Vorgeschichte des Films

französischArcheology of Film:

Part I: Images of Movement and Space
Part II: Writing with Light
Part III: From the After-Image to the Film-Image

15 min., 35/16mm, col.

Long before cinema was invented, pictures had started to take their first steps. Farsighted inventors used the scientific discoveries of the effects of light or the laws of space to realize the dream of the moving picture, the picture which delights in its constant change, either for the purpose of conveying information or for fanciful amusement.
For twenty years Werner Nekes has been collecting cine-archaeologica finds, largely unnoticed in the pre-history of cinema. In his film he shows us a number of objects from his unique collection, demonstrating their continually surprising functions.
One chapter is devoted to the ways space is made visible by the Camera Obscura, from anamorphic and stereoscopie effects to holography, another to the phenomenon of the slowness of perception, which is made use of, in a most sophisticated manner, for creating the illusion of movement. Werner Nekes filmic journey through the magic world of precinema moving pictures is a fascinating as it is informative. He demonstrates how brilliantly inventive the forerunners of cinema were in “writing with light” and how many of todays complex principles of filmic expression had already been anticipated.

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