Cinema before cinema : the origins of scientific cinematography

This classic history of scientific film was published in Italian in 1984, and is receiving its first English publication in a revised and updated edition. Tosi challenges traditional histories of the cinema by arguing that late-nineteenth century sequence photographers Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey were not precursors of the entertainment cinema but of a vital history of scientific cinematography. Tosi describes the scientific impulses behind Muybridge, Marey, other chronophotographers such as Jules Janssen, Albert Londe, and Georges Demeny, and demonstrates the fascinating ways in which surgeons, astronomers, ethnologists and biologists used film in the earliest years of cinema. Most histories of the cinema tell us that it began with the first public screening of the Cinematographe Lumiere in Paris on 28 December 1895. This classic book, published for the first time in English, argues for another history of cinema, one which had its origins in the research needs of nineteenth-century scientists. Investigators such as Etienne-Jules Marey, Georges Demeny, Jules Janssen, Albert Londe, Ottomar Anschutz and the maverick Eadweard Muybridge were keenly interested in the analysis of motion through photography. Their technological breakthroughs led to the cinema we know today, but their true inheritors were not the producers of cinema as spectacle, but a dedicated band of scientists, doctors, anthropologists and naturalists inspired by their work who established the art of scientific cinematography.Cinema Before Cinema is an essential text for all those interested in the history of cinema, the history of photography, and the application of moving images to the needs of education and science.Originally published as II cinema prima di Lumiere, now updated and with new chapter. Argues for another history of cinema, one which had its origins in the research needs of nineteenth-century scientists. Investigators such as Étienne-Jules Marey, Georges Demeney, Jules Janssen, Albert Londe, Ottomar Anschütz, and the maverick Eadweard Muybridge were keenly interested in the analysis of motion through photography. Their technological breakthroughs led to the cinema we know today, but their true inheritors were not the producers of cinema as spectacle, but a dedicated band of scientists, doctors, anthropologists and naturalists inspired by their work who established the art of scientific cinematography.--From publisher description Part One Part Two Part Three Coda Bibliography Notes Index