FROM THE CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS TO
THE CINEMA OF NARRATIVE INTEGRATION,
PART 1
Lecture 4
How and why did filmmaking practice
shift from a cinema of attractions in
the pre-1908 period to a cinema of
storytelling in the post-1908 period?
In order to answer that question we need to
understand the following:
a) What constitutes, at the level of form, the
cinema of attractions?
b) What constitutes, at the level of form, the
cinema of narrative integration?
c) What historical and economic factors explain the
shift ?
d) Why does the shift occur around 1908?
CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS ESSAY STRUCTURE
• standard story
versus
• Gunning’s revised story
Cinema of attractions
• Exhibitionist
• Direct address
• Filming of events
• Emphasizes
*theatrical display*
• “displays its visibility”
• affects the spectator
like a rollercoaster
• A-psychological
Narrative Cinema
• Voyeuristic
• Absorptive
• Affects the spectator
like sleep or drugs
• suspenseful
• Psychological
• Gives the illusion of a
coherent space (i.e.
the illusion of
realism)
Promenade of Ostriches
(Lumiere, 1896)
Niagara Falls
(Lumiere, 1896)
Electrocuting an Elephant
(Edison, 1903)
A Trip to the Moon
(Melies, 1902)
Granma’s Reading Glass
(G.A. Smith, 1900)
The Gay Shoe Clerk (Porter, 1903)
What constitutes, at the level of form, the cinema
of narrative integration?
The Case of Sherlock, Jr.