The photoplay; a psychological study (1916)

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THE PHOTOPLAY The pictures on the screen then stand far behind the actual playing on the stage in every respect. But if we find that the aim of art, including the dramatic art, is not to imitate life but to reset it in a way which is totally different from reality, then an entirely new perspective is opened. The dramatic way may then be only one of the artistic pos- sibilities. The Hnematoscopic way may be another, which may have entirely different methods and yet may be just as valuable and esthetieally pure as the art of the theater. The drama and the photoplay may serve the purpose of art with equal sincerity and per- fection and may reach the same goal with sharply contrasting means. Our next step, which brings us directly to the threshold of the photoplayhouse, is, accordingly, to study the difference of the various methods which the different arts use for their common pur- pose. What characterizes a particular art as such? When we have recognized the special traits of the traditional arts we shall be better prepared to ask whether the meth- ods of the photoplay do not characterize this film creation also as a full-fledged art, co- ordinated with the older forms of beauty. 156