FROM THE CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS TO
THE CINEMA OF NARRATIVE INTEGRATION,
PART 2
Lecture 5
What constitutes, at the level of form, the cinema
of narrative integration?
The Case of Sherlock, Jr.
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)
How exactly is narrative absorption
achieved?
• Suspense
• Psychologizing characters
• Producing the illusion of realism by creating
realistic spaces
How exactly is narrative absorption
achieved?
• Suspense
– Stylistic technique: cross-cutting
• Psychologizing characters
– Stylistic technique: close-ups
• Producing the illusion of realism by creating
realistic spaces
– Stylistic techniques: eyeline matches, continuity
editing
Character psychology?
Mary Jane’s Mishap
Character psychology?
Spatial Realism and Continuity Editing 1
• From The Lonedale Operator
Spatial Realism and Continuity Editing 2
• From The Lonedale Operator
Spatial Realism and Continuity Editing 3:
the eyeline match: From The Lonedale Operator
Spatial Realism and Continuity Editing 4
From The Lonedale Operator
How and why did filmmaking practice
shift from a cinema of attractions in
the pre-1908 period to a cinema of
narrative integration in the post1908 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?
Key terms
• Mode of representation
– What are the predominant techniques used in the film texts
themselves?
• Mode of production
– How and by whom are films being produced?
• Mode of exhibition
– How and where are films being exhibited?
• Mode of distribution
– How the films are getting from the producer/manufacturer
to the exhibiter
• Mode of appreciation
– How are actual audiences interacting/enjoying/appreciating
the films?
PRE-1908 MODE OF REPRESENTATION (M.O.R), MODE OF PRODUCTION
(M.O.P.), MODE OF DISTRIBUTION (M.O.D.), MODE OF EXHIBITION (M.O.E.),
MODE OF APPRECIATION (M.O.A.)
• 1896-1901: Self-Contained Producers
– Mode of representation (M.O.R.)
• Cinema of attractions
– Mode of production (M.O.P)
• Companies developed the technology and made the films, and sometimes assisted
with the exhibition
– Edison, Lumière, American Mutoscope (later Biograph), Pathé Frerès, Vitagraph
– Mode of distribution (M.O.D)
• Companies rented out the technology (projectors), the films, and a person to help
with the projection
• i.e. no distributors
– Mode of exhibition (M.O.P.)
• *Vaudeville theaters*
– One part of a show
• Theaters rented a “complete service” from the production companies
• Few theaters that only showed films
– Mode of appreciation (M.O.A.)
• Illusions and novelty
P.B. Chase’s Polite Vaudeville Theater Program Bill
Washington, D.C., Week of April 29th, 1901
P.B. Chase’s Polite Vaudeville Theater Program Bill
Washington, D.C., Week of April 29th, 1901
P.B. Chase’s Polite Vaudeville Theater Program Bill
Washington, D.C., Week of September 21st, 1908
Chase’s Theater (ca. 1912)
PRE-1908 MODE OF REPRESENTATION (M.O.R), MODE OF PRODUCTION (M.O.P.), MODE OF
DISTRIBUTION (M.O.D.), MODE OF EXHIBITION (M.O.E.), MODE OF APPRECIATION (M.O.A.)
• 1902-1904: Independent Exhibitors
– Mode of representation (M.O.R.)
• Cinema of attractions
– Mode of production (M.O.P)
• Companies sold (rather than rented) the technology (projectors) and the films
• Projectors were easier to use (less need for a projectionist)
– Mode of distribution (M.O.D)
• Direct exchange between production and exhibition
• i.e. no real distributors
– Mode of exhibition (M.O.P.)
• Exhibitors bought projectors and films
• Increasing number of Vaudeville theaters incorporated films in playbills
• *Travelling entertainments*
– Fairgrounds, parks, etc…
• Exhibitors played a curatorial role; each show was “unique”
• No standardization
• Few film-only theaters
– Mode of appreciation (M.O.A.)
• Story films had become very popular
– The Great Train Robbery (1903) was the most commercially successful in the pre-Griffith period
• Audiences were familiar with many of the stories and dramatized events
– Jack and the Beanstalk, 1903
PRE-1908 MODE OF REPRESENTATION (M.O.R), MODE OF PRODUCTION (M.O.P.), MODE OF
DISTRIBUTION (M.O.D.), MODE OF EXHIBITION (M.O.E.), MODE OF APPRECIATION (M.O.A.)
• 1904-1908: Film Exchanges and the Rise of the Nickelodeon
– Mode of representation (M.O.R.)
• Cinema of attractions
– Mode of production (M.O.P)
• American Mutoscope Biograph company emerges as the first company to shift to
‘feature’ films
• Growing demand for films
• Power and control of industry passed from production to exchanges and exhibiters
– Mode of distribution (M.O.D.)
• Companies usually sold the technology (projectors) and the films to EXCHANGES rather
than exhibiters
• Emergence of a new intermediary: the film exchangeman (like a distributor)
– Bought films from production companies and rented them to exhibitors
– Mode of exhibition (M.O.P.)
• This helped propel the “nickelodeon boom”
– huge increase in theaters (nickelodeons) whose prime attraction was films
– CINEMA AS MASS ART
• Traveling exhibitors went out of business
– Mode of appreciation (M.O.A.)
• Story films were most popular
• Stories were often familiar to the audience
Published in the Chicago Sunday Tribune,
April 8th, 1906
Title: “Nickel Theatre Pays Well; Small Cost and Big Profit”
“[At the shopping-district theater], they must gather 2,200 5
cent coins before profit begins. The house seats 399
people, and two shows an hour are given, except Saturday
and Sundays when the crowds are largest and an extra
performance is wedged into every sixty minutes.
The hours are from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and during this time
there is no cessation. It is the genuine continuous. The rush
hours of the theater’s day are from 12 to 2, and from 6 to 8
p.m., when the capacity of the house is taxed as a rule”
Lubin Nickelodeon, Philadelphia, ca. 1907
Detroit, Michigan, 1909
Nickelodeon audiences
From Views and Film Index (1906):
“They all do business. This is evident at any hour during
the day and up to 12 o’clock at night. Places are
continually opening. East of the Bowery lies the great
East Side section of New York, with its great tenements
and the countless humanity living in it. The character
of the people who use the Bowery as thoroughfare and
who may be classed as transient is not of such a nature
that they would attend these shows: therefore the
logical conclusion, and what is now the established
fact, is that these moving picture shows and arcades
are supported by the residents of the vicinity, the great
Italian settlement on the one side and the great Jewish
settlement of the other.”
Impact of the “nickelodeon boom”
• Cinema became a mass art
• Film reel (vs. projectors or “complete service”)
became the industry’s main commodity
• ‘Feature’ film (half reel to one reel in length)
became the industry’s main product
• Demand for films increased
• New worries about film’s respectability
What explains the shift in the mode of
representation around 1908?
1. Emergence of film as a mass art with the
“nickelodeon boom” increased demand
2. Criticism of films whose storylines were unclear
suggested the need for narrative efficiency in order
to maintain profitability
a) Familiar stories were limited
b) broader, more diverse audience less familiar with once
taken-for-granted cultural referents
3. Standardization of the industry evidenced in the
Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC)
4. Concerns of reformers about the class composition
of nickelodeon audiences pushed the industry to try
to appeal to a middle class public