There is a period in film history sandwiched between the Lumiere Brothers and the beginning of the studio era that the film theorist Tom Gunning calls an era of the ‘cinema of attractions’. This is a theory used to describe films that are not narrative driven, but rather are driven by the need to amaze, a need to exhibit, a need to acknowledge their audience. This essay will examine the technology behind film, the desideratum for these films to exhibit, as well as the cultural context of film during this period and it will consider the theory behind ‘cinema of attractions’.
In the mid-eighteenth century shadow theatre had arrived in Europe and was at once very popular with audiences (Robinson 1981, p. 2). Magic lanterns go back to the seventeenth century when exhibitors would tour cities and towns (Robinson 1981, p. 9). Whilst invention after invention came and went, it could be argued that it was the invention of photography in 1826 that is the true basis of film as we know it today (Bordwell & Thompson 2011, p. 463). On the 28th December 1895, at the Grand Cafe in Paris the Lumiere Brothers projected for the very first time for a paying audience, film onto a screen (Bordwell & Thompson 2011, p. 463).
It is this experimentation within
film which is in part, the basis of the theory ‘cinema of attractions’, but it
is not only film which includes experimentation that fit within this theory. It
includes any film in which Gunning believes are ‘detouring their energies from
storytelling to display’ (Gunning, in ed. Strauven 2006, p29), films that are
more about the audience’s reaction than building up the narrative. In watching
films such as The Miller and the Sweep (Smith, 1898) for example – it is
a simple story of a miller and a sweep meeting up and having a fight – there is
a sense that the film maker shows no need for strong narrative and there are no
fancy tricks within this film. Rather the film maker is happy to allow the
audience to still be swept up in the amazement that film still elicited during
this period. For the audience of the day, watching film was still seen as a
wonder and they believed that it provided both a scientific fascination and
entertainment for the entire family (Labosier 2004, p. 292).
Initially film was closely
associated with theatre, when film arrived into the United States the first
exhibitors of film were music hall proprietors (Robinson 1981, p. 23), and many
people saw their first ever film in between acts at their local vaudeville
theatre (Labosier 2004, p 292). It is this sense of theatrical display with
some films of this era that help to further illustrate Gunning’s theory, films
such as Magic Bricks (1908). In this short film the audience watches as
two magicians exhibit their skills, they watch as a woman appears and then
disappears, and with the use of some magic bricks they see a child and a
rooster, all with the aid of film trickery.
It is this sense of the act of display which is at the very core of
Gunning’s theory when he says that films that fall within the term of ‘cinema
of attractions’ ‘consists more of framing a momentary appearance, than actual
development’ (Gunning 1993, p9). It is
as if the film maker is aware of the audience, as Gunning states ‘attraction
invokes an exhibitionist rather than a voyeuristic regime’ (Gunning 1993, p.
5).
Gunning clarified that the basis to
his theory was a way in which to describe an approach that film makers of the
period had when making films, he did not believe that all films of this period
fall under the heading of ‘cinema of attractions’ he ‘never claimed that it was
the only aspect’ (Gunning, in ed. Strauven 2006, p28). Although it does seem
natural that during the first years of film that it would appear to exhibit,
considering that film was so closely associated with theatre at the time. Exhibition was what the audiences were used
to, it may even be what they wanted and expected, as if the new technology of
film was an extension of the stage itself.
Behind early experimentation in
film could have been the simple wish to amaze the audience, but also perhaps as
discussed, it was also a continuation of the same experimentation and invention
that had led to film itself. Soon the
audiences demanded more from film once the initial awe and wonder died away,
and this lead to the growth in narrative driven film. When films moved away
from the music halls to nickelodeans and then onto movie palaces, it seems a
natural progression for film to move away from acknowledging and exhibiting to
an audience. Today film is almost
voyeuristic in contrast to the exhibitionism of ‘cinema of attractions’, but
there are times when it seems that the film makers today still feel it is necessary
to exhibit and to amaze their audience.
References
Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin 2011, Film art;
an introduction, 10th edn, McGaw Hill, New York.
Demolition d’un mur 1895,
Short Film, Lumeire Brothers, France.
Gunning, Tom 2006, ‘Attractions:
How They Came into the World’, in Wanda Strauven (ed.) Cinema of Attractions
Reloaded, Amsterdam University Press, Retrieved June 2017 from ProQuest
Ebook Database.
Gunning, Tom 1993, ‘Now you see it, now you don't': the
temporality of the cinema of attractions’, Velvet
Light Trap, vol. 32, no. 32, pp. 3. Retreived June 2017 from Gale Database.
Labosier, James 2004, ‘From the Kinetoscope to the
Nickelodeon: Motion Picture Presentation and Production in Portland, Oregon
from 1894 to 1906’, Film History, vol.
16, no. 3, pp. 286-323. Retrieved July 2017 from Jstor Database.
Magic Bricks 1908, Short
Film, Segundo de Chomon, France.
Repas de bebe 1895, Short
Film, Lumeire Brothers, France.
Robinson, David 1981, World
Cinema 1895-1980, Eyre Methuen, London.
Sortie d’usine 1895, Short
Film, Lumeire Brothers, France.
The Miller and the Sweep 1898,
Short Film, George Albert Smith,
England.
Bibliography
Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin 2011, Film art;
an introduction, 10th edn, McGaw Hill, New York.
Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin 2003, Film
History; an introduction, 2nd edn, McGaw Hill, New York.
Cherchi, Usai Paolo, Brownlow, Kevin & Rittle, Emma
Sansone 1994, Burning passions; an introduction to the study of silent
cinema, British Film Institute, England.
Demolition d’un mur 1895, Short Film, Lumeire
Brothers, France.
Gudreault, Andre 1990, ‘Showing and telling; image and word
in early cinema, in Thomas Elsaesser & Adam Barker (ed.) Early cinema;
space, frame, narrative. BFI Publishing, England.
Gunning, Tom 2006, ‘Attractions: How They Came into the
World’, in Wanda Strauven (ed.) Cinema of Attractions Reloaded,
Amsterdam University Press, Retrieved June 2017 from ProQuest Ebook Database.
Gunning, Tom 1993, ‘Now you see it, now you don't': the
temporality of the cinema of attractions’, Velvet
Light Trap, vol. 32, no. 32, pp. 3. Retreived June 2017 from Gale Database.
Labosier, James 2004, ‘From the Kinetoscope to the
Nickelodeon: Motion Picture Presentation and Production in Portland, Oregon
from 1894 to 1906’, Film History, vol.
16, no. 3, pp. 286-323. Retrieved July 2017 from Jstor Database.
Magic Bricks 1908, Short
Film, Segundo de Chomon, France.
Repas de bebe 1895, Short
Film, Lumeire Brothers, France.
Robinson, David 1981, World
Cinema 1895-1980, Eyre Methuen, London.
Sullivan, Sara 2010, ‘Child
Audiences in America's Nickelodeons, 1900-1915: The Keith/Albee Managers'
Reports’, Historical Journal of Film,
Radio and Television, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 155-168. Retrieved June 2017
from Taylor & Francis Online
Database.
Sortie d’usine 1895, Short
Film, Lumeire Brothers, France.
The Miller and the Sweep 1898,
Short Film, George Albert Smith,
England.
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