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"The Miracles of Jesus"-1910s-Prelinger Archives- A memorable religious silent film

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"The Miracles of Jesus"-1910s-Prelinger Archives- A memorable religious silent film

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This silent movie exists in archive.org under the title "The Miracles of Jesus" and is part of the collection Prelinger Archives. It was distributed by The Mogull Film Company of New York. No other references about producer, director, casting etc. The brightness and speed were enhanced (the existing version of archive.org runs too slowly). May be a part of a "Passion Play" distributed first in 1900s -- 1910s. Lucien Nonguet and Ferdinand Zecca released in 1902-1902 a number of 27 films about Jesus Christ.

Jesus has been a popular subject throughout film history, perhaps nevermore so than in the beginning of its history. Before this film, quite a few passion plays had already been filmed. Moreover, these films were generally longer and more elaborate than were other subjects. In 1897, when the cinema was barely more than a year old and when nearly every film was one shot-scene and under a minute in length, a Frenchman named Léar filmed a passion play of 12 scenes, which received popular distribution in Britain and the US, as well as in France. George Hatot's "La Vie et la Passion de Jésus-Christ" (1897/1898), produced by the Lumiére Company, had 13 tableaux. An American passion play, featuring Horitz villagers, was supposedly even grander and longer. Shortly thereafter, "The Passion Play of Oberammergau" (1898), which probably didn't have much of anything to do with the plays performed in the village of Oberammergau, contained over 20 scenes.

Siegmund Lubin also made a passion play claiming, but lacking authenticity to the Oberammergau performances. With a lecturer and magic lantern slides, these films would provide as long an entertainment as does the modern feature-length film. In 1899, Alice Guy made "La Vie de Christ" in 11 tableaux for Gaumont, and again, in 1906, made a passion play of, reportedly, 25 scenes. Pathé, in fact, had made a film on Christ before this picture; their 1900 release consisted of 16 scenes. They, too, would go on to make another one after this, in 1907.

The miracles of Jesus are the supernatural deeds of Jesus, as described in Christian texts. The Gospels include eight pre-resurrection accounts concerning Jesus' power over nature:

Turning Water into Wine—at a wedding, when the host runs out of wine, the host's servants fill vessels with water at Jesus' command, then a sample is drawn out and taken to the master of the banquet who pronounces the content of the vessels as the best wine of the banquet.

The miracle of draught of fishes[Lk 5:1-11] takes place early in Jesus's ministry and results in Saints Peter, James, son of Zebedee and John joining Jesus as his Apostles.

The Feeding of the 5000 and of the 4000 men—Jesus, praying to God and using only a few loaves of bread and several fish, feeds thousands of men, along with an unspecified number of women and children; there are even a number of baskets of leftovers afterward.

Walking on water—Jesus walked on a lake to meet a boat.

Transfiguration of Jesus—Jesus climbed a mountain and was changed so that his face glowed.

Calming the storm - during a storm, the disciples woke Jesus, and he rebuked the storm causing it to become calm. Jesus then rebukes the disciples for lack of faith.

Finding a Coin in the fish's mouth is reported in Matthew 17:24-27.

The Cursing of the Fig Tree—Jesus cursed a fig tree, and it withered.

Resources: archive.org, Prelinger Archives (The right to use this film is granted by the Creative Commons Public Domain license)
New soundtrack and dubbing: TheGreatClassics
Music: Kevin Mac Leod (www.incompetch.com) licensed under Creative Commons licence http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/ . Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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1910 - 1919
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