FROM THE CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS TO THE CINEMA OF NARRATIVE INTEGRATION,

PART 1

Lecture 4

How and why did filmmaking practice shift from a cinema of attractions in the pre-1908 period to a cinema of storytelling in the post-1908 period?

In order to answer that question we need to understand the following:

a) What constitutes, at the level of form, the cinema of attractions?

b) What constitutes, at the level of form, the cinema of narrative integration?

c) What historical and economic factors explain the shift ?

d) Why does the shift occur around 1908?

CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS ESSAY STRUCTURE

• standard story

versus

• Gunning’s revised story

Cinema of attractions• Exhibitionist• Direct address• Filming of events• Emphasizes

*theatrical display*• “displays its visibility”• affects the spectator

like a rollercoaster• A-psychological

Narrative Cinema• Voyeuristic• Absorptive• Affects the spectator

like sleep or drugs• suspenseful• Psychological• Gives the illusion of a

coherent space (i.e. the illusion of realism)

Promenade of Ostriches (Lumiere, 1896)

Niagara Falls (Lumiere, 1896)

Electrocuting an Elephant (Edison, 1903)

A Trip to the Moon (Melies, 1902)

Granma’s Reading Glass (G.A. Smith, 1900)

The Gay Shoe Clerk (Porter, 1903)

What constitutes, at the level of form, the cinema of narrative integration?

The Case of Sherlock, Jr.