The great art of light and shadow : archaeology of the cinema
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The great art of light and shadow : archaeology of the cinema
（Exeter studies in film history）
University of Exeter Press, 2000
- : [pbk.]
- Other Title
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Le grand art de la lumière et de l'ombre
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Note
Translation of: Le grand art de la lumière et de l'ombre. Nathan, c1995
Includes bibliographical refernces and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Widely regarded by historians of the early moving picture as the best work yet published on pre-cinema, The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema throws light on a fascinating range of optical media from the twelfth century to the turn of the twentieth. First published in French in 1994 and now translated into English, Laurent Mannoni's account projects a broad picture of the subject area now known as 'pre-cinema'.
Starting from the earliest uses of the camera obscura in astronomy and entertainment, Mannoni discusses, among many other devices, the invention and early years of the magic lantern in the seventeenth century, the peepshows and perspective views of the eighteenth century, and the many weird and wonderful nineteenth-century attempts to recreate visions of real life in different ways and forms. This fully-illustrated and accessible account of a strange mixture of science, magic, art and deception introduces to an English-speaking readership many aspects of pre-cinema history from other European countries.
Table of Contents
Part 1: The dreams of the eye: dark rooms and magic mirrors
Light in the darkness
The "Lantern of Fear" tours the world
Part 2: Triumphant illusions: magie lumineuse in the country and the city
"Life and Motion" The 18th-century lantern slide
The phantasmagoria
From panorama to daguerreotype
Part 3: The pencil of nature": the pirouette of the dancer
The "vital question" resolved?
Great expectations
The magic lantern - a sovereign and her subjects
Part 4: Inscribing movement: the passage of Venus and the galloping horse
Marey releases the dove
The big wheel of little mirrors
Edison and his "films through the keyhole"
The labourers of the eleventh hour
Appendices:
Museums displaying interesting items relating to the history of "pre-cinema" media
Report of the scientists Jamin and Richer on the phantasmagorie of Robertson and the Phantasmaparastasie of Cli
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