Cinema of Attractions

The moving-picture show of attraction. A matter of making images seen. This is what Fernand Leger was writing in 1902 nigh the new art, trying to account the possible changes in movie, by emphasizing the fact that imitating the movements of nature is not necessarily the best counselling of defining cinemas essence. This is only one of the writings concerning this topic which influenced Tom Gunning in characterizing the cinematic period before 1906 as that of the cinema of attractions.In this essay I am going to talk ab reveal the cinema of attractions and its main characteristics with examples from several early contracts, with an emphasis on Un homme de tetes (Georges Melies, 1898) and Larrivee dun get a la Ciotat (Auguste and Louis Lumiere,1895). tarradiddle of the cinema of attractionsThe term of cinema of attractions was introduced into the study of fill by Tom Gunning and Andre Gaudreault in 1985, describing a filmmaking technique used for early films, until 1906, in which the main interest is in the spectacle and the audiences visual convey rather than in the narrative side. The cinema of attractions employed delights wish colors, costumes, commentary, sometimes even grotesque features, like freaks or indigenous people. In the simplest terms, it was a cinema based on entertainment, shock and sensations, the ability of wake something.The main inequality between this style and the cinema in later years is the focus the cinema of attractions is trying to take the spectators on an unique trip to an extraordinary place, by inviting them to look, get involved and be amazed by these perfect illusions, rather than telling a story, while the narrative cinema focuses on human psychology, continuity of the plot and characters. The term attract is defined by the english dictionary as to draw by appealing to the emotions or senses, by stimulating interest, or by exciting appreciation allure invite.In cinema, Eisenstein was one of the first people to us e attraction as a modal value of describing his techniques, which had either a physical or psychological unexpected impact on the audience, due to its coach address towards it, sometimes causing an emotional shock, through aggressivity and due to the unpredictability of the moment. Attractions of the early cinema. The first film that I am going to analyze is directed by the Lumiere brformer(a)s, which interpret cinema as the system of real unstaged life, opposing to Melies who saw cinema as invention, artifice, illusion, fantasy.Around this 50 seconds film there are different myths, some of which say that in the first showing of the movie, a lot of the spectators screamed, thinking that the train is going to hit them, and some of them even left the room, because of the illusion of the train moving towards them. This myth is why nowadays people tend to think of the early audience as naive, but at the identical time, they forget to take in consideration other pictures, like the t ransformation which is occurring in front of their eyes, the base of change and also the historical and social background.The basal object of most early films seems to be the in the flesh(predicate) space, which is invaded on a certain level. By triggering stress or fear, or choosing real-life danger objects like trains and other vehicles, the personal space is invaded and bodily reactions are being triggered, which is the main purpose of the cinema of attractions, by prosecute the viewer in the exhibition. In 1986, Maxim Gorky writes a review of the Lumiere programme, and he uses words like sequent at you, shield, will reach you, which, once again, shows the physical reaction that people had. Nevertheless, one must not confuse this with a complete illusion.People did not actually believe that the train will physically hurt them, but they were allowing themselves to enjoy the thrill of the cinematic magic. If we were to take a clear example of the exposit which change this p erspective of a credulous audience, the exhibition of The Black Diamond Express is one of the strongest ones, as the movie had a presenter, described as a terrorist mood setter which introduced the audience in a dramatic atmosphere, by describing the images of a locomotive rushing into the photographic camera as an unique moment in history, in which it will herald towards them with its dreadful iron throat.This points the danger that people believed to be in, in a new light, showing that their emotions and anxiety were influenced by the atmosphere created, together with the novelty of this fibre of entertainment. This type of check, the suspension, the wait for an already announced unusual thing to be happening accentuate its impact everyplace the image perceived by the crowd. Locomotives, trains and generally moving objects were preferred by directors, as they easily created a sensation of fear, which could also represent a sensual reaction, as we saw earlier, viewers running out of the movie theater.This experience could nowadays be compared to that of a roller coaster, described by Gunning as sensations of speedup and falling with a security guaranteed by the modern industrial technology, which in my opinion but describes peoples experience from 100 years ago as well, as they were well sure of the fact that it was just an illusion, but that didnt mean they were refusing to be drawn in the experience, especially considering its innovation.another(prenominal) vista of the cinema of attraction is confrontation, which holds the viewer and makes it impossible for him to lose himself into absorption, like before in other liberal arts like painting or sculpture attractions address the viewer directly, soliciting attention and wonder through acts of reveal. 1 This type of art ask for an immediate response from the audience, as the images are moving, evolving- a living screen. impertinent psychological narrative, the cinema of attractions does not allow f or elaborate development, only a limited amount of delay is really possible. TG, p122) It is exactly this newness that makes it exciting, as it instantly produces a show with a high impact, religious offering sensational thrills through powerful images in motion, without the traditional narrative structure. In this type of cinema, the spectator identifies himself with the camera more than a character and his confrontation with the film is rather unmediated by the story. Hence, seeing this flasher style as a precursor for the later narrative structures would show a misunderstanding of its value. Another iconic film for the cinema of attractions is Un homme de tetes, 1895.I have chosen to discuss this film because of its director, which most of the time is put in contrast with the Lumiere brothers, because of their different styles. The first one uses editing and multi shots, while the Lumiere brothers show nature caught on camera, in a single shot. Still, both styles have the same e ssence, that of the act of display, the pleasure of the spectacle. One aspect that one can definitely notice in Melies film is the presence of a showman/monstrator whose case is to present the film to the audience, a mediator between the crowd and the experience itself.As Gunning states, The showman rather than the film themselves gives the program an overarching structure, and the key role of the exhibition showman underscores the act of monstration than orders the cinema of attractions. ( TG, p. 122) As an example, Melies, who was a promoter himself, during the movie which lasts less than two minutes, gesticulates with his hands towards himself and the heads, in a way directing the publics attention to the main points, the heads, which are part of his magic trick. This, once again, puts the spectator in an external position, making him aware of the act of looking.This does not distance him, but, on the contrary, makes him part of the whole show, emphasizing the realism and the interactivity of the cinema. The tricks found in his films represent the typical burst of attraction, when there is a transformation of an object into something else In its doubling nature, its transformation of still image into moving illusions, it expresses an attitude in which astonishment and knowledge perform a vertiginous dance, and pleasure derives from the energy released by the play between the shock caused by this illusion of danger and delight in its pure illusion. (TG, p. 29) One more time, it is emphasized that the audience knew how to make the difference between reality and illusion, and that movement is what cinematography promised, while still experiencing sensational thrills and feeding their hunger of consuming the world through images. From the examples above, we can see Tom Gunnings idea of cinema of attraction come to life, and the way in which it dominated the first decade of early cinema, through the first silent movies and their blinker characteristics. Th eir ability to show something without a narrative structure has fulfilled the audiences visual curiosity of thrills, danger nd magic, while drawing them in the film, creating strong bodily sensation. Therefore, cinema of attractions is a primary response to peoples wish of seeing a spectacle apart than storytelling, in which their body is assiduous rather than the mind through a succession of instants. Claudia Mangeac 1623 words Bibliography 1. Tom Gunning An artistics of Astonishment premature Film and the (In)Credulous Spectator 2. The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded, edited by Wanda Strauven, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2006 3. Tom Gunning -Attractions How They Came into the world . cyclopedia of early cinema, edited by Richard Abel, Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, USA 5. http//scan. net. au/scan/journal/display. php? journal_id=109 6. http//www. scribd. com/ mercantilism/65086032/Tom-Gunning-Primitive-Cinema 7. Tom Gunning, The Cinema of Attraction(s) early F ilm, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde 8. Un homme de tetes (Georges Melies, 1898) 9. Larrivee dun train a la Ciotat (Auguste and Louis Lumiere,1895). 1 Tom Gunning, An Aesthetic of Astonishment Early Film and the (ln)Credulous Spectator (pg. 121)