Silent Animation
Surreal Animation
Mike Moore Introduction In 1908 movie audiences were given the first glimpse of one of film’s most durable and expressionistic genres: Animation. The first true animation, lasting slightly longer than one minute, and consisting of over 700 still images, was created entirely by the hand of Emile Cohl. Cohl, a former comic strip writer, spent months tracing and retracing each individual frame of his film, each image only slightly different from the next, until the whole portfolio could be photographed in succession. Once the frames were captured, the camera replayed the still images at a faster pace, creating the illusion of motion, and the first animated film (Crafton 1982). And, though Cohl is rightly praised for his pioneering efforts in animation, it is important to recognize the impact of those filmmakers who came before and after. The techniques of animation were born through the mechanics of film itself -- this history of animation is truly the history of film. However, early animation in particular not only paralleled the development of cinema, but of a certain turn-of-the-century gestalt as well. The arrival of the
twentieth century marked the arrival of modernism, of both hope and anxiety for the century of industrialism and urbanization -- an era in which film was so clearly complicit. Modernism was the subject of many early films, (animated or not,) and it
quickly became the topic of much public discussion during the early 1900s. Artists in particular often struggled with modernism through their work. The work of French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, as well as the work of the Surrealists who followed him, was intimately tied to the concerns of modernism. In this sense, both the developing institutions of animation and Surrealism were tied to a similar cultural moment. In fact, the development of silent animation throughout the early 20th century parallels the development of Surrealism as an aesthetic, with silent animation first
Mike Moore Introduction In 1908 movie audiences were given the first glimpse of one of film’s most durable and expressionistic genres: Animation. The first true animation, lasting slightly longer than one minute, and consisting of over 700 still images, was created entirely by the hand of Emile Cohl. Cohl, a former comic strip writer, spent months tracing and retracing each individual frame of his film, each image only slightly different from the next, until the whole portfolio could be photographed in succession. Once the frames were captured, the camera replayed the still images at a faster pace, creating the illusion of motion, and the first animated film (Crafton 1982). And, though Cohl is rightly praised for his pioneering efforts in animation, it is important to recognize the impact of those filmmakers who came before and after. The techniques of animation were born through the mechanics of film itself -- this history of animation is truly the history of film. However, early animation in particular not only paralleled the development of cinema, but of a certain turn-of-the-century gestalt as well. The arrival of the
twentieth century marked the arrival of modernism, of both hope and anxiety for the century of industrialism and urbanization -- an era in which film was so clearly complicit. Modernism was the subject of many early films, (animated or not,) and it
quickly became the topic of much public discussion during the early 1900s. Artists in particular often struggled with modernism through their work. The work of French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, as well as the work of the Surrealists who followed him, was intimately tied to the concerns of modernism. In this sense, both the developing institutions of animation and Surrealism were tied to a similar cultural moment. In fact, the development of silent animation throughout the early 20th century parallels the development of Surrealism as an aesthetic, with silent animation first
References: Balakian, Anna. ‚Apollinaire and the Modern Mind.‛ Yale French Studies, No. 4, Literature and Ideas. 1949. Bohn, Willard. ‚From Surrealism to Surrealism: Apollinaire and Breton.‛ The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 36, No 2. 1977. Breton, Andre. ‚The Manifesto of Surrealism.‛ 1924. Available Online: http://www.exquisitecorpse.com/Manifesto_of_Surrealism.pdf Crafton, Donald. Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898-1928. The MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1982. Crafton, Donald. Emile Cohl, Caricature, and Film. Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey. 1990. Enchanted Drawing, The. Directed by J. Stuart Blackton. 1900. Eggener, Keith L. ‚‛An Amusing Lack of Logic’: Surrealism and Popular Entertainment.‛ American Art, Vol. 7, No. 4. 1993. Fantasmagorie. Directed by Emile Cohl. 1908. Felix the Cat in Comicalamities. Drawn by Otto Messmer. Produced by Pat Sullivan. Distributed by Educational Pictures , 1928. Felix Woos Whoopee. Drawn by Otto Messmer. Produced by Pat Sullivan. Distributed by Copley Pictures, 1930. ‚History of Animation.‛ Wikipedia.org. Available online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation_history Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. Directed by J. Stuart Blackton. 1906. Linden, George W. ‚Film, Fantasy, and the Extension of Reality.‛ Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 18, No. 3. 1984. Peyre, Henri. ‚The Significance of Surrealism.‛ Yale French Studies, No. 2, Modern Poets: Surrealists, Baudelaire, Prese, Laforgue. 1948. Seldes, Gilbert. The Seven Lively Arts. Harper & Brothers. 1924. Vettel Tom, Patricia. ‚Felix the Cat as Modern Trickster.‛ American Art, Vol. 10, No. 1. 1996.