1917: Movie Movie - The History of World Cinema

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			Argentina

			- El Apostol, the world's first animated feature film, is released. Written and directed by Quirino Cristiani, all copies of the film are destroyed by a fire in producer Federico Valle's vaults in 1926. [MORE] [ADD]


			China

		1/1 -	As supplies of unexposed film becomes available once more, Zang Sichuan founds the Huei His production company. [MORE] [ADD]

		31/10 -	Pao Ching-chia’s The Commercial Press introduces a cinema section. [MORE] [ADD]


			France

		29/3 -	Emile Reynaud, pioneer of cartoons is confined to a hospice for the incurably ill at Ivry-sur-Seine. [MORE] [ADD]

		5/4 -	Tristan Bernard, Edmond Benoit-Levy and Leon Gaumont form the French League for the Cinema to develop the domestic film industry and define its interests before parliament. [MORE] [ADD]



		7/4 -	Le Pardon d’Amour, the twelfth and final episode of Louis Feuillade’s Judex serial is released. Starring Rene Creste as the eponymous dashing hero, the series proved to be an enormous success. [MORE] [ADD]

		12/4 -	At a conference in Paris it is reported that a total of 198 films have been banned or cut by the Commission of Censors, while a tax has been imposed on films that depict crime. [MORE] [ADD]

		15/6 -	Rene Navarre, the actor who created the character of Fantomas, forms his own production company and releases The Adventures of Clementine, a series of cartoons drawn by Benjamin Rabier. [MORE] [ADD]

		22/6 -	An article in Le Cinema criticises the background noise on soundtracks. [MORE] [ADD]

		6/7 -	Eclair release the first series of cartoons by Emile Cohl entitled Les Aventures des Pieds-Nickeles. [MORE] [ADD]

		26/7 -	Director Jacques Feyder marries actress Francoise Rosay, the star of his 1916 film Abregeons les formalites. [MORE] [ADD]



		14/11 -	Eclipse release Le Torrent, Marcel L’Herbier’s debut as a scriptwriter. [MORE] [ADD]


			Germany

		1/1 -	The Deulig (Deutsche Lichtbild Gesellschaft) sets itself the goal of acting whenever possible in defence of German economy and culture throughout the world. [MORE] [ADD]



		16/11 -	Ernst Lubitsch writes and directs Wenn Vier das selbe machen, which stars Ossi Oswalda, ‘Germany’s Mary Pickford.’ [MORE] [ADD]

		14/12 -	Universum-Film AG (Ufa) is formed following the buying out of such film production and distribution companies as Messter, Nordisk, Union, PAGU, BB-Film, and Gloria and Joe May Film. It instantly becomes the country’s largest film organisation, boasting vertical integration. [MORE] [ADD]

			– During the war, the German government creates more than 900 makeshift cinemas for its frontline troops. [MORE] [ADD]


			Great Britain

		31/3 -	Despite the rising popularity of cinema, the British film industry falls into decline due to a lack of investment. The industry is almost totally comprised of small independent companies lacking the financial resources to make the feature films that have recently become popular. [MORE] [ADD]

			– The government establishes the Department of Information, with the aim of using film as a means of communication. Headed by novelist John Buchan, productions are made at the British Oak/New Agency film studio in Ebury Street, Westminster, London. [MORE] [ADD]

			– Patent No. 107167 is awarded to William Baldwin Vansize, an American telegraph engineer of 233 Broadway, New York, for a system which provides actors with a battery-powered microphone that sends radio-waves to a steel tape or wire for recording sound which is synchronised with the movement of film through a camera. [MORE] [ADD]

			– Neptune Film Studios ceases production. [MORE] [ADD]


			Hungary



31/12 -	Sandor Korda and Miklos Pasztoory buy out the Corvin production company from Jeno Jancovicz and transfer operations to Budapest, where a new studio is under construction. [MORE] [ADD]

	– As a result of the wartime ban on American, French and Italian films, Hungary becomes one of the biggest film-producing nations. [MORE] [ADD]

	– The Astra film production company is formed. [MORE] [ADD]


	Indochina

1/7 -	Governor-general Albert Serraut returns from a visit to France with a number of films to demonstrate to the locals the “genius of the French nation.” [MORE] [ADD]


	Israel

	– Yaacov Ben Dov films General Allenby’s victorious entry into Jerusalem. [MORE] [ADD]


	Italy

27/2 -	Gioacchino Mecheri, director of Tiber Film and Celio Film, buys out Itala Film. [MORE] [ADD]



27/2 -	Giovanni Pastrone, the director of Cabiria, retires from the motion picture business. [MORE] [ADD]


	Japan

Apr -	Two film studios, Nikkatsu and Tenkatsu, begin production of animated films. [MORE] [ADD]

Aug -	The National Police Agency enforce the Motion Picture Rules and Regulations which state that men and women must not sit together in cinemas. [MORE] [ADD]


	Mexico



	– J. Jamet’s La luz, tríptico de la vida moderna, Mexico’s first full feature film, is released. Mexican diva Emma Padilla stars. [MORE] [ADD]

	– The Aztec Film Company is established. [MORE] [ADD]


	Puerto Rico

	– The Tropical Film Company is established. [MORE] [ADD]


	Russia

30/3 -	The Union of Patriotic Filmmakers release The Great Days of the Russian Revolution to commemorate the events leading to the abdication of the Czar. The film is directed by Vyatcheslav Viskovsky and Boutch Tovmarchersky. [MORE] [ADD]


	Switzerland

11/6 -	The Swiss Association of Cinema Theatres (SLV / Schweizerischer Lichtspieltheater-Verband) is formed in Zurich. [MORE] [ADD]


	USA



28/1 -	The Americano, Douglas Fairbanks’ last film for Triangle, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

1/2 -	Douglas Fairbanks signs a contract with Walter E. Greene and Al Lichtman of Artcraft. The deal gives the actor’s Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation complete autonomy, and awards Fairbanks a weekly salary of $10,000 plus a percentage of profits. [MORE] [ADD]



1/2 -	The Other Girl, a short directed by Oliver ‘Babe’ Hardy, and starring Ethel Marie Burton and Florence McLauglin, is released. [MORE] [ADD]



4/2 -	Bebe Daniels and Snub Pollard appear with Harold Lloyd in Luke’s Trolley Troubles, the latest in the comedian’s Lonesome Luke series directed by Hal Roach. [MORE] [ADD]



11/2 -	Thomas Edison winds up his film production company following the legal failure of his Motion Picture Patents Company to form a monopolistic control of the US film industry. [MORE] [ADD]



3/3 -	John Ford's (working under the name Jack Ford) first directorial effort, The Tornado, is released. Ford also stars. [MORE] [ADD]

24/3 -	The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, a Prehistoric Tragedy, a short using puppet animation and directed by Willis O’Brien, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

14/4 -	A new production company, the First National Exhibitor’s Circuit is established by 27 regional distributors in an attempt to rival Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players-Lasky and Artcraft company. [MORE] [ADD]



23/4 -	The Butcher Boy, Roscoe ‘Fatty Arbuckle’s first film for his own Comique Film company, is released. The film co-stars newcomer Buster Keaton. [MORE] [ADD]



25/4 -	Sam Goldwyn and partners form the Goldwyn Distribution Corporation. [MORE] [ADD]



30/4 -	D. W. Griffith and Harry Aitken suffer substantial losses after Intolerance is withdrawn from general release due to America’s entry into the Great War. [MORE] [ADD]

12/7 -	Cecil B. DeMille’s film The Little American, starring Mary Pickford, features two relative newcomers: Wallace Beery and Ramon Novarro. [MORE] [ADD]

Sept -	Charlie Chaplin enters into a contract with First National which will net him a total of $1,075,000 over 18 months from January 1918 in return for a total of eight films. [MORE] [ADD]



16/10 -	D. W. Griffith returns to America with the film crew for his latest film, Hearts of the World, which has been shooting in England and on the French front. [MORE] [ADD]



17/10 -	William Fox’s Fox Film Corporation grows in stature with the release of Cleopatra, featuring the studio's star attraction, Theda Bara. In addition, the corporation signs former Selig cowboy star Tom Mix. Other stars on Fox’s books include William Farnum, Valeska Suratt and George Walsh. [MORE] [ADD]



20/10 -	The Adventurer, Charlie Chaplin’s last film for Mutual, is released. His co-star is Edna Purviance. [MORE] [ADD]

Oct -	In Chicago, Balaban and Katz open the Central Park Theatre, which is an immediate success and results in the rapid expansion of its cinema chain. [MORE] [ADD]

30/11 -	Paramount, under the guiding hand of Adolph Zukor, emerge as a major player as other organisations fall by the wayside. The studio takes advantage of its less successful competitors' plight to sign such established stars as Roscoe Arbuckle, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and Charles Ray. [MORE] [ADD]

	– The Motion Pictures Patent Company is dissolved by federal court order. [MORE] [ADD]



	– Mary Pickford earns $10,000 per week. [MORE] [ADD]