Early Cinema: a source of inspiration for “micro-narratives” SM2202 Micro Narratives October 2009 Linda Lai

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Key theses I.Early Cinema ≠ primitive cinema II.Early cinema has close alliance with avant- garde movements (according to a meta- historical view) III.What became of cinema after – story-telling as its main concern and direction of development -- was NOT a necessary historical consequence 沒有歷史 的必然性

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative III. Multiple possibilities & reduction Early cinema (pre ) │ │─→ Story-telling  film-novel │ │──→ Realist cinema

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Story-telling [Story-telling  film-novel] Competing with existing leisure forms for audience, esp. theatre Commercial instinct: Bigger audience, broader profile Sustained viewership (returning audience) Longer programs More diverse content Higher social status

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Realist cinema Drawing upon the traditions of 19 th -century novel for the bourgeoisie: *The social and empirical real *Mimesis  (fiilm)Mimesis + diegesis representational practices: - invisible editing, narrative integration, diegetic absorption, sound Mimesis subservient to diegesis - showing +  telling - spectacle +  (diegetic narration) - seeing +  comprehension

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Other intermedial possibilities On-going intermedia dialogues: Film-photography Film-theatre Film-painting Film-optical toys…. Film-novel

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Other historical possibilities Film as a research tool… Film as a medical apparatus…

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative II. Early cinema as source of inspirations for the avant-garde Exploring Early Cinema, the “cinema of attraction” – i.e. a cinema that directly solicits spectator’s attention (Tom Gunning 1990, p. 58) Single Image Still frame / fixed frame / immobile camera Performance-orientedness Spectacle Screen space as tableaux

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Early cinema: single image [Possibilities Vs constraints] Concentrated effort to multiply “intra-frame” possibilities / vitality Attention on graphic composition Emphasis on choreographic elements  (later development) Multiple-image films gave rise to “film language”

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Early Cinema: still frame Frame = shot = scene (common but not all) Frame as the enunciator, the calling for attention: “look!” Frame for enhancement of a unified, single viewpoint of the action Frame for heightened attention to the intra- frame elements including movement Frame = splice (continuity effect in trick and magic)

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Early Cinema: performance Lacking in: Close-up shots (individuation and psychologization of characters) Moving camera & editing that condenses time and space (identification, absorption) Emphasis on the whole-body performance Emphasis on spatial relation between bodies Emphasis on exploring screen space via arrangement of bodies (and movement)

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Early Cinema: spectacle “It both shows and shows off…” (William C. Wees) Cinema understood as … *a series of display for attraction *the appreciation of the amazing technical capabilities of the visual apparatus: camera & the projector *the showing off of the camera’s unique way to show reality that human beings don’t experience with their naked eyes: use of close-ups, slow motion, reverse motion, substitution, multiple exposure etc.

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Early Cinema: spectacles Later moves in the story-telling convention: Spectacle  analogical mimesis  representational diegesis **analogical mimesis/analogical narration: Internal editing Cinema as a certain presence “There is a weight of time and a thickness of space in early films.” (Bart Testa)

sm2202/September2006/Early Cinema&Micro-narrative Early Cinema: screen space as tableaux A different notion of screen space from diegesis (imaginary narrative space into which viewer enters and travels + psychologization) Tableau(x): The spectator is not introduced into the space of the film, but space comes forward to present itself to the viewer