The Soul of the Moving PictureThe motion picture is art for the masses; it is mass art. Sectarianism, chilly aestheticism, attempts at escape from inadequate culture -- these are not known to the motion picture. Art for the masses, art for the money. That is the entire story. But does art for the masses mean art such as the masses themselves would create? Rabble art? The film in which the plebeian soul alone takes interest and from which it derives pleasure is not a good film. Nor is that a good film which is understood only by the aesthetic soul. To be good, satisfactory, excellent, a film must carry along with it and enrapture all, those whose hearts are simple and those whose hearts are intricate, complex, full of intertwined sensations. To do this is hard. If and when done, it is done through the medium of great art. - Introduction. |
Common terms and phrases
adaptation æsthetic altogether American film Anne Boleyn art form Asta Nielsen beautiful become Cabinet of Dr Caligari character colorful create creation creative dare decoration drama dramaturge earth effect emotions entire epic expression fact fairy film fancy fate feelings film actor film artist film companies film entitled Fritz Lang gestures gifted film Golem hand heart Heinrich Laube human idea Illustration impulse Indisches Grabmal inspiration intellect invention legitimate stage Mabuse Madame Dubarry Madame Recamier magic manager masses matter means merely milieu mimic action mimicry mind moving picture mute nature ness never Nibelungs original pantomime passion perfect play poet poetry possible pure rare real art reality regard rôle scenario scenery screen sensual soul setting speak speaking film spectator stage actor stands Stone Rider success suspense Swede thing thought tion tive to-day trick film tricks truth ture words
Popular passages
Page 132 - ... bewirkt: Die unzufriedene Dorothy freut sich jetzt regelrecht auf ihr Zuhause.193 Ihr Ziel war nicht Munchkinland, sondern Zufriedenheit. Das Ziel der Hauptfigur In seinem Ratgeber für Drehbuchautoren erklärte Walter S. Bloem schon 1924, dass sich die Hauptfigur durch ihr Tun, ihr Handeln auszeichnet: »In the first act his goal is set, in the last act he reaches it. Everything that intervenes between these two acts is a test of...
Page 14 - If it accepts it, one of the most beautiful, and one of the most recent, messengers of peace known to the human family will have been lost. For the film speaks to-day the silent language of the emotions, that language which is understood by all peoples and races wherever they may live; it speaks the reconciliatory language of the human heart.
Page 13 - It is altogether probable that the film public will suddenly be brought to realize that the silent, speechless motion picture gives it more stimulation and more pleasure than the speaking film, for the latter will have nothing original about it.
Page 58 - The means at the disposal of the film actor is his body, which admits of unmeasured and unaccounted possibilities in the way of expressing emotions.
Page 53 - ... different from what we are accustomed to in the case of the actor in the spoken drama.