Early cinema : space, frame, narrative / Thomas Elsaesser; Adam Barker.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Elsaesser, Thomas, 1943-2019, editor.

Barker, Adam, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Silent films--History and criticism.

Motion pictures--History.

Motion picture industry--History.

Motion picture industry.

Motion pictures.

Silent films.

Film & Media.

British Film Institute.

Local Subjects:

Film & Media.

British Film Institute.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (434 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

London : British Film Institute : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 1990.

Summary:

In the twenty years preceding the First World War, cinema rapidly developed from a fairground curiosity into a major industry and social institution, a source of information and entertainment for millions of people. Only recently have film scholars and historians begun to study these early years of cinema in their own right and not simply as first steps towards the classical narrative cinema we now associate with Hollywood. The essays in this collection trace the fascinating history of how the cinema developed its forms of storytelling and representation and how it evolved into a complex industry with Hollywood rapidly acquiring a dominant role. These issues can be seen to arise from new readings of the so-called pioneers--Melies, Lumier̀e, Porter, and Griffith--while also suggesting new perspectives on major European filmmakers of the 1910s and 20s. Editor Thomas Elsaesser complements the contributions from leading British, American, and European scholars with introductory essays of his own that provide a comprehensive overview of the field. The volume is the most authoritative survey to date of a key area of contemporary film research, invaluable to historians as well as to students of cinema.

Contents:

General introduction : Early cinema : from linear history to mass media archaeology

[Part] I : Early film form : articulations of space and time

Film form 1900-1906 / Barry Salt

Deep staging in French films 1900-1914 / Ben Brewster

The cinema of attractions : early films, its spectator and the avant-garde / Tom Gunning

Let there be Lumier̀e / Dai Vaughan

Film, narrative, narration : the cinema of the Lumier̀e Brothers / Andre ́Gaudreault

From Lumier̀e to Pathe ́: the break-up of perspectival space / Richard deCordova

Non-continuity, continuity, discontinuity : a theory of genres in early films ; 'Primitive' cinema : a frame-up? or, the trick's on us / Tom Gunning

Shots in the dark : the real origins of film editing / Stephen Bottomore

The infringement of copyright laws and its effects (1900-1906) / Andre ́Gaudreault

The travel genre in 1903-1904 : moving towards fictional narrative / Charles Musser

Detours in film narrative : the development of cross-cutting / Andre ́Gaudreault.

[Part] II : The institution cinema : industry, commodity, audiences

Economic conditions of early cinema / Michael Chanan

Combination and litigation : structures of US film distribution, 1896-1917 / Janet Staiger

In the beginning was the word : six pre-Griffith motion picture scenarios / Patrick G. Loughney

A primitive mode of representation? / Noel̈ Burch

Early cinema : whose public sphere? / Miriam Hansen

Some historical footnotes to the Kuleshov experiment / Yuri Tsivian

The nickelodeon era begins : establishing the framework for Hollywood's mode of representation / Charles Musser

Showing and telling : image and word in early cinema / Andre ́Gaudreault

Silent films : what was the right speed? / Kevin Brownlow.

[Part] III : The continuity system : Griffith and beyond

A scene at the "movies" / Ben Brewster

"A properly adjusted window" : vision and sanity in D.W. Griffith's 1908-1909 Biograph films / Anne Friedberg

Weaving a narrative : style and economic background in Griffith's Biograph films / Tom Gunning

Griffith : the frame, the figure / Jacques Aumont

To alternate/to narrate / Raymond Bellour

Spatial and temporal articulation in pre-classical Swedish film / John Fullerton

'The student of Prague' : division and codification of space / Leon Hunt.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Online resource; description from resource and publisher's metadata (viewed on 18 December 2021).

ISBN:

9781838710170

1838710175

9781838715465

1838715460

9781838715472

1838715479

OCLC:

1289634524

Publisher Number:

206056