two leading nations of the silent film era, Denmark and Germany.
The project is made possible by a donation of DKK 30 million from the A.P. Møller Foundation, the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation and the Augustinus Foundation. – Danish Silent Film
SUMMARY
A 4-minute, full-speed chase extravaganza through Copenhagen. Vroom-Vroom!
A young man, crazy about motorcycles, buys an Ellehammer and drives it out of the store at wild speed. During his unruly driving, he knocks over several people, all of whom set out to chase him.
This short film is a popular and time-typical example of the so-called “pursuit farce”, or “running farce”, as the genre was called by the film’s director Viggo Larsen. The action in a pursuit farce is sorely simple: under some pretext, a person is pursued over hedge and ditch, typically by more and more people. The genre demonstrates the new media’s unique ability to show movement. – Danish Silent Film
RELATED MEDIA
Watch the FULL FILM in the collection of Danish Silent Film at the Danish Film Institute
Related Posts
The Vintagent Classics: Hex
Meet the Easy Riders of Bingo,…
The Vintagent Classics: Akira
The end of the world was only the…
The Vintagent Classics: TRON
The Electronic Gladiator
Great catch Corinna !
For a mere four minute film this is one hell of an example as to how hard it was back in the day to make even a four minute short like this .
I know this’ll make no sense to the digitally addled among us … but back then the majority of motion picture cameras were as big if not bigger than the motor bike being ridden . Unwieldy and clumsy doesn’t even come close to describing what working those beasts was like .
And then there’s the multiple takes almost every collusion took to accomplish ( if you know what yer looking for .. look closely ) … not to mention the major task it was to edit and put back together those takes was [digital cut& paste is for weenies ] Hours … and skill beyond most of todays youths imagination
The best part of watching this though ? The gentleman is ‘ speeding ‘ . Right ?
Well … speeding in 1908 .. especially on a small displacement motor bike like this … at best … was ten to fifteen mph . On a good day … with a bit of a tail wind .. and maybe a slight decline .. maybe twenty .
So yeah … all bets are more than a few takes were ‘ sped up ‘ in order to exaggerate the crashes . Again .. no small effort back in the day
So Again Corrina … a great catch …. and a great blast from the past . Here’s hoping more than a few can appreciate this for what it actually is ( one helluva effort back in the day ) as much as I did
Analogue Rules !
😎
As an addendum ;
One may wonder why I have knowledge of the realities of film making all the way back to the Silent Era .
Simply put … when in conservatory I had the pleasure and honor of studying with two of the major stalwarts film composers . One of whom insisted we study the history of film ( in order to better comprehend the director / producers point of view ) as well as learn how films were scored including in the Silent Era …
( the majority of theaters had a staff pianist and / or organist to accompany the film with music . And though the majority of films allowed the musician to improvise .. many had specific scores to be adhered to ) ..
…so that in a pinch … if the technology went wrong .. we … his students .. us … could still get the score composed in time by using the age old method of script timing marks … which BTW happened to me once … and for which I received a fat five figure bonus on top of the contracted fee for keeping the film within its budgeted time constraints
So yeah my digitally addled friends … learning the analogue methods may some day save yer bacon as well … not to mention garner you a ton of respect along with a few extra $$$$$$ as well
Analogue Rules ! 😎
Hi Paul, this is for sure a Danish film, not Dutch as mentioned! This movie is shot in Denmark, with crazy Danish people. You can see where British comedian Benny Hill got his inspiration from!