[LiquidPolymer]

I love the kid who is hamming it up at the bottom of the frame. I've been a photographer/videographer for my entire professional career and have run into this kid many, many times. Adults exhibit this behavior too but it is usually much more moderated.

This kid had to know what a camera was, which end was filming (some early film cameras appeared to be simple boxes), and wanted to make his mark on the final product.

[illusive4080]

It’s crazy to me watching this and thinking that if that kid lived to 100 he would’ve died 30+ years ago. That unknown child will be forever captured on this film.

Every time I watch old films with children in them I always think about how they’ve been dead, hopefully of old age, for a long time already.

[brohee]

Not to be grim, but he was the perfect age class to spend 4 years in the trenches...

The French males born in 1894 had a 92% mobilization rate (those who survived infant mortality that was still huge at the time). In 1920, only 48% of this age class was still alive (the big three killer being infant mortality, combat losses and the "Spanish" (Kansas) flu).

See figure 2a in https://shs.cairn.info/revue-population-et-societes-2014-4-p...

[Jean-Philipe]

There's a German black-and-white comedy "Die Feuerzangenbowle" from 1944 and most of the actors knew this was going to be their last film. They were drafted into the war right after filming wrapped up and all of them died, apart from the main star.

[agurk]

You may be thinking of a different film, as all the cast members listed on wikipedia[0] are stated to have died after 1945.

The trivia section of the German wiki page of the same film says there's a disputed rumour that the film was prolonged to help the young extras avoid conscription.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Feuerzangenbowle_(1944_fil...

[Jean-Philipe]

Thank you for pointing that out! I think that's the rumor I heard...

[TacticalCoder]

> Every time I watch old films with children in them I always think about how they’ve been dead, hopefully of old age, for a long time already.

I've got movies (black & white, no audio) recorded on a "Pathe-Baby" camera [1] from my grand-mother and her sister, my great-aunt, in the early 1920s, where they're both little girls playing.

I knew them both very well, they lived through WWII in Europe and they both died old. My great-aunt lived until her 100th year.

Very few things are as moving as this little, short Pathe Baby vids I've got of them.

A few years ago we asked a little local shop to convert these to digital format and these files are precious treasure in the family.

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path%C3%A9-Baby

[jacobsenscott]

Some guy smacks the kid with a light left hook at about 1:14.

[JoeAltmaier]

There even appear to be two guys dressed in uniforms, chivvying kids off the roadway?