The soul of the moving picture (1924)

Page scan 000210 from The soul of the moving picture

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 #:
000210
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:
August 22, 2024
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146 The Soul of the Moving Picture tures and refuses to be confined within the narrow circle of such art as the motion picture has at its command. Gold becomes a mere quasiprecious metal, beauty degenerates into paint and powder, truth is routed by phraseology. No one who is at all judicious will ever attempt to adapt to the screen a bit of poetry whose entire art consists in a complete absorption by and amalgamation with the world of pure thought. Goethe's transcendental works run but little risk. Those works, however, in which there is a union of the spiritual soul with a sensual soul stand in ever-present danger. Shakespeare's works, for example, are remarkably divided in this regard; they are full of fissures : he hid his pure intellectuality in an action that is glaring, medieval, and vigorous. What do we mean by film adaptation? We mean the separation of the sensual action from all the rest. The feelings, transfigured through pure intellect in the original poetry, are lifted from their initial surroundings. Adapt a poem of the spiritual soul in this way and a journalese tract is the result. Take the case of Hamlet: death through poison, the son as the detective, the queen mother suffering from aberrations, a duel with poisoned blades, and a conclusion of fourfold death by poison. In such a bungled