History of cinema
The
invention of cinema
The cinema
was born from the meeting of innovations in the field of photographic support
and in that of the synthesis of movement using retinal persistence. This
research is done for a purely scientific purpose: if it was a matter of
recomposition of the movement, it was not yet a question of projection. Thus, in
1876, Eadweard James Muybridge develops an experiment: he has 12 then 24
cameras along a racecourse, triggered by the passage of the horse. He thus
obtained a decomposition of the movement in several photographs and conceives
the zoopraxiscope, allowing him to recompose the movement. Then, in 1891,
Edison created the kinetograph, first camera of shooting. The films shot were
not projected but watched through a viewer called Kinétoscope. The date of the
invention of Edison cannot be considered as the date of birth of the cinema
because the Kinetoscope does not make it possible to project the film. Edison
is not interested in the projection, believing that it would quickly kill
public interest in the invention.
The birth
of cinema
The Lumière brothers, although they did not directly create the Cinématographe
(the invention of Léon Bouly in 1892), deposited the patent on February 13, 1895.
They turn some films in 1894 and make private projections in 1895. This the same year, they decided to organize a public projection, on December 28, 1895,
at the Indian Salon of the Grand Café, in Paris.
It is
therefore this date that is commonly used in France as the birth of cinema
(public paid projection of animated images). On the program of this projection:
Sprinkler watered Baby meal, the output of the Lumière plant in Lyon.
Unlike
other projection devices, the Cinematograph Lumière, both camera, printer and the viewer will supplant the other motion reproduction processes used so far, such
as the Edison Kinetoscope.
The Lumière
brothers sent operators around the world to bring back short films, the first
documentaries, in a way, but also the beginnings of a certain amateur cinema.
An operator, filming on a boat, invented the first traveling shot.
Exploited
head-on in theaters and at carnivals, the cinema quickly became a popular art.
Charles Pathé sends cameramen around the world to bring back typical scenes in
the form of documentaries. The first films deal with love, epics (first
westerns), burlesque. Forerunner in the field of special effects, Georges Méliès
realizes "A trip to the moon" with special effects. He experiments with
all kinds of techniques borrowed from the world of illusionists.
If the
Lumière brothers were determined in the invention of the machine that makes
possible the hatching of the cinema, it is Méliés who first made cinema, that
is to say, invents and creates something other than a mere view of an entrance
to the station or people on the move.
The silent
cinema
At birth, cinema is silent, the language barrier does not
exist since the image is universal. In the meantime, the cinema will undergo
major changes.
Thus, one
of the first to consider cinema no longer as a testimony but as art is
Georges Méliès. He uses the tips and tricks in use in the world of
illusionists and adapts them for the cinema. If the Brothers Lumière invented
the cinematography, Méliès gave birth to cinematographic art. In 1902, he
signed the first science-fiction film, Voyage en la Lune. Méliès made more
than 500 short films, often hand-painted, between 1896 and 1913. In addition to
Méliès, the other great names in silent cinema are the burlesque Max Linder
who will later be the inspiration of Charles Chaplin, and Louis Feuillade
director of the first series of Gaumont: Fantômas and Vampires with Musidora.
Few films
from this heroic but prolific period are preserved today. The film was often
scraped and reused, sometimes several times, forever erasing many works. Melies, himself, acted thus.
The talking cinema
The problem of sound mobilizes some minds and we set up in Paris
several rooms sounded from 1912, the Gaumont Palace in the first place. The
companies are however hostile to this evolution and manage the first years to
block any evolution in this direction. The linguistic issue was crucial because
France, now nibbled by American and Danish productions, in particular, could not
afford the luxury of being content with the only French-speaking market.
The arrival
of the talking cinema is an earthquake. In 1929, 20 rooms with sound are
recorded in France; they increased to 1,000 in 1931 and 4,250 in 1937.
A fine
generation of filmmakers and a host of talented actors, most often from the
theater, allow the production of several masterpieces. The audience follows:
150 million spectators in 1929, 234 in 1931 and 453 in 1938, the progression is
beautiful.
The period
reveals the first stars of the talking cinema. Let us mention Arletty,
Fernandel, Jean Gabin, Raimu and Michel Simon on the actors' side, Sacha
Guitry, Julien Duvivier, Jean Renoir, and Marcel Pagnol to name a few, among
the directors.
No comments:
Post a Comment