''Rip Van Winkle'' is a 1903 American short black-and-white silent

compilation film A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films or television programs and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common e ...

written and directed by William K.L. Dickson. It is adapted from the play by his friend and investor Joseph Jefferson with

Dion Boucicault Dionysius Lardner "Dion" Boucicault (né Boursiquot; 26 December 1820 – 18 September 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the ...

based on the 1819 story of the same name by

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He wrote the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy ...

Plot

The film features Joseph Jefferson as a ne'er-do-well, who wanders off one day into the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...

, where he meets a group of odd men. He drinks some of their mysterious brew and passes out. When he wakes up, he finds that 20 years have passed. The film is compiled from a series of films produced in 1896, which consisted of: *''Rip's Toast'' (AM&B Cat. #45) *''Rip Meets the Dwarf'' (AM&B Cat. #46) *''Rip and the Dwarf'' *''Rip Leaving Sleepy Hollow'' (AM&B Cat. #52) *''Rip's Toast to Hudson and Crew'' *''Rip's Twenty Years' Sleep'' (AM&B Cat. #50) *''Awakening of Rip'' *''Rip Passing Over Hill'' These films were added to the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

in 1995 and featured on the DVD release '' More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931''.

Production

The serial—filmed at Joseph Jefferson's summer home in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts in August 1896—was filmed in wide shot with a one or two camera setup in 68 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.36:1. American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. registered the copyright on February 4, 1897. The actor selected scenes that were largely pantomimed, eliminating the need for explanatory titles.

Release

The series was one of the films American Mutoscope offered to customers who purchased their

projectors A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer typ ...

in September 1896. Exhibitors had the option of purchasing any or all of the eight scenes and were free to display them in any order. The films were so popular that the production company (which changed its name to the Biograph Company) edited the scenes into a single feature in 1903. Thanks to hit films like ''The Kiss'' (1896), Biograph became one of the most popular studios in the United States.

References

External links

* * 1903 films 1900s American films 1900s English-language films American black-and-white films American films based on plays American silent short films Articles containing video clips Biograph Company films Compilation films Films based on adaptations Films based on Rip Van Winkle Films directed by William Kennedy Dickson Films set in New York (state) Films shot in Massachusetts Surviving American silent films United States National Film Registry films Films based on works by Dion Boucicault {{short-silent-film-stub