Beyond Birth, AMC's Film Site recognizes The Tramp as Chaplin's first masterpiece. I'll try to track that down. Theda Bara became one of the first "sex symbols" in A Fool There Was. And Lois Weber served as actress, director, writer and producer in The Hypocrites, a controversial film for its nudity.
Technically, a lot of innovations this year. The first camera that allowed for close-ups without picking the whole thing up and moving it was used. Thomas Ince created an assembly line system for producing movies that cut down on costs (as well as creativity).
Finally, a couple of important court cases get decided in 1915. First, Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company was declared an illegal monopoly. When the film industry was getting its start, Edison used his patents on camera equipment to control every aspect of film making and distribution. After this case, Edison's company was broken up and all of the component studios except one almost immediately folded.
Second,the Supreme Court upheld the right of states to censor movies. I discussed the censorship issue previously, but this is the decision that would lead to decades of oversight.
So what are we watching? Birth of a Nation obviously and The Tramp if I can find it. Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat is available on Netflix Watch Instantly so that seems likely. Beyond that, I'm sure there will be a couple of surprises.
On a personal note, doing 100 years of movies leads to some easy mat so I can say I am officially 5% done! I expect my pace will slow as we enter into the feature film era, but I am enjoying the experience so far.
Picture from iGuide
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