The explaination of ‘cinema of attractions’

The concept of ‘cinema of attractions’ encompasses the development of early cinema, its technology, industry and cultural context. The explanation of how it is perceived by early cinema audiences is closely related to the effects of history at that time. How Gunning coined the term ‘cinema of attractions’ pertains to the history of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century and his interpretation of the audience and their reaction film technology. Single shots, the process of creating a moving picture and the juxtaposition of limited techniques, coupled with a new invention of showing a moving picture.

Cultural context of an audience

According to historians like Neil Burch, the primitive period of the film industry, at the turn of the 20th century was making films that appealed to their audiences due to the simple story. A non-fiction narrative, single shots a burgeoning sense

“of exhibitionist confrontation rather than absorption,” (Gunning, Tom 2000 p 232) as Gunning suggests the spectator is asking for an escape that is censored and delivered with a controlled element of movement and audiovisual. Gunning believes that the audience had a different relationship with film before 1906. (Gunning, Tom 2000 p 229)

By seeing the cinema pre World War I as primitive the mother of all creation, necessity was utilised and the economic and technological immaturity, did not hold back the creators but the limits freed them. Gunning terms this as a linear evolutionary process. Gunning, T 1993

The cinema of attractions is an idea that Tom Gunning and Mr Gaudreault developed and over time coined as a term to describe the capabilities of film. They had a different idea of the early days in film history and wanted that to ...

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...ction, 6th ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston, pp. 76,77, 96, 160

Brownlow, Kevin 1994, ‘Preface’, in Paolo, C, Burning Passions: an introduction to the study of silent film, British Film Institute, London: BFI, pp. 1-3.

Gaudreault, A 1990, ‘Showing and Telling : image and word in early cinema’, in Elsaesser, T & Barker, A, Early cinema : space, frame, narrative, BFI Publishing, London, pp. 274-281.

Gunning, T 1993, “Now you see it, now you don’t” : the temporality of the cinema of attractions’, The velvet light trap, vol. 32, Fall, pp. 3-12.

Gunning, Tom 2000, “The Cinema of Attraction: Early film, its spectator, and the avant-garde.” Film and theory: An anthology, Robert Stam & Toby Miller, Blackwell, pp 229-235.

Thompson, K 2003, ‘The struggle for the expanding american film industry’, in Film history : an introduction, 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston, pp. 37-54