Post by Capo on Jan 27, 2007 1:38:03 GMT
Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show
Edwin S. Porter 1902 USA
A remake of Robert W. Paul's The Countryman and the Cinematograph.
Incredibly self-reflexive film, and one which can now be appreciated on a number of levels. It might be a self-congratulation as regards fooling the audience; it might be a nod to the artifice of its own artistry; it might be a quick summation of the short history of film leading up to that point; it might be a precursor to Herzog's notion that "Cinema is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates"... here we have, like Paul's film, an uneducated man being overwhelmed by the images he is consuming, which seems an ironically persuasive comment on how Cinema should be approached. It is a more sophisticated film than the original, because here Uncle Josh tries to physically enter the projected image, and brings the whole screen down with the realisation and frustration that he is a physical entity and the image is a 2D canvas, an illusion... surely Godard had seen this film when he made Les caribiniers.
Edwin S. Porter 1902 USA
A remake of Robert W. Paul's The Countryman and the Cinematograph.
Incredibly self-reflexive film, and one which can now be appreciated on a number of levels. It might be a self-congratulation as regards fooling the audience; it might be a nod to the artifice of its own artistry; it might be a quick summation of the short history of film leading up to that point; it might be a precursor to Herzog's notion that "Cinema is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates"... here we have, like Paul's film, an uneducated man being overwhelmed by the images he is consuming, which seems an ironically persuasive comment on how Cinema should be approached. It is a more sophisticated film than the original, because here Uncle Josh tries to physically enter the projected image, and brings the whole screen down with the realisation and frustration that he is a physical entity and the image is a 2D canvas, an illusion... surely Godard had seen this film when he made Les caribiniers.