History in the Making: The Debut Epic Tiexi qu: West of the Tracks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Pollacchi
Keyword(s):  
Lumiere Brothers ◽  
Days Of Heaven

This chapter discusses Wang Bing’s debut Tiexi qu: West of the Tracks (2002) and engages with history and labour issues. The film shows Wang’s way of observing ‘history in the making’ and extrapolating narratives from an extensive process of shooting. The film is discussed as an unconventional cinematic reportage. Its structure, extensive duration, and approach make this film a groundbreaking work that intertwines various film modes and connects different film traditions, from the early documentaries of the Lumière Brothers to Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1972).

Mud Doctoring: On Days of Heaven

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-45
Author(s):  
Michael Parker
Keyword(s):  
Days Of Heaven

scholarly journals The Ancient Syncretism and the Modern Syncretism

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-53
Author(s):  
Vadym Skurativskyi
Keyword(s):  
Technological Basis ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lumiere Brothers ◽  
As If

The genesis of cinema (in 1890) is immediately accompanied by the almost global resonance around the "moving picture", a rather unusual communicative phenomenon. Unfortunately, all the root causes of the resonance have not yet been sufficiently studied. Today, however, given the achievements of a whole range of humanities and (not only) scientific disciplines, it becomes obvious that the "moving picture" invented by engineers Edison and the Lumière brothers arises, above all, as an upgrade to completely new aesthetic, technological and other settings of human culture of the ancient phenomenon of socalled "original syncretism". It is as if the breakdawn of the artistic and generally semiotic-communicative culture of the humanity. That syncretism combines all the receptive means of a man to create a holistic space-and-time picture of the world. The "moving picture", which characteristically arose almost synchronously with the advent of the efforts of the science of the time (the school of Academician Alexander Veselovsky and others) around the phenomenon of original syncretism with a surprising sequence restores decisively the whole semiotic sum of it — but clearly, on a completely new so-called technological basis. Accordingly, this circumstance immediately casts a new cognitive light on the whole history of the "moving picture" — from its debut to our present.

Méliès, Georges (1861–1938)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison de Fren
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Silent Period ◽  
Main Stage ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
Performance Skills ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Dream Imagery ◽  
Lumiere Brothers

Georges Méliès (born Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès) was a French showman, illusionist, and filmmaker best known for his early silent fantasy and science fiction films, such as Trip to the Moon (1902) and Impossible Voyage (1904). While most early films were actualities, he took an innovative, non-realist approach to the medium, employing its unique capacities for altering space and time to produce allegorical and dream imagery. He is sometimes called the first cinemagician due to his pioneering work in special effects, including the stop-trick film, double exposure, split screen, dissolve, and superimposition. Méliès launched his entertainment career as a magician in the arcades of late 19th-century Paris. In 1888 he purchased the Théâtre Robert-Houdin, the most famous magic theater at the time, which came complete with stage props, illusions, automata (whose parts he used to build his first film camera), and performers, including Jeanne d’Alcy, who became his muse, long-time mistress, and second wife. The performance skills that he developed in the theater were later incorporated into filmmaking, an occupation that he began pursuing passionately after attending the première screening of the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe at the Grand Café in 1895. A year later, he helped to found the Star Film Company and built what is considered the first film studio of the silent period, whose main stage area featured a steel frame surrounded by glass walls to capture the sunlight.

Uruguayan Cinema in the 20th Century

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Alex Richter
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Film Exhibition ◽  
Mass Publics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lumiere Brothers ◽  
Film Productions ◽  
Democratic Nation ◽  
The 1960S

Cinema began in Uruguay with the exhibition of foreign films by visiting representatives of the Lumière brothers in 1896 before the first Uruguayan film was produced and shown in 1898. From the early period of Uruguayan cinema to the end of the 20th century, Uruguayan national cinema struggled to exist in the estimation of critical observers. Considering these periods of growth and stagnation, this history of Uruguayan cinema seeks to shed light on the industry’s evolution by focusing on exhibition, production, and spectatorship. This essay explores Uruguay’s national film productions, transnational businesses in shaping local film exhibition, the growth of mass publics and critical spectatorship, and the significance of political filmmaking in understanding the evolution of Latin American cinema during the 1960s. The history of Uruguayan cinema during the 20th century also provides a lens for understanding the political, social, and cultural histories of a country that has struggled to live up to its reputation as South America’s “most democratic” nation.

A House Is Not a Home: The Farmer's House Holds Passion in Days of Heaven

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
A. Van Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Days Of Heaven

Organ accompaniment in silent films, part 1 – the process of cinematic art creation

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (14) ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Filip Presseisen
Keyword(s):  
Initial Phase ◽  
Data Flow ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Pipe Organ ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Lumiere Brothers

The idea to write music for silent films, both in a form of written-down scores and composed live has experienced its renaissance for more than ten years. Thanks to a quite decent number of preserved theatre instruments and also due to the globalisation and wide data flow options connected with it, the knowledge and interest in Anglo-Saxon tradition of organ accompaniment in cinema were able to spread away from its place of origin. The article is the first part of four attempts to present the phenomenon of combination of the art of organ improvisation with cinematography and it was based on the fragments of the doctoral thesis entitled “Current methods of organ improvisation as performance means in the accompaniment for silent films based on the selected musical and visual work”. The dissertation was written under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Karolak and was defended at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in 2020. The article touches on the initial phase of the development of silent cinema from 1895 to 1909. Having differentiated the terms of typical organ improvisation and the art of improvisation for silent films, the article describes the development of cinema art. From the praxinoscope invented by Émile Reynaud, through the cinematograph and the Kinetoscope (Dickson), Vitascope (Jenkins and Armat) and Bioscop (Skladanowsky brothers), it finally discusses the process how the Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph. It its further part, it presents the development of cinematography based on the improvements in theatre introduced by Méliès. The whole text serves as a basis for more parts of the article touching on the issues of the sound added to silent films and the creation of the theatre type of the pipe organ.

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