The soul of the moving picture (1924)

Record Details:

Title:
The soul of the moving picture
Date:
1924
Publisher:
New York : E. P. Dutton & Company
Volume:
The soul of the moving picture
Leaf #:
000170
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
December 21, 2023
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114 The Soul of the Moving Picture symbol of thought. What can the gesture mean to us? Feeling that is so familiar to us that it awakens sympathy on the slightest provocation. Only that which is from the very beginning impulse within us is sensuality. Mimicry is the symbol of sensual values. The sign, the prognostic, the distinctive mark of mimic action is the sensual style. And since this art signifies the expression of the soul, the motion picture is the sensual soul. It is feeling expressed through gesture. Consequently, an impulse that is not in everybody is not felt by everybody. This explains the failure of quite a few works. The homosexual film, for example, Anders als die Andern ("Different From Other People") was a source of disordered loathing to those "other people." How can we expect a healthy individual to feel the excitement of an insane person, as in Dr. Caligari, or of a pathological vampire, as in The Vampyre? And how can we expect a human being with a strong constitution to sympathize with the demented antics of a nervous wreck and feel his feelings after him, as in N erven ("Nerves") ? With a certainty that is growing from year to year, the film writers of to-day choose their material from such domains of feeling as have a universal and altogether human appeal. They depict the impulses of the soul, but only up to that point