Running a Cinema (1921)

Dudley Buxton

Dudley Buxton

?/?/1921

7 min

B&W

Synopsis

Running a Cinema is a black-and-white silent animated short making fun of film theatre operations of its time. The projection of an animated sequence within the animated theatre demonstrates an interplay of medium self-reflexivity.

The short was created by Dudley Buxton, a former substantial print cartoonist who worked for publications such as The Bystander, The Tatler, and The Sketch (Cook 29; 137). He was one of the early animators known to British animation history, who underwent a change of topical subject from wartime films to anthropomorphic figures in the 1920s, remained key but non-renowned until the 1930s as competition with American animation became too challenging (Ibid., “Running a Cinema”).

References:

Cook, Malcolm. Early British Animation : From Page and Stage to Cinema Screens. 1st ed. 2018., Springer International Publishing, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73429-3.

“Running a Cinema – BFI Player.” BFI Player, player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-running-a-cinema-1921-online.