Early Cinema and the "National" (Early Cinema in Review: Proceedings of Domitor)

Note: This is the UK edition. The American version was published by the Indiana University PressWhen, where, and how did motion pictures become a national phenomenon or part and parcel of a national culture? What conceptions of nation were bound up with early cinema? Is early cinema best understood in global or transnational terms? While many studies have been written on national cinemas, "Early Cinema and the "National" is the first anthology to focus on the concept of national film culture from a wide methodological spectrum of interests, including not only visual and narrative forms but also international geopolitics, exhibition and marketing practices (both local and global), and pressing linkages to national imageries. The essays in this richly illustrated, landmark anthology are all devoted to rethinking the nation as a framing category for writing cinema history. As many of the thirty-four contributors show, concepts of national identity played a role in establishing many of the parameters of cinema's early development, from technological change to discourses of stardom, from emerging genres to inter-titling practices. Yet, as others attest, national meanings could often become knotty in other contexts, when concepts of nationhood were contested in relation to colonial/imperial histories and regional configurations. The relationship between cinema and the concept of nation has been challenged by multi-national capitalism, and Early Cinema and the "National" takes stock of an earlier moment in cinema history, tracing the beginnings of the process whereby nations learned to imagine themselves through moving images. Contents 6 Introduction • Richard Abel, Giorgio Bertellini and Rob King 8 Part I: Interrogating the “National” 16 1 Early cinema as global cinema: the encyclopedic ambition • Tom Gunning 18 2 Nationalizing attractions • Jonathan Auerbach 24 3 Images of the “National” in early non-fiction films • Frank Kessler 29 4 National and racial landscapes and the photographic form • Giorgio Bertellini 34 5 Sound-on-disc cinema and electrification in pre-WWI Britain, France, Germany and the United States • Charles O’Brien 49 6 Mind-reading/mind-speaking: dialogue in The Birth of a Nation (1915) and the emergence of speech in American silent cinema • Torey Liepa 59 7 Living Canada: selling the nation through images • Marta Braun and Charlie Keil 70 8 Early cinema and “the Polish question” • Sheila Skaff 76 Part II: Colonialism/Imperialism 84 9 Our Navy and patriotic entertainment in Brighton at the start of the Boer War • Frank Gray 86 10 “An England of our Dreams”?: early patriotic entertainments with film in Britain during the Anglo-Boer War • Ian Christie 97 11 “The transport of audiences”: making cinema “National” • Nico de Klerk 108 12 Enlisting early cinema in the service of “la plus grande France” • Panivong Norindr 116 13 Teaching citizenship via celluloid • Marina Dahlquist 125 14 Fights of Nations and national fights • David Mayer 139 15 Japan on American screens, 1908–1915 • Gregory A. Waller 146 Part III: Locating/Relocating the “National” in Film Exhibition 160 16 Nationalist film-going without Canadian-made films? • Paul S. Moore 162 17 The cinema arrives in Italy: city, region and nation in early film discourse • John Welle 171 18 Wondrous pictures in Istanbul: from cosmopolitanism to nationalism • Canan Balan 179 19 The emergence of nationally specific film cultures in Europe, 1911–1914 • Joseph Garncarz 192 20 The Norwegian municipal cinema system and the development of a national cinema • Gunnar Iversen 202 21 Spanish lecturers and their relations with the national • Daniel Sánchaz Salas 206 22 Joseph Dumais and the language of French-Canadian silent cinema • Germain Lacasse 213 23 Localizing serials: translating daily life in Les Mystères de New-York (1915) • Rudmer Canjels 222 Part IV: Genre and the ‘National’ 234 24 Seeing the world while staying at home: slapstick, modernity and American-ness • Amanda Keeler 236 25 “A purely American product”: tramp comedy and white working-class formation in the 1910s • Rob King 243 26 The “Chinese” conjurer: orientalist magic in variety theater and the trick film • Matthew Solomon 255 27 A note on the national character of early popular science films • Oliver Gaycken 265 28 European melodramas and World War I: narrated time and historical time as reflections of national identity • Dominique Nasta and Muriel Andrin 272 29 “Cow-punchers, bull-whackers and tin horn gamblers”: generic formulae, sensational literature, and early American cinema • W.D. Phillips 282 30 Early ethnographic film and the museum • Wolfgang Fuhrmann 292 Part V: Gender and the ‘National’ 300 31 Black hair, black eyes, black heart: Theda Bara and race suicide panic • Mark Hain 302 32 Who is the “right” star to adore?: nationality, masculinity and the female cinema audience in Germany during World War I • Andrea Haller 314 Part VI: Memory, Imagination, and the ‘National’ 326 33 From Switzerland to Italy and all around the world: the Joseph Joye and Davide Turconi collections • Joshua Yumibe 328 34 The imagination of early Hollywood: movie-land and the magic cities, 1914–1916 • Jennifer M. Bean 339 Editors and contributors 350 Index 354 Essays on “how motion pictures in the first two decades of the 20th century constructed ‘communities of nationality'... recommended.” —ChoiceWhile many studies have been written on national cinemas, Early Cinema and the “National” is the first anthology to focus on the concept of national film culture from a wide methodological spectrum of interests, including not only visual and narrative forms, but also international geopolitics, exhibition and marketing practices, and pressing linkages to national imageries.The essays in this richly illustrated landmark anthology are devoted to reconsidering the nation as a framing category for writing cinema history. Many of the 34 contributors show that concepts of a national identity played a role in establishing the parameters of cinema's early development, from technological change to discourses of stardom, from emerging genres to intertitling practices. Yet, as others attest, national meanings could often become knotty in other contexts, when concepts of nationhood were contested in relation to colonial/imperial histories and regional configurations. Early Cinema and the “National” takes stock of a formative moment in cinema history, tracing the beginnings of the process whereby nations learned to imagine themselves through moving images. While many studies have been written on national cinemas, Early Cinema and the "National" is the first anthology to focus on the concept of national film culture from a wide methodological spectrum of interests, including not only visual and narrative forms, but also international geopolitics, exhibition and marketing practices, and pressing linkages to national imageries. The essays in this richly illustrated, landmark anthology are devoted to reconsidering the nation as a framing category for writing cinema history. Many of the 34 contributors show that concepts of a national identity played a role in establishing the parameters of cinema's early development, from technological change to discourses of stardom, from emerging genres to intertitling practices. Yet, as others attest, national meanings could often become knotty in other contexts, when concepts of nationhood were contested in relation to colonial/imperial histories and regional configurations. Early Cinema and the "National" takes stock of a formative moment in cinema history, tracing the beginnings of the process whereby nations learned to imagine themselves through moving images. Focuses on the concept of national film culture from a wide methodological spectrum of interests, including visual and narrative forms, international geopolitics, and exhibition and marketing practices. This book shows that concepts of national identity played a role in establishing many of the parameters of cinema's early development