Odd Exhibit at the Phillips Collection (24 cents)

Called "Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film", it contains numerous video screens showing short films from about 1895-1905, and next to them pieces of art which depict similar scenes. For example, an early movie taken showing Niagara Falls from up close (one of the better films, I thought), next to some paintings from about the same time of Niagara Falls. Most of the films were not that interesting. Yes, they were very early films, but....... And the art work got lost, I thought, because they were no more than there to support the video screens.

I did like the film of Niagara Falls (and it was up close), and a liked even more perhaps a short film of a storm at sea taken from the deck of a ship, with the waves looking very forboding. I also liked the New York street scenes. Even though you know it was so, it seems strange to see all of these large brick and concrete buildings, with no motor vehicles, only horse drawn buggies and carriages, and a lot of pedestrians. And, what was most noticeable about the overdressed pedestrians (all with hats of course)? They weren't fat. None of them.

Worth seeing? Well, anything is worth seeing, I guess. And it is interesting to see that some of the same things that the movie makers were focusing on (this is before films began to show stories and plot lines) were the same things that painters were painting. Worth seeing twice? Not at all.