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Jaakko Seppälä. The Magical Attractions of Early Cinema & The International Expansion of Cinema. Homepage : http://www.helsinki.fi/taitu/tet/Jaakko/WorldFilmHistory1.html. Brighton and After. For decades early cinema was a neglected field of study
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Jaakko Seppälä The Magical Attractions of Early Cinema &The International Expansion of Cinema Homepage: http://www.helsinki.fi/taitu/tet/Jaakko/WorldFilmHistory1.html
Brighton and After • For decades early cinema was a neglected field of study • Early cinema was seen as an elementary stage of cinematic evolution • International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) held a symposium in Brighton in 1978 • The event brought together film archivists and film historians around a common purpose • Early cinema began to be understood as a period that possessed a different conception of space, time and narrative form from the way in which these issues were approached in the later classical cinema
The Cinema of Attractions • For a long time the history of early cinema was theorised under the hegemony of narrative films • Early cinema (films made before 1906/1907) is now understood as the cinema of attractions • This cinema celebrates its ability to show something • In the first few years the film projector was the attraction • Then the demonstration of the possibilities of cinema continued in films • What ever the attraction is, it is of interest in itself
Actualities and Trick Films • Many early films are non-fiction films – actualities • These films use footage of real events • Topics of actualities: parades, sports, shipwrecks etc. • News events were covered on location where they happened but also recreated in studios • Line between fact and fiction was not sharply drawn • Trick films are cinematic magic tricks • These films are essentially devoid of plot • Special effects were used to show what was possible
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 multi-shot films became common from 1903 • Reasons: artistic innovation, product differentiation, enabled to sell more feet of film, more efficient to shoot films in studios than to make actualities on location • Simple narratives that follow action in linear fashion • New multi-shot film genre: the chase film • Common and popular genre internationally in 1903-1905
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 postproduction • The exhibitor bought single-shot films and created film programs • Lecturing, vocal acting, music, sound effects etc. • Early story films were often based on well known myths, fairy tales and nursery rhymes • Audiences were familiar with these (prior knowledge)
Nickelodeons • Itinerant movie-show people played an important role in the creation of audiences for films outside the largest cities • In the United States storefront nickelodeons in large cities began operating in 1904 and 1905 • Soon nickelodeons opened in every larger town • Preconditions: film production on a large scale and film exchanges • In 1910 26 million Americans visited nickelodeons every week (mass entertainment)
The International Expansion • Before the turn of the decade cinema was truly an international phenomenon • Films travelled freely across boarders • A typical film show consisted of films made in various countries • There were no national cinemas and it did not much matter where a film was made • Filmmakers influenced each other • This was an era of experimental filmmaking
Georges Méliès (France) • Stage Magician (Theatre Robert Houdin) • In 1896 Méliès bought a 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 motion • Superimpositions • In many ways these films are excessively theatrical • Méliès was internationally successful until 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 (fréeries) • Pathé became the first vertically integrated 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 was a small company founded in 1908 by Paul Latiffe • The company had good connections to the theatre world • Film d’Art produced prestigious art films films for upper class audiences • L’assassinat du duc de Guise (1908) • Legitimate actors, scripts written by famous dramatists and original scores by well known composers • Film as art • In 1911 the company was in debt and had to be sold
British Cinema • British cinema had an influential and innovative beginning • Silent British films made after 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 editing and shooting practices • Rescued by Rover (1905)
Italy • Fiction film production began in 1905 • In the early 1910s Italy was one of the major powers in world cinema • Early film production: actualities, historical films and slapstick comedies • Soon Italy was known for historical epics • The zenith of achievement: Cabiria (1914) • First feature films were made in the early 1910s • Diva films (Lyda Borelli & Francesca Bertini) • Strongman films (Maciste)
