The Educated Spectator: Cinema and Pedagogy in France, 1909-1930 Casiana Elena Ionita Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Casiana Elena Ionita All rights reserved ABSTRACT The Educated Spectator: Cinema and Pedagogy in France, 1909-1930 Casiana Elena Ionita This dissertation draws on a wide range of sources (including motion pictures, film journals, and essays) in order to analyze the debate over the social and aesthetic role of cinema that took place in France from 1909 to 1930. During this period, as the new medium became the most popular form of entertainment, moralists of all political persuasions began to worry that cinematic representations of illicit acts could provoke social unrest. In response, four groups usually considered antagonistic — republicans, Catholics, Communists, and the first film avant- garde known as the Impressionists — set out to redefine cinema by focusing particularly on shaping film viewers. To do so, these movements adopted similar strategies: they organized lectures and film clubs, published a variety of periodicals, commissioned films for specific causes, and screened commercial motion pictures deemed compatible with their goals. Tracing the history of such projects, I argue that they insisted on educating spectators both through and about cinema. Indeed, each movement sought to teach spectators of all backgrounds how to understand the new medium of cinema while also supporting specific films with particular aesthetic and political goals. Despite their different interests, the Impressionists, republicans, Catholics, and Communists all aimed to create communities of viewers that would learn a certain way of decoding motion pictures. My main focus is on how each group defined its ideal spectator, on the tensions manifested within their pedagogical projects, and on the ways in which these projects intersected. Ultimately, the history uncovered here sheds new light on key questions about cinema’s impact that marked the twentieth century. Table of Contents List of Illustrations ......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................... v Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1. The Dangerous Spectator .......................................................................................... 19 Policing a New Spectacle .......................................................................................................... 23 Cinephobia ................................................................................................................................ 29 Excessive Realism ..................................................................................................................... 35 Decoding Crime Films: Who Is Who? ...................................................................................... 44 Viewing Positions ..................................................................................................................... 48 Elusive Medium, Perceptive Viewers ....................................................................................... 52 CHAPTER 2. The Republican Spectator ......................................................................................... 59 Bringing Cinema into the Classroom ........................................................................................ 62 Object Lessons .......................................................................................................................... 68 The Offices of Educational Cinema and Solidarism ................................................................. 72 A Healthy Nation ...................................................................................................................... 79 Family, Melodrama, and the Republic ...................................................................................... 86 Wholesome Entertainment ........................................................................................................ 94 CHAPTER 3. The Catholic Spectator ............................................................................................ 101 The C.C.C.’s Film-Rating System .......................................................................................... 105 Family, Melodrama, and Catholicism ..................................................................................... 115 Lourdes: Seeing the Miraculous .............................................................................................. 123 The Bible According to Hollywood ........................................................................................ 128 i The Lives of Joan of Arc ......................................................................................................... 134 CHAPTER 4. The Impressionist Spectator .................................................................................... 144 The Art of Melodrama............................................................................................................. 149 Form and Content .................................................................................................................... 154 The Filmmaker as a Public Figure .......................................................................................... 159 Avant-Garde/Commercial/Mercantile ..................................................................................... 166 A Continuing Project ............................................................................................................... 171 Impressionism and Its Others .................................................................................................. 177 CHAPTER 5. The Communist Spectator ....................................................................................... 188 Les Amis de Spartacus ............................................................................................................ 192 Revolutionary Politics and Cinephilia .................................................................................... 201 Depoliticizing Soviet Films ..................................................................................................... 211 Vertov and Eisenstein Go to Paris........................................................................................... 218 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 230 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 244 Illustrations ................................................................................................................................. 273 ii List of Illustrations Figure 1.1. Poster for Cinématographe Lumière by Marcelin Auzolle, 1896. Figure 1.2. Poster for Cinéma Pathé by Adrien Barrère, 1906. Figure 1.3. Les Mystères de New-York, adapted by Pierre Decourcelle for the French audience. Figure 1.4. Poster for Les Vampires, 1915. Figure 1.5. Prologues presenting Fantômas’s disguises in A l’ombre de la guillotine and Le Faux Magistrat. Figure 1.6. The disguises of Fantômas and Juve in Juve contre Fantômas. Figure 1.7. Irma Vep’s anagram in action. Figure 1.8. Mazamette notices that the actors in L’Assassinat du notaire are in fact Les Vampires. Figure 1.9. Fantômas: the cover of the novel (left) and the poster for the first film of the series (right). Figure 2.1. The scientist’s hands in Pasteur. Figure 2.2. Pasteur and Joseph Meister, the boy he inoculated against rabies. Figure 2.3. La Future Maman: Margot explains to Mabu, the midwife, why pacifiers are dangerous. Figure 2.4. Last scenes of La Future Maman: Virgin and Child. Figure 2.5. Last scenes of Il était une fois trois amis: the doctor/narrator summarizes the moral of the story for his son. Figure 2.6. Boby Guichard, well-known child actor. Figure 2.7. Posters for La Mort du soleil/Le Fléau. Figure 2.8. In the first part of Le Maître du Logis, the wife does all the daily chores. Figure 2.9. In the second part of Le Maître du Logis, the husband has to do all the chores after the wife leaves him. Figure 3.1. The first scene from Comment j’ai tué mon enfant: Pierre L’Ermite (playing a priest) comforts Dominique’s mother. Figure 3.2. Simone Genevois as Joan of Arc in La Merveilleuse Vie de Jeanne d’Arc. Figure 3.3. Renée Falconetti as Joan of Arc in La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc. Figure 4.1. Introducing Sibilla (Eve Francis) in El Dorado (L’Herbier). Figure 4.2. El Dorado: Final scenes, Sibilla committing suicide. Figure 4.3. Posters for La Roue (Gance): Fernand Léger's painting (left) and a more generic image (right). Figure 4.4. La Roue: Rhythmic montage. iii Figure 4.5. Dulac, L’Herbier, Epstein, and Gance on the cover of film magazines. Figure 4.6. Stills from La Souriante Madame Beudet (Dulac). Figure 4.7. Still from Cœur fidèle (Jean Epstein), superimposed close-up. Figure 4.8. Poster for Gossette (Dulac). Figure 4.9. Publicity still for Le Lion des Mogols (Jean Epstein). Figure 4.10. Napoléon (Gance), triple screen.