Mr Wolf

Very well.

Let’s begin our attempt to retrace the evolution of film editing during the era of silent cinema, starting with a significant statement that appeared in the Parisian newspaper La Poste de Paris in 1896. Regarding the Cinematograph of the Lumière brothers, the article reviews the birth of this new spectacular phenomenon: "Now that we are able to photograph our dear ones, not only while they are still, but also as they move, capturing them as they act, perform familiar gestures, and speak, death ceases to be absolute." Such a statement indicates at least two points worth reflecting upon. Firstly, the Cinematograph, which was the invention encapsulating at least fifty years of experimentation and research around photography and chronophotography, was immediately considered – before becoming a language, an art, an expressive medium – a spectacular attraction that blended with other similar attractions; secondly, the cinematic phenomenon was seen and appreciated primarily for its extraordinary ability to reproduce phenomenal reality: watching on screen workers emerging from the Lumière workshops or a child having breakfast was already a unique and unpredictable spectacle, requiring no other form of "spectacular" ingredient to be enjoyed by an enthusiastic audience. It was thus the "realism" of the representation that struck the amazed public; it was the "truth" of the people and objects that constituted the allure and novelty of the cinematic medium.

Therefore, cinema was considered, from its very origins, a spectacular medium for reproducing phenomenal reality in a completely objective manner; cinema was primarily to provide information, illustrate everyday reality, and capture subjects as they present themselves before our eyes. Thus, anything that can be defined as "daily life" – from people moving to city monuments, from the most fabulous landscapes to the most widespread popular customs – became a useful subject for highly effective documentary production. Initially, cinema was understood chiefly as a means to tirelessly reproduce daily reality; and not only by the audience of that time but also by the Lumière brothers themselves, who viewed the Cinematograph as a profitable invention without a future.

However, a minimal sign of the evolution of cinematic language (though not yet montage) can also be traced back to a tiny film by the Lumière brothers: L’innaffiatore innaffiato is considered by many to be the first narrative film in the history of cinema, as well as the first comedic film. Indeed, while it follows the structure of earlier films, based on a single shot of about a minute (the maximum duration allowed by a film reel), this film already presents the basic schema of equilibrium – imbalance – re-equilibrium (formulated by André Gardies) that we will find in all subsequent narrative films. However, the cinema of the Lumière brothers, with its own desire to reproduce reality without any artifice, must be set aside in a study on the evolution of cinematic editing; unfortunately, they did not grasp the great expressive potential of the medium, thus it would be left to others to theorize and to put into practice those early processes that would lead to the true birth of film editing as we understand it today.

Despite Edgar Morin repeatedly asserting that with Georges Méliès there is a transition from the Cinematograph to Cinema (a term indicating the acquisition of a language by cinema), many studies by Antonio Costa demonstrate how even Méliès's films – especially his earliest works – should be placed within the realm of pre-cinema, that is, before all those processes that, from Edwin S. Porter onwards, would lead to the birth of the new language and new narrative production practices, including editing. Indeed, according to Costa, it is not important to distinguish the work of Lumière from that of Méliès, perhaps to the point of making them incompatible; what matters, rather, is to understand that both the reproduct

5 stars for this album? In my opinion, there are no more than 2 or 3 noteworthy tracks, and this is even a double album.

Rockandroll!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Rockandroll!

But here too! You're a die-hard writer! Yeah! Rock and roll!

But being you, RiseAgainst! tremendous rock and roll!

Medacity is a great track; I remember it as the best one on that album. From Lincol, I have the good "Abbey Is Blue" and the equally valid "Wholly Earth." This one, however, I'm not familiar with, except for the track you linked, a version that I really like. Excellent review.

Idol!