Cinema of Attractions Reloaded

by Wanda Strauven

Overview

Twenty years ago, Tom Gunning and Andre Gaudreault introduced the concept of attraction to define the quintessence of the earliest films made between 1895 and 1906. As "cinema of attractions" this concept has become widely adopted, even outside the field of early cinema. Ranging from the films of the Lumiere brothers to The Matrix by Andy and Larry Wachowski, from trains rushing into the audience to bullet time effects, the "cinema of attractions" is a cinema that shocks, astonishes and directly addresses the film spectator.

This anthology traces the history of the "cinema of attractions," reconstructs its conception and questions its attractiveness and usefulness for both pre-classical and post-classical cinema. With contributions by Christa Blumlinger, Warren Buckland, Scott Bukatman, Donald Crafton, Nicolas Dulac, Thomas Elsaesser, Andre Gaudreault, Laurent Guido, Tom Gunning, Malte Hagener. Pierre-Emmanuel Jaques, Charlie Keil, Frank Kessler, Germain Lacasse, Alison McMahan, Charles Musser, Viva Paci, Eivind Rossaak, Vivian Sobchack, Wanda Strauven, Dick Tomasovic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789053569450
Publisher:	Amsterdam University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2007
Series:	Film Culture in Transition Series
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.13(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Wanda Strauven is assistant professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     9
Introduction to an Attractive Concept   Wanda Strauven     11
Theory Formation ["The Cinema of Attractions"]
Attractions: How They Came into the World   Tom Gunning     31
A Rational Reconstruction of "The Cinema of Attractions"   Warren Buckland     41
The Cinema of Attractions as Dispositif   Frank Kessler     57
Spectacle, Attractions and Visual Pleasure   Scott Bukatman     71
Attraction Theories and Terminoiogies ["Early Film"]
From "Primitive Cinema" to "Kine-Attractography"   Andre Gaudreault     85
From "Primitive Cinema" to "Marvelous"   Wanda Strauven     105
The Attraction of the Intelligent Eye: Obsessions with the Vision Machine in Early Film Theories   Viva Paci     121
Rhythmic Bodies/Movies: Dance as Attraction in Early Film Culture   Laurent Guido     139
Audiences and Attractions ["Its Spectator"]
A Cinema of Contemplation, A Cinema of Discernment: Spectatorship, Intertextuality and Attractions in the 1890s   Charles Musser     159
The Lecturer and the Attraction   Germain Lacasse     181
Integrated Attractions: Style and Spectatorship in Transitional Cinema   Charlie Keil     193
Discipline throughDiegesis: The Rube Film between "Attractions" and "Narrative Integration"   Thomas Elsaesser     205
Attraction Practices through History ["The Avant-Garde": section 1]
Circularity and Repetition at the Heart of the Attraction: Optical Toys and the Emergence of a New Cultural Series   Nicolas Dulac   Andre Gaudreault     227
Lumiere, the Train and the Avant-Garde   Christa Blumlinger     245
Programming Attractions: Avant-Garde Exhibition Practice in the 1920s and 1930s   Malte Hagener     265
The Associational Attractions of the Musical   Pierre-Emmanuel Jaques     281
Digital Media and (Un)Tamed Attractions ["The Avant-Garde": section 2]
Chez le Photographe c'est chez moi: Relationship of Actor and Filmed Subject to Camera in Early Film and Virtual Reality Spaces   Alison McMahan     291
The Hollywood Cobweb: New Laws of Attraction   Dick Tomasovic     309
Figures of Sensation: Between Still and Moving Images   Eivind Rossaak     321
"Cutting to the Quick": Techne, Physis, and Poiesis and the Attractions of Slow Motion   Vivian Sobchack     337
Dossier
Pie and Chase: Gag, Spectacle and Narrative in Slapstick Comedy   Donald Crafton     355
Early Cinema as a Challenge to Film History   Andre Gaudreault   Tom Gunning      365
The Cinema of Attraction[s]: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde   Tom Gunning     381
Rethinking Early Cinema: Cinema of Attractions and Narrativity   Charles Musser     389
Notes on Contributors     417
General Bibliography     421
Index of Names     435
Index of Film Titles     445
Index of Subjects     451