Cinema of Attractions Notes PDF

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Notes about the reading "Cinema of Attractions" by Tom Gunning...

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AMS 285 Week 1

The Cinema of Attraction: Early Film, Its Spectator and the AvantGarde (NOTES) By Tom Gunning -

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Femand Léger, flushed with the excitement of seeing Abel Gance’s La Roue, attempts to define something of the radical possibilities of the cinema Cinema didn’t lie in “imitating the movements of nature” or in “the mistaken path” of its resemblance of theater Cinema’s unique power lays in the “matter of making images seen” The history of early cinema has been written and theorized under the influence of narrative films Non-actuality filming, aka Méliès tradition o “As for the scenario, the “fable” or “tale,” I only consider it at the end. I can state that the scenario constructed in the manner has no importance, since I use it merely as a pretext for the “stage effects,” the “tricks,” or for a nicely arranged tableau” What is Cinema of Attrraction? o This conception dominates cinema until about 1906-1907 o Bases itself on its ability to show something o Is an exhibitionist cinema o One aspect would be the recurring look at the camera by actors  Later seen as spoiling the realistic illusion of cinema  Undertaken with vigor  Establishes contact with the audience o A cinema that displays its visibility and is willing to rupture a self-enclosed fictional world for the chance to solicit the attention of the audience Trick films are essentially plotless as it’s a series of displays of magical attractions; a series of transformations that are strung together with little connection and no characterization Modes of exhibition in early cinema reflect the lack of concern with creating a self-sufficient narrative world upon the screen o Films would consist of non-narrative aspects like moving trains and the theatre itself being constructed as a train o Such antics relate more to the fairground attractions rather than the traditions of legit theater Cinema of Attraction in summary o The cinema of attractions solicits spectator attention, inciting visual curiosity, and supplying pleasure through an exciting spectacle

AMS 285 Week 1

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o The attraction to be displayed may be of a cinematic nature, such as the close-ups or trick films in which some sort of manipulation (slow-motion, reverse motion, substitution, multiple exposure) provides the film’s novelty o Fictional situations are usually restricted to gags, vaudeville numbers or recreations of shocking or curious incidents o Expends little energy creating characters with psychological motivations and non-fictional attractions o Its energy moves outward an acknowledged spectator rather than inward towards the character-based situations essential to classical narrative The term “attractions” comes from Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein and his attempt to find a new model and mode of analysis for the theater o An attraction aggressively subjected the audience to “sensual or psychological impact” o Theater should consist of a montage of such attractions o For Eisenstein and his friend Yutkevich, “attractions” represented their favorite fairground attraction, the roller coaster...