The Story of Victorian Film

The Story of Victorian Film PDF

Author: Bryony Dixon

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-08-10

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1911239643

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this vivid and accessible new account of the dawn of film in Britain, internationally respected film historian and curator Bryony Dixon introduces us to Britain's first cinematic pioneers – an eclectic mix of chemists, engineers, photography enthusiasts, fairground showmen and magicians – who in a few short years built a vibrant new industry. As she chronicles the emergence of the first embryonic film forms and genres, she reveals often surprising innovations, from cutting-edge science to ingeniously witty tricks and comedies, with filmmakers reflecting existing entertainment forms as well as advancing editing and cinematography in ways that shaped the art of film for many decades after. Dixon offers fresh insights by focusing on the films themselves – many of them only recently available to view – while building on the work of generations of scholars. In the process, Dixon makes a compelling case for the British filmmakers of the era as inventive and creative figures, every bit as influential as their more celebrated contemporaries in France and the US.

The Story of Victorian Film

The Story of Victorian Film PDF

Author: Bryony Dixon

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-08-10

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1911239635

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this vivid and accessible new account of the dawn of film in Britain, internationally respected film historian and curator Bryony Dixon introduces us to Britain's first cinematic pioneers – an eclectic mix of chemists, engineers, photography enthusiasts, fairground showmen and magicians – who in a few short years built a vibrant new industry. As she chronicles the emergence of the first embryonic film forms and genres, she reveals often surprising innovations, from cutting-edge science to ingeniously witty tricks and comedies, with filmmakers reflecting existing entertainment forms as well as advancing editing and cinematography in ways that shaped the art of film for many decades after. Dixon offers fresh insights by focusing on the films themselves – many of them only recently available to view – while building on the work of generations of scholars. In the process, Dixon makes a compelling case for the British filmmakers of the era as inventive and creative figures, every bit as influential as their more celebrated contemporaries in France and the US.

Better Left Unsaid

Better Left Unsaid PDF

Author: Nora Gilbert

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2013-01-09

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 0804784876

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Better Left Unsaid is in the unseemly position of defending censorship from the central allegations that are traditionally leveled against it. Taking two genres generally presumed to have been stymied by the censor's knife—the Victorian novel and classical Hollywood film—this book reveals the varied ways in which censorship, for all its blustery self-righteousness, can actually be good for sex, politics, feminism, and art. As much as Victorianism is equated with such cultural impulses as repression and prudery, few scholars have explored the Victorian novel as a "censored" commodity—thanks, in large part, to the indirectness and intangibility of England's literary censorship process. This indirection stands in sharp contrast to the explicit, detailed formality of Hollywood's infamous Production Code of 1930. In comparing these two versions of censorship, Nora Gilbert explores the paradoxical effects of prohibitive practices. Rather than being ruined by censorship, Victorian novels and Hays Code films were stirred and stimulated by the very forces meant to restrain them.

Supernatural Entertainments

Supernatural Entertainments PDF

Author: Simone Natale

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2016-03-31

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0271077395

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In Supernatural Entertainments, Simone Natale vividly depicts spiritualism’s rise as a religious and cultural phenomenon and explores its strong connection to the growth of the media entertainment industry in the nineteenth century. He frames the spiritualist movement as part of a new commodity culture that changed how public entertainments were produced and consumed. Starting with the story of the Fox sisters, considered the first spiritualist mediums in history, Natale follows the trajectory of spiritualism in Great Britain and the United States from its foundation in 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century. He demonstrates that spiritualist mediums and leaders adopted many of the promotional strategies and spectacular techniques that were being developed for the broader entertainment industry. Spiritualist mediums were indistinguishable from other professional performers, as they had managers and agents, advertised in the press, and used spectacularism to draw audiences. Addressing the overlap between spiritualism’s explosion and nineteenth-century show business, Natale provides an archaeology of how the supernatural became a powerful force in the media and popular culture of today.

Victorians Undone

Victorians Undone PDF

Author: Kathryn Hughes

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2018-02

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 142142570X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In lively, accessible prose, Victorians Undone fills the space where the body ought to be, proposing new ways of thinking and writing about flesh in the nineteenth century.

Steampunk

Steampunk PDF

Author: Brian J. Robb

Publisher: Voyageur Press

Published: 2015-09-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780760348918

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A gorgeously illustrated history of the literary, film, and arts counterculture--now in paperback! Simultaneously a literary movement, ultra-hip subculture, and burgeoning cottage industry, steampunk is the most influential new genre to emerge from the late twentieth century. Spinning tales populated with clockwork leviathans, cannon shots to the moon, and coal-fired robots, it charts alternative histories in which the British Empire never fell and the atom remained unsplit. Spectacularly illustrated and international in scope, this comprehensive history explores steampunk's many intricate expressions in fiction, cinema, television, comics, and video games, and traces its evolution into a truly global aesthetic that has made its mark on art, architecture, fashion, and music. From the classic science-fiction of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Mary Shelley, through the dystopian futurescapes of Cyberpunk, to the otherworldly imaginings of Hayao Miyazaki, Alan Moore, and China Miéville, author Brian J. Robb sets the key works of steampunk squarely under the lens of his brass monocle and ventures into a world where airships still rule the skies.

The Kinetoscope

The Kinetoscope PDF

Author: Richard Brown

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2017-10-01

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0861969316

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The story of how the motion-picture device was developed, and its role in Victorian society and early cinema. The position of the kinetoscope in film history is central and undisputed; indicative of its importance is the detailed attention American scholars have given to examining its history. However, the Kinetoscope’s development in Britain has not been well documented and much current information about it is incomplete and out of date. This book, for the first time, presents a comprehensive account of the unauthorized and often colorful development of British kinetoscopes, using many previously unpublished sources. The commercial and technical backgrounds of the kinetoscope are looked at in detail; the style and content of the earliest British films analyzed; and the device’s place in the wider world of Victorian popular entertainment examined. In addition, a unique legal case is revealed and a number of previously unrecorded film pioneers are identified and discussed.

Authentic Victorian Dressmaking Techniques

Authentic Victorian Dressmaking Techniques PDF

Author: Kristina Harris

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2013-04-22

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 0486320170

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Vintage guide offered turn-of-the-century seamstresses clear instructions for altering patterns and creating shirt-blouses, skirts, wedding gowns, coats, maternity wear, children's clothing, and other apparel.