Five things that happened 100 years ago

1922. Remember it? No, I don't expect you do. It was 100 years ago, after all. What comes to mind when you think of those days? Well? Can't think of anything, eh? Allow me to fill you in, then, on five things that took place exactly one century ago. In no particular order. Let's go.

Branston Pickle is invented

This pickled chutney was named after the village where it was first made, and not only am I a devotee of this product, I used to live in the town of Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire which is right next to Branston. There's not a lot I can add to this, except you either like it or you don't. Oh, and happy 100th birthday. I salute you!

 

Nosferatu is released

F.W. Murnau's German Expressionist vampire horror film Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens was released in March 1922. Perhaps you've seen the above iconic scene showing Count Orlok (he's not named Dracula for some reason), played by Max Schreck, entering a room as the door opens by itself. A clip of this scene appears in the video for "Under Pressure" by Queen & David Bowie. That's actually where I first saw it.

The whole film, silent and in black and white, has an air of unremitting menace, although you never actually see any blood or explicit violence. As Drac—I mean 'Orlok', Schreck does look extremely corpse-like with his frail-looking build and hollow eyes. The film established many vampire film tropes, such as sunlight being able to kill vampires. It was also the first German expressionist film to be shot on location rather than a set.

Murnau died in somewhat bizarre circumstances in California in 1931. His skull was stolen from his grave in 2015. Of his 21 films, only 12 survive in their entirety.

 

William Desmond Taylor is murdered

Taylor was a prominent figure in the early days of Hollywood, acting in 27 films and directing 59. He was murdered in February 1922, a crime that is still unsolved; one of the oldest cold cases. His murder sold more newspapers in the United States than any news item before.

When the police saw Taylor dead in his apartment, he was lying on the floor with a bullet hole in his back, while two studio execs were burning papers in the fireplace and a comedy actress was rummaging through drawers. The servant was washing dishes in the kitchen while various randoms rushed in and out of the place. The police discovered a bunch of pornographic photos, featuring Taylor, and the director's closet was full of womens' lingerie. The murder weapon was never found. There's a lot more to it than I can summarize here, so you can read more about it on your own time – but consider yourself warned!

Vegemite is invented

Okay, I'm cheating a bit by including two popular condiments instead of one. But I would be ostracized from Melbourne and deported from Australia if I didn't mention Vegemite, the Vitamin B spread which was developed here in Melbourne in 1922 and went on sale the following year. Its invention came out of a need to find a use for the yeast extract left over after brewing beer.

It was the first product in Australia to be electronically scanned at a supermarket checkout. In a torturous bit of advertising sloganeering it was known as Parwill from 1928 to 1935, all so the ads could proclaim "Marmite, but Parwill". Because renaming your product in order to make lame puns in reference to its competitor is sooooo worth it.

 

Tutankhamun's tomb is discovered

Led by Egyptologist Howard Carter, the tomb of the legendary pharaoh was discovered in November 1922 as part of an effort to clear the Valley of the Kings down to the bedrock. Found nearly intact, the tomb established the length of Tutakhamun's reign, showed what a complete royal burial entailed, and sparked a surge of interest in ancient Egypt.

Tutankhamun himself became pharaoh at the age of 8 or 9, and died around 1323 BC aged 18 or 19. It is possible that his death was unexpected and his mummy was therefore buried in a tomb intended for someone else. The 5,398 items found in the tomb took Carter ten years to catalogue: it had taken him seven years to find the tomb. Among these items were the famous gold face mask and a solid gold coffin.

For the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, to be remembered was to live forever – hence all those grand monuments. But after young king Tutankamun died there was a concerted effort to remove all traces of him, so he would not achieve immortality. One of the least esteemed pharaohs in life, Carter's discovery of his tomb made him the most famous – where he had lain some 3,300 years, unremembered and unremarkable. But when that tomb was finally found in 1922, Tutankhamun returned to the minds of the living and took his place among the gods once again.

Tintin Movie

The countdown begins! If you're a fan of Hergé's The Adventures Of Tintin, mark the date on your calendar, or put it into that poncy phone of yours if you're over the whole 'writing on paper' thing. Today makes one year until the release of Steven Spielberg's film The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn. (Actually, Wikipedia says the release date is December 23, Empire magazine says December 26. I'm going with Empire because it was printed in Australia.)

Am I a Tintin fan? Am I heck as like! It was what got me into making my own comics in the first place. I have all the books, yes, even the Lake Of Sharks one that was based on a French cartoon no one's even flippin' seen. One of them I had to get on Amazon. The timespan in getting all the books you see in the picture below was 13 years. But enough about that. My previous encounters with the other Tintin films made has been pretty dismal. I've never seen the Blue Oranges one, and the one time the Golden Fleece one was on SBS, I had to tape it and the tape wasn't worth watching because the reception was so bad.

Come Boxing Day next year, though, the 3-D animated film will be out, the animation done through motion capture. The photorealistic look of the characters as shown in Empire is really impressive; they look like real people and Hergé's cartoon characters at the same time, and given Hergé's attention to backdround detail in the comics and his theatrical sense of drawing settings, the film is something to really look forward to. So let the countdown begin –

365:00:00:00

364:23:59:59

364:23:59:58...

My Top 10 Animated Films

I'd never claim to be any sort of authority on animated films (I've only seen one of the 86 Shrek movies, for instance) but I know a good one when I see one, and I've seen quite a few. So here is the list of my Top Ten Animated Films.

All images are copyright their respective owners/creators and no copyright infringement is intended.

10. A Bug's Life

(1998)

The Disney/Pixar output is prolific in recent years but I count this one as the best of the bunch. I saw it when it came out, and not only was the animation amazing but the little touches (such as a water droplet in a rolled-up leaf used as a telescope) drew you into the ants' world more. The rendering of shadows and wind movement was done really well too.

9. Hotaru No Haka

(Grave Of The Fireflies)

(1988)

Teenaged Seita and his young sister Setsuko try to survive in a small village after their mother is killed in a World War II bombing raid. The film is based on a book by Akiyuki Nosaka about a boy and his sister dying of starvation just days before Japan's surrender in 1945. Nosaka wrote the book to come to terms with his sister's death, because he blamed himself for it.

The film depicts a dangerous reality but doesn't overdo the sentimentality, although it has to be said this is an intensely moving film. If it doesn't at least bring a tear to your eye you are not human.

8. Project A-Ko

(1986)

I saw this at the start of my "I'll watch any anime no matter what it's about" period (1998–2001). It inspired me to do comics/graphic novels with unlikely protagonists. It's got plenty of elements that people like about anime: the main character's a girl, it's set in a school, it's got massive robots that explode and some great rubbery animation, with facial expressions you never knew existed. Old-school anime that still matches up to the visually-sophisticated '90s/'00s stuff. The first anime film I saw, and a good introduction to anime, looking back.

7. The Lion King

(1994)

Many consider the 1990s to be a 'gold' era for Disney, and this film had dramatic scenery complemented by its soundtrack. I saw this at the movies when it came out and the "Circle Of Life" sequence had everyone amazed, no one said a word when the film's title came up with that big thumping drum beat sound. Impressive.

6. Ranma ½: Kessen Togenkyou! Hanayome O Tomoridose!!

(Ranma ½ The Movie 2: Nihao My Concubine)

(1992)

I doubt this was shown in theatres as it was a movie-length episode of the anime series. If it had been, I'm sure they would have given it a snappier title. Many fans like this for its beach scenes (I don't think I need to spell that out), but I like it for its tropical setting, colour styling, over-the-top comedy and visual gags. And, get this – the English dub is really funny, and I like the actors' voices a lot.

5. Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro No Shiro

(Lupin III: The Castle Of Cagliostro)

(1979)

An early Hayao Miyazaki feature, based on a manga by Monkey Punch, with goofy slapstick animation and a freewheeling, melodramatic style. Action mixed with screwball comedy is a genre better suited to animation, as Miyazaki himself said. Visually incredible – check out the auto-gyro in the climax of the second act – but the definite highlight is the car chase near the beginning, where Lupin's Fiat 500 does everything you wouldn't expect a tiny car to do.

4. The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie

(1981)

(1981 only refers to the year this was compiled – the cartoons themselves date back much earlier.)

Now, this is how real cartoons are done. These Warner Bros cartoons had a sense of comic timing, and storyline pacing that just gets more frenzied as it builds to the climax, that 'zany™' 'toons in recent times can't replicate. Friz Freleng had a style that cannot be imitated and his best work is showcased brilliantly here. And if you've seen the shorts in their original form, so much the better.

3. Chicken Run

(2000)

Aardman Animation's classic, which I also saw when it came out, and the work that went into making it is staggering. I remember reading something like the animators would work for a full day and only end up with 3 seconds of footage at the end. I used to use Flash in design class, so I know how they feel. The wide banana-mouths of the characters (an Aardman signature) makes the mouth movements much more realistic. I also like the way the characters interact with other objects, such as sets and props. It's very hard for me to watch this without thinking 'I wonder how they did that' every 2 seconds, but I'll keep trying anyway.

2. Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers

(1993)

I don't think anyone does 'claymation' better than Aardman and Nick Park, and this is my personal favourite of the Wallace & Gromit short films. Aside from the stunning animation this film also uses sound effects and music to maximum dramatic effect. People always mention that Gromit doesn't talk. Why should he? We know how he feels just by looking at him. If only more people were like that, eh? The train chase scene at the end is one of the most beautiful things to see in animation (in particular Gromit laying down spare track at lightning speed). To be honest, that scene is one of the finest things committed to film, ever.

1. Kurenai No Buta

(Porco Rosso)

(1992)

There are plenty of top Miyazaki films which might be tough for the Studio Ghibli enthusiast to rank. I haven't seen that many, but this is my solid favourite. The scenery is depicted so realistically that the opening pan shot of Porco's secluded bay may fool you into thinking it's live-action. The film's Mediterranean backgrounds are very detailed, with dramatic use of light and shade. The animation of course is of an amazingly high standard and the aerial combat scenes are incredible, the animation and camera angles capture the sense of speed perfectly, not to mention the designs of the planes themselves. The aeroplanes in this film are based on actual 1920s aircraft, when plane designs were more freeform. Miyazaki himself used to sketch WWII fighter planes as a teenager.

As the 20th century turned to the 21st, Studio Ghibli would no doubt go on to produce more groundbreaking work but the visuals in this film blow me away every time – which ensured its no.1 place on this list.

Honourable Mention: Urotsukidoji

(1987)

It's only an OVA and didn't get a theatrical release, so it misses out on the list, but it'll take a couple of hours to watch and it's made of drawings on acetate sheets, so it's an animated movie as far as I'm concerned.

If you were into anime in the early 1990s before every Tom, Dick and Harry started watching Naruto, this was the one that was off-limits to under 18s. The term 'tentacle porn' sums this up admirably. But it has lots more: humour, dark perversions, climactic battles, exploding bodies, and this, possibly the best "let's introduce a major female character with a pervy vertical pan shot" ever done.

Any questions?