Jaakko Seppälä The Magical A,rac.ons of Early Cinema & The Interna.onal Expansion of Cinema
Brighton and A>er For decades early cinema was a neglected field of study Early cinema was seen as an elementary stage of cinema.c evolu.on Interna.onal Federa.on of Film Archives (FIAF) held a symposium in Brighton in 1978 The event brought together film archivists and historians around a common purpose Early cinema began to be understood as a period that possessed a different concep.on of space,.me and narra.ve form from the way in which these issues were approached in the later classical cinema
The Cinema of A,rac.ons For a long.me the history of early cinema was theorised under the hegemony of narra.ve films The cinema of a,rac.ons (films made before 1906) This cinema celebrates its ability to show something In the first few years the film projector was the a,rac.on Then the demonstra.on of the possibili.es of cinema con.nued in films What ever the a,rac.on is, it is of interest in itself
Actuali.es and Trick Films Many early films are non- fic.on films actuali2es These films use footage of real events Topics of actuali.es: parades, sports, shipwrecks etc. News events were covered on loca.on where they happened but also recreated in studios Line between fact and fic.on was not sharply drawn Trick films are cinema.c magic tricks These films are essen.ally devoid of plot Special effects are used to show what is possible in cinema
Early Story Films First story films were comic skits Before 1903 mainly single- shot films In many of these films there is no sense of depth Longer mul.- shot films became common around 1903 Reasons: ar2s2c innova2on, product differen2a2on, enabled to sell more feet of film, more efficient to shoot films in studios than to make actuali2es on loca2ons Simple narra.ves that follow ac.on in linear fashion New mul.- shot film genre: the chase film Common and popular genre interna.onally in 1903 1905
The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903)
Contextualising Early Films Early films need to be studied in the context of the screen The exhibitor, rather than the image- maker, generally held editorial control and was responsible for what is now called postproduc.on The exhibitor bought single- shot films and created film programs Lecturing, vocal ac.ng, music, sound effects etc. Early story films were o>en based on well known myths, fairy tales and nursery rhymes Audiences were familiar with these (prior knowledge)
Tinted film
Toned film
Blue Tone and Rose Tint
Stencil Colour
Nickelodeons I.nerant movie- show people played an important role in the crea.on of audiences for films outside the largest ci.es In the United States storefront nickelodeons in large ci.es began opera.ng around 1904 Soon nickelodeons opened in every larger town Precondi.ons: film produc.on on a large scale and film exchanges In 1910 26 million Americans visited nickelodeons every week (mass entertainment for the working class)
A Nickelodeon
The Interna.onal Expansion Before the turn of the decade cinema was an interna.onal phenomenon Films travelled freely across borders A typical film show consisted of many short films made in different countries There were no na.onal cinemas and it did not much ma,er where a film was made Filmmakers influenced one another This was an era of experimental filmmaking
Georges Méliès (1861-1938)
Georges Méliès (France) Méliès was a stage Magician (Theatre Robert Houdin) In 1896 Méliès bought a film projector from R. W Paul and built his own film camera Made films for his own company Star Film The master of the trick film Stop mo.on Superimposi.ons In many ways these films are excessively theatrical Méliès was interna.onally successful un.l 1905
Pathé Frères (France) Pathé Frères was formed in 1896 The company produced film equipments and films Pathé camera was the most popular film camera in the world before the 1920s The company produced all kinds of films, but in the early 1900s it was best known for its story films Pathé became the first ver.cally integrated big film company in the world when it opened its own film theatre in 1906 The largest and most important film company in the world before the Great War
Film d Art Film d Art founded in 1908 by Paul La.ffe The company had good connec.ons to the theatre world Film d Art produced pres.gious art films films for upper class audiences L assassinat du duc de Guise (1908) Legi.mate actors, scripts wri,en by famous drama.sts and original scores composed by well known composers The idea of film as art Films were expensive to produce and did not a,ract large audiences In 1911 the company was in debt and had to be sold
Bri.sh Cinema Bri.sh cinema had an influen.al and innova.ve beginning Silent Bri.sh films made a>er 1905 have been neglected (and/or considered bad) A large number of phantom ride films in early 1900s Dolly shot films inspired by Lumière films The Brighton School (Williamson & Smith) Ingenuity in edi.ng and shoo.ng prac.ces Spa.al and temporal rela.ons from shot to shot Rescued by Rover (1905)
Italy Fic.on film produc.on began in 1905 In the early 1910s Italy was one of the major powers in world cinema Early film produc.on: actuali.es, historical films and slaps.ck comedies First feature films were made in the early 1910s Italy was known for historical epics The zenith of achievement: Cabiria (1914) Diva films (Lyda Borelli & Francesca Ber.ni) Strongman films (Maciste)
Lyda Borelli
Bartolomeo Pagano