FILM

HISTORY
that began in the late 19th century.

ROSAZILA BT ABD RASHID

Author:

ROSAZILA BT ABD RASHID

Department of Design and Visual Communication, Politeknik Tuanku Syed
Sirajuddin
Bachelor's degree of Computer Science (Hons), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Master of Instructional Multimedia , Universiti Sains Malaysia

Film History

Copyright 2022, Politeknik Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin

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Published by :

POLITEKNIK TUANKU SYED SIRAJUDDIN Pauh Putra

02600 Arau
Perlis

First published 2022

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Thanks to Allah S.W.T for granted me strength in the
most trying time to complete this e-book. We have
learned and experience so much during the process.
Alhamdulillah. To all family members, colleague,
relatives and others who in one way or another
shred their support either morally and physically,
Thank You. To all of our student, thank you for being
our inspirations while finishing this workbook. May
this ebook be beneficial to you.
 PREFACE
Film History that begins at the end of the 19th century. Briefly
explain the development of film history for the countries of the
world that dominate the development of world film. Starting
with introducing how motion pictures themselves were realized
by world-famous figures, then to the development of film
technology according to the times for each leading country
such as the United States with Classical Hollywood, German
Expressionism, French Impressionism, Italian Neo Realism and
Soviet Montage. Each of these developments tells about the
way of presenting and making each film which is very different
according to the country. Each of them has its own plot and
genre.
 CONTENTS

1
EARLY CINEMA

2
CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD

3
GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

4
FRENCH IMPRESSIONISM AND SURREALISM

5
ITALIAN NEOREALISM

6
SOVIET MONTAGE

7
REFERENCES
 1
E A R L Y C I N E M A

-1-
 EARLY CINEMA

A visual art form that was The term "early" cinema

developed utilising film generally refers to the time
technology and started in the period in world cinema
late 19th century is chronicled history from about 1890 to
in the history of film. 1915, or from the advent of
motion pictures as a "new"
medium to the widespread
institutionalization of
narrative feature filmmaking
techniques.

-2-
 EADWEARD
MUYBRIDGE
In 1879, Muybridge created the
zoopraxiscope, a device that allowed
him to display up to 200 distinct
pictures on a screen. He became
known as the "father of motion
pictures".

1887 Eadweard Muybridge an

American photographer, made a
series of still photographs of a
running horse by using a series of
cameras.

1880, he offered his first audience

a projection of moving images on
a screen at the California School
of Fine Arts.

The zoopraxiscope, a device Muybridge

developed to project moving images
between 1879 and 1885.
-3-
 ÉTIENNE-JULES MAREY
French scientist, physiologist and
chronophotographer. One of the progenitors of the
movie camera is the chronophotographic gun.
Created it in 1882 by Marey. It was the first device to
use a metal shutter to capture moving images on
the same chronomatographic plate at a rate of 12
photos per second.

-4-
 CULTURAL ICON
With the slogan "you press
the button, we do the rest,"
George Eastman put the
first simple camera into the
hands of a world of
consumers in 1888. In so
doing, he made a
cumbersome and
complicated process easy
to use and accessible to
nearly everyone.

PHOTOGRAPHY
The founder, George
Eastman, devoted his life to
making photography “as
convenient as the pencil.”
His company has been at
the center of most
milestones in photography
and digital imaging ever
since.

MOTION PICTURES
When George Eastman
marketed the first
commercial transparent
roll film in 1889, it enabled
Thomas Edison to develop
the first motion picture
camera. Since then, Kodak
has earned nine Oscar®
statuettes – more than any
other non-studio company
– for its technical
contributions to the movie
industry.

-5-
 "I am experimenting upon an
instrument which does for
the eye what the
phonograph does for the ear,
which is the recording and
reproduction of things in
motion ...."

Thomas A. Edison, 1888

1st July 1912: A Kinetograph camera, an early film

camera, the original of which was patented in 1891
and designed by W K L Dickson working under the
direction of Thomas Alva Edison.

-6-
 THE LUMIÈRE
BROTHERS,
PIONEERS OF
CINEMA
In 1895, Louis and Auguste Lumière gave birth to the
big screen thanks to their revolutionary camera and
projector, the Cinématographe.

The Lumières held the world’s first pub­l ic movie

screening on December 28, 1895, at the Grand
Café in Paris.

-7-
THE MAGICAL
WORLD OF
GEORGES MÉLIÈS

Georges Méliès is famous for Georges Méliès’s most

his many innovations in famous film is Le Voyage
motion pictures. He was one dans la lune (1902; A Trip to
of the first to film fictional the Moon). The film is a very
narratives, and he is regarded loose adaptation of Jules
as the inventor of special Verne’s novel De la terre à la
effects in movies. lune (1865; From the Earth to
the Moon) and has the
famous image of the
spacecraft from Earth hitting
the “man in the moon” in his
eye.

-8-
 S U M M A R Y

During this early period, films were circulated

freely from country to country.

This was when companies, who were dedicated

to film making, formed.

From 1904 onward the most prominent type of

film was narrative.

French, Italian and American films dominated

the world markets.

ACTIVITY
Find out the difference
between a Kinetoscope and
a Kinetograph?

-9-
 2
C L A S S I C A L
H O L L Y W O O D

-10-
 CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD
CINEMA /
CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD
NARRATIVE:

terms used in film history which describe the style

for making motion pictures and a mode of
production used in the American film industry
between the 1910s and the 1960s.

Mode of production during this timeframe

encouraged film directors to view their work from
the perspective of an employee of the studios rather
than as auteurists who exercised creative control
over their works with an individual film style

-11-
 SILENT ERA /
THE AGE OF THE
SILVER SCREEN

The Silent Era is commonly

referred to as the "Age of the
Silver Screen" from 1917 to
1928.

To accommodate for the lack

of sound, on-screen captions
were utilized to emphasize
important points and
dialogue in the story.

There was no sound or

synchronized speech
accompanying the
character's on the movie
screen.

Oftentimes, the projection of

silent films onto the big
screen was accompanied by
live instrumental music
(pianist, organist, or even a
large orchestra).

-12-
 3
G E R M A N
E X P R E S S I O N I S M

-13-
 DEFINITION

German Expressionism refers Expressionism was a cultural

to a number of related movement, initially in poetry
creative movements and painting, originating in
beginning in Germany before Germany at the start of the
the First World War that 20th century. Its typical trait
reached a peak in Berlin, is to present the world in an
during the 1920s. utterly subjective perspective,
radically distorting it for
These developments in emotional effect, to evoke
Germany were part of a moods or ideas.
larger Expressionist
movement in north and Expressionist artists sought
central European culture, to express the meaning of
especially in cinema. "being alive”, and emotional
experience rather than
physical reality.

-14-
 THE PERIOD
German Expressionism,
took place roughly from
1920 until 1931. Its features
include exaggeration in
acting, settings, and
makeup, emphasis on
emotional states, and
lighting that stresses
extreme contrast between
light and dark.

THE STYLE
The filmmakers of the
German Universum Film
AG studio developed their
own style by using
symbolism and mise en
scène to add mood and
deeper meaning to a
movie, concentrating on
the dark fringes of human
experience.

THE FILMS
The first Expressionist films;
The Student of Prague(1913),
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920),
The Golem(1920),
Destiny (1921),
Nosferatu (1922),
Phantom (1922),
Schatten (1923)
The Last Laugh (1924)

-15-
 Two genres that were especially
influenced by Expressionism are horror
film and film noir. Carl Laemmle and
Universal Studios had made a name for
themselves by producing such famous
horror films of the silent era as Lon
Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera.
The plots and stories of the
Expressionist films often dealt with
madness, insanity, betrayal, and other
"intellectual" topics (as opposed to
standard action-adventure and
romantic films). Later films often
categorized as part of the brief history
of German Expressionism include
Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), both
directed by Fritz Lang.

G E N R E A N D P L O T S

-16-
 4
F R E N C H
I M P R E S S I O N I S M
A N D
S U R R E A L I S M

-17-
 THE FIRST AVANT-GARDE OR
NARRATIVE AVANT-GARDE

Impressionism is an avant-garde style that opened

largely within the film industry. Most of the
impressionist filmmakers started out working for
major French companies and some of their avant-
garde works proved financially successful. In the mid-
1920s, most formed their own independent companies
but remained within the mainstream commercial
industry by renting studio facilities and releasing their
films through established firms.
Allied with the Surrealist movement in other arts,
these filmmakers relied on their own means and
private patronage. France in the 1920s offers a striking
instance of how different film movements may coexist
at the same time and place.

-18-
 FILMMAKERS AND FILMS
(GREATLY ABRIDGED)

Abel Gance (La Dixième symphonie (1918),

J’Accuse (1919), La Roue (1922), and above all,
Napoléon (1927))

Jean Epstein (Coeur fidèle (1923), Six et demi

onze (1927), La Glace a Trois Face (1928), The
Fall of the House of Usher (1928))

Germaine Dulac (The Smiling Madame

Beudet (1922))

Marcel L’Herbier (El Dorado (1921))

Louis Delluc – Critic/Theorist

Jean Renoir – (Nana (1926))

-19-
 5
I T A L I A N
N E O R E A L I S M

-20-
 WHAT IS ITALIAN
NEOREALISM?

Italian Neorealism is a genre of Italian film that

emerged in the 1940s.
This type of filmmaking style captures stories from
working-class life in Italy. The movement has its
roots in post-war Italy, where many citizens were
living in poverty after the war had ended.
The films were characterized by their use of non-
professional actors, location shooting, improvised
dialogue, and lack of moral censorship.

-20-
Characteristics Of Italian
Neorealism
Non-professional actors
Location shooting,
improvising dialogue, and
Lack of moral censorship.

-21-
 The two key directors were certainly
Rossellini and De Sica, with these two
occupying what most would agree are the
seven best films of the movement in
Rossellini’s Rome Open City, Paisa,
Germany Year Zero; De Sica’s Shoeshine,
Bicycle Theives, and Umberto D, and La
terra treme by Visconti.

-22-
 6
S O V I E T
M O N T A G E

-23-
 SOVIET MONTAGE THEORY

is a film movement that took place in Soviet Russia

during the 1910’s, 20’s and into the early 30’s. It was
founded by Lev Kuleshov while he was teaching at
the Moscow Film School.
According to prominent Soviet director Sergei
Eisenstein, there are five different types within
Soviet Montage Theory: Metric, Rhythmic, Tonal,
Overtonal and Intellectual.
The movement is widely known for changing the
landscape of film editing around the world.

-24-
POPULAR SOVIET
MONTAGE FILMS
Kino-Eye (1924)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

The Death Ray (1925)

-25-
 7
R E F E R E N C E S

-26-
1.nnekristineochavo.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/french-
impressionism-and-surrealism-1918-1930/

2. https://nofilmschool.com/sergei-eisenstein-soviet-montage-
theory

3. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/soviet-montage-theory/

4.https://imnothinginparticular.tumblr.com/post/16663225132/italian
-neorealism-an-overview

5. https://iphf.org/inductees/eadweard-muybridge/

6.https://www.npr.org/2010/04/13/125899013/muybridge-the-man-
who-made-pictures-move

7. https://mubi.com/cast/etienne-jules-mare

8. https://petapixel.com/2013/04/27/did-you-know-the-worlds-first-
portable-motion-picture-camera-was-a-12fps-rifle/

9. https://www.kodak.com/en/company/page/history