Deer Hunt and Steeplechase

This 1900 silent film, captured in black-and-white, presents two distinct vignettes of early 20th-century sporting life, showcasing the thrill of the chase and competition. Part 1 unfolds in the English countryside, detailing a deer hunt without subtitles. A pack of hounds, tails wagging, is unleashed after a deer, their bays silent but implied as they streak across fields. Hunters in tweed jackets gallop on horseback, leaping hedges in pursuit, the camera tracking their charge through misty meadows. The deer, cornered in a creek, is surrounded by barking dogs before men hoist its carcass, a grim trophy. Part 2 shifts to Paris’s Auteuil track for a steeplechase. Spectators in top hats and bustled dresses place bets, while jockeys parade sleek horses before the race. The steeplechase erupts—horses vault obstacles, hooves thundering, some stumbling in the fray. A wordless ode to aristocratic sport, it captures the era’s raw energy and class-bound rituals through a pioneering cinematic lens.