World Film History I, 1
Introduction to Film History
Moving image before cinema
Early French cinema
Registration in 2007-2008
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World Film History I-II courses together with
the History of Television course form an entity
registered as Tet1030e (8 op = 8 ECTS) in
the new curriculum
Within the old curriculum these courses can
be registered as Tet121 (2ov), Tet122 (2ov)
and Tet 123 (1ov) respectively. This can be
done even if one of these codes has already
been used.
Completing the three courses
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Completing the course involves seeing films at the
Finnish Film Archive and from other sources
All three history courses are completed preferably
by writing study diaries. It is also possible to write
two essays on topics related to the issues discussed
during the lectures.
The diaries or essays must be submitted in printed
form on Monday two weeks after the last lecture of
each course (+ Christmas week). Henry Bacon’s
pigeonhole is located in the main building, new side,
4th floor
Minimum length of the texts for each three section is
12 sheets, i.e. about. 22 000 characters
Check the joint homepage for all three courses
Describing: What? Who? Where? When?
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What films have been made in different
historical situations and circumstances?
What are these films like? How do they differ
from other films?
Who financed them? Who made them? Who
appear in them?
In what technical, economical, social, cultural
and ideological conditions were they made?
What kind of trends and movements have
there been? How have they been defined?
Explaining: How? Why?
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The aim is to explain how and why things have
developed the way they have on the bases of known
facts and reasoned argumentation about historical
development in respect of a given point of view or views.
Much of film history is about decisions made in order to
solve certain problems. These decisions have been
influenced by factors related to aesthetic, ethical,
ideological, political, practical, technical, financial and
other concerns an influences. Which of these have been
the most decisive?
As it is not possible to capture any historical issue in all
its complexity we must focus on representative or
otherwise significant phenomena.
What is relevant in view of the questions we are making?
Some subdivisions of film history I
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Aesthetic history concentrates mainly on
canonized and influential works, i.e. ones that
are generally thought to be artistically significant
or influential. It is usually organized according to
directors or visionary producers, sometimes
according to actors, screenwriters,
cinematographers, editors ...
History of film style: How have certain norms
come into use, become more or less stabilized
and developed thus guiding style on various
levels. How have national and international
trends emerged?
Some subdivisions of film history II
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History of film production, distribution and exhibition:
How have technical, economical and practical factors
and considerations enabled and condition the making
and distributing of certain kinds of films? More
specialized questions include technical history, studio
history, financing, legal battles, censorship etc.
Reception and film culture: What have films meant to
people in various social configurations? What have their
roles been in their lives?
Film in relation to society: What kind of ideological
concerns have films reflected or propagated? How has
cinema been controlled?
The available material
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Much of the primary material (films) has been lost –
more than ¾ of silent films. The remaining copies are
often imperfect.
Secondary material (scripts, other production related
material, programme notes, reviews and articles,
memoirs, private correspondence etc.) fill in some of
the gaps and offer crucial additional information.
Archival work began in France in the 1930s.
The study of early cinema which began in the 1970-80s
has revolutionized our understanding of this phase.
Films have been distributed in different forms, say, a
sexually more frank version in Europe than in the USA.
Traditional film history has focused to a great extent on
canonized films at the expense of popular cinema. This
has slowly changed but a lot still needs to be revised.
Periods and turning points (a sketch)
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Formation and early silent film
The emergence of feature film and the formation of the
classical Hollywood style
The rise of the studio system and mature silent film
The breakthrough of sound film
Early sound film
Film during the Second World War
The last phase and fall of the studio era
The new waves
Contemporary cinema
Moving pictures before films
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Magic lantern
Joseph Plateau, Simon Stampfer:
Phenakistiscope (1832)
Zoetrope (1833)
Émile Reynard: Praxinoscope (1877). Bands
of drawings rear projected on a screen
Various phantasmagoria techniques:
fantascope, megascope etc.
Optical toys
Phenakistiscope disc
Phantamasgoria projection
Phantasmagoria projector
Gothic nightmares
Eearly innovators and innovations
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Eadweard Muybridge shoots horses (1878)
Etienne Marey
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George Eastman & Henry M. Reichenbach (?)
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transparent, flexible film material (1889)
Thomas Edison & W.K.L. Dickson
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fusil photographique (1882)
chronophotograph (1888)
kinetoscope (1891)
peepshows since (1894)
Louis & Auguste Lumière
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Cinématographe
first public screening at Grand Café in Paris 28.12.1895
Famous Lumière films
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La sortie des usines Lumière, 1895
Arrivée d'un train en gare à la Ciotat, 1895
Barque sortant du port, 1895
Repas de bébé, 1895
L'arrosseur arrosé, 1895
Demolition d’un mur, 1896
Georges Méliès
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Après le bal, 1897
L'affaire Dreyfus, 1899
L'homme orchestre, 1900
L'homme à la tête de caoutchouc, 1901
Escamotage d'une dame chez Robert Houdin
Le couronnement d'Edouard VII, 1902
Voyage à la lune, 1902
Voyage a travers l’impossible, 1904
The great French film producers
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Charles Pathé: Pathé Frères
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founded in 1896 as a phonograph enterprise
film production since 1901
studio headed by Ferdinand Zecca 1902
Léon Gaumont: Gaumont
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founded in 1895 as a phonograph enterprise
film equipment since 1896
sound and colour experiments
major director Alice Guy
Early French film genres
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Outdoor scenes
Comical sketches
Trick films (à la Méliès)
Sports and acrobatics
Historical scenes, news items, military scenes
"Scènes grivoises d'un caractère piquant"
Dances and ballets
Dramatic and realistic scenes
Féeries (fairytale melodrama)
Religious and biblical topics
Kinephotographic scenes (attempts at combining sound
and image)
Miscellaneous scenes