CINXE.COM

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xhtml1-20000126/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>BFI Screenonline: Friese-Greene, William (1855-1921) Biography</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <meta name="description" content="Inventor" /> <meta name="keywords" content="William Friese-Greene, " /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../../css/backward.css" type="text/css" /> <style type="text/css"> @import url(../../../css/bfi_global.css); </style> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">  </script> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff"><a href="#main_content" name="top" style="display: none;"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="Skip to main content" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></a> <center><div class="outline"> <table width="778" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td colspan="3"><form name="search" action="../../../search/quick.jsp" style="margin: 0px;"> <table bgcolor="#101010" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> <tr> <td><img src="../../../images/nav/logo.gif" alt="BFI logo" /></td> <td> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> <tr> <td><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"> <tr> <td><p class="header-nav"><a href="../../../index.html" title="screenonline home page">Home</a></p></td> <td><p class="header-nav"><a href="../../../film/index.html" title="Film genres and themes, plus industry and audiences, places and all films by decade">Film</a></p></td> <td><p class="header-nav"><a href="../../../tv/index.html" title="TV genres, themes and formats, industry, places, and all programmes by decade">Television</a></p></td> <td class="header-bg-people"><p class="header-nav"><a href="../../index.html" title="Hundreds of entries about personalities from British film and television">People</a></p></td> <td><p class="header-nav"><a href="../../../history/index.html" title="Britain's history as told in over a century of moving images">History</a></p></td> <td><p class="header-nav"><a href="../../../education/index.html" title="Resources for students, teachers and lifelong learners">Education</a></p></td> <td><p class="header-nav"><a href="../../../tours/index.html" title="Illustrated guides through subjects in British film and television">Tours</a></p></td> <td><p class="header-nav"><a href="../../../help/index.html" title="Answers to common questions, and information for schools and libraries">Help</a></p></td> <td width="40"> </td> <td><img src="../../../images/nav/searchicon.gif" alt="search" /></td> <td><p class="header-nav">Search</p></td> <td><input id="sh" type="text" name="quickSearchText" size="8" maxlength="60" class="quicksearch" /></td> <td><p class="header-nav"><input type="submit" value="Go" class="go-button" /></p></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="../../../images/nav/banner.gif" alt="Screenonline banner" /></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </form></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="right" class="upper-nav-cell"><div class="upper-nav-text"><a href="../../../feedback.html" class="upper-nav">Contact & Feedback</a> | <a class="upper-nav" href="../../../help/terms.html">Terms of Use</a><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="10" height="1" border="0" /></div> </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="3">  <table width="778" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td class="peoplemastbg" valign="bottom"> <div class="mastheadpeople">Friese-Greene, William (1855-1921)</div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td width="30"> </td> <td valign="top"> <table width="740" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr> <tr><td width="435" valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="435" height="20" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr> <td height="24"> <p class="smg">Inventor</p> </td> </tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> <img src="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/files/839009.jpg" alt="Main image of Friese-Greene, William (1855-1921)" id="mainimg"/> <p><cite class="party">William Friese-Greene</cite> is the most maddening figure in early British film history. He was maddening at the time, and he has continued to create confusion and division ever since. In simple terms, he was an inventor who experimented with putative moving image devices at the dawn of cinema, but whose practical results did not match the claims that he made for them. Others took on those claims after his death, which resulted in <cite class="party">Ray Allister</cite>'s romanticised biography and the still more romanticised and inaccurate feature film <cite>The Magic Box</cite> (d. John Boulting, 1951). <cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite> was then subjected to critical burial, but in recent years, there has been a tentative revival of interest from historians.</p><p><cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite> was born in Bristol on 7 September 1855 to a metalworker named Green. He added to his surname when he married Helena Friese in 1874. He was apprenticed to a photographer, and soon established his own business in Bath. There, around 1880, he met <cite class="party">John Rudge</cite>, who was experimenting with magic lanterns to create an illusion of movement. <cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite> adopted such ideas with enthusiasm, and began experimenting with <cite class="party">Rudge</cite> and on his own. In 1885, he opened two photographic shops in London with <cite class="party">Esme Collings</cite>, who would go on to be one of the pioneers of British filmmaking in the Brighton area. In 1889-1890, <cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite> worked with engineers <cite class="party">Mortimer Evans</cite> and <cite class="party">Frederick Varley</cite> on cameras that could take up to four or five pictures per second, but they were not successful in practice, and had far too low a frequency rate for a successful illusion of motion.</p><p><cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite> obsessively patented insufficiently thought out devices; however, the true advances in taking and projecting motion picture films were being made elsewhere. He began experimenting with colour cinematography in 1898, and became the earnest rival of the developer of Kinemacolor, <cite class="party">G.A. Smith</cite>, who lived in the Brighton area to which <cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite> had moved in 1905. It was a court case in 1913 brought by <cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite>'s Biocolour system against Kinemacolor that eventually brought down the latter, though <cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite> was unable to capitalise on the victory.</p><p>Beset by financial troubles (including a spell in prison for borrowing money while an undischarged bankrupt), <cite class="party">Friese-Greene</cite> remained an incorrigible optimist. He died on 5 May 1921 while giving an incoherent speech to a meeting considering the parlous state of the British film industry. His claims to have been the 'inventor of kinematography' were then taken up by the uncritical film historian Will Day. The burgeoning myth was eventually punctured by a series of articles written by Brian Coe in the 1960s. Having been damned for claiming to invent what he did not invent, recent commentators have sought to view in a more sympathetic light someone who was undoubtedly one of the very first to work on the concept of moving images. As a dreamer more than as an inventor, he has his place as a founding father of British film.</p><p><em>Bibliography</em><br /> Allister, Ray, <em>Friese-Greene: Close-up of an Inventor</em> (London: Marsland, 1948)<br /> Chanan, Michael, <em>The Dream that Kicks</em> (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980)<br /> Coe, Brian, 'William Friese-Greene and the Origins of Cinematography', <em>Screen</em> vol. 10, nos. 2-4 (1969)</p><p class="bricksrc">Luke McKernan, Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Directors</p> <img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="10" border="0" alt="" /> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"></td></tr> </table></td>  <td width="1" class="verticaldots"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td> <td width="312" valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="312" height="20" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="3" height="1" border="0" /></td><td><p class="smg">More information</p></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"> <tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="../../../images/gt/GT_articles.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="" border="0" /></td> <td class="rh-headcell-people"><a href="credits.html" class="thumbheadlink-people"><img src="../../../images/icon_document.gif" alt="" vspace="2" class="clipmenu-icon-right" border="0" />FILM & TV CREDITS</a></td> </tr> <tr><td><p>From the BFI's filmographic database</p></td> </tr> </table></td></tr>  <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="3" height="1" border="0" /></td><td><p class="smg">Related media</p></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr><tr> <td colspan="2"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"> <tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="../../../images/mictable2.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="Thumbnail image of Barbara Harris: BECTU Interview Part 1 (1989)" border="0" /> </td> <td valign="top" class="rh-headcell-people"><a href="../../../audio/id/953819/index.html" class="thumbheadlink-people">Barbara Harris: BECTU Interview Part 1 (1989)</a></td></tr><tr><td><p>Memories of her time at BBC Alexandra Palace and Lime Grove</p></td></tr></table></td></tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="3" height="1" border="0" /></td><td><p class="smg">Selected credits</p></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"><tr><td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/files/1075750.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="Thumbnail image of Magic Box, The (1951)" border="0" /></td><td class="rh-headcell-people"><a href="../../../film/id/453725/index.html" class="thumbheadlink-people">Magic Box, The (1951)</a></td></tr><tr><td><p>Star-studded biopic of British film pioneer William Friese-Greene</p></td></tr></table></td></tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="3" height="1" border="0" /></td><td><p class="smg">Related collections</p></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"><tr><td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/files/724969.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="Thumbnail image of British Pioneers" border="0" /></td><td class="rh-headcell-people"><a href="../../../film/id/445817/index.html" class="thumbheadlink-people">British Pioneers</a></td></tr><tr><td><p>How the British helped create a new art form</p></td></tr></table></td></tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="3" height="1" border="0" /></td><td><p class="smg">Related people and organisations</p></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"><tr><td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="../../../images/gt/GT_tv_clips02-4x3.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="Thumbnail image of Collings, EsmÃ© (1859-1936)" border="0" /></td><td class="rh-headcell-people"><a href="../519847/index.html" class="thumbheadlink-people">Collings, Esm茅 (1859-1936)</a></td></tr><tr><td><p>Cinematographer, Director</p></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"><tr><td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/files/1185370.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="Thumbnail image of Friese-Greene, Claude (1898-1943)" border="0" /></td><td class="rh-headcell-people"><a href="../585816/index.html" class="thumbheadlink-people">Friese-Greene, Claude (1898-1943)</a></td></tr><tr><td><p>Cinematographer, Director, Producer</p></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"><tr><td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/files/725892.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="Thumbnail image of Smith, G.A. (1864-1959)" border="0" /></td><td class="rh-headcell-people"><a href="../449633/index.html" class="thumbheadlink-people">Smith, G.A. (1864-1959)</a></td></tr><tr><td><p>Director</p></td></tr></table></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> </table> </td></tr> </table> </td> <td width="8"> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="778" height="20" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3"><table width="778" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr class="upperfoot"> <td width="465" align="right" class="upperfoot"></td> <td class="upperfoot"><div class="footer-txt">  <a href="../../../help/terms.html" class="copylink">2003-14 © BFI Screenonline </a> | <a href="../../../help/credits.html" class="copylink">credits</a></div></td> <td align="right" class="upperfoot"><img src="../../../images/nav/lowernav_right_mask.gif" alt="" border="0" /></td> </tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </div></center> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3761544-1"); pageTracker._initData(); pageTracker._trackPageview(); </script> </body> </html>