The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914

Richard Abel

University of California Press, 1994 - 568 頁

Richard Abel's magisterial new book radically rewrites the history of French cinema between 1896 and 1914, particularly during the years when Path-Frres, the first major corporation in the new industry, led the world in film production and distribution. Based on extensive investigation of rare archival films and documents, and drawing on recent social and cultural histories of turn-of-the-century France and the United States, his book provides new insights into the earliest history of the cinema.
Abel tells how early French film entertainment changed from a cinema of attractions to the narrative format that Hollywood would so successfully exploit. He describes the popular genres of the era--comic chases, trick films and feries, historical and biblical stories, family melodramas and grand guignol tales, crime and detective films--and shows the shift from short subjects to feature-length films. Cinema venues evolved along with the films as live music, color effects, and other new exhibiting techniques and practices drew larger and larger audiences. Abel explores the ways these early films mapped significant differences in French social life, helping to produce thoroughly bourgeois citizens for Third Republic France.
The Cin Goes to Town recovers early French cinema's unique contribution to the development of the mass culture industry. As the one-hundredth anniversary of cinema approaches, this compelling demonstration of film's role in the formation of social and national identity will attract a wide audience of film scholars, social and cultural historians, and film enthusiasts. Richard Abel's magisterial new book radically rewrites the history of French cinema between 1896 and 1914, particularly during the years when Path-Frres, the first major corporation in the new industry, led the world in film production and distribution. Based on extensive investigation of rare archival films and documents, and drawing on recent social and cultural histories of turn-of-the-century France and the United States, his book provides new insights into the earliest history of the cinema.
Abel tells how early French film entertainment changed from a cinema of attractions to the narrative format that Hollywood would so successfully exploit. He describes the popular genres of the era--comic chases, trick films and feries, historical and biblical stories, family melodramas and grand guignol tales, crime and detective films--and shows the shift from short subjects to feature-length films. Cinema venues evolved along with the films as live music, color effects, and other new exhibiting techniques and practices drew larger and larger audiences. Abel explores the ways these early films mapped significant differences in French social life, helping to produce thoroughly bourgeois citizens for Third Republic France.
The Cin Goes to Town recovers early French cinema's unique contribution to the development of the mass culture industry. As the one-hundredth anniversary of cinema approaches, this compelling demonstration of film's role in the formation of social and national identity will attract a wide audience of film scholars, social and cultural historians, and film enthusiasts.

內容

• Alice Guy: 12
• Méliès Montreuil studio Georges Méliès left: 13
• Ferdinand Zecca and Charles Pathé: 15
• Cinématographe Grenier c 1900: 16
• The fire at the Bazar de la Charité: 18
• Pathés Vincennes studio: 21
• Pathés film splicing lab: 22
• Cinématographe Pathé program 1905: 26
• Cinéma Pathé poster c 1907: 30
• GaumontPalace renovated 1911: 32
• OmniaPathé exterior remodeled 1912 56 12 OmniaPathé interior remodeled 1912: 56
• The Cinema of Attractions 18961904: 59
• Rêve de Noël 1900 production photo: 68
• Barbebleue 1901 production photo: 69
• Le Voyage dans la lune 1902: 71
• Le Voyage dans la lune 1902: 73
• Le Royaume des fées 1903: 74
• Le Royaume des fées 1903: 75
• La Soubrette ingénieuse 1903: 79
• Metamorphose du papillon 1904: 80
• Le Cakewalk chez les nains 1903: 81
• Don Quichotte 1903: 84
• Le Chat botté 1903: 86
• Ma Tante 1903 Dranem: 89
• Un Drame au fond de la mer 1901: 97
• Histoire dun crime 1901: 98
• Victimes de lalcoolisme 1902 poster: 100
• photo: 110
• Toto fait de la peinture 1907: 116
• and Others: 117
• La Grève 1904 poster: 122
• 36a b Au pays noir 1905: 125
• Au pays noir 1905: 126
• Honneur dun père 1905: 127
• Le Matelas alcoolique 1906: 142
• LHomme animanté 1907 production photo: 143
• Le Nihiliste 1906: 146
• LEspionne 1907: 148
• La Fille du Corse 1907: 149
• Les Quatre Cent Farces du diable 1906: 158
• production photo: 159
• La Vie du Christ 1906: 165
• La Poule aux oeufs dor 1905 poster: 172
• La Poule aux oeufs dor 1905: 174
• Cendrillon 1907 poster: 177
• 56a b c The Pirates 1907: 189
• The Pirates 1907: 190
• Le Contremaître incendiaire 1908: 191
• Le Contremaître incendiaire 1908: 192
• A Narrow Escape 1908: 194
• Nuit de Noël 1908 poster: 203
• Rembrandt de la rue Lepic 1911 production: 224
• Tout est bien qui finit bien 1910: 239
• Le Fils prodigue 1907: 247
• Cléopatre 1910 Stacia Napierkowska: 259
• La Mort du Duc dEnghien 1909 Georges: 269
• Cagliostro 1910 Henry Krauss Stacia: 276
• Les Chrysanthèmes 1907: 285
• The Rise of the Feature Film 19111914: 298
• Notre Dame de Paris 1911 Henry Krauss: 306
• Gabrielle Réjane Jacques Volnys: 313
• Léontine Massart: 337
• Detectives Versus Criminals: 354
• Zigomar contre Nick Carter 1912: 362
• Fantômas 1913 René Navarre: 372
• Le Mort qui tue 1913 LuitzMorat: 378
• The Comic Series in Full Swing: 388
• Afterword: 429
• Notes: 463
• Bibliography: 537

關於作者

Richard Abel is National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of English at Drake University. His books include French Cinema: The First Wave, 1915-1929 (1984), winner of the Theatre Library Association Award, and French Film Theory and Criticism: A History/Anthology, 1907-1939 (1988), winner of the Jay Leyda Prize in Cinema Studies.

書目資訊

• 書名: The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914; A centennial book
• 作者: Richard Abel
• 版本: 圖解
• 出版者: University of California Press, 1994
• ISBN: 0520079353, 9780520079359
• 頁數: 568 頁