Oldest film depicting a robot found in US Library of Congress archive
Archivists at the Library of Congress believe they may have discovered the first depiction of a robot in cinemas, thanks to a 127-year-old reel that had been gathering dust in a garage for decades. The artifact in question is called Gugusse And The Automaton, a 45-second-long reel made by pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès sometime around 1897, Popular Science writes.
The reel had not been screened for more than a century.
Though appearing more than 20 years before the word robot was officially coined, it still manages to touch on an enduring theme reoccurring in sci-fi movies to this day. A fear of the robots fighting back.
In the brief silent film, Méliès portrays a magician named Gugusse who is showing off an “automaton” in what looks like a proto–robot manufacturing facility. The automaton is dressed as a clown and stands on top of a pedestal. After some exuberant jumping, Gugusse begins twisting a crank at the bottom of the pedestal, apparently winding up the automaton like a toy. Once wound up, the robot moves its arms up and down, much to Gugusse’s delight. That delight, however, doesn’t last long.
In the next scene, the automaton is replaced by a larger humanoid figure. Gugusse once again winds it up, and the machine again responds by moving its limbs. But this time, after a few sporadic gyrations, the automaton reorients itself toward the magician and begins using the walking sticks in its hands as weapons, aggressively beating its creator. In a fit of rage, Gugusse grabs the robot by the legs and hoists it off the pedestal. He then pulls out a comically large hammer and bashes the automaton over the head. With each blow, the machine grows smaller and smaller until it disappears entirely. And just like that, the clip ends.
Experts knew about this old silent film but thought it was lost forever.
It was found by chance in a collection of films that belonged to a 19th-century potato farmer named William Delisle Frisbee. He used to travel around showing movies with his projector. His family later donated the films to the Library of Congress.
Now the film is available to watch for free in 4K.
