The Great Art Of Light And Shadow

Archaeology of the Cinema
Erscheinungsjahr 2000
ISBN: 978-0-85989-665-8
Verlag: University of Exeter Press

Buch, Englisch, 578 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 866 g

Reihe: Exeter Studies in Film History

Widely regarded by historians of the early moving picture as the best work yet published on pre-cinema, The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema throws light on a fascinating range of optical media from the twelfth century to the turn of the twentieth. First published in French in 1994 and now translated into English, Laurent Mannoni's account projects a broad picture of the subject area now known as 'pre-cinema'.

Starting from the earliest uses of the camera obscura in astronomy and entertainment, Mannoni discusses, among many other devices, the invention and early years of the magic lantern in the seventeenth century, the peepshows and perspective views of the eighteenth century, and the many weird and wonderful nineteenth-century attempts to recreate visions of real life in different ways and forms. This fully-illustrated and accessible account of a strange mixture of science, magic, art and deception introduces to an English-speaking readership many aspects of pre-cinema history from other European countries.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mannoni, Laurent

Crangle, Richard

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part 1: The dreams of the eye: dark rooms and magic mirrors

Light in the darkness

The "Lantern of Fear" tours the world

Part 2: Triumphant illusions: magie lumineuse in the country and the city

"Life and Motion" The 18th-century lantern slide

The phantasmagoria

From panorama to daguerreotype

Part 3: The pencil of nature": the pirouette of the dancer

The "vital question" resolved?

Great expectations

The magic lantern - a sovereign and her subjects

Part 4: Inscribing movement: the passage of Venus and the galloping horse

Marey releases the dove

The big wheel of little mirrors

Edison and his "films through the keyhole"

The labourers of the eleventh hour

Appendices:

Museums displaying interesting items relating to the history of "pre-cinema" media

Report of the scientists Jamin and Richer on the phantasmagorie of Robertson and the Phantasmaparastasie of Cli

Über Autor(innen)

Laurent Mannoni - collector, writer, and filmmaker is a specialist in early cinema.  He is Directeur scientifique du Patrimoine et du Conservatoire des techniques at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.  In 2006 he was awarded the Jean Mitry prize by the Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Richard Crangle is a freelance researcher and writer and formerly Assistant Director of the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture, University of Exeter.