Cinema of Attractions vs Narrative Cinema
This essay will discuss both the Cinema of Attractions and Narrative Cinema and their origins in order to better understand the differences found between them in regards to the criteria to follow. This essay will highlight the role that the spectator plays, and the temporality that both the Cinema of Attractions and Narrative Cinema exhibit.
Tom Gunning proposed the Continuity Model in order to better understand the beginning of film and the making of film. Gunning proposes the following assumptions: Firstly, the evolutionary assumption, in which film is considered to have developed linearly across time as more development occurs. Secondly, the cinematic assumption theorises that film only truly came to being through the experimentation and discovery of itself as a cinematic medium (with the use of cinematic devices of camera movement and especially the process of editing). Lastly, the narrative assumption considers early film as an attempt to balance narrative and theatricality (Gunning, 2004: 42).
The history of film and particularly early cinema, is filled with accidents, imagination driven experiments and most importantly, trial-and-error discoveries (Robb, 2007: 17). Filmmakers were free to play and experiment with the medium of film, as they had no predecessors, and therefore, no rules or guidelines (Robb, 2007: 17).
In the early years of film, filmmakers and audiences alike, were not interested in telling stories and creating imaginary narrative worlds, but rather, were interested in displaying factual reports from a neutral standpoint. This is the start of the Cinema of Attractions – as introduced by André Gaudreault (Gunning, 2004: 42).
Within the Cinema of Attractions we find reports, or “actualities” – recordings of actual events that feature the novelty of moving pictures. We see this in films such as August and Louis Lumière’s, ‘La sortie des usines Lumière (Workers leaving the Lumière Factory’) (1895) – a simple daily event that was displayed
Tom Gunning proposed the Continuity Model in order to better understand the beginning of film and the making of film. Gunning proposes the following assumptions: Firstly, the evolutionary assumption, in which film is considered to have developed linearly across time as more development occurs. Secondly, the cinematic assumption theorises that film only truly came to being through the experimentation and discovery of itself as a cinematic medium (with the use of cinematic devices of camera movement and especially the process of editing). Lastly, the narrative assumption considers early film as an attempt to balance narrative and theatricality (Gunning, 2004: 42).
The history of film and particularly early cinema, is filled with accidents, imagination driven experiments and most importantly, trial-and-error discoveries (Robb, 2007: 17). Filmmakers were free to play and experiment with the medium of film, as they had no predecessors, and therefore, no rules or guidelines (Robb, 2007: 17).
In the early years of film, filmmakers and audiences alike, were not interested in telling stories and creating imaginary narrative worlds, but rather, were interested in displaying factual reports from a neutral standpoint. This is the start of the Cinema of Attractions – as introduced by André Gaudreault (Gunning, 2004: 42).
Within the Cinema of Attractions we find reports, or “actualities” – recordings of actual events that feature the novelty of moving pictures. We see this in films such as August and Louis Lumière’s, ‘La sortie des usines Lumière (Workers leaving the Lumière Factory’) (1895) – a simple daily event that was displayed
References: Abel, R. (2004). Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. London and New York: Routledge Dancyger, Ken. (2002). The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice. New York: Focal Press. Gunning, T. (2004). The Silent Cinema Reader. London and New York: Routledge. Leveridge, R. (2012). “Fantastic voyages of the cinematic imagination: George Méliès’s Trip to the Moon”. USA: SUNY Press. Robb, B. (2007). Silent Cinema. Great Brittain: Kamera Books. Strauven, W. (1999). The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.