The Art of the Moving Picture (Modern Library Movies) - Softcover

Lindsay, Vachel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375756132 ISBN 13: 9780375756139

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2000

Synopsis

"In the field of film aesthetics, it is the first important American work, still important--The Art of the Moving Picture is astonishing."
--Stanley Kauffmann

Written in 1915, The Art of the Moving Picture by poet Vachel Lindsay is the first book to treat movies as art. Lindsay writes a brilliant analysis of the early silent films (including several now lost films). He is extraordinarily prescient about the future of moviemaking--particularly about the business, the prominence of technology, and the emergence of the director as the author of the film.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"This is a joyous and wonderful performance," said Francis Hackett, when he reviewed this book in the New Republic of December 25, 1915, "a bold and brilliant theory, really bold and really brilliant, and takes first place as an inspiration of the greatest popular aesthetic phenomenon in the world."

The Art of the Moving Picture is astonishing, as a work of analysis and vision. Over fifty years ago Lindsay saw the hunger that still obsesses the film enthusiast. Sculpture-in-motion, painting-in-motion, architecture-in-motion are nuggets out of which he refines subtle perceptions.

Lindsay sees, in 1915, the revolution in human perception involved in the very existence of film. There is a clear prediction of McLuhan in "Edison is the new Gutenberg. He has invented the new printing." Lindsay sees, in 1915, the quintessence of the auteur theory of film criticism, formulated some forty years later: "An artistic photoplay . . . is not a factory-made staple article, but the product of the creative force of one soul, the flowering of a spirit that has the habit of perpetually renewing itself."

This book is a considerable marvel. Lindsay had a clear sense that a profound change was taking place, not only in cultural history but in all human histories―the external and also the most secret. And, poet and evangelist that he was, he saw some fundamental ways to understand and use the change. Francis Hackett concluded his review in 1915: "He has initiated photoplay criticism. That is a big thing to have done, and he has done it, to use his own style, with Action, Intimacy, and Friendliness, and Splendor."

About the Author

Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago and then in New York with Robert Henri before becoming a poet. He was a member of the Modernist School (others included Ezra Pound,e. e. cummings, and Wallace Stevens) and published over a dozen collections of poetry.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375756132
• ISBN 13: 9780375756139
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 238