The Modern Supernatural and the Beginnings of Cinema
eBook - PDF

The Modern Supernatural and the Beginnings of Cinema

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Modern Supernatural and the Beginnings of Cinema

About this book

This study sees the nineteenth century supernatural as a significant context for cinema's first years. The book takes up the familiar notion of cinema as a "ghostly, " "spectral" or "haunted" medium and asks what made such association possible. Examining the history of the projected image and supernatural displays, psychical research and telepathy, spirit photography and X-rays, the skeletons of the danse macabre and the ghostly spaces of the mind, it uncovers many lost and fascinating connections. The Modern Supernatural and the Beginnings of Cinema locates film's spectral affinities within a history stretching back to the beginning of screen practice and forward to the digital era. In addition to examining the use of supernatural themes by pioneering filmmakers like Georges MÊliès and George Albert Smith, it also engages with the representations of cinema's ghostly past in Guy Maddin's recent online project Seances (2016). It is ideal for those interested in the history of cinema, the study of the supernatural and the pre-history of the horror film.

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Yes, you can access The Modern Supernatural and the Beginnings of Cinema by Murray Leeder in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Film History & Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Acknowledgements
  2. Contents
  3. List of Figures
  4. Chapter 1: Introduction
  5. Chapter 2: The Haunting of Film Theory
  6. Chapter 3: Light and Lies: Screen Practice and (Super-) Natural Magic
  7. Chapter 4: The Strange Case of George Albert Smith: Mesmerism, Psychical Research and Cinema
  8. Chapter 5: Aesthetics of Co-registration: Spirit Photography, X-rays and Cinema
  9. Chapter 6: Méliès’s Skeleton: Gender, Cinema’s Danse Macabre and the Erotics of Bone
  10. Chapter 7: “Living Pictures at Will”: Projecting Haunted Minds
  11. Chapter 8: Conclusion: Lost Worlds, Ghost Worlds
  12. Index