The Great Art Of Light And Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema (Exeter Studies in Film History)

Widely regarded by historians of the early moving picture as the best work yet published on pre-cinema, The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema throws light on a fascinating range of optical media from the twelfth century to the turn of the twentieth. First published in French in 1994 and now translated into English, Laurent Mannoni's account projects a broad picture of the subject area now known as 'pre-cinema'. Starting from the earliest uses of the camera obscura in astronomy and entertainment, Mannoni discusses, among many other devices, the invention and early years of the magic lantern in the seventeenth century, the peepshows and perspective views of the eighteenth century, and the many weird and wonderful nineteenth-century attempts to recreate visions of real life in different ways and forms. This fully-illustrated and accessible account of a strange mixture of science, magic, art and deception introduces to an English-speaking readership many aspects of pre-cinema history from other European countries. Front Cover 1 Half Title 2 Exeter Studies in Film History 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 10 Translator’s Note 13 Foreword by David Robinson 14 Author’s Preface to the 1995 Edition 17 Author’s Acknowledgements 18 Introduction by Tom Gunning 20 PART ONE—THE DREAMS OF THE EYE 32 Chapter One: Dark Rooms and Magic Mirrors 34 The camera obscura, or how to capture the sun 34 The spectacle of everyday life 37 Technical improvements to the camera obscura 44 Magic mirrors 48 Enter Kircher 51 Kircher’s ‘new cryptology’ 55 Chapter Two: Light in the Darkness 59 The lanterne vive 59 The arrival of the magic lantern 64 Christiaan Huygens and Athanasius Kircher 65 Huygens’ moving slide 69 Chapter Three: The ‘Lantern of Fear’ Tours the World 77 England: John Reeves 77 Walgenstein, the ‘curious Dane’ 78 England: Robert Hooke 83 Italy: Eschinardi and Kircher 86 Germany: Johann Griendel and Johann Sturm 89 Germany: Johannes Zahn 94 The lantern in France 97 Huygens’ last works 100 The lantern in China 102 PART TWO—TRIUMPHANT ILLUSIONS 106 Chapter Four: Magie Lumineuse in the Country and the City 108 Travelling showpeople 108 The Dauphin’s magic lantern 115 The travelling peepshow 117 Day and night peepshow effects 120 Cabinets of curiosities 125 The lanternist’s revolution 129 Exit the showman 133 Chapter Five: ‘Life and Motion’: The Eighteenth-Century Lantern Slide 135 Painting on glass 135 Slides for all 140 Moving slides 146 Technical evolution of the magic lantern 153 Lenses 155 The microscope lantern or ‘solar microscope’ 156 The ‘Megascope’ 162 Some eighteenth-century lantern manufacturers 164 Chapter Six: The Phantasmagoria 167 Phantasmagoria with a fixed lantern 168 Mobile back-projection 172 Robertson, the ‘great man’ of the Phantasmagoria 178 The patent for the ‘Fantascope’ 184 The Phantasmagoria at the Couvent des Capucines 188 Robertson’s rivals and imitators 196 The spread of projection 202 Chapter Seven: From Panorama to Daguerreotype 207 Inventors and evangelists of the panorama 208 The panorama in Paris 209 The ‘Diorama’ of Daguerre and Bouton 216 Niépce and Daguerre 222 Daguerreotypomania 226 PART THREE—‘THE PENCIL OF NATURE’ 230 Chapter Eight: The Pirouette of the Dancer 232 First principles, after Aristotle 232 Eighteenth-century measurement of the impressions of light 234 The Thaumatrope 236 More precise measurements 239 The Plateau Anorthoscope 240 Faraday’s Wheel 244 Plateau’s Phenakistiscope 246 Stampfer’s ‘Stroboscopic discs’ 248 The Phenakistiscope craze 250 Chapter Nine: The ‘Vital Question’ Resolved 254 Projection of the Phenakistiscope 254 The lantern of Uchatius 256 The Duboscq Projector 258 The lantern of Gomez Santa Maria 261 The ‘Wheel of Life’ 263 The ‘Choreutoscope’ 264 The first photographic animation: the ‘Stereoscope’ 266 The Duboscq Bioscope 269 Claudet’s ‘moving photographic pictures’ 272 Cook and Bonelli’s ‘Photobioscope’ 276 Chapter Ten: Great Expectations 279 Pierre Séguin’s Animated Polyorama 279 Du Mont and Ducos du Hauron 283 Henry R. Heyl’s Phasmatrope 292 Chapter Eleven: The Magic Lantern: A Sovereign and her Subjects 295 The Royal Polytechnic Institution 295 Abbé Moigno, the ‘Apostle of Projection’ 299 The Salle Robin 304 The travelling lanternist’s trade 307 Mass-production of magic lanterns 311 Louis Aubert and the Lapierre family 313 Alfred Molteni 317 Industrialization of lantern slide manufacture 319 PART FOUR—INSCRIBING MOVEMENT 328 Chapter Twelve: The Passage of Venus and the Galloping Horse 330 Jules Janssen and the photographic revolver 330 Eadweard Muybridge and the photography of motion 335 Muybridge in Europe 343 ‘Zoopraxography’ in Philadelphia 348 Chapter Thirteen: Marey Releases the Dove 351 An explorer of movement 351 Chronography assisted by photography 357 The photographic rifle 361 Georges Demenÿ and the Station Physiologique 364 The fixed-plate chronophotographic camera 367 The paper strip chronophotographe 371 The celluloid film chronophotographe 373 Chronophotography across Europe 377 Marey’s chronophotographic projector 381 The Demenÿ ‘Phonoscope’ 385 The Société du Phonoscope 388 Chapter Fourteen: The Big Wheel of Little Mirrors 395 A disciple of Abbé Moigno 395 The invention of the Praxinoscope 397 The Praxinoscope-Théâtre and Toupie-Fantoche 402 The Projection Praxinoscope 405 The Théâtre Optique 408 Pantomimes Lumineuses at the Musée Grévin 411 ‘La représentation est terminée’ 415 Chapter Fifteen: Edison and his ‘Films Through the Keyhole’ 418 Edison and the ‘Optical Phonograph’ 418 Development of the Kinetoscope 421 The perforated film Kinetoscope 423 Edison’s patents of 1891 425 Exploitation of the Kinetoscope in the United States 430 The Edison Kinetoscope films 432 The Kinetophone 436 The Kinetoscope in Paris 437 Chapter Sixteen: The Labourers of the Eleventh Hour 447 The misfortunes of Georges Demenÿ 448 The Lumière ‘Domitor’ 452 The Latham Panoptikon and Eidoloscope 457 Jenkins and Armat’s ‘marvellous electric Phantoscope’ 460 The American Mutoscope Company 463 Joly and Pathé in France 465 Léon Gaumont 470 The Demenÿ-Gaumont ‘Biographe’ and ‘Bioscope’ 473 The first Cinématographe Lumière 481 The Cinématographe: final modifications 485 The Skladanowsky Bioskop 488 The Lumière show of 28 December 1895 489 The Gold Rush 493 Appendix A: Museums displaying interesting items relating to the history of ‘pre-cinema’ media 500 Appendix B: Report of the Scientists Jamin and Richer on the Phantasmagorie of Robertson and the Phantasmaparastasie of Clisorius (17 July–2 August 1800) 501 Notes 514 Select Bibliography 539 Books 539 Periodicals 550 Patents 552 Index of Names 569 Back Cover 578

Widely regarded by historians of the early moving picture as the best work yet published on pre-cinema, The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema throws light on a fascinating range of optical media from the twelfth century to the turn of the twentieth. First published in French in 1994 and now translated into English, Laurent Mannoni's account projects a broad picture of the subject area now known as 'pre-cinema'.

 

Starting from the earliest uses of the camera obscura in astronomy and entertainment, Mannoni discusses, among many other devices, the invention and early years of the magic lantern in the seventeenth century, the peepshows and perspective views of the eighteenth century, and the many weird and wonderful nineteenth-century attempts to recreate visions of real life in different ways and forms. This fully-illustrated and accessible account of a strange mixture of science, magic, art and deception introduces to an English-speaking readership many aspects of pre-cinema history from other European countries.

Widely regarded by historians of the early moving picture as the best work yet published on pre-cinema, __The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema__ throws light on a fascinating range of optical media from the twelfth century to the turn of the twentieth. First published in French in 1994 and now translated into English, Laurent Mannoni's account projects a broad picture of the subject area now known as 'pre-cinema'. Starting from the earliest uses of the camera obscura in astronomy and entertainment, Mannoni discusses, among many other devices, the invention and early years of the magic lantern in the seventeenth century, the peepshows and perspective views of the eighteenth century, and the many weird and wonderful nineteenth-century attempts to recreate visions of real life in different ways and forms. This fully-illustrated and accessible account of a strange mixture of science, magic, art and deception introduces to an English-speaking readership many aspects of pre-cinema history from other European countries. "First published in French in 1995 and now translated into English, Laurent Mannoni's account is widely regarded by historians of the early moving picture as the best work yet published on the pre-cinema world, throwing light on a fascinating range of optical media from the twelfth century to the turn of the twentieth: a strange mixture of science, magic, art and deception."--Jacket