What really happened between the pictures?What really happened between the pictures?What really happened between the pictures?
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Philosophical Toys
Educational and documentary films have an advantage over books in visual example capabilities, but they tend to suffer in providing a framework for understanding history, a reasoned thesis and, otherwise, being informative in ways where writing remains superior. Werner Nekes's "Film Before Film" demonstrates these benefits and drawbacks. Nekes wisely focused mostly on showing off his toys rather than elaborating on a weak thesis and sometimes misinformative (or mistranslated) narration. The presentation, however, does have its own drawbacks-mostly the music and problems specifically relating to translation to an English-language audience like me.
In the introduction, Nekes says that film is the "end-product" of many innovations, which in their earlier stages were associated with "the mysterious arts of magic and alchemy". This "end-product" view leads to some arduous associations between some objects that seemingly have little to nothing to do with the invention of movies. One of the most flimsy connections is made in showing a horse race toy card lit by a cigarette. The narrator remarks, "To photograph, literally, means to write with light. This horse race is written with fire." As interesting as such objects are in themselves, they don't necessarily demonstrate relevance to the archeology of cinema (or so-called "pre-cinema" history). Some books have done better to place some of these items in the context of their own times and in relation to film. Two of the best are "The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema" by Laurent Mannoni and "Living Pictures: The Origins of the Movies" by Deac Rossell.
The "mysterious arts of magic and alchemy" part doesn't make much sense, either. Assuming this wasn't a mistranslation, to talk of "magic and alchemy" is seemingly dismissive of the science and engineering that went into these innovations. These were often used in magic acts-the magic lantern especially-and, of course, Georges Méliès was an important cinemagician. Yet, scientists, in fact, made and used many of them, including physicists like Michael Faraday and Joseph Plateau (inventor of the Phenakistoscope). The magic lantern was first invented by the polymath Christiaan Huygens. Cinematography can also claim inventors the likes of astronomer Jules Janssen and the physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey. These objects were known to the public as "philosophical toys". They weren't merely of amusement value, but also displayed obvious scientific ingenuity. The book "Cinema Before Cinema: The Origins of Scientific Cinematography" by Virgilio Tosi makes this point of scientific origins well, whereas Nekes seems to largely ignore it, despite it staring him in the face.
Nekes also poorly explains the science of how we see movies. He deserves, however, a bit of a pass on this given that this film is from 1986 and that he doesn't explicitly give a full committal to the "persistence of vision" myth, which, even today, many continue to inaccurately ascribe to the illusion of movies. Nevertheless, Nekes gives as the reason for this that the "eye is sluggish" and gives the wrong implication of afterimages being involved. Usually, this is how persistence of vision is explained: that the still images are somehow fused from afterimages on the retina into the illusion of motion. Today, however, many film scholars are coming around to what psychologists and scientists have known since at least the 1970s: that we see apparent motion mentally and the same way that we see real motion. Among others, articles on the persistence of vision myth by Joseph and Barbara Anderson have gone a long way in dispelling this poor film scholarship.
Fortunately, Nekes spends most of the film demonstrating his extensive collection. The devices that are most relevant to motion pictures are shown at the beginning; they include the Phenakistoscope, Zoetrope, Praxinoscope and Marey's single-plate chronophotography (although Marey's pioneering work with cinematographic cameras and films isn't mentioned). There are also the Mutoscope and Kinora machines, which delivered photographic films in a flip-book format. Eadweard Muybridge's sequential photography is mentioned later (although it's wrongly implied that Muybridge synthesized their motion; whereas, instead, he projected painted animations, which were often based on his photographs, with his Zoöpraxiscope). Some other important pre-cinema and early cinematic innovations aren't mentioned. While I applaud Nekes for his lack of nationalistic bias, it's, nevertheless, a glaring omission that he doesn't cover the work of fellow Germans Ottomar Anschütz and the Skladanowsky brothers. Although Nekes mostly covers objects designed for home entertainment, rather than showmen's exhibitions or the happenings of scientific or industrial workshops, he does briefly cover some of the history of public spectacles such as the magic lantern and shadow puppetry.
The other innovations covered are of varying relevance to film history-except that they're all illusions of some kind. They include the Thaumatrope, camera obscura, camera lucida and perspective painting, anamorphic art, lithophanes, rubbing pictures, perforated images, phosphorus-covered images, watercolor mystery paintings, transparencies, panoramas, pop-up books, stanhopes, stereoscopic photographs, anaglyph 3D, kaleidoscopes, flip books, and still photographs given the illusion of movement by the Momuscope. These toys aren't restricted to children's amusement not only because of their scientific utility, but also because much of it's erotica or pornography. The peepshow medium and private use of many of these objects lend itself to this function. Likewise, the revealing nature of the illusions lend themselves to sex jokes and hidden nudes-for instance, a picture of a woman in a bikini that when dipped in water removes the bikini to uncover a nude image.
Unfortunately, the repetitive and grating musical score distracts from the enjoyment of these demonstrations. Another problem with the Kino Video is that the voice-overs distractingly compete simultaneously in the introduction with Nekes speaking German. They should've replaced the original language entirely with voice-overs, as they did for the narration, or used subtitles. Nevertheless, it's useful to see visual demonstrations of these devices. The rest of Nekes's six-part "Media Magica" series, for which I've only seen this initial installment, may've cleared up some of this film's shortcomings. And the passion and respect Nekes shows for his incredible toy collection is welcome.
In the introduction, Nekes says that film is the "end-product" of many innovations, which in their earlier stages were associated with "the mysterious arts of magic and alchemy". This "end-product" view leads to some arduous associations between some objects that seemingly have little to nothing to do with the invention of movies. One of the most flimsy connections is made in showing a horse race toy card lit by a cigarette. The narrator remarks, "To photograph, literally, means to write with light. This horse race is written with fire." As interesting as such objects are in themselves, they don't necessarily demonstrate relevance to the archeology of cinema (or so-called "pre-cinema" history). Some books have done better to place some of these items in the context of their own times and in relation to film. Two of the best are "The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema" by Laurent Mannoni and "Living Pictures: The Origins of the Movies" by Deac Rossell.
The "mysterious arts of magic and alchemy" part doesn't make much sense, either. Assuming this wasn't a mistranslation, to talk of "magic and alchemy" is seemingly dismissive of the science and engineering that went into these innovations. These were often used in magic acts-the magic lantern especially-and, of course, Georges Méliès was an important cinemagician. Yet, scientists, in fact, made and used many of them, including physicists like Michael Faraday and Joseph Plateau (inventor of the Phenakistoscope). The magic lantern was first invented by the polymath Christiaan Huygens. Cinematography can also claim inventors the likes of astronomer Jules Janssen and the physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey. These objects were known to the public as "philosophical toys". They weren't merely of amusement value, but also displayed obvious scientific ingenuity. The book "Cinema Before Cinema: The Origins of Scientific Cinematography" by Virgilio Tosi makes this point of scientific origins well, whereas Nekes seems to largely ignore it, despite it staring him in the face.
Nekes also poorly explains the science of how we see movies. He deserves, however, a bit of a pass on this given that this film is from 1986 and that he doesn't explicitly give a full committal to the "persistence of vision" myth, which, even today, many continue to inaccurately ascribe to the illusion of movies. Nevertheless, Nekes gives as the reason for this that the "eye is sluggish" and gives the wrong implication of afterimages being involved. Usually, this is how persistence of vision is explained: that the still images are somehow fused from afterimages on the retina into the illusion of motion. Today, however, many film scholars are coming around to what psychologists and scientists have known since at least the 1970s: that we see apparent motion mentally and the same way that we see real motion. Among others, articles on the persistence of vision myth by Joseph and Barbara Anderson have gone a long way in dispelling this poor film scholarship.
Fortunately, Nekes spends most of the film demonstrating his extensive collection. The devices that are most relevant to motion pictures are shown at the beginning; they include the Phenakistoscope, Zoetrope, Praxinoscope and Marey's single-plate chronophotography (although Marey's pioneering work with cinematographic cameras and films isn't mentioned). There are also the Mutoscope and Kinora machines, which delivered photographic films in a flip-book format. Eadweard Muybridge's sequential photography is mentioned later (although it's wrongly implied that Muybridge synthesized their motion; whereas, instead, he projected painted animations, which were often based on his photographs, with his Zoöpraxiscope). Some other important pre-cinema and early cinematic innovations aren't mentioned. While I applaud Nekes for his lack of nationalistic bias, it's, nevertheless, a glaring omission that he doesn't cover the work of fellow Germans Ottomar Anschütz and the Skladanowsky brothers. Although Nekes mostly covers objects designed for home entertainment, rather than showmen's exhibitions or the happenings of scientific or industrial workshops, he does briefly cover some of the history of public spectacles such as the magic lantern and shadow puppetry.
The other innovations covered are of varying relevance to film history-except that they're all illusions of some kind. They include the Thaumatrope, camera obscura, camera lucida and perspective painting, anamorphic art, lithophanes, rubbing pictures, perforated images, phosphorus-covered images, watercolor mystery paintings, transparencies, panoramas, pop-up books, stanhopes, stereoscopic photographs, anaglyph 3D, kaleidoscopes, flip books, and still photographs given the illusion of movement by the Momuscope. These toys aren't restricted to children's amusement not only because of their scientific utility, but also because much of it's erotica or pornography. The peepshow medium and private use of many of these objects lend itself to this function. Likewise, the revealing nature of the illusions lend themselves to sex jokes and hidden nudes-for instance, a picture of a woman in a bikini that when dipped in water removes the bikini to uncover a nude image.
Unfortunately, the repetitive and grating musical score distracts from the enjoyment of these demonstrations. Another problem with the Kino Video is that the voice-overs distractingly compete simultaneously in the introduction with Nekes speaking German. They should've replaced the original language entirely with voice-overs, as they did for the narration, or used subtitles. Nevertheless, it's useful to see visual demonstrations of these devices. The rest of Nekes's six-part "Media Magica" series, for which I've only seen this initial installment, may've cleared up some of this film's shortcomings. And the passion and respect Nekes shows for his incredible toy collection is welcome.
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- Cineanalyst
- Oct 19, 2013
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- Film Before Film: What Really Happened Between the Images?
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- Runtime1 hour 23 minutes
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Top Gap
By what name was Was geschah wirklich zwischen den Bildern? (1986) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer