Early Cinema

Flicker Alley: Cecil Court and the Emergence of the British Film Industry

by Simon Brown

‘Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory’: The Cinematic Adaptation of American Poetry

by Michael Devine

Adaptation 5.1 (March 2012): 1-17

This essay reconstructs a forgotten crisis in American letters and film: President Theodore Roosevelt's unpopular... more This essay reconstructs a forgotten crisis in American letters and film: President Theodore Roosevelt's unpopular campaign to make ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ the nation's poem in 1908 and the poem's popular film adaptation in 1911. As the cinematic response to poetry's failure as a national art, the Vitagraph film became a collectivist hymnal for the nation's dream of assimilation. Featured prominently in American poet Vachel Lindsay's pioneering work of film theory, The Art of the Moving Picture (1915), the adaptation effectively reasserted the popular roots of the otherwise genteel ‘Battle Hymn’ poem and by doing so helped to modernize poetry's communal function and the nation's literary tradition.

CFP: International Film and Media Studies Journal: Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

by Ágnes Pethő

The International, peer-reviewed, open access journal of the Sapientia University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) invites the submission of original, previously unpublished articles written in English. Articles in all areas of film and media studies are welcome. Deadline for the next issue: June 15, 2012. Previous issue available online here: http://www.acta.sapientia.ro/acta-film/, and here: http://issuu.com/actauniversitatissapientiae/docs/film4_2011

"An Art That Won't Behave": Film and the Seven Arts, 1907-1921

by Michael Devine

American Literature 84.1 (March 2012): 89-117

In the first two decades of the twentieth century, American artists connected to the journal the Seven Arts sought to... more In the first two decades of the twentieth century, American artists connected to the journal the Seven Arts sought to transform the cinema into an indigenous art free from European influence. Precisely because the cinema was “an art that won't behave,” as the journal's first essay on film put it, it depended on the arts as tutor texts in the effort to restrain sensory disorder and reinvigorate communal life. Wholly absent from critical treatments that see film as a model for the most kinetic modernist practices, the journal provides entry to a richly interdisciplinary history of American cinema: in the critical writings and poetry of the journal's contributors, including James Oppenheim, Waldo Frank, Vachel Lindsay, Stephen Vincent Benét, and Babette Deutsch, and in the works of artists close to the journal—John Sloan's painting Movies, Five Cents (1907) and Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler's abstract film Manhatta (1921). Imagined as a shelter from the most dispiriting forces of urban-industrial modernity, the cinema was at once embraced, challenged, and idealized by these artists who practiced what Wanda Corn has called a “transcendent modernism.”

A Short History of Superimposition: From Spirit Photography to Early Cinema

by Simone Natale

Early Popular Visual Culture 10.2 (2012): 125-145

Free download in the Francis&Taylor site (only available for a limited time):
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9ZVBXSfGTn7xhzsTdMmw/full

As several scholars have noted, the use of superimposition effects in cinema to conjure such apparitions as ghosts,... more As several scholars have noted, the use of superimposition effects in cinema to conjure such apparitions as ghosts, fairies, devils, and other fantastic creatures finds a significant precedent in spirit photography, a spiritualist practice by which the image of one or more spirits was ‘magically’ captured on a photographic plate. However, arguing for a relationship of direct filiation between spirit photography and the tricks employed in film remains problematic, especially given that spirit pictures were entangled with matters of religious belief. This article calls for a more solid insertion of spiritualism’s visual culture into the pre-history of film practice, giving three main cases in support of the relationship between spirit photography and early cinema. Firstly, the commercial use of spirit photographs within the spiritualist movement suggests that the circulation of these images was not exclusively informed by matters of belief. Secondly, the popularization of exposures of spirit photography operated by numerous stage magicians in the late nineteenth century can contribute towards explaining the insertion of multiple-exposure techniques in the technical expertise of early filmmakers. Thirdly, a documented case in which spirit photographs were presented to a paying public in the vein of magic lantern entertainments demonstrates that the spiritualist visual culture intersected the nineteenth-century tradition of the projected image, too. Thus, by sketching a history of superimposition effects in photography, stage magic, magic lantern, and cinema, this article claims that visual representations of ghosts in the nineteenth century constantly wavered between religion and spectacle, fiction and realism, and still and moving pictures.

Rhetoric of Space: Cityscape/Landscape

by Nanna Verhoeff

With Eva Warth
Published in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/01439685.html)

"The purpose of this issue is to propose a re-examination of non-Žfiction film through the perspective of Early... more "The purpose of this issue is to propose a re-examination of non-Žfiction film through the perspective of Early Cinema. While the distinction between Žfiction and non-Žfiction is arguably a problematic one, it still proves to be a highly popular heuristic tool in media studies. Our article demonstrates ways in which a historical assessment of these categories may open up new perspectives on this dichotomy. The starting point of our
article is the assumption that in Early Cinema, issues of non-Ž ction—and by implication: Ž ction—are anchored in the construction of space, which is articulated as landscape and cityscape. Although we propose to discuss the central aspects of early non-Ž ction through two pairs of oppositions—non-Ž ction/Ž ction and landscape/cityscape—we will not repeat the now all too familiar deconstruction of binary oppositions, but instead we will explore the productiveness of these oppositions, both
individually and in relation to each other. Rather than grounding their difference in ontology, we will focus on the way they function discursively. We therefore propose to locate their operation in rhetoric. As each category acquires sense through the opposition to the other, each representation is necessarily rhetorical whereby our double set of oppositions work in conjunction: the engineering of space is achieved by an
intriguing rhetoric of Žfiction and non-fiction."

Archival Poetics

by Nanna Verhoeff

“Archival Poetics.” Mieke Bal (ed.) Narrative Theory. Critical Concepts In Literary And Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 2004: vol. II. Reprinted from Screening the Past: An International Electronic Journal of Visual Media and History #14 (uploaded September 20, 2002)

Alfred Hitchcock's Technical Achievement In Directing the Perfect Suspenseful Film

by Michael Farrell

During my Fall semester last year I took a class called Great Directors in Film.  This is a six page paper on Alfred Hitchcock's achievement at becoming known as the master of suspense through his films.

The Director as an Effective Historian

by Michael Farrell

In Fall 2011 I had the fortunate opportunity to take Great Directors of Film, a class at my current college of Ave Maria University.  This is my first essay in the class, which explains how the director of a film is a good historian based on the unique power he has of influencing the audiences of the films he creates.

Nacimiento del relato cinematográfico: Griffith 1908-1912

by Vicente Sánchez-Biosca

An Old Way of Dissolving Views

by Deac Rossell

A Small Mystery Solved: Birt Acres in "Venice"

by Deac Rossell

The Anschuetz Zoetropes

by Deac Rossell

The Spectacular Supernatural: Spiritualism, Entertainment, and the Invention of Cinema

by Simone Natale

Cinéma & Cie 10.14-15 (2011): 175-77

This is a summary of my PhD dissertation, which examines the relationship between the emergence of spiritualism and... more This is a summary of my PhD dissertation, which examines the relationship between the emergence of spiritualism and the rise of modern show business from the middle nineteenth century to the introduction of cinema.

“Dark Intervals, Mechanics and Magic: Animated Movement as the Illusion of Life”

by Paul Ward

This is a video recording of an invited lecture I gave at the University of Utrecht, 23 September 2011. I was invited by the University's Centre for Humanities and the Holland Animated Film Festival, and will be the first CfH/HAFF Fellow in Spring 2012. During the Fellowship, I will explore in more detail some of the themes mapped out in this lecture, to do with process, materiality and magic.

A Lady Crazy About Film, Thea Cervenkova and Women Film Pioneers in Czechoslovakia

by Jindriska Blahova

in Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and  Monica Dall’Asta (eds), Women Film Pioneers Project Center for Digital Research and Scholarship. New York (New York:  Columbia University  Libraries,  2011)

Quand l'humanitaire commençait à faire son cinéma: les films du CICR des années 20

by Enrico Natale

Enrico Natale, "Quand l'humanitaire commençait à faire son cinéma: les films du CICR des années 1920", Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge, no. 854, juin 2004.

En 2001 s’est terminée la restauration du fonds film du CICR pour la période 1920-1957. Près d’une centaine de... more En 2001 s’est terminée la restauration du fonds film du CICR pour la période 1920-1957. Près d’une centaine de documents exceptionnels sur les activités du CICR ont été sauvés et rendus visibles au public.

Cet article retrace les circonstances qui ont présidés aux premiers pas de la production cinématographique du CICR, au début des années 1920. Le cinématographe, média récent et prometteur, va être mis à profit pour faire connaître les nouvelles activités d’assistance qu’entreprend le CICR à la fin de la première guerre mondiale.

Les 4 premiers films sont produits à l’occasion de la Xe Conférence internationale du Mouvement de la Croix-Rouge qui se tient à Genève en 1921. Le rapatriement des prisonniers de guerre via Stettin-Narva présente le transport par la mer Baltique de près de 400’000 soldats entre la Russie et l’Allemagne. Les réfugiés russes à Constantinople docum ente les premiers secours apportés aux 170’000 réfugiés russes débarqués à Constantinople en novembre 1920. Actions de secours en faveur des enfants hongrois à Budapest évoque les activités du CICR en faveur des enfants et la misère dans laquelle vivent les habitants de Budapest. La lutte contre le typhus : l’activité du CICR en Pologne montre les mesures prises pour lutter contre les poux, responsables de la propagation l’épidémie de typhus en Europe centrale.

Dès 1922, le cinéma joue un rôle déterminant dans le succès des campagnes humanitaires, les films conservés dans les archives du CICR témoignent des débuts d’un cinéma humanitaire conscient de sa puissance de suggestion et séduit par ses possibilités dramatiques.

CFP: XIV. International Film and Media Studies Conference in Transylvania, THE CINEMA OF SENSATIONS Cluj-Napoca, May 25-26, 2012. Deadline for submissions: 15 January 2012.

by Ágnes Pethő

Updated CFP with confirmed keynote speakers: Laura U. Marks, Yvonne Spielmann.

The Invisible Made Visible: X-Rays as Attraction and Visual Medium at the End of the Nineteenth Century

by Simone Natale

Media History 17.4 (2011): 345-358

Free download in the Francis&Taylor site (only available for a limited time):
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/kFZqam3ptCNCivDG9Twp/full

This article focuses on the early history of X-rays. It argues that, during the first years after their discovery in... more This article focuses on the early history of X-rays. It argues that, during the first years after their discovery in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, they were regarded as a technological attraction and a visual medium. While their application in medical practice was not yet fully established, the possibility of seeing into the realm of the invisible encouraged pioneers of this technology to actively exploit their visual powers. By using a media-history framework, and relying on primary and secondary sources in English, German, French, and Italian, the article takes into account three aspects of the rays’ early display: its character of technological attraction; its association with photography; and its connection to beliefs in the supernatural and the occult.

Aikakoneen matkassa: H. G. Wells ja Robert W. Paul 1895

by Hannu Salmi

published in Menneen ja tulevan välillä: 1800-luvun kulttuurihistorian
lukukirja. Ed. Hannu Salmi. Turku: k&h, 2011: 256-279.

In autumn 1895, Herbert George Wells was seen to enter 44 Hatton Garden in London. The renowned author visited the... more In autumn 1895, Herbert George Wells was seen to enter 44 Hatton Garden in London. The renowned author visited the laboratory of Robert W. Paul, one of the pioneers of early British cinema. Wells had recently made his breakthrough with the novel The Time Machine that speculated about modern technology and its future trajectories, and Paul was obviously eager to show his latest inventions for the author who had shown great interest in technological accomplishments.

Even though only a thin assumption and a few references have remained of the meeting of the two inventors in 1895, it resulted in a patent application that was submitted by Paul to the patent office in London on 24 October 1895. The main idea of the invention was to give “a sensation of voyaging upon a machine through time.”

The main idea of the article is to analyze two imaginary technologies, the Wellsian time machine that was constructed only in the fictional world, and Paul’s patented invention that was never realized. Both technologies remained in the realm of imagination. Even though Terry Ramsaye pointed his attention to these fictitious technologies, he did not develop the setting further and study their linkages. How did Wells’s description of time travel relate to the ways in which Paul’s invention aimed at simulating time travel as a sensory experience? How did these technologies organize time – past, present and future – and what was presented as the destination or the purpose of time travel? What could these imaginary technologies tell about nineteenth-century ideas about progress and modernity?

The temporal axis of the study is the year 1895, and through this focal point the study aims at presenting a cultural history of time travel. Here, cultural history means the possibility to see, analyze and understand time travel in connection to larger structures of meanings, practices and politics that surrounded technology in the late nineteenth-century Europe.