Time & the Image: MOTION STUDIES
The history of the cinema begins in dreams, at night, the play of shadow and light. What dreams? Fundamental human impossibilities: the dream of flying; of walking on the moon; of living machines; of stopping time; and of projecting moving images on to screens. From Plato’s Cave to the camera obscura, the magic lantern to the thaumatrope and phenakistescope, from Muybridge to Marey, and finally to the Lumieres’ Cinematographe and the dream realized.
The Dream of Cinema: the union of the magic lantern and chronophotography – projected.
One of cinema’s origins lies in the photographic analysis of movement – or common gestures: a sneeze, a kiss, an opening and closing fist – followed by the cinematographic synthesis of that movement by the projection of those images.
The late 19th century “invention” of cinema is preceded by centuries of dreams, machines, research, invention, speculation, a variety of screen and moving image practices – science, magic, and art. Film – celluloid – “the big screen” – was the dominant art form of the 20th century. Now, it seems, all of that is fading fast (digital, screens everywhere and of every size). But nonetheless, cinema was so prevalent that we can say that it now performs a haunting upon us; it lurks within and around us; its practices and desires suffuse us. And it is this – the analysis and synthesis of movement, and the “haunting” of cinema – that this course will examine by looking at a few films that are particularly concerned with time and with the image – that is, movement.
The moving image – what a thought!
What we’re interested in
The long history of cinema: Science – magic – art; optics, philosophical toys, the Phantasmagoria; Chronophotography (Muybridge & Marey)
What to Think About: Projection; Movement; Time; Stillness vs., Movement; Photography vs. Cinema; Human vs. Machine (automata); What cinema might have become (or otherwise: scientific tool; attraction & spectacle; narrative/pictures of talking faces).
Forms: the Close-up; Slow Motion; Voice-over; spiral, mise-en-ab¿me (repetition, series, doubling …); the Eye and the Mirror.
Pre-, Early, Digital Cinema:
Haunting (by the Forms)
Déjà vu (pan/Muybridge; motion analysis/Marey)
I will begin with a discussion of the history of Pre-Cinema and of Early Cinema. I will then concentrate on three films – La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962); Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958); and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (the Quay Brothers, 2005); – and perhaps a few others. We will also see a lot of clips from a variety of films, early and later.
It would be best if you have already seen the films before we begin, so I strongly urge you to see them on your own. We only begin to understand a film on a second viewing.
We will meet on Monday, 1:30-4:00. Be on time, please. Also, we will not meet every Monday; we will discuss the schedule at the first meeting.
NB: Attendance at the first class is required; no one admitted after the first class (and please, don’t even ask).
