Early Motion Pictures The Natural, the fantastic and the cinema of attractions Lecturer: Dr. Jon Cockburn The Living Playing Cards 1905. Dir. George Méliès. B&W. Silent. 2min 50sec.
LECTURE PLAN SELECTED KEYWORDS: Phenakistiscope, Zoetrope, Stereoscope, Chronophotography, Kinetoscope, Cinematographe, actualities, stop-motion, image metamorphoses, cinema of attractions, diegetic, non-diegetic 1. Precursory concerns: 19th Century optical devices and the photography of movement 2. The first film: Capturing naturally occurring scenes 3. Early cinema: magical effects and the fragmentation of phenomena 4. Technique in service of narrative: American cinema's beginnings 5. The cinema of attractions: addressing the spectator 6. Comparing Edwin S. Porter (narrative) and Charles Chaplin (attractions/narrative)
The moving image: structures of early cinema Developments in physiological optics and photographic media prior to moving film: Mechanism that projected hand-drawn moving images onto a screen was first described in European culture by Lucretius in 70 BC. Flick book depicting erotic subject matter were popular from the sixteenth century Phenakistiscope (similar to the flick book): Joseph Plateau, 1831 and the theory of "persistence of vision Zoetrope W.G. Horner, 1834 Stereoscope (1832 Sir Charles Wheatstone/1851 Sir David Brewster at the Great Exhibition, London: stereoscope a device for viewing two identical images at close range via binoculars to create a third enhanced view) Chronophotography (Etienne-Jules Marey): Chrono = time, time photography Kinetoscope Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) & William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (1860-1935) Pioneers of the early moving film: Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) Emile Reynaud (1844-1918) Auguste Lumière (1862-1954) and Louis Lumière (1864-1948) George Méliès (1861-1938) Edwin S. Porter (1869-1941)
Nineteenth Century interest the phenomenon of retinal afterimages and the persistence of vision Thaumatropes c.1825 (Crary 1999, p.105) A Phenakistrope or Fantascope Disc (c. 1833) Manufactured by Ackermann & Co. (Parkinson, 1995, p.113) Zoetrope Diagram of an assembled Phenakistrope (Crary 1999, p.109)
NINETEENTH CENTURY OPTICAL DEVICES IN ACTION Thaumatrope in action Phenakistrope in action Pushpin Tape or glue tabs to underside of disc SONY PICTURES CLASSICS Tape edge A behind edge B Print this page at magnification for larger zoetrope (you may need a bigger pencil) Use heavy construction paper Cut out slots Edge A Fold along dotted line Edge B Download plan for DIY Zoetrope
PLAYING WITH THE BINOCULAR PARALLAX THE STEREOSCOPE In 1859, Oliver Wendell Holmes on the fidelity of detail captured by the stereoscope: A painter shoes (sic) us masses; the stereoscope figure spares us nothing, all must be there, every stick, straw, scratch, as faithfully as the dome of St. Peter's, or the summit of Mont Blanc, or the ever-moving stillness of Niagara. The sun is no respecter of persons or of things (p.58). Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) I look into the eyes of the caged tiger, and on the scaly train of the crocodile, stretched on the sands of the river that has mirrored a hundred dynasties. I stroll through Rhenish vineyards, I sit under Roman arches, I walk the streets of once buried cities, I look into the chasms of Alphine glaciers, and on the rush of wasteful cataracts. I pass, in a moment, from the banks of the Charles to the ford of the Jordan, and leave my outward frame in the arm-chair at my table, while in spirit I am looking down upon Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. (Holmes [1859] 1980, p.59) Primary Text: David Brewster. Lenticular Stereoscope. 1849. (Crary 1999, p.121) Holmes, Oliver Wendell The Stereoscope and the Stereograph The Atlantic Monthly 3 June 1859: 738-748, rpt. Newhall B (ed) 1980, Photography: Essays & Images: Illustrated Readings in the History of Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, pp.53-61 (ISBN: 0-87070-385-4).
Hippolyte Jouvin. le Pont-Neuf. c.1860-65. Stereoscope photograph. Column Stereoscope. 1870s. French stereoscope slide claiming to be of an artistic subject, 1887. (Christie 1994, p.75) SIMILI VERRE similarities spectacles, implying a spectacle of incredible reality that in today s terms would equate to the rhetoric surrounding claims made of the quality of experience to be found in virtual reality environments. In English, verisimilitude. Gaspard-Felix Tournachen Nadar (1820-1910) Portrait of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Photograph. c.1860 Claude Monet (1840-1926) Boulevade des Capucines. 1873. Oil on canvas. 79 x 59 cm. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. (Exhibited at the First Impressionist Exhibition 1874)
Photographic studies of movement: Marey and Muybridge Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) French Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) Anglo-American Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904). Chronophotograph of a fencer. c.1880s. Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) "Fencing" 1887, from Animal Locomotion. An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements 1872-1885. Stanford University Museum of Art.
Magic Lanterns, slides and the chronophotograph A variety of eighteenth and nineteenth century magic lanterns and slides. (Parkinson 1995, p. 10) The image, non-photographic and photographic, projected and enlarged Emile Reynaud (1844-1918) using his 'Praxinoscope à projections' to present 'Pantomine Lumineus' at his 'Théâtre Optique' from 1892-1900. (Parkinson 1995, p.11) Theatre of light, illusion and fantasy Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) Kinetoscope film strip: Fred Ott's sneeze c.1894 Jan. 9., length 5 sec., Edison's technician, William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson (1860-1935) on directions from Edison created a series of short films.. The star is Fred Ott, an Edison employee known to his fellow workers in the laboratory for his comic sneezing and other gags...[this is the] earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture. Library of Congress, accessed 21 August 2011 @ <http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/970224/ treasures.html>
Edison s Kinetoscope In 1888, Muybridge demonstrated his Zoopraxiscope to Edison and the latter wrote in his notebook that he was now experimenting with an instrument that would do for the Eye what the phonograph did for the Ear. (Christie 1994, p.72) Eadweard Muybridge's 'Zoopraxiscope' Projector, c.1885 Edison s Kinetoscope was a private viewing machine. The film was formed in a continuous loop running around rollers in the base of the machine: no need to rewind before the next showing! (Monaco 2000, p.76) Peter Bacigalupi's Kinescope Parlour (San Francisco, 1904). The first parlour opened on 14 April 1894. Ladies and gentlemen amusing themselves at the Kinetoscope parlor at 28th Street and Broadway, circa 1895. That s a bust of the modest inventor, prominent in the foreground. (Monaco 2000, p. 77)
EDISON S KINETOSCOPE: THE MOVING IMAGE PROTO-CINEMA The Rice/Irwin Kiss (1896). Shot for the Kinetoscope, this kiss between the Broadway stars John Rice and May Irwin provoked outrage when it was projected onto a large screen. (Parkinson 1995, p.15) Edison Kinetoscope Films 1894-1896: 4min 24sec The Kiss (1896) Broadway stars John Rice and May Irwin Serpentine Dances Sandow (The Strong Man) Glenroy Brothers (Comic Boxing) Cockfight The Barber Shop Feeding the Doves Seminary Girls
The Lumière Cinématographe 1895 Louis Lumière (1864-1948) and his brother Auguste Lumière (1862-1954) c.1900. Louis Lumière (1864-1948) and Auguste Lumière (1862-1954) Dinner Hour at the Lumière Factory, Lyon 1895. Grab: 52 sec. Film Still: Louis Lumière (1864-1948) and Auguste Lumière (1862-1954) Dinner Hour at the Lumière Factory, Lyon 1895. The word Cinematographe, derived from the Greek Kinema or Kinematos (movement) and graphein (to write), was coined to describe their invention, most probably via consideration of the name of Edison's camera, the Kinetographe (kinetoscope).
The Lumière Filmed actualities A poster advertising the Lumières Cinématographe (1896). The film is L Arroseur arrosé, in which a mischievous boy steps off a hose pipe when the gardener examines the nozzle to see why the water has stopped. (Parkinson 1995, p.16) Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat c.1896 Baby s Lunch c.1896 The Sprinkler Sprinkled c.1896 Grab Length: 2min 18sec. Yesterday I was in the kingdom of the shadows Maxim Gorky in 1896
George Méliès (1861-1938) George Méliès (1861-1938) 1894 poster for a magic presentation at Méliès Paris theatre anticipating many of the effects he would later achieve on film. Film Still. La vovage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) Dir. George Méliès. 1902. Film Still. Le Cartes vivantes (The Living Playing Cards) Dir. George Méliès. 1904.
George Méliès (1861-1938) La vovage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon). 1902. Dir. George Méliès. B&W. Silent. 11min 46sec.
Lumière brothers in contrast to Méliès Georges Méliès transformed the cinema by substituting an extravagantly antinaturalistic approach for the Lumieres' apparently passive recording of scenes in nature... an antinaturalistic tradition stood opposed to a mimetic one (Staller 1989, pp. 203-204) Louis Lumière (1864-1948) and his brother Auguste Lumière (1862-1954) c.1900. Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) Lumière s = REALIST (ACTUALITIES) Méliès = FORMALIST (ARTISTIC IMAGINATION) George Méliès (1861-1938) Still From: Les cartes vivante (The living playing cards), 1904-05. Rudolf Arnheim (b.1904) INDIRECTNESS Versus NATURALNESS (art) (popular culture) Stop-motion Dissolve Splitscreen Image metamorphoses Fast and slow motion Lighting and special effects Jump-cut
Kracauer on the PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIUM of moving film (cinema): The properties of film can be divided into basic and technical properties. The basic properties are identified with the properties of photography. Film, in other words, is uniquely equipped to record and reveal physical reality and, hence, gravitates toward it. [...] Of all the technical properties of film the most general and indispensable is editing.... Among the more special cinematic techniques are some which have been taken over from photography e.g. the close-up, soft-focus pictures, the use of negatives, double or multiple exposure, etc. Others, such as the lap-dissolve, slow and quick motion, the reversal of time, certain special effects, and so forth, are for obvious reasons exclusively peculiar to film. (Kracauer Basic Concepts 1960 rpt. Mast, Cohen & Braudy 1992, p.10) Arnheim on paraphrasing in film:... in order to get a full impression it is not necessary for it [moving pictures] to be complete in the naturalistic sense. All kinds of things may be left out which would be present in real life, so long as what is shown contains the essentials (Arnheim 1957 rpt. Mast, Cohen & Braudy 1992, p.271)
Edwin S. Porter (1869-1941) Edwin S. Porter (1869-1941) Film Still. The Great Train Robbery Dir. Edwin S. Porter. 1903. The Great Train Robbery established the basic principles of continuity editing and did much to widen the vocabulary of film's universal language. Porter's revolution gave cinema a new spatial and temporal freedom... (Parkinson 1995, p.20) Edwin S. Porter, The Great Train Robbery (1903), lasting some 12 minutes, consisted of 14 individual shots. The last was completely nondiegetic and depicted the sheriff shooting directly at the audience. (Parkinson 1995, p.20)
Edwin S. Porter (1869-1941) The Great Train Robbery 1903. Dir. Edwin S. Porter. B&W. Silent. 10min 20sec. TRY AND TAKE APART THE CONSTRUCTION OF THIS EARLY EXAMPLE OF NARRATIVE CINEMA AS YOU WATCH
THE MOVING IMAGE EARLY FILM KEY EXAMPLES August and Louis Lumière Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) Georges Méliès A Trip to the Moon (1902) ACTUALITIES REALIST: Lumière s apparently passive recording of scenes in nature = Mimetic approach. (Staller 1989) However, the Lumière s technique of framing shots immediately established the possibilities as well as extended visual vocabulary beyond the limitations of traditional theatre. Edwin S. Porter The Great Train Robbery (1903) FANTASY FORMALIST: Méliès: extravagantly anti-naturalistic approach = formalist (Staller 1989) Méliès explores the structural potential of the media of film to create convincing, fanciful and engaging effects. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: Porter established the basic principles of continuity editing and did much to widen the vocabulary of film's universal language. (Parkinson 1995, p. 20) Continuity editing = Narrative cinema
The Cinema of Attractions In the early 1980s, the three assumptions (evolutionary, cinematic and narrative) on early cinema that underpin a continuity model of cinema's development were questioned by Tom Gunning and André Gaudreault. The continuity model "sees early cinema as a preparatory period for later film styles and practices, the infancy of an art form" (Gunning Silent Cinema Reader p.42). Curiosity-arousing devices and the act of display (pp.42-43) A cinematic gesture of presentation (pp.42-43) Dr. Tom Gunning The University of Chicago, IL 60637 USA The role of the spectator (pp.43-44) Unique spectatorial address (pp.43-44) exhibitionist regime (pp.43-44) addresses the spectator (pp.43-44) confronts audiences (pp.43-44) In 1890, Lyman Howe found a new mechanical marvel to bring to the people of northeastern Pennsylvania - the Edison phonograph. For the next several years, he offered recorded concerts of music and speech in any gathering place where he could get a booking. Stressing the moral and enriching qualities of his "high class" presentations, the self-styled "Professor" Howe appealed to a broad wide range of audiences. Accessed 20 August 2011 @ <http://explorepahistory.com/ Lyman H Howe (1856-1923) Lyman H. Howe's new marvels in moving pictures c.1889, Caption: Unable to secure a license from Thomas Edison to use his Kinetoscope, Lyman Howe in 1896 built his own two-reel projector, spliced Edison films together to offer longer, uninterrupted shows, used a phonograph to add sound, and was soon staging "high class" film programs across northeastern Pennsylvania. Soon, Howe was running six traveling companies his Wilkes-Barre headquarters. To keep his audiences entertained, he added backstage crews to provide sound effects, toured Europe to acquire more exotic footage for his travelogues, and became the nation's first filmmaker to employ teams to shoot newsreels and American travelogues. Source: Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA. Accessed 20 August 2011 @ <http://explorepahistory.com/>
Cinema of Attractions Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) The Cure (1917). Dir. Charlie Chaplin. B&W. Silent. 25min. Grab length: 3min 07sec. Arrival, revolving door and check-in Charlie Chaplin The Inebriate Edna Purviance The girl Eric Campbell With the gout Henry Bergman The Masseur
Story defined: The set of all the events in a narrative, both the ones explicitly presented and those the viewer infers, composes the story.... (Bordwell & Thompson 1993, p.66). The total world of the story action is sometimes called the film's diegesis (the Greek word for "recounted story"). (p.67) Plot defined: The term plot is used to describe everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us. (p.67) DIEGETIC/NON-DIEGETIC In the cinema, the word diegesis refers to the film's represented instance, the sum of the film's DENOTATION, i.e. the narration itself, plus the fictional space and time dimensions implied in and by the narrative (characters, landscapes, events, etc.), and even the story as it is received and felt by the spectator. The diegesis is thus an imaginary construction, the fictive space and time in which the film operates, the assumed universe in which the narrative takes place. (Stam, Burgoyne and Flitterman-Lewis 1992, p. 38) Mise en scène Symbols and Motifs deus ex machina Diagram representing the totality of a narrative film s elements Story Inferred Explicitly presented Added nondiegetic events events material (Bordwell D and Thompson K 1993, Film Art: An Introduction. Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, p.67) Plot
Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) Cinema of Attractions + Plot? The Cure (1917). Dir. Charlie Chaplin. B&W. Silent. 25min. Grab length: 5min 17sec. The masseur Charlie Chaplin The Inebriate Edna Purviance The girl Eric Campbell With the gout Henry Bergman The Masseur
SELECTED READINGS (MLA) EARLY CINEMA PRIMARY DOCUMENTS Arnheim, Rudolf. "The Complete Film" from Film as Art (1933) in Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Fourth Edition. Eds. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen and Leo Braudy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. 48-51. Arnheim, Rudolf. from: "Film and Reality" Film as Art rpt. in Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Fourth Edition. Eds. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen and Leo Braudy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. 268-277. Gorky, Maxim. The Lumière Cinematograph (extracts) (1896) Rpt. The Film Factory: Russian and Soviet Cinema in Documents 1896-1939. Ed. Richard Taylor and Ian Christie. London: Routledge, 1994. 25-26. Kracauer, Siegfried. "Basic Concepts" from Theory of Film (1960) rpt. in Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Fourth Edition. Eds. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen and Leo Braudy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. 9-20. Kracauer, Siegfried. "The Establishment of Physical Existence" from Theory of Film (1960) rpt. in Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Fourth Edition. Eds. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen and Leo Braudy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. 249-259. TEXTS Andrew, Dudley. Concepts in Film Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984 Andrew, J. Dudley. The Major Film Theories, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976 Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993 Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative. Ed. T. Elsaesser. London: BFI, 1990 Ezra, Elizabeth. Georges Méliès. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000 Gunning, Tom. The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant Garde Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative. Ed. T. Elsaesser. London: BFI, 1990 Stam, Robert et al. "Part I The Origins of Semiotics" and "Part II Cine-semiology" New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics, London: Routledge, 1992. 1-27; 28-68 Silent Cinema Reader. Ed. Lee Grieveson and Peter Krämer. London: Routledge, 2004 Staller, Natasha. "Melies 'Fantastic' Cinema and the Origins of Cubism" Art History. Vol 12. No 2. June 1989 202-232
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