The Film and Futility

Extract

‘LET us go to the Pictures.’ They all say it, young I and old, rich and poor, wise and foolish. That is why the cinema is the third greatest industry in America, and almost an institution in family and individual life.

Probably no industry before it had such a rapid rise to fame and fortune. The animated pictures of twenty-five years ago, ousting the ‘stills’ of the magic lantern, came as a shock to the old and a delight to the young. Pictures that not only moved but were moving in themselves revealed the hitherto unsuspected powers of the camera. No longer would it be necessary to coax oneself into an attitude of expectant imbecility before it; no longer need baby be placated and pleased by the despairing photographer. A moving picture of family life in all its animated phases could be made by turning a handle, without fuss or warning.

The outstanding feature of the animated pictures in their infancy was, naturally enough, that they were intensely animated. They were more animated than pictures. In those days the animation was the thing. One expected it and got it. The picture was merely the necessary medium for showing how very animated the characters could be. Originally there were no ‘stars,’ merly men and women, and no picture was made to’ feature’ any particular individual. The screen was pleasantly free from constellations of any kind. But the animation was there in its most primitive human form, with almost incredible rough-and-tumble, and those delightful pursuits of villain or hero, in which the entire cast would assume enormous proportions and fling themselves off the screen into, as it seemed, the middle of the pit.