HC omslag Cinema Attractions 19-09-2006 11:42 Pagina 1 Twenty years ago, Tom Gunning and André Gaudreault introduced the concept of attraction to define the quin- tessence of the earliest films made between 1895 and [ED.] STRAUVEN WANDA RELOADED THE CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS 1906. As “cinema of attractions” this concept has become widely adopted, even outside the field of early cinema. FILM FILM Ranging from the films of the Lumière brothers to The Matrix by Andy and Larry Wachowski, from trains rushing CULTURE CULTURE into the audience to bullet time effects, the “cinema of IN TRANSITION IN TRANSITION attractions” is a cinema that shocks, astonishes and directly addresses the film spectator. This anthology traces the history of the “cin- ema of attractions,” reconstructs its conception and questions its attractiveness and useful- ness for both pre-classical and post-classical cinema. With contributions by Christa Blüm- linger, Warren Buckland, Scott Bukatman, Donald Crafton, Nicolas Dulac, Thomas Elsaesser, André Gaudreault, Laurent Guido, Tom Gunning, Malte Hagener, Pierre-Emma- nuel Jaques, Charlie Keil, Frank Kessler, Ger- main Lacasse, Alison McMahan, Charles Musser, Viva Paci, Eivind Røssaak, Vivian Sobchack, Wanda Strauven, Dick Tomasovic. Wanda Strauven teaches Film Theory and Media Archae- ology at the University of Amsterdam. She is the author of Marinetti e il cinema: tra attrazione e sperimentazione (Udine: Campanotto, 2006). THE CINEMA OF ATTRACTIONS RELOADED EDITED BY 9 789053 569450 WANDA STRAUVEN ISBN-13ISBN-13 978-90-5356-945-0 978-90-5356-945-0 ISBN-10ISBN-10 90-5356-945-6 90-5356-945-6 Amsterdam University Press Amsterdam University Press WWW.AUP.NL The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded Edited by Wanda Strauven Cover illustration: Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix (). Directors: Andy and Carry Wachowski. © Photos Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam Lay-out: japes, Amsterdam Production: Textcase, Hilversum, the Netherlands isbn- (paperback) isbn- (paperback) isbn- (hardcover) isbn- (hardcover) nur © Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction to an Attractive Concept Wanda Strauven Theory Formation [“The Cinema of Attractions”] Attractions: How They Came into the World Tom Gunning A Rational Reconstruction of “The Cinema of Attractions” Warren Buckland The Cinema of Attractions as Dispositif Frank Kessler Spectacle, Attractions and Visual Pleasure Scott Bukatman Attraction Theories and Terminologies [“Early Film”] From “Primitive Cinema” to “Kine-Attractography” André Gaudreault From “Primitive Cinema” to “Marvelous” Wanda Strauven The Attraction of the Intelligent Eye: Obsessions with the Vision Machine in Early Film Theories Viva Paci Rhythmic Bodies/Movies: Dance as Attraction in Early Film Culture Laurent Guido 6 The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded Audiences and Attractions [“Its Spectator”] A Cinema of Contemplation, A Cinema of Discernment: Spectatorship, Intertextuality and Attractions in the s Charles Musser The Lecturer and the Attraction Germain Lacasse Integrated Attractions: Style and Spectatorship in Transitional Cinema Charlie Keil Discipline through Diegesis: The Rube Film between “Attractions” and “Narrative Integration” Thomas Elsaesser Attraction Practices through History [“The Avant-Garde”: section 1] Circularity and Repetition at the Heart of the Attraction: Optical Toys and the Emergence of a New Cultural Series Nicolas Dulac and André Gaudreault Lumière, the Train and the Avant-Garde Christa Blümlinger Programming Attractions: Avant-Garde Exhibition Practice in the s and s Malte Hagener The Associational Attractions of the Musical Pierre-Emmanuel Jaques Digital Media and (Un)Tamed Attractions [“The Avant-Garde”: section 2] Chez le Photographe c’est chez moi: Relationship of Actor and Filmed Subject to Camera in Early Film and Virtual Reality Spaces Alison McMahan The Hollywood Cobweb: New Laws of Attraction Dick Tomasovic Figures of Sensation: Between Still and Moving Images Eivind Røssaak Contents 7 “Cutting to the Quick”: Techne, Physis, and Poiesis and the Attractions of Slow Motion Vivian Sobchack Dossier Pie and Chase: Gag, Spectacle and Narrative in Slapstick Comedy Donald Crafton Early Cinema as a Challenge to Film History André Gaudreault and Tom Gunning The Cinema of Attraction[s]: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde Tom Gunning Rethinking Early Cinema: Cinema of Attractions and Narrativity Charles Musser Notes on Contributors General Bibliography Index of Names Index of Film Titles Index of Subjects Acknowledgments First of all, I wish to thank Tom Gunning and André Gaudreault for their en- thusiastic response to this commemorative book project, for their confidence and their inspiration, and for their willingness to participate. My gratitude also goes to Thomas Elsaesser with whom I had the opportunity to regularly brain- storm on film historiographical issues over the last four years at the University of Amsterdam and who promptly accepted to add this anthology to his series of “Film Culture in Transition.” Furthermore, I am grateful to all the contributors, whose positive reactions and often intense e-mail discussions kept me persever- ing in this long venture. One of the real challenges of this project was to bring together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic and to bridge the gap between the Anglo-Saxon and Francophone worlds. A special thanks goes to all the translators and in particular to Joyce Goggin who was kindly enough to help me with the English translation of Gaudreault and Gunning’s joint paper “Le cinéma des premiers temps: un défi à l’histoire du cinéma?” (“Early Cinema as a Challenge to Film History”). I also express my sincere thanks to Viva Paci for her assistance with the compilation of the general bibliography and to Jaap Kooijman for his valuable feedback. The Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF) gently authorized the reprint of Donald Crafton’s paper “Pie and Chase,” which was originally presented at the FIAF Slapstick Sympo- sium in New York City. For the other reprints in the dossier of this volume, I thank the authors for granting their permission. The publication of this book would not have been possible without the financial support of the University of Amsterdam, in particular the Department of Media Studies and the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), as well as the Groupe de recherche sur l’avènement et la formation des institutions cinématographique et scénique (GRAFICS) at Université de Montréal. And, last but not least, I thank Donato Montanari for his day to day support and for introducing me to the secrets of Newton’s law of attraction. Wanda Strauven Amsterdam, August Introduction to an Attractive Concept Wanda Strauven Die Große Attraktion (Max Reichmann, ), Nie yuan (Keqing Chen & Kuang-chi Tu, ), Novyy attraktsion (Boris Dolin, ), L’Attrazione (Mario Gariazzo, ), Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, ), Atração Sa- tânica (Fauzi Mansur, ), Attrazione pericolosa (Bruno Mattei, ), Family Attraction (Brian Hecker, ), The Last Big Attraction (Hop- wood DePree, ), The Rules of Attraction (Roger Avary, ), Animal Attraction (Keith Hooker, ), Futile Attraction (Mark Prebble, ), Laws of Attraction (Peter Howitt, ). This is just a selection of movie titles that over the last seventy-five years have ensured the film spectator diegetic attractions; from shorts to feature length films; from comedy to romance, from drama and thriller to low-budget horror; from the USA to the USSR, from Hong Kong to Brazil. None of these films – not even the most popular one, Fatal Attraction – is discussed in the present anthology. What is studied, however, is the attractiveness of the notion “attraction,” its use and usefulness, within the field of cinema studies and beyond. This anthology specifically reflects on the term as employed in the phrase “cinema of attractions,” coined in the mid-s by Tom Gunning and André Gaudreault in relation to early cinema and proven to be adequate, or at least “attractive,” for the definition of contemporary spe- cial effect cinema as well. The Matrix (Andy and Larry Wachowski, ), for instance, can be conceived of as a reloaded form of cinema of attractions in that it is “dedicated to presenting discontinuous visual attractions, moments of spec- tacle rather than narrative.” Now, twenty years after the “birth” of the “cinema of attractions” (and, as I will discuss below, ten years after the “rebirth” of the “cinématographie-attraction”), it is the perfect time to look back upon the de- bate and question the relevance of the concept for the future. AComplexChronology Twenty years ago, in , two essays which were fundamental in the forma- tion and launching of the concept of “cinema of attractions” were published. Firstly, the by now classic essay of Tom Gunning, “The Cinema of Attraction: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde,” appeared in the discontinued film quarterly Wide Angle, illustrated with some stills from The Gay Shoe 12 The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded Clerk () on its title page (Fig. ). And, secondly,