From Méliès to New Media: Spectral Projections

203 Pages·2019·31.743 MB·English

by  Wendy Haslem

From Méliès to New Media
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From Méliès to New Media
Spectral Projections
Wendy Haslem
intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA
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First published in the UK in 2019 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2019 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2019 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Copy-editor: MPS Technologies
Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas
Cover image: Lobster Films 2011
Production manager: Mareike Wehner
Typesetting: Contentra Technologies
Print ISBN: 978-1-78320-989-7
ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78938-032-3
ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78938-031-6
Printed and bound by Hobbs, UK.
This is a peer-reviewed publication.
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Beginnings and Ends: Historical Collusion 1
Chapter 1: C igarette Burns and Bullet Holes: Celluloid Cues in Digital Cinema 3
Section I: Early Cinema: Colour and Spectrality 33
Chapter 2: A pplied Colour: Chromatic Frankenstein’s Monsters? 35
Chapter 3: T he Serpentine Dance Films: ‘Dream Visions That Change 57
Ten Thousand Times a Minute’
Section II: Luminescence, Montage and Frame Ratios 77
Chapter 4: Memory and Noir: Neon Contrasts 79
Chapter 5: Cutting: Shock and Endurance 101
Chapter 6: S creens, Scale Ratio: Vertical Celluloid in the Digital Age 119
Section III: Cinema Beyond the Frame 139
Chapter 7: Hallucinatory Framing and Kaleidoscopic Vision 141
Chapter 8: Ephemeral Screens: The Muybridgizer 163
Bibliography 179
Index 187
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List of Illustrations
Figure 1: Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945).
Figure 2: Voyage dans la Lune/Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, 1902, Lobster Films,
2011). Image reproduced with kind permission from Eric Lange and Serge
Bromberg, Lobster films.
Figure 3: Loie Fuller Dancing, Samuel Joshua Beckett, 1900.
Figure 4: Annabelle Dances and Dances (Edison, 1894–1897).
Figure 5: Shades of Cool (Jake Nava, 2014).
Figure 6: Yelizaveta Svilova, Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929).
Figure 7: Justus D Barnes shoots the spectator in The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S.
Porter, 1903).
Figure 8: Justus D Barnes shoots the spectator in The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S.
Porter, 1903).
Figure 9: Chance (Christian Boltanski, 2011). Photograph: Simon McLean, 2011.
Figure 10: Chance (Christian Boltanski, 2011). Photograph: Simon McLean, 2011.
Figure 11: Phantom Ride (Daniel Crooks, 2016). Image courtesy of the artist, Anna
Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Starkwhite, Auckland.
Figure 12: Jim Campbell, Illuminated Average #1 (2000). Image reproduced with kind
permission from Jim Campbell, 2018.
Figure 13: Valstar Barbie (Claude Lévêque, 2003). Photograph: Simon McLean, 2006.
Figure 14: The Muybridgizer (Watson and Gobeille, 2010).
Figure 15: Eadweard Muybridge, ‘The Horse In Motion’, 1878.
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Acknowledgements
This book has benefited from the expertise and influence of some outstanding film scholars,
who are also my colleagues and friends. As an undergraduate student in Cinema Studies,
I took subjects taught by Professor Barbara Creed where I learned how to recognise the
depth and detail that is beyond the surface and how to use cinematic language to explore
complex ideas. Equally important was the influence of Professor Angela Ndalianis, a
brilliant film scholar who was my colleague for fifteen years. Angela supported my research
and encouraged me to develop subjects in the Screen Studies program at The University of
Melbourne.
Just as important was the opportunity to teach early film and new media to Screen
Studies students. It has been a pleasure to be able to explore cinema beyond traditional
screening spaces like art galleries or in virtual spaces where we were able to reconsider
the intersection of new media and film history. Teaching our own research is a privilege
and I thank the students who may not realise that they also teach us. The production of
this book was generously supported by a publication grant from the School of Culture and
Communication.
The book was improved in response to some insightful feedback from three anonymous
readers. I appreciate their close reading and constructive commentary on my manuscript.
Leonie Cooper helped to edit drafts of two chapters and it was wonderful to work with her.
Finally, I am grateful to my family, Simon, Janine, Bessy, Linda, Rick and Jade. I dedicate
this book with love to my parents – Alfred and Beverley Haslem.   
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