Mark Kirkland has directed nearly 80 episodes of The Simpsons, which is supposedly more than anyone else who’s worked on the show. He’s also apparently a huge fan of classic, hand-cranked movie cameras, and he decided to make a short film that could actually put them to use. The result is The Moving Picture Co. 1914, a silent short that toured through film festivals last year and is now debuting online. It’s about an aspiring actress visiting a movie studio, but as you’d imagine, things go awry and plenty of slapstick moments ensue. Notably among those is a scene where Weird Al, playing an actor playing Jesus in a reenactment of “The Last Supper,” gets into a food fight. It’s not quite The Artist, but it’s a fun throwback to the works of Chaplin and Keaton.
Watch Weird Al play Jesus in this silent film
From a frequent director of The Simpsons
From a frequent director of The Simpsons
is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.
The film can’t be embedded, but you can watch it over at Kirkland’s Vimeo page.
Simpsons director @markk1914 decided to make an authentic silent movie using 100-year-old equipment, because why not? http://t.co/0BWegiKBh3
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) May 21, 2015 Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
