The History and Art of Early Cinema

George Strander, Cinephile

Tuesdays, 2 – 5 p.m., May 6, 13, 20, 27. Bobbitt Auditorium. Class size unlimited.

Everyone is familiar with movies, but not necessarily with how the medium and its art developed, and how this development shapes what we see today. This course delves into the origins of film in the late 19th Century (and the precursors to its development), and tracks the sometimes-complicated story of the technology, business, and reception of film up to the end of the silent era around 1930. The development of narrative films, the film exchanges, the expansion of theaters and their audiences, the star system, the beginning of feature films, the rise of Hollywood, and the entrenchment of the studio system are all chronicled, including the recognition of personalities whose familiarity lasted into the era of the talkies and modern consciousness. The course employs a world-wide scope because the story of film is world-wide, from the early dominance of French and English industries along with American, to the early rise of Italian, German, and Soviet industries. Additionally, there is no way fully to understand the rise of Italian Neorealism and its progeny, post-war film in Japan, Sweden, and India, the French Nouvelle Vague, British “kitchen sink” dramas, and other film movements in the world, without putting them into historical context. Despite the world-wide scope of the course, due to its historical as well as present importance, American film will form the main context of discussion. Importantly, within this course’s historical discussion, we will focus on the artistic developments and achievements in early cinema.

Each class will be a combination of lecture with discussion and feature film presentation. Lectures will make full use of audiovisual complements, including expository clips from films of the relevant time period. Feature films presented will come from the 1920s, representing the artistic maturity of the silent era.