Frank Ormiston-Smith

Frank Ormiston-Smith

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Most Known for...

Movie Picture

The Arlberg Railway 1906 (10)

In 1906, the Arlberg Railway, which connects the Austrian cities of Innsbruck and Bludenz, is the only east-west mountain railway in Austria. This 340-second "ghost railroad ride" shows the view from the back of a train, though I'm not sure if it's heading east or west. This kind of film, in vogue at the time, is an intermediate form of short reality, which often showed a train engaging in a bend, and a feature documentary. Its editing is live, linear and temporal, and the cuts are very apparent. Indeed, the choices of where to place the cuts seem to have avoided the less populated stretches. There are plenty of buildings to see, even when the train is not at the station.
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Cervino 1901 1901 (10)

In 1953, in an old cabinet of a former photographer from Zermatt, a first mountaineering film was found. It was a silent film from the first era showing the ascent of the Matterhorn by a group of guides across the Hornli ridge. The film is attributed to the American Frederick Burlingham and dated 1901 and is therefore the first mountaineering film in history. The story of the discovery was also dressed in a certain aura of legend and mystery as it was told that the original copy of the film had been lost forever in a shipwreck in the Atlantic and was the only copy printed that remained. The film was renamed Cervin 1901 or Cervino 1901, and in 2014, after being restored again. But the truth is that this whole story, which has somehow held together throughout this period, is full of inaccuracies...
Movie Picture

The Wintry Alps 1903

Scenes from a series filmed for Charles Urban by mountain expert Frank Ormiston-Smith, including The Battle of the Snow, Ski Jumping in the Alps, and Outing of the Ski Club.