Film and Attraction
From Kinematography to Cinema
Andre Gaudreault (Author), Timothy Barnard (Translated by), Rick Altman (Foreword by)
9780252035838
Hardback, published 17 May 2011
224 pages, 23 black and white photographs
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.426 kg
Author received the Jean Mitry Prize given by the Giornate del Cinema Muto, honoring individuals who contribute to the advancement of history and recognition of silent cinema, 2010.
"This work could indeed help rewrite the history of 'early cinema.' Highly recommended."--Choice
"A tour de force. The many historical references to specific uses of cinematic terms that are summoned by the author is impressive and can be accomplished only by a scholar with long and substantial experience working in the field. Books on film historiography as insightful, substantial, and concise as this one are rare."--Charles O'Brien, author of Cinema's Conversion to Sound: Technology and Film Style in France and the U.S.
Establishing a new vision for film history, Film and Attraction: From Kinematography to Cinema urges readers to consider the importance of complex social and cultural forces in early film. AndrÉ Gaudreault argues that Edison and the LumiÈres did not invent cinema; they invented a device. Explaining how this device, the kinematograph, gave rise to cinema is the challenge he sets for himself in this volume. He highlights the forgotten role of the film lecturer and examines film's relationship with other visual spectacles in fin-de-siÈcle culture, from magic sketches to fairy plays and photography to vaudeville. In reorienting the study of film history, Film and Attraction offers a candid reassessment of Georges MÉliÈs' rich oeuvre and includes a new, unabridged translation of MÉliÈs' famous 1907 text "Kinematographic Views." A foreword by Rick Altman stresses the relevance of Gaudreault's concerns to Anglophone film scholarship.
Foreword by Rick Altman ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1. Looking at Early Cinema in a New Light 9
2. The Emergence of the Kinematograph 32
3. Attraction and the Kinematograph 48
4. Intermediality and the Kinematograph 62
5. A Problematic Institutional Space 83
Conclusion 98
Appendix A: Discussion between the Author and the Editors of the Journal 1895 109
Appendix B: "
Kinematographic Views"
(1907) by Georges Melies, edited with an introduction and annotations by Jacques Malthete 133
Notes 153
Works Cited in the Present Volume 177
General Bibliography on Early Cinema 185
Index 203
