No description available.

The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century were an important period for popular shows involving the moving and projected image, yet there have been few sustained studies that have mapped optical entertainments systematically outside London or that have analysed the influence of such shows on early film exhibition. This thesis has profiled the popular and visual culture of five contrasting South West locations during this period, tracing the development and distribution of magic lantern shows and dioramas as well as identifying the local and touring companies who hosted film on its arrival in the region. Using the local press, the trade press, contemporary publications and ephemera, this thesis has reconstructed an account of local shows and culture which not only deepens our understanding of popular visual entertainments in regional contexts, but which also serves to stand as a comparison to other established urban and metropolitan paradigms and thus to contribute to a wider and more complex national picture. It advances the argument for a broader classification of such shows in response to local findings and for a more nuanced and detailed appraisal and understanding of their provenance and profiles, and the role film played within them. In addition, this thesis interrogates early film exhibition in these resorts following the move to fixed-venue cinemas in the late 1900s and investigates the arrival of cinema and its emergence as a fledgling industry in the region. It offers an overview of investment into the business locally and evidences the varied set of partnerships and individuals responsible for financing the first cinemas here. Responses to the new technologies and local modifications to business models for cinemas and film exhibition are analysed and their diversity examined. Managerial relationships with communities are evidenced as an important contributory factor to the success of many local cinemas, permitting adaptations to the needs of patrons which boosted audiences and increased revenue. The variety of local interpretations of cinema discovered here reflects the social and cultural diversity of these selected sites, and is a key finding of this thesis.

The relationship between modernist fiction and visual culture has received substantial critical attention in recent years. However, many of the studies on this intermediality focus primarily on the drama, poetry, and novels of male authors, with Virginia Woolf being the only significant exception to this rule. I propose that this engagement with the visual in modernist fiction has a different social and cultural significance in the works of women writers. With reference to the short stories of Katherine Mansfield, I will explore the attempt to establish a female literary voice in what was perhaps the greatest transitory period for the role of women in the Western world. Although studies exist that consider the relationship between Mansfield’s writing and modern art and cinema, this thesis will provide a wider context for this period of cultural history. I take a variety of technological advancements into account, examining they ways in which they collectively provided the inspiration behind modernist literature’s new subjectivity of vision. As well as film, I will discuss the arts that developed prior to or alongside it, from the magic lantern to photography, and the impact they had on literature as writers sought new forms of representation. Furthermore, I believe that I will be able to examine this shift in cultural consciousness in a unique way through my focus on Mansfield, an author whose experimental work has received far less critical attention in terms of its engagement with other media than that of her contemporaries. Through reference to the visual arts, Mansfield was able to subjectively focalise her short stories through the eyes of her characters, presenting the ways in which women see and are seen in early twentieth-century society.

Denna studie jämför de nya norska tågresefilmerna inom så kallad sakte-TV (eller Slow TV) med den tidiga filmens phantom rides. I båda fallen dominerar ett förstapersonsperspektiv filmat i tågets färdriktning och uppsatsen undersöker hur likheter och skillnader i stilmässiga grepp och paketering relaterar till samtida uppfattningar kring tid och rum. Vidare utforskas om det moderna fenomenet kan ses som en återkomst av en vy-baserad filmestetik, där den så annars vanligt narrativa konstruktionens dominans förflyttas till bakgrunden.

Cette thèse étudie les relations techniques entre l’art magique et le cinématographe et confronte la pratique de trois artistes magiciens à celle de Georges Méliès. Bien que le rapprochement ait souvent été considéré comme évident, le but est ici d’étudier en détail les liens techniques entre le cinéma et la magie. En effet, le spectacle magique présenté par les prestidigitateurs, les illusionnistes ou les manipulateurs répond à des règles établies, théorisées, et débattues au sein de la profession. Il n’y a pas une pratique, mais des genres et des modes de présentation différents, qui évoluent sans cesse. Analyser l’utilisation du cinématographe au regard de ces règles permet de mettre en évidence une continuité d’approche de la part des magiciens ; cette machine constitue pour eux un nouvel élément dans un spectacle déjà établi. Après avoir développé les formes et les pratiques associées à la prestidigitation, nous analyserons dans la première partie l’œuvre de Buatier de Kolta, qui implante une nouvelle forme : l’illusionnisme, ainsi qu’une technique, le Théâtre Noir, invention née par erreur. La seconde partie retrace le succès de Leopoldo Fregoli, qui pousse les limites des pièces magiques anglaises avec son spectacle de Transformisme : il ne repose plus sur la technique des identités altérées d’acteurs. Finalement, la troisième partie étudie l’implantation de la figure du manipulateur, perçue comme un artiste-virtuose et comme une forme de « magie moderne » par le public ; cette forme questionne les magiciens sur la place que doit tenir la manipulation dans leur art, au moment où se forment les premiers syndicats corporatifs. Plus précisément la dernière partie étudie l’adoption de cette forme dans l’œuvre de Gaston Velle, tant dans ses spectacles itinérants que dans ses premières vues animées. L’ensemble de ces questionnements sera rapproché des pratiques magiques et cinématographiques de Georges Méliès, qui emprunte à chacune de ces formes / This thesis studies the technical relations between the art of magic and the cinematograph, and confronts the practice of three magicians to that of Georges Méliès. Although the link between cinema and magic was often considered evident, the purpose here is to study in detail the technical links between them. Indeed, the magic show presented by the prestidigitators, the illusionists or the manipulators replies to established theorized rules, which are discussed within the profession. There is not one practice, but several genres and different modes of presentation, which evolve. Analyzing the use of the cinematograph within these rules reveals a continuity of understanding amongst the magicians, this machine constitutes for them a new tool in their already established show. The first part, develops the forms and the practices associated with prestidigitatation, and analyzes Buatier de Kolta's illusionist work, as well as a technique : The Black Art, which arose, by mistake from a more compex invention. The second part redefines Leopoldo Fregoli's success, which pushes the limits of the English Magic Theater with its transformism show that is no longer based on the technique of the actors’ distorted identities. Finally, the third part studies the magician-manipulator, perceived by the public as a virtuoso; this questions the magicians about the place that manipulation takes in the magic show. The third part will study the adoption of this form in Gaston Velle's work both in his itinerant shows and in his first animated views. All these questionings will be reviewed in relation to Georges Méliès' magic and cinematographic practices, which borrow from each of these forms

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:25:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 26 / Nenhuma / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo estudar as formas narrativas dos primeiros anos de atividade do cinema norte americano, entre 1895 e 1915. O marco teórico do trabalho faz uma contextualização da história das imagens em movimento e da atividade cinematográfica nos Estados Unidos nos primeiros anos de atividade. Em seguida é feita uma discussão sobre as formas narrativas que são encontradas no início da atividade cinematográfica, são elas o cinema de atração, proposto por Tom Gunning, a mostração, conceito elaborado por André Gaudreault, e o modelo clássico de David Bordwell. Também é falado sobre dois elementos da linguagem cinematográfica, o plano e a montagem. A articulação desses elementos com as formas narrativas está diretamente ligado com o desenvolvimento da narrativa. No último capítulo é feita a análise de um conjunto de filmes, com o objetivo de traçar uma linha evolutiva do desenvolvimento da narrativa e da linguagem cinematográfica. / The work aism to study the narrative forms of the first years os activity of American cinema between 1895 and 1915.The theoretical work is a contextualization of the history of motion pirctures and films activity in the United States in the early years of activity. Is made than a discussion of the narrative forms that are found in the early cinematographic activity, they are the cinema of attaction, proposed by Tom Gunning, “mostração”, a concept developed by André Gaudreault, and classical model os David Bordwell. It is also tlaking about two elements of film language, the planning and de editing. The articulation of these elements with the narrative forms is directly connected with the development of the narrative. The last chapter is the analysis of a series of films aiming to draw a line of evolutionary develpment of narrative and film languague.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:11:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila Biasotto de Araujo.pdf: 2578346 bytes, checksum: 1892c4ba79a9209026115422acd54cb6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-27 / This research seeks to understand the primordial 20 years of the cinema in the United States in which concerns about the changes in the way mode of films were produced and exhibited, and also those presented in the cinematographic industry. The period analyzed here corresponds to the years between 1895 and 1915; and it is subdivided between Early Cinema or Cinema of Attractions (1895-1907) and Period of Transition (1907-1915). During the Early Cinema, or Cinema of Attractions, the filmic language established did not seek necessarily to narration and linearization. It aimed at images exhibition, attracting the audience attention rather than telling stories. In this phase, it is notability resources such as trucage and close-up, but camera resources, edition, production and performance were not directed to a narrative story. The industry, in this first period, was not completely developed. Among the enterpriser alternated magician, non-professional scientists and even big companies, as Edison Co. The cinema was not the main attraction and was showed with vaudeville numbers. From 1907, cinema became the main attraction and earned its own space to its projection, called nickelodeons. Its low cost attracted a big public and the enterpriser realized the potential of film to generate profit. There were efforts to nationalize at most the production of film and monopolize its means of production. The efforts resulted on a Trust that dominated the system of production and exhibition in the period of transition in the United States, the Motion Picture Patents Company. The films also obtained new characteristics: influenced by foreign films that brought more narrative stories, new camera movements, and various planes utilization, the American producers were impelled to adopt those characteristics and improve them until reach a cinema with a more narrative and linear language. By decoupage of films which constitute the corpus, we realize that some stylistic resources form the Early Cinema were maintained on the period of transition and even after, in the classic cinema, although their function were transformed. We give prominence to crucial social, scientific and technologic changes in the American society between 1895 and 1915 that collaborated to the great success of cinema. Hence, we sought to make explicit the filmic and industrial characteristics of the Early Movies and the Cinema of Transition, connecting each of them, and compose this period historically, in order to analyze how those periods of cinema were able to configure themselves inside their historical age / Esta pesquisa busca compreender os 20 anos iniciais do cinema nos Estados Unidos no que diz respeito às mudanças na forma de produzir e exibir os filmes, e também àquelas que se fizeram presentes na indústria cinematográfica. O período aqui abordado corresponde aos anos entre 1895 e 1915; ele é subdividido em Primeiro Cinema ou Cinema de Atrações (1895 a 1907) e Período de Transição (1907 a 1915). Durante o primeiro cinema, ou cinema de atrações, a linguagem fílmica estabelecida não visava necessariamente à narração e à linearização. Sua intenção não era tanto contar histórias, e focava-se mais em exibir imagens filmadas, atraindo a atenção do público. Nesta fase, há o destaque para recursos como a trucagem e close-up, mas os recursos de câmera, a edição, a produção e a atuação não eram dirigidos para uma história narrativa. A indústria, neste primeiro período, ainda se desenvolvia. Entre os empreendedores variavam desde mágicos e amadores da tecnologia e da ciência até grandes empresas, com a Cia. Edison. O cinema não era atração principal e era apresentava junto aos números de vaudevile. A partir de 1907, o cinema se tornou a atração principal, recebendo um espaço próprio para sua exibição, os chamados nickelodeons. Seu baixo custo atraiu um grande público e os empreendedores perceberam o potencial que o cinema tinha em gerar lucros. Houve um esforço para nacionalizar ao máximo a produção de filmes e monopolizar seus meios de produção. Estes esforços resultaram na formação de um truste que dominou o sistema de produção e exibição no período de transição nos Estados Unidos, a Motion Picture Patents Company. Os filmes também adquiriram novas características: com a influência do cinema estrangeiro que traziam histórias mais narrativas, novos movimentos de câmera e utilização de diversos planos, os produtores norte-americanos se viram impelidos a adotar estas características e aperfeiçoá-las até atingir um cinema com linguagem mais narrativa e linear. Por meio da decupagem dos filmes que compõem o corpus de análise, percebeu-se que alguns recursos estilísticos do primeiro cinema foram mantidos no período de transição e mesmo posteriormente, no cinema clássico, embora sua função fosse alterada. Importante ressaltar também que no período abordado, ou seja, entre 1895 e 1915 também ocorreram mudanças sociais, científicas e tecnológicas cruciais na sociedade norte-americana que colaboraram para o grande sucesso do cinema. Desta forma, buscou-se nesta pesquisa explicitar as características fílmicas e industriais do primeiro cinema e do cinema de transição, correlacionando-as, e contextualizar este período historicamente, a fim de analisar em que medida estes períodos do cinema puderam se configurar dentro de sua época histórica

This dissertation examines and writes the early history of distribution and exhibition of moving images in Southeast Asia by observing the intersection of transnational itinerant entertainment and colonialism. It is a cultural history of turn-of-the-century Southeast Asia, and focuses on the movement of films, people, and amusements across oceans and national borders. The starting point is two simultaneous and interrelated processes in the late 1800s, to which cinema contributed. One process, colonialism and imperialism, separated people into different classes of people, ruler and ruled, white and non-white, thereby creating and widening a colonial binary. The other process was bringing the world closer, through technology, trade, and migration, and compressing the notions of time and space. The study assesses the development of cinema in a colonial setting and how its development disrupted notions of racial hierarchies. The first decade of cinema in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, is used as a point of reference from where issues such as imperialism, colonial discourse, nation-building, ethnicity, gender, and race is discussed. The development of film exhibition and distribution in Southeast Asia is tracked from travelling film exhibitors and agents to the opening of a regional Pathé Frères office and permanent film venues. By having a transnational perspective the interconnectedness of Southeast Asia is demonstrated, as well as its constructed national borders. Cinematic venues throughout Southeast Asia negotiated segregated, colonial racial politics by creating a common social space where people from different ethnic and social backgrounds gathered. Furthermore, this study analyses what kind of worldview the exhibited pictures had and how audiences reproduced their meanings.

This dissertation addresses the breakthrough of the multi-reel feature film in the United States, and the significance of this process within the wider context of the American film industry and culture in the 1910s. The purpose is to provide a new, and more comprehensive analytical framing of the topic, and to enhance our understanding of how a new central commodity, i.e. the multi-reel feature film, changed the conditions for film exhibition and reception. The introduction links the breakthrough of the multi-reel feature film to an array of film-historical transformations unfolding in the US around the same time. A critical assessment of previous scholarly work dealing with the early feature is also provided. Part I analyzes how the breakthrough of the multi-reel feature film was negotiated within the trade and by contemporary commentators. The result is a multi-perspective framing of the topic that highlights the complexity of these cultural negotiations and the uncertainty over cinema’s possible futures. Part II shifts attention to film culture and film exhibition in Philadelphia around 1914. The objective of this case study, largely based on newspaper sources, is to examine how the increasingly common multi-reel feature film was integrated into and/or changed the existing film culture in the city. The main conclusion is that experimentation and diversity rather than smooth transitions characterized the local response to the emergence of features. Part III deepens the investigation of local diversity by offering a case study of one particular film: The Spoilers (Selig Polyscope Co., 1914). The conditions of the film’s historical reception are outlined, and particular attention is given to the film’s role in the Americanization of the feature film market.

The subject of this study is August Strindberg’s interaction with the visual media of his day. Its dual aim is to examine Strindberg’s work in the light of media history and to allow Strindberg’s work in turn to illuminate the media history of the fin de siècle. Taking its cue from the commonplace scholarly observation that Strindberg’s drama, particularly that of his later phase, is strikingly “cinematic”, it asks: What do such comparisons really tell us about Strindberg’s art and what, if anything, do they tell us about cinema? The thesis of this study is that the putatively “cinematic” style of Strindberg’s writings can only be understood against the backdrop of a mass culture, oriented towards the visual sense, which was undergoing rapid expansion at the turn of the last century. In devising his “dream play techniques”, it argues, Strindberg both drew on and reacted against various image-based modes of representation that had become extremely widespread in the late nineteenth century. The loss of reality that is so prominent a feature of works such as To Damascus (1898) or A Dream Play (1901) should in this sense be regarded as marked by an experience of mediatization, that is, the steady incorporation of all aspects of daily life by mass media technologies. Shifting the spotlight away from cinema, a critical encounter with Strindberg’s work can cast light on largely overlooked media practices such as magic lantern or Sciopticon exhibition, panoramic entertainments, instantaneous photography, and the introduction of the halftone process in printing. At the same time as it unsettles received notions of Strindberg’s drama as “cinematic”, the study seeks to show how the writings of this revolutionary artist can provide fresh material for a reassessment of life in a media-saturated age.