Notes on the Origins of the Medical Cinematographic Gaze Paula Arantzazu Ruiz

Vol. VI comparative cinema Paula Arantzazu No. 11 2018 Ruiz Notes on the 56-71 origins of the medical cinematographic gaze Only three years after the public presentation of the Lumières’ cinematograph, medical cinema officially came into being with the first surgical films by French doctor Eugène-Louis Doyen, and with neurological films derived from chronophotographic experiments at the neuropsychiatric hospital of La Salpêtrière in Paris (run by Jean-Martin Charcot), as well as the graphic method proposed by Étienne-Jules Marey. Both are models of scientific film narrative about the human body which, with the consolidation of positivist science, helped to unite the discourse about bodily efficiency and economy. On one hand, by determining an array of corporal movement anomalies in relation to the new visual configuration of psyche, and on the other, by establishing the regulatory protocols in certain procedures in medicine from codified movements by the doctor who is filmed while working in the operating theatre. Keywords MEDICAL CINEMA SURGICAL CINEMA NEUROLOGICAL CINEMA EUGÈNE-LOUIS DOYEN ÉTIENNE-JULES MAREY IGNASI BARRAQUER VISUAL CULTURE OF MEDICINE HISTORY OF MEDICINE Paula Arantzazu Ruiz (Barcelona, 1979) has a PhD in Social Communication from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra with her thesis De los teatros anatómicos a Oh! Uomo, de Yervant Gianikian y Angela Ricci Lucchi: una arqueología de la mirada médica del cuerpo, and is an associate professor at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha in the department of Medical Science. She also contributes to the Spanish media as a journalist and cinema critic. The camera in the narrative of and Matters of State (1907). In this positivist science booklet, the director, producer, distributor and, ultimately, the owner On April 24th 1903, French surgeon of the great British cinema company in Eugène-Louis Doyen (1859-1916) took the early 20th century, promoted the part in the 14th International Medicine various practical possibilities of the Conference – held in Madrid – with a cinematograph in educative, scientific, presentation entitled “De los progresos 2 comparative cinema comparative military and state-related fields . de la técnica quirúrgica y de la enseñanza de los métodos operatorios Doyen had already given several por las proyecciones animadas” (On cinematographic presentations at progress in surgical techniques and medical conferences since he first the teaching of operatory methods began presenting his films, on June through animated projections)1. The aim 28th 1898, in Edinburgh during the of this presentation was to prove that annual conference of the British cinematographs were appropriate tools Medical Association3. And even though for achieving a more efficient way of they had already been profusely teaching surgical techniques in medical disseminated via the contemporary schools, even when it came to the most press (or maybe for that reason), his complex procedures. surgical films still made a great impact on their first spectators, even with a “You must notice, also, that specialized audience like the one that many hundreds of people may attended his screenings at the 14th follow the details of an abdominal International Medicine Conference. hysteriotomy upon the screen of The following article, written by a 57 the Cinematograph, whereas only journalist in El Siglo Médico about a handful can view the operation Doyen’s presentation in Madrid, reveals on the living subject, and the precisely the awe inspired by being majority of these imperfectly. […] able to clearly see – at last, and thanks It would appear from this that the to the incorporation of cameras into Cinematograph would be of great the surgical field – what was really value in the course on Operative happening in operating theatres. Surgery that all the students should attend before entering “Moments later, the eminent the operating theatre. In this way, young Parisian surgeon, M. Doyen, overcrowding of the amphitheatre began the cinematographic would be avoided, and they would screenings of different surgical no longer hinder the surgeon operations he had performed without improving themselves, as himself. The hall, despite its is at present the case, since the spaciousness, was full, to the majority see nothing, and those extent that many people had to that do see have not sufficient stand up and even remain outside knowledge to understand” the hall. […] The last operation we (DOYEN, 1911: 2-3). witnessed was truly remarkable: a craniotomy. With a scalpel, the This claim by the surgeon in saw we mentioned before and the aforementioned presentation other instruments powered by was published in L’enseignement electricity, Dr Doyen lifted a vast de la technique opératoire par les ostium-cutaneous flap from the Article ARANTZAZU RUIZ PAULA gaze the medical cinematographic on the origins of Notes projections animées and translated parietal and temporal regions of by Charles Urban (1867-1942) in The one side of the brain, resulting in Cinematograph in Science, Education 2018 a brilliant show: complete, really Vol. VI Vol. No. 11 No. comparative cinema comparative 58 Eugène-Louis Doyen during an operation Eugène-Louis Doyen during an operation (Ref. image: 08041). “Fragment de pellicule: (Ref. image: 08042). “Fragment de pellicule: hystérectomie abdominale, ablation amputation de l’extrémité inférieure de la de la tumeur.” In DOYEN, Eugène-Louis cuisse.” In DOYEN, Eugène-Louis (15-08- (15-08-1899). Le Cinématographe et 1899). Le Cinématographe et l’Enseignement l’Enseignement de la Chirugie. Revue de la Chirugie. Revue critique de médecine et critique de médecine et de chirurgie, p. 3. de chirurgie, p. 4. Article ARANTZAZU RUIZ PAULA gaze the medical cinematographic on the origins of Notes 2018 Vol. VI Vol. Núm 11 enthralling, in such a way that the claim: time spent in a cinematographic “[…] science was interested screening is quite a lot less than in the cinematograph mainly that spent on the operation. Dr. because of its prosthetic Doyen explained all the details of capacity, linked to the genesis of each operation as they appeared chronophotography, to expand before the audience. The brilliance and improve the sense of vision comparative cinema comparative of the French surgeon, his rapidity, — through a non-human observer, decision, and certainty were all similar to what other technologies revealed via the cinematograph.” like X-rays and microscopical (El Siglo Médico, 1903: 279) photography were capable of: all However, as rich in details as it the devices which were clearly is full of enthusiasm, this account accelerating the objective of is rather noteworthy in the way that enhancing the primacy of vision in the journalist piece describes the scientific research” (2011: 8). last medical operation included in While photography had acted as the anthology presented by Doyen in the magnifying lens for science’s gaze Madrid as “a brilliant show: complete, at the epistemological turn in the really enthralling”. A craniotomy mid-19th century and the start of the that used the cinematograph to 20th, the cinematographic camera show the inside of a human head, would also help consolidate some of opened in less time that “than that the questions being posed by a new spent on the operation”, certainly science that was being shaped by today would not be considered 59 the introduction of technology into “enthralling”, nor a representation that laboratories. For instance, scientific lasts less than what is represented. objectivity as an ideal; that is, “the But those euphoric words actually knowledge that leaves no trace of the confirm, firstly, the effect of those knower-knowledge, without marks first cinematographic images of the of prejudice or aptitudes, fantasy inside of a human body, and secondly, or opinions, cravings or efforts” the absolute faith the scientific (DASTON; GALISON, 2007: 27), a community had in the benefits of the primary epistemological feature in cinematograph at the turn of the new the hegemonic narrative of positivism century. And, therefore, the idea that initiated by Claude Bernard (1813- the mechanical eye, photographic or 1878). Nonetheless, many other details cinematographic lens, “as it intrigues reveal how scientists, and human and fascinates, it also works as a beings in general, were now standing guarantee of the identity of what is before a world that was increasingly seen by normal vision” (COMOLLI, vast and at the same time ever more 1980: 122). In the narrative of scientific inapprehensible. As Jonathan Crary positivism, the camera, just like the points out, scalper in the dissection room, was about to become a tool that revealed “the break with classical the secrets of a body still to be models of vision in the early discovered. And cinema, consequently, nineteenth century was far was transformed into a machine that more than simply a shift in recorded and displayed that new the appearance of images and landscape of reality in movement which Article ARANTZAZU RUIZ PAULA gaze the medical cinematographic on the origins of Notes art works, or in systems of went beyond sensorial perception and representational conventions. the limitations of the human eye. Or as Instead, it was inseparable from 2018 Vol. VI Vol. Simone Venturini and Silvio Alovisio No. 11 No. a massive reorganization of made by Eadweard Muybridge (1830- knowledge and social practices 1904) and Étienne-Jules Marey (1830- that modified in myriad ways the 1904)4. But that shift taken by the productive, cognitive,

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