The photoplay; a psychological study (1916)

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EMOTIONS up may show. Yet there remains too much \ \ which mere art cannot render and which life alone produces, because the consciousness of the unreality of the situation works as a psy- chological inhibition qn the automatic instinc- tive responses. The actor may artificially tremble, or breathe heavily, but the strong pulsation of the carotid artery or the moist- ness of the skin from perspiration will not, come with an imitated emotion. Of course, that is true of the actor on the stage, too. But the content of the words and the modu- lation of the voice can help so much that the shortcomings of the visual impression are forgotten. To the actor of the moving pictures, on the other hand, the temptation offers itself to overcome the deficiency by a heightening of the gestures and of the facial play, with the result that the emotional expression becomes exaggerated. No friend of the photoplay can deny that much of the photoart suffers from this almost unavoidable tendency. The quick marchlike rhythm of the drama of the reel favors this artificial overdoing, too. The rapid alternation of the scenes often seems to demand a jumping from one emotional climax 115