A Companion to Early Cinema

647 Pages·2012·71.306 MB·English

by  Gaudreault, André(Editor);Dulac, Nicolas(Editor);Hidalgo, Santiago(Editor)

a Companion to
André Gaudreault is Professor E E a r ly
in Film Studies at the Université de
Montréal, where he heads the research C i nEm a
group GRAFICS (Groupe de recherche a
sur l’avènement et la formation des “This collection of essays by early cinema scholars from Europe
institutions cinématographique et and North America offers manifold perspectives on early A Companion to Early Cinema is an
scénique). He is also director of the cinema fiction which perfectly reflect the state of international authoritative reference on the field
r
bilingual journal Cinémas, published in research.” a of early cinema. Its 30 peer-reviewed
Montreal. He has presented numerous – Martin Loiperdinger, Universitaet Trier chapters offer cutting-edge research
scholarly papers and published C and original perspectives on the
extensively on film narration and “A fabulous selection of first-rate articles!” l major concerns in early cinema
o
early cinema. – Rick Altman, University of Iowa studies, and take an ambitious look
m
at ideas and themes that will lead
y
Nicolas Dulac is Lecturer in Film “One of the most challenging books in recent film studies: in p discussions about early cinema into
Studies at the Université de Montréal. it, early cinema is both a historical object and a contemporary a a C o m pa n i o n t o the future.
He has published on early cinema and presence. As in a great novel, we can retrace the adventures of
n
turn-of-the-century popular culture in the past – the films, styles, discourses, and receptions that made E a r ly Including work by both established
journals such as 1895 Revue d’Histoire du cinema the breakthrough reality it was in its first decades. But C i and up-and-coming scholars in early
o
Cinéma, Cinema & Cie, and Early Popular we can also come to appreciate how much of this reality is still cinema, film theory, and film history,
Visual Culture. present in our digital world.” n this will be the definitive volume on
– Francesco Casetti, Yale University C i nEm a early cinema history for years to
i
Santiago Hidalgo is Lecturer in Film t come and a must-have reference for
n
Studies at the Université de Montréal. o all those working in the field.
He has published on early cinema, film
criticism, and film historiography in EditEd by André GAudrEAult
Cinémas and in conference proceedings E
nicolAs dulAc And sAntiAGo HidAlGo
for events in Udine, Italy and Cerisy,
France.
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a
EditEd by
GAudrEAult,
dulAc
ISBN 978-1-4443-3231-5
90000 And HidAlGo
Cover image: © Michael Nicholson/Corbis
Cover design: www.simonlevyassociates.co.uk
9 781444 332315
Gaudreault hb artwork.indd 1 27/3/12 21:34:08
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A Companion to Early Cinema
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A Companion to

Early Cinema
Edited by
André Gaudreault, Nicolas Dulac,
and Santiago Hidalgo
Assisted by
Pierre Chemartin
Editorial Board
François Albera, Jennifer Bean, Paolo Cherchi Usai,
Jane M. Gaines, Richard Koszarski, Michèle Lagny,
and Charles Musser
A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
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This edition first published 2012
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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The right of André Gaudreault, Nicolas Dulac, and Santiago Hidalgo to be identified as the authors of
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A companion to early cinema / edited by André Gaudreault, Nicolas Dulac, Santiago Hidalgo ; assisted by
Pierre Chemartin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4443-3231-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures–History. 2. Silent films–History
and criticism. I. Gaudreault, André. II. Dulac, Nicolas. III. Hidalgo, Santiago.
PN1994.C584 2012
791.4309–dc23
2011048257
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Set in 11/13pt Dante by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
1 2012
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Contents

List of Contributors viii
Acknowledgments xiv
Introduction 1
Nicolas Dulac, André Gaudreault, and Santiago Hidalgo
Part I Early Cinema Cultures 13
1 The Culture Broth and the Froth of Cultures of So-called
Early Cinema 15
André Gaudreault
2 Toward a History of Peep Practice 32
Erkki Huhtamo
3 “We are Here and Not Here”: Late Nineteenth-Century
Stage Magic and the Roots of Cinema in the Appearance
(and Disappearance) of the Virtual Image 52
Tom Gunning
4 The Féerie between Stage and Screen 64
Frank Kessler
5 The Théâtrophone, an Anachronistic Hybrid Experiment
or One of the First Immobile Traveler Devices? 80
Giusy Pisano
6 The “Silent” Arts: Modern Pantomime and the Making
of an Art Cinema in Belle Époque Paris: The Case of Georges
Wague and Germaine Dulac 99
Tami Williams
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vi Contents
Part II Early Cinema Discourses 119
7 First Discourses on Film and the Construction
of a “Cinematic Episteme” 121
François Albera
8 The Discourses of Art in Early Film, or, Why Not Rancière? 141
Rob King
9 Sensationalism and Early Cinema 163
Annemone Ligensa
10 From Craft to Industry: Series and Serial Production Discourses
and Practices in France 183
Laurent Le Forestier
11 Early American Film Publications: Film Consciousness,
Self Consciousness 202
Santiago Hidalgo
12 Early Cinema and Film Theory 224
Roger Odin
Part III Early Cinema Forms 243
13 A Bunch of Violets 245
Ben Brewster
14 Modernity Stops at Nothing: The American Chase Film
and the Specter of Lynching 257
Jan Olsson
15 “The Knowledge Which Comes in Pictures”: Educational
Films and Early Cinema Audiences 277
Jennifer Peterson
16 Motion Picture Color and Pathé-Frères: The Aesthetic
Consequences of Industrialization 298
Charles O ’ Brien
Part IV Early Cinema Presentations 315
17 The European Fairground Cinema: (Re)defi ning
and (Re)contextualizing the “Cinema of Attractions” 317
Joseph Garncarz
18 Early Film Programs: An Overture, Five Acts, and an Interlude 334
Richard Abel
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Contents vii
19 “Half Real-Half Reel”: Alternation Format Stage-and-Screen Hybrids 360
Gwendolyn Waltz
20 Advance Newspaper Publicity for the Vitascope
and the Mass Address of Cinema’ s Reading Public 381
Paul S. Moore
21 Storefront Theater Advertising and the Evolution
of the American Film Poster 398
Kathryn H. Fuller-Seeley
22 Bound by Cinematic Chains: Film and Prisons during
the Early Era 420
Alison Griffiths
Part V Early Cinema Identities 441
23 Anonymity: Uncredited and Unknown in Early Cinema 443
Jane M. Gaines
24 The Invention of Cinematic Celebrity in the United Kingdom 460
Andrew Shail
25 The Film Lecturer 487
Germain Lacasse
26 Richard Hoff man: A Collector ’ s Archive 498
Richard Koszarski
Part VI Early Cinema Recollections 525
27 Early Films in the Age of Content; or, “Cinema of Attractions”
Pursued by Digital Means 527
Paolo Cherchi Usai
28 Multiple Originals: The (Digital) Restoration and Exhibition
of Early Films 550
Giovanna Fossati
29 Pointing Forward, Looking Back: Refl exivity and Deixis
in Early Cinema and Contemporary Installations 568
Nanna Verhoeff
30 Is Nothing New? Turn-of-the-Century Epistemes in Film History 587
Thomas Elsaesser
Index 610

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List of Contributors
Richard Abel is Robert Altman Collegiate Professor of Film Studies in Screen
Arts & Cultures at the University of Michigan. Most recently he published
Americanizing the Movies and “Movie-Mad” Audiences, 1910–1914 (2006), co-edited
Early Cinema and the “National ” (2008), and edited a paperback version of the
Encyclopedia of Early Cinema (2010). His current project is M enus for Movie Land:
Newspapers and the Emergence of American Film Culture, 1913–1916 .
François Albera is Professor of History and Aesthetics of Cinema at the Université
de Lausanne (Switzerland). A specialist in Soviet and Russian Cinema Studies, he
has written Eisenstein et le constructivisme russe (1989), A lbatros; des russes à Paris
1919–1929 (1995), and L ’ avant-garde au cinéma (2006), and edited many books,
including S. M. Eisenstein: cinématisme (1980) and L es Formalistes russes et le cinéma,
poétique du film (1995). Albera is also a regular contributor to 1895 Revue d ’H istoire
du Cinéma and was for many years its chief editor.
Ben Brewster has just retired from a position as Assistant Director of the Wisconsin
Center for Film and Theater Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He
formerly taught at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and was editor of S creen .
He has published on early and silent cinema in such journals as Screen , Cinema
Journal , and Film History .
Paolo Cherchi Usai , Senior Curator of Film at George Eastman House in
Rochester, NY, is Curator Emeritus of the National Film and Sound Archive of
Australia and co-founder of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival and the L. Jeffrey
Selznick School of Film Preservation. He directed the experimental film Passio
(2007), adapted from his book The Death of Cinema (2001). His most recent work is
Film Curatorship: Archives, Museums, and the Digital Marketplace (2008).
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