The Story of Victorian Film

The Story of Victorian Film

Author: Bryony Dixon

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-08-10

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1911239635

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In this vivid and accessible new account of the dawn of film in Britain, internationally respected film historian and curator Bryony Dixon introduces us to Britain's first cinematic pioneers – an eclectic mix of chemists, engineers, photography enthusiasts, fairground showmen and magicians – who in a few short years built a vibrant new industry. As she chronicles the emergence of the first embryonic film forms and genres, she reveals often surprising innovations, from cutting-edge science to ingeniously witty tricks and comedies, with filmmakers reflecting existing entertainment forms as well as advancing editing and cinematography in ways that shaped the art of film for many decades after. Dixon offers fresh insights by focusing on the films themselves – many of them only recently available to view – while building on the work of generations of scholars. In the process, Dixon makes a compelling case for the British filmmakers of the era as inventive and creative figures, every bit as influential as their more celebrated contemporaries in France and the US.


Book Synopsis The Story of Victorian Film by : Bryony Dixon

Download or read book The Story of Victorian Film written by Bryony Dixon and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-08-10 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this vivid and accessible new account of the dawn of film in Britain, internationally respected film historian and curator Bryony Dixon introduces us to Britain's first cinematic pioneers – an eclectic mix of chemists, engineers, photography enthusiasts, fairground showmen and magicians – who in a few short years built a vibrant new industry. As she chronicles the emergence of the first embryonic film forms and genres, she reveals often surprising innovations, from cutting-edge science to ingeniously witty tricks and comedies, with filmmakers reflecting existing entertainment forms as well as advancing editing and cinematography in ways that shaped the art of film for many decades after. Dixon offers fresh insights by focusing on the films themselves – many of them only recently available to view – while building on the work of generations of scholars. In the process, Dixon makes a compelling case for the British filmmakers of the era as inventive and creative figures, every bit as influential as their more celebrated contemporaries in France and the US.


A Victorian Film Enterprise

A Victorian Film Enterprise

Author: Richard Brown

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13:

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A history of the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, which discusses social and economic aspects of early film history.


Book Synopsis A Victorian Film Enterprise by : Richard Brown

Download or read book A Victorian Film Enterprise written by Richard Brown and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the British Mutoscope and Biograph Company, which discusses social and economic aspects of early film history.


Who's who of Victorian Cinema

Who's who of Victorian Cinema

Author: Stephen Herbert

Publisher: BFI Publishing

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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Lives of over 250 people involved in history of cinema


Book Synopsis Who's who of Victorian Cinema by : Stephen Herbert

Download or read book Who's who of Victorian Cinema written by Stephen Herbert and published by BFI Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lives of over 250 people involved in history of cinema


Better Left Unsaid

Better Left Unsaid

Author: Nora Gilbert

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2013-01-09

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 0804784876

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Better Left Unsaid is in the unseemly position of defending censorship from the central allegations that are traditionally leveled against it. Taking two genres generally presumed to have been stymied by the censor's knife—the Victorian novel and classical Hollywood film—this book reveals the varied ways in which censorship, for all its blustery self-righteousness, can actually be good for sex, politics, feminism, and art. As much as Victorianism is equated with such cultural impulses as repression and prudery, few scholars have explored the Victorian novel as a "censored" commodity—thanks, in large part, to the indirectness and intangibility of England's literary censorship process. This indirection stands in sharp contrast to the explicit, detailed formality of Hollywood's infamous Production Code of 1930. In comparing these two versions of censorship, Nora Gilbert explores the paradoxical effects of prohibitive practices. Rather than being ruined by censorship, Victorian novels and Hays Code films were stirred and stimulated by the very forces meant to restrain them.


Book Synopsis Better Left Unsaid by : Nora Gilbert

Download or read book Better Left Unsaid written by Nora Gilbert and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-09 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Better Left Unsaid is in the unseemly position of defending censorship from the central allegations that are traditionally leveled against it. Taking two genres generally presumed to have been stymied by the censor's knife—the Victorian novel and classical Hollywood film—this book reveals the varied ways in which censorship, for all its blustery self-righteousness, can actually be good for sex, politics, feminism, and art. As much as Victorianism is equated with such cultural impulses as repression and prudery, few scholars have explored the Victorian novel as a "censored" commodity—thanks, in large part, to the indirectness and intangibility of England's literary censorship process. This indirection stands in sharp contrast to the explicit, detailed formality of Hollywood's infamous Production Code of 1930. In comparing these two versions of censorship, Nora Gilbert explores the paradoxical effects of prohibitive practices. Rather than being ruined by censorship, Victorian novels and Hays Code films were stirred and stimulated by the very forces meant to restrain them.


The Kinetoscope

The Kinetoscope

Author: Richard Brown

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2017-10-01

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0861969316

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The story of how the motion-picture device was developed, and its role in Victorian society and early cinema. The position of the kinetoscope in film history is central and undisputed; indicative of its importance is the detailed attention American scholars have given to examining its history. However, the Kinetoscope’s development in Britain has not been well documented and much current information about it is incomplete and out of date. This book, for the first time, presents a comprehensive account of the unauthorized and often colorful development of British kinetoscopes, using many previously unpublished sources. The commercial and technical backgrounds of the kinetoscope are looked at in detail; the style and content of the earliest British films analyzed; and the device’s place in the wider world of Victorian popular entertainment examined. In addition, a unique legal case is revealed and a number of previously unrecorded film pioneers are identified and discussed.


Book Synopsis The Kinetoscope by : Richard Brown

Download or read book The Kinetoscope written by Richard Brown and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how the motion-picture device was developed, and its role in Victorian society and early cinema. The position of the kinetoscope in film history is central and undisputed; indicative of its importance is the detailed attention American scholars have given to examining its history. However, the Kinetoscope’s development in Britain has not been well documented and much current information about it is incomplete and out of date. This book, for the first time, presents a comprehensive account of the unauthorized and often colorful development of British kinetoscopes, using many previously unpublished sources. The commercial and technical backgrounds of the kinetoscope are looked at in detail; the style and content of the earliest British films analyzed; and the device’s place in the wider world of Victorian popular entertainment examined. In addition, a unique legal case is revealed and a number of previously unrecorded film pioneers are identified and discussed.


Supernatural Entertainments

Supernatural Entertainments

Author: Simone Natale

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2016-03-31

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0271077395

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In Supernatural Entertainments, Simone Natale vividly depicts spiritualism’s rise as a religious and cultural phenomenon and explores its strong connection to the growth of the media entertainment industry in the nineteenth century. He frames the spiritualist movement as part of a new commodity culture that changed how public entertainments were produced and consumed. Starting with the story of the Fox sisters, considered the first spiritualist mediums in history, Natale follows the trajectory of spiritualism in Great Britain and the United States from its foundation in 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century. He demonstrates that spiritualist mediums and leaders adopted many of the promotional strategies and spectacular techniques that were being developed for the broader entertainment industry. Spiritualist mediums were indistinguishable from other professional performers, as they had managers and agents, advertised in the press, and used spectacularism to draw audiences. Addressing the overlap between spiritualism’s explosion and nineteenth-century show business, Natale provides an archaeology of how the supernatural became a powerful force in the media and popular culture of today.


Book Synopsis Supernatural Entertainments by : Simone Natale

Download or read book Supernatural Entertainments written by Simone Natale and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Supernatural Entertainments, Simone Natale vividly depicts spiritualism’s rise as a religious and cultural phenomenon and explores its strong connection to the growth of the media entertainment industry in the nineteenth century. He frames the spiritualist movement as part of a new commodity culture that changed how public entertainments were produced and consumed. Starting with the story of the Fox sisters, considered the first spiritualist mediums in history, Natale follows the trajectory of spiritualism in Great Britain and the United States from its foundation in 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century. He demonstrates that spiritualist mediums and leaders adopted many of the promotional strategies and spectacular techniques that were being developed for the broader entertainment industry. Spiritualist mediums were indistinguishable from other professional performers, as they had managers and agents, advertised in the press, and used spectacularism to draw audiences. Addressing the overlap between spiritualism’s explosion and nineteenth-century show business, Natale provides an archaeology of how the supernatural became a powerful force in the media and popular culture of today.


History of Victorian Film Societies as Exemplified by the Camberwell Film Society

History of Victorian Film Societies as Exemplified by the Camberwell Film Society

Author: Dorothy Mavis Jenkins

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13:

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This thesis is a study of the history of Victorian film societies as exemplified, by the Camberwell Film Society, from the 1950s to the 1990s. The study was prompted by the paucity of philosophical and conceptual literature about film societies. As a result, little is known about how and why they were formed. The purpose of this study is to investigate these issues.During the 1950s there was an upsurge of interest in the formation of film societies in the state of Victoria. By the 1990s, the Victorian film society movement had undergone a cyclical pattern of periods of exciting growth followed by episodes of stasis or declining interest. The Camberwell Film Society was selected for the study because it has functioned continuously from its founding in the mid-1950s to the 1990s, emulating these patterns of growth. It remains a viable film society in 2014.Three themes establish the framework for the thesis. These are: the connections between three factors, globalism, localism and film; the contribution of Camberwell's socioeconomic context to the creation of a place conducive to the founding of a film society and, the role of adult, self-directed learning in a community environment, particularly following WW2. Like leitmotivs, these themes recur throughout the study.The study contends that the genesis of film societies lies in the 1890s with the development of machines such as the Kinematograph and Kinetoscope: the former captured moving images, the latter projected these images onto a screen for public viewing. These inventions were the catalysts for the establishment of the film industry which quickly developed into an international entity. Driven by a profit motive, the earliest movies were produced for entertainment purposes. Gradually, diversity of product crept into the film industry, prompting discerning viewers to distinguish between the concepts of film for entertainment/business and film as art. By the early 1920s film groups and ciné-clubs, precursors of film societies, were forming, keen to pursue the notion of cinema as art. Film societies evolved from these early groups. The film society movement grew rapidly in Europe and Britain and, eventually, internationally. These early societies were described as being non-profit, voluntary, community groups in which membership was by subscription. One of the significant and enduring features of film societies is that they notviiionly screen films but they also provide opportunities for engaging with, and studying the films, through post-screening discussion sessions. Another feature is the passionate attachment of core society members to the filmic world. In many cases, the ongoing management and success of a society are attributable to these core members. These features became the characteristics of traditional film societies. The study found that, formed in the mid-1950s, the Camberwell Film Society demonstrates the characteristics of a traditional film society.It is concluded that reasons for the formation of films societies include the production of appropriate filmic product, the existence of a community or group of people who are passionate about film and wish to share this passion with others and, the desire to participate in, and learn more, as part of a filmic educational culture.


Book Synopsis History of Victorian Film Societies as Exemplified by the Camberwell Film Society by : Dorothy Mavis Jenkins

Download or read book History of Victorian Film Societies as Exemplified by the Camberwell Film Society written by Dorothy Mavis Jenkins and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis is a study of the history of Victorian film societies as exemplified, by the Camberwell Film Society, from the 1950s to the 1990s. The study was prompted by the paucity of philosophical and conceptual literature about film societies. As a result, little is known about how and why they were formed. The purpose of this study is to investigate these issues.During the 1950s there was an upsurge of interest in the formation of film societies in the state of Victoria. By the 1990s, the Victorian film society movement had undergone a cyclical pattern of periods of exciting growth followed by episodes of stasis or declining interest. The Camberwell Film Society was selected for the study because it has functioned continuously from its founding in the mid-1950s to the 1990s, emulating these patterns of growth. It remains a viable film society in 2014.Three themes establish the framework for the thesis. These are: the connections between three factors, globalism, localism and film; the contribution of Camberwell's socioeconomic context to the creation of a place conducive to the founding of a film society and, the role of adult, self-directed learning in a community environment, particularly following WW2. Like leitmotivs, these themes recur throughout the study.The study contends that the genesis of film societies lies in the 1890s with the development of machines such as the Kinematograph and Kinetoscope: the former captured moving images, the latter projected these images onto a screen for public viewing. These inventions were the catalysts for the establishment of the film industry which quickly developed into an international entity. Driven by a profit motive, the earliest movies were produced for entertainment purposes. Gradually, diversity of product crept into the film industry, prompting discerning viewers to distinguish between the concepts of film for entertainment/business and film as art. By the early 1920s film groups and ciné-clubs, precursors of film societies, were forming, keen to pursue the notion of cinema as art. Film societies evolved from these early groups. The film society movement grew rapidly in Europe and Britain and, eventually, internationally. These early societies were described as being non-profit, voluntary, community groups in which membership was by subscription. One of the significant and enduring features of film societies is that they notviiionly screen films but they also provide opportunities for engaging with, and studying the films, through post-screening discussion sessions. Another feature is the passionate attachment of core society members to the filmic world. In many cases, the ongoing management and success of a society are attributable to these core members. These features became the characteristics of traditional film societies. The study found that, formed in the mid-1950s, the Camberwell Film Society demonstrates the characteristics of a traditional film society.It is concluded that reasons for the formation of films societies include the production of appropriate filmic product, the existence of a community or group of people who are passionate about film and wish to share this passion with others and, the desire to participate in, and learn more, as part of a filmic educational culture.


The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries

The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries

Author: Otto Penzler

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

Published: 2021-10-19

Total Pages: 1439

ISBN-13: 0593315804

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Edgar Award winner Otto Penzler—“detective fiction’s best editor and champion” (The Washington Post)—returns with a new anthology of exhilarating mysteries, assembling Victorian society's lords and ladies and most miserable miscreants Behind the velvet curtains of horsedrawn carriages and amid the soft glow of the gaslights are the detectives and bobbies sniffing out the safecrackers and petty purloiners who plague everything from the soot-covered side streets of London to the opulent manors of the countryside. With his latest title in the Big Book series, Otto Penzler is cracking cases and serving up the most thrilling, suspenseful Victorian mysteries. This collection brings together incredible stories from Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Guy de Maupassant among other legendary writers of the grand era of the British Empire. So brush off your dinner jackets and straighten out your ball gowns for these exciting, glitzy mysteries. A VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD ORIGINAL


Book Synopsis The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries by : Otto Penzler

Download or read book The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries written by Otto Penzler and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 1439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edgar Award winner Otto Penzler—“detective fiction’s best editor and champion” (The Washington Post)—returns with a new anthology of exhilarating mysteries, assembling Victorian society's lords and ladies and most miserable miscreants Behind the velvet curtains of horsedrawn carriages and amid the soft glow of the gaslights are the detectives and bobbies sniffing out the safecrackers and petty purloiners who plague everything from the soot-covered side streets of London to the opulent manors of the countryside. With his latest title in the Big Book series, Otto Penzler is cracking cases and serving up the most thrilling, suspenseful Victorian mysteries. This collection brings together incredible stories from Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Guy de Maupassant among other legendary writers of the grand era of the British Empire. So brush off your dinner jackets and straighten out your ball gowns for these exciting, glitzy mysteries. A VINTAGE CRIME/BLACK LIZARD ORIGINAL


Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Author: Paula Marantz Cohen

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 081315328X

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This provocative study traces Alfred Hitchcock's long directorial career from Victorianism to postmodernism. Paula Marantz Cohen considers a sampling of Hitchcock's best films—Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho—as well as some of his more uneven ones—Rope, The Wrong Man, Topaz—and makes connections between his evolution as a filmmaker and trends in the larger society. Drawing on a number of methodologies including feminism, psychoanalysis, and family systems, the author provides an insightful look at the paradox of a Victorian-style gentleman who evolved into one of the leading masters of the modern medium of film. Cohen posits that Hitchcock's films are, in part, a masculine response to the domestic, psychological novels that had appealed primarily to women during the Victorian era. His career, she argues, can be seen as an attempt to balance "the two faces of Victorianism": the masculine legacy of law and hierarchy and the feminine legacy of feeling and imagination. Cohen asserts that Hitchcock's films reflect his Victorian legacy and serve as a map for ideological trends. She charts his development from his British period through his classic Hollywood years into his later phase, tracing a conceptual evolution that corresponds to an evolution in cultural identity—one that builds on a Victorian inheritance and ultimately discards it.


Book Synopsis Alfred Hitchcock by : Paula Marantz Cohen

Download or read book Alfred Hitchcock written by Paula Marantz Cohen and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This provocative study traces Alfred Hitchcock's long directorial career from Victorianism to postmodernism. Paula Marantz Cohen considers a sampling of Hitchcock's best films—Shadow of a Doubt, Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho—as well as some of his more uneven ones—Rope, The Wrong Man, Topaz—and makes connections between his evolution as a filmmaker and trends in the larger society. Drawing on a number of methodologies including feminism, psychoanalysis, and family systems, the author provides an insightful look at the paradox of a Victorian-style gentleman who evolved into one of the leading masters of the modern medium of film. Cohen posits that Hitchcock's films are, in part, a masculine response to the domestic, psychological novels that had appealed primarily to women during the Victorian era. His career, she argues, can be seen as an attempt to balance "the two faces of Victorianism": the masculine legacy of law and hierarchy and the feminine legacy of feeling and imagination. Cohen asserts that Hitchcock's films reflect his Victorian legacy and serve as a map for ideological trends. She charts his development from his British period through his classic Hollywood years into his later phase, tracing a conceptual evolution that corresponds to an evolution in cultural identity—one that builds on a Victorian inheritance and ultimately discards it.


Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema

Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema

Author: Ian Christie

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2019-12-09

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 022661011X

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The early years of film were dominated by competition between inventors in America and France, especially Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers . But while these have generally been considered the foremost pioneers of film, they were not the only crucial figures in its inception. Telling the story of the white-hot years of filmmaking in the 1890s, Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema seeks to restore Robert Paul, Britain’s most important early innovator in film, to his rightful place. From improving upon Edison’s Kinetoscope to cocreating the first movie camera in Britain to building England’s first film studio and launching the country’s motion-picture industry, Paul played a key part in the history of cinema worldwide. It’s not only Paul’s story, however, that historian Ian Christie tells here. Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema also details the race among inventors to develop lucrative technologies and the jumbled culture of patent-snatching, showmanship, and music halls that prevailed in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Both an in-depth biography and a magnificent look at early cinema and fin-de-siècle Britain, Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema is a first-rate cultural history of a fascinating era of global invention, and the revelation of one of its undervalued contributors.


Book Synopsis Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema by : Ian Christie

Download or read book Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema written by Ian Christie and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-12-09 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The early years of film were dominated by competition between inventors in America and France, especially Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers . But while these have generally been considered the foremost pioneers of film, they were not the only crucial figures in its inception. Telling the story of the white-hot years of filmmaking in the 1890s, Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema seeks to restore Robert Paul, Britain’s most important early innovator in film, to his rightful place. From improving upon Edison’s Kinetoscope to cocreating the first movie camera in Britain to building England’s first film studio and launching the country’s motion-picture industry, Paul played a key part in the history of cinema worldwide. It’s not only Paul’s story, however, that historian Ian Christie tells here. Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema also details the race among inventors to develop lucrative technologies and the jumbled culture of patent-snatching, showmanship, and music halls that prevailed in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Both an in-depth biography and a magnificent look at early cinema and fin-de-siècle Britain, Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema is a first-rate cultural history of a fascinating era of global invention, and the revelation of one of its undervalued contributors.