Name: Nicholas Nickleby
Genre: Drama, Short
Released: 1912-03-19
Duration: 20 min
Rating: 5.7
Cast: Harry Benham, Mignon Anderson, Frances Gibson

One of the first films to capture the spirit of Dickens

First let's get the obvious stuff out of the way - the film was made a long long time ago when movie-making techniques were still been refined. A lot has changed since then so OF COURSE the film is very dated now. And, condensing the plot of Nicholas Nickleby down to a mere 20 minutes, OF COURSE it's not going to be perfect.

However, by the standards of 1912, this is a really good production. The story flows well with minimal intrusion from captions, the characters are clearly defined, the sets are quite lavish for the time (not a painted backdrop in sight)and the direction is quite good, albeit primitive by modern standards - for instance the camera is static in every shot - normal at the time but it wouldn't happen now.

What really struck me about this film is the casting - the actors have clearly been chosen carefully and don't just play their roles but LOOK the part too. We're used to seeing odd-looking Dickens characters on the screen now but this must be one of the first-ever films to really make his characters stand out visually.

The good news is that this film is available on DVD in the British Film Institute's compendium release "Dickens Before Sound" along with many other silent film versions of the great man's works.

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

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Nicholas Nickleby

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