International projectionist (Jan 1959-Dec 1960)

Volume 34 MARCH 1959 Number 3 CINEMASCOPE: Keynote of Modern Projection Some Reflections on the Past With a Look Toward the Future By ROBERT A. MITCHELL IN THE YEAR 1953 a new word — CinemaScope — appeared in the lexicon ot motion-picture technology. Although the word was new, there was nothing new about the "anamorphic" process it represented, now familiar to all projectionists. As adapted by CinemaScope (hereinafter "C-Scope") the classical anamorphic process of Abbe and Rudolph (1897) and Chretien (1929) became a beautifully simple and eminently satisfactory method for panoramic, or "'wide-screen, " motionpicture presentation. Apart from the design of suitable optics, the technological success of this method rests upon the happy fact that the 35-mm film frame is sufficiently large to permit a twofold compression of the horizontal dimension without significant loss of image clarity. Only the persistent use of curved aluminum-coated screens by technically-ignorant theatre managements has interfered with complete public acceptance of the new medium.* But C-Scope, like the "pseudo-panoramic" effect of cropped apertures and wide-angle lenses to impart a widescreen effect to normal film projection, must be considered as the result of, rather than the cause of, the trend toward more realism in both the picture itself, and in the treatment accorded the dramatic elements of the photoplay (e.g., no "tight" closeups, little intercutting, and, at worst, the spasms of "method acting"). 20-Year Cycles Noted We may find it advantageous to extend our mental vision over the entire course taken by the theatrical film since its invention 70 years ago, noting with special attention those historical points where the direction of cinematic history has assumed new and radical tangents. This intellectual task is conveniently simplified by that strange principle of historical development which seems to take the motion-picture industry by the tail every 20 years and fling it wriggling into unexpected avenues of evolution. The "point of origin" is the year 1890. This was the date of Thomas Edison's Kinetograph, the first 35-mm motion-picture camera, and only four years previous to the Lumiere Cinematographe, the first 35-mm apparatus used as a projector. "Kiss-and-Caress" Era We may aptly call the 20-year period from 1890 to 1910 the Experimental Era, for it was marked by sundry fundamental inventions and refinements in the new art of thawing the frozen immobility of the lantern-slide by photographing motion upon long strips of celluloid film. Most significant, the twitching, flickering film was first used as a story-telling medium only 13 years after its invention ("The Great Train Robbery," *An analysis of the optical-geometrical effects of screen curvature will be included in an article scheduled for the May 1959, issue of IP. 1903). And toward the close of this era, the theatrical feature film was born and the "cinematograph machine" had assumed a resemblance to the modern theatre projector. Even as early as 1910 the new "moving pictures" had enthralled the world as nothing before or since. The following 20 years (1910-1930) constitute the golden age of cinematic idealism, the Era of the Silent Film. This was the "kiss-and-caress" era characterized by the ABC's of Art, Beauty, and Charm projected in rhythms of its own creation. Now, technology is one of the reasons why the art of the silent film, crude and archaic by today's standards of startling realism, would find no life-sustaining air in the arid expanse of the wide screen. The silent drama is too sensitive to be able to survive the technical perfection of modern cinematic techniques! This does not mean that the modern movie is "wrong;" to the contrary, it is culturally "correct" for its times. The tone of the next 20-year period was established by a technological revolution, the introduction of the soundtrack. The years 1930-1950 are thus the Era of the Talking Screen. And the era opened dismally with the screen discharging hissing torrents of stilted talkytalk with no indication of the tremendous heights the movies were soon to attain on the wings of sound. "Rama's," Scopes to the Fore Shortly after 1950 a new cold-wave swept over the movie industry from the arctic realms of technology. It was obvious to everyone, and especially to IP INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST • MARCH 1959