Films are subjective-what you like, what you don’t like. But the thing for me that is absolutely unifying is the idea that every time I go to the cinema and pay my money and sit down and watch a film go up on-screen, I want to feel that the people who made that film think it’s the best movie in the world, that they poured everything into it and they really love it. Whether or not I agree with what they’ve done, I want that effort there-I want that sincerity. And when you don’t feel it, that’s the only time I feel like I’m wasting my time at the movies. Christopher Nolan
Best Mistakes In Films In his "Filmgoer's Companion", Mr. Leslie Halliwell helpfully lists four of the cinema's greatest moments which you should get to see if at all possible. In "Carmen Jones", the camera tracks with Dorothy Dandridge down a street; and the entire film crew is reflected in the shop window. In "The Wrong Box", the roofs of Victorian London are emblazoned with television aerials. In "Decameron Nights", Louis Jourdain stands on the deck of his fourteenth century pirate ship; and a white lorry trundles down the hill in the background. In "Viking Queen", set in the times of Boadicea, a wrist watch is clearly visible on one of the leading characters. -- Stephen Pile, "The Book of Heroic Failures"
Ma non c’è mai amore senza sofferenza. Fiumi di inchiostro, oceani di note musicali, montagne di marmo e chilometri di pellicole cinematografiche. Dolore, abbandono, rifiuto, tradimento. Peccato originale. L’innata capacità di rendere invisibile ciò che si possiede. La costrizione di dover misurare l’amore solo con la sua perdita.
From the Hindu perspective, each soul is divine. All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just as long as you call. Just as cinematic images appear to be real but are only combinations of light and shade, so is the universal variety a delusion. The planetary spheres, with their countless forms of life, are naught but figures in a cosmic motion picture. One's values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture and that not in, but beyond, lies his own ultimate reality.
The invention of the magic lantern is usually attributed to Athanasius Kircher, who described it in the first edition (1646) of his _Ars magna lucis et umbrae_, but it is very probably of earlier discovery. For a long period the magic lantern was used chiefly to exhibit comic pictures, or in the hands of so-called wizards to summon up ghosts and perform other tricks, astonishing to those ignorant of the simple optical principles employed. Within recent years, however, the optical lantern has been greatly improved in construction, and its use widely extended. By its means finely executed photographs on glass can be shown greatly magnified to large audiences, thus saving the trouble and expense of preparing large diagrams. When suitably constructed, it can be used in the form of a microscope to exhibit on a screen the forms and movements of minute living organisms, or to show to an audience delicate physical and chemical experiments which could otherwise be seen only by a few at a time Another application of the optical lantern is found in the cinematograph (q.v.). Entry: LANTERN
The modern cinematograph was rendered possible by the invention of the celluloid roll film (employed by Marey in 1890), on which the serial pictures are impressed by instantaneous photography, a long sensitized film being moved across the focal plane of a camera and exposed intermittently. In one apparatus for making the exposures a cam jerks the film across the field once for each picture, the slack being gathered in on a drum at a constant rate. In another four lenses are rotated so as to give four images for each rotation, the film travelling so as to present a new portion in the field as each lens comes in place. Sixteen to fifty pictures may be taken per second. The films are developed on large drums, within which a ruby electric light may be fixed to enable the process to be watched. A positive is made from the negative thus obtained, and is passed through an optical lantern, the images being thus successively projected through an objective lens upon a distant screen. For an hour's exhibition 50,000 to 165,000 pictures are needed. To regulate the feed in the lantern a hole is punched in the film for each picture. These holes must be extremely accurate in position; when they wear the feed becomes irregular, and the picture dances or vibrates in an unpleasant manner. Another method of exhibiting cinematographic effects is to bind the pictures together in book form by one edge, and then release them from the other in rapid succession by means of the thumb or some mechanical device as the book is bent backwards. In this case the subject is viewed, not by projection, but directly, either with the unaided eye or through a magnifying glass. Entry: CINEMATOGRAPH
EDISON, THOMAS ALVA (1847- ), American inventor, was born on the 11th of February 1847, at Milan, Erie county, Ohio, of mixed Dutch and Scottish descent; but his parents moved to Port Huron, Michigan, when he was seven years old. At the age of twelve he became a train news-boy on the railway to Detroit, and managed to gratify his youthful interest in chemistry by performing experiments while travelling. At fifteen he became a telegraph operator, and was employed in many cities in the United States and Canada, but frequently neglected his duties in order to carry on studies and experiments in electrical science. Before he was twenty-one he had constructed an automatic repeater, by means of which a message could be transferred from one wire to another without the aid of an operator; and he had also directed his attention to the problem of duplex telegraphy, of which he later invented a successful system. In 1869 Edison came to New York city, and soon afterwards became connected with the Gold & Stock Company. He invented an improved printing telegraph for stock quotations, for which he received $40,000. He then established a laboratory and factory in Newark, N.J., for further experiments and for the manufacture of his inventions. In 1876 he removed to Menlo Park, and later to West Orange, N.J., where he continued his experiments. Since then his name has been prominently associated with all kinds of novelties in practical electricity. Among his principal inventions are his system of duplex telegraphy, which he later developed into quadruplex and sextuplex transmission; his carbon telephone transmitter; the microtasimeter, for the detection of small variations in temperature; the phonograph, which records and reproduces all manner of sounds; the cinematograph, which his improvements made practicable; and his method of preparing carbon filaments for the incandescent electric lamp. In 1878 Edison was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour by the French government. Entry: EDISON
The cinematograph enables "living" or "animated pictures" of such subjects as an army on the march, or an express train at full speed, to be presented with marvellous distinctness and completeness of detail. Machines of this kind have been devised in enormous numbers and used for purposes of amusement under names (bioscope, biograph, kinetoscope, mutograph, &c.) formed chiefly from combinations of Greek and Latin words for life, movement, change, &c., with suffixes taken from such words as [Greek: skopein], to see, [Greek: graphein], to depict; they have also been combined with phonographic apparatus, so that, for example, the music of a dance and the motions of the dancer are simultaneously reproduced to ear and eye. But when they are used in public places of entertainment, owing to the extreme inflammability of the celluloid film and its employment in close proximity to a powerful source of light and heat, such as is required if the pictures are to show brightly on the screen, precautions must be taken to prevent, as far as possible, the heat rays from reaching it, and effective means must be provided to extinguish it should it take fire. The production of films composed of non-inflammable material has also engaged the attention of inventors. Entry: CINEMATOGRAPH
The simplest subjective phenomena of light are COLOUR and intensity, the measurement of the latter being named PHOTOMETRY. When light falls on a medium, it may be returned by REFLECTION or it may suffer ABSORPTION; or it may be transmitted and undergo REFRACTION, and, if the light be composite, DISPERSION; or, as in the case of oil films on water, brilliant colours are seen, an effect which is due to INTERFERENCE. Again, if the rays be transmitted in two directions, as with certain crystals, "double refraction" (see REFRACTION, DOUBLE) takes place, and the emergent rays have undergone POLARIZATION. A SHADOW is cast by light falling on an opaque object, the complete theory of which involves the phenomenon of DIFFRACTION. Some substances have the property of transforming luminous radiations, presenting the phenomena of CALORESCENCE, FLUORESCENCE and PHOSPHORESCENCE. An optical system is composed of any number of MIRRORS or LENSES, or of both. If light falling on a system be not brought to a focus, i.e. if all the emergent rays be not concurrent, we are presented with a CAUSTIC and an ABERRATION. An optical instrument is simply the setting up of an optical system, the TELESCOPE, MICROSCOPE, OBJECTIVE, optical LANTERN, CAMERA LUCIDA, CAMERA OBSCURA and the KALEIDOSCOPE are examples; instruments serviceable for simultaneous vision with both eyes are termed BINOCULAR INSTRUMENTS; the STEREOSCOPE may be placed in this category; the optical action of the Zoétrope, with its modern development the CINEMATOGRAPH, depends upon the physiological persistence of VISION. Meteorological optical phenomena comprise the CORONA, HALO, MIRAGE, RAINBOW, colour of SKY and TWILIGHT, and also astronomical refraction (see REFRACTION, ASTRONOMICAL); the complete theory of the corona involves DIFFRACTION, and atmospheric DUST also plays a part in this group of phenomena. Entry: 4
CINCINNATUS LUCIUS QUINCTIUS CLARINA CINDERELLA CLARINET CINEAS CLARK, SIR ANDREW CINEMATOGRAPH CLARK, FRANCIS EDWARD CINERARIA CLARK, GEORGE ROGERS CINGOLI CLARK, SIR JAMES CINNA (Roman family) CLARK, JOHN BATES CINNA, GAIUS HELVIUS CLARK, JOSIAH LATIMER CINNABAR CLARK, THOMAS CINNAMIC ACID CLARK, WILLIAM GEORGE CINNAMON CLARKE, ADAM CINNAMON-STONE CLARKE, SIR ANDREW CINNAMUS CLARKE, CHARLES COWDEN CINNOLIN CLARKE, EDWARD DANIEL CINO DA PISTOIA CLARKE, SIR EDWARD GEORGE CINQ-MARS, D'EFFIAT CLARKE, JAMES FREEMAN CINQUE CENTO CLARKE, JOHN SLEEPER CINQUE PORTS CLARKE, MARCUS ANDREW HISLOP CINTRA CLARKE, MARY ANNE CIPHER CLARKE, SAMUEL CIPPUS CLARKE, THOMAS SHIELDS CIPRIANI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA CLARKE, WILLIAM BRANWHITE CIRCAR CLARKSON, THOMAS CIRCASSIA CLARKSVILLE CIRCE CLASSICS CIRCEIUS MONS CLASSIFICATION CIRCLE CLASTIDIUM CIRCLEVILLE CLAUBERG, JOHANN CIRCUIT CLAUDE, JEAN CIRCULAR NOTE CLAUDE OF LORRAINE CIRCULUS IN PROBANDO CLAUDET, ANTOINE FRANÇOIS JEAN CIRCUMCISION CLAUDIANUS, CLAUDIUS CIRCUMVALLATION, LINES OF CLAUDIUS (Nero Germanicus) CIRCUS CLAUDIUS (famous Roman gens.) CIRENCESTER CLAUDIUS, MARCUS AURELIUS CIRILLO, DOMENICO CLAUDIUS, MATTHIAS CIRQUE CLAUSEL CIRTA CLAUSEN, GEORGE CISSEY, ERNEST COURTOT DE CLAUSEWITZ, KARL VON CISSOID CLAUSIUS, RUDOLF EMMANUEL CIS-SUTLEJ STATES CLAUSTHAL CIST CLAVECIN CISTERCIANS CLAVICEMBALO CITATION CLAVICHORD CÎTEAUX CLAVICYTHERIUM CITHAERON CLAVIE, BURNING THE CITHARA CLAVIÈRE, ÉTIENNE CITIUM CLAVIJO, RUY GONZALEZ DE CITIZEN CLAVIJO Y FAJARDO, JOSÉ CITOLE CLAY, CASSIUS MARCELLUS CITRIC ACID CLAY, CHARLES CITRON CLAY, FREDERIC CITTADELLA CLAY, HENRY CITTÀ DELLA PIEVE CLAY (substance) CITTÀ DI CASTELLO CLAY CROSS CITTÀ VECCHIA CLAYMORE CITTERN CLAYS, PAUL JEAN CITY CLAYTON, JOHN MIDDLETON CIUDAD BOLÍVAR CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY CIUDAD DE CURA CLAY-WITH-FLINTS CIUDAD JUAREZ CLAZOMENAE CIUDAD PORFIRIO DIAZ CLEANTHES CIUDAD REAL (province of Spain) CLEARCHUS CIUDAD REAL (city in Spain) CLEARFIELD CIUDAD RODRIGO CLEARING-HOUSE CIVERCHIO, VINCENZO CLEAT CIVET CLEATOR MOOR CIVIDALE DEL FRIULI CLEAVERS CIVILIS, CLAUDIUS CLEBURNE CIVILIZATION CLECKHEATON CIVIL LAW CLEETHORPES CIVIL LIST CLEFT PALATE CIVIL SERVICE CLEISTHENES CIVITA CASTELLANA CLEITARCHUS CIVITA VECCHIA CLEITHRAL CLACKMANNAN CLEITOR CLACKMANNANSHIRE CLELAND, WILLIAM CLACTON-ON-SEA CLEMATIS CLADEL, LÉON CLEMENCEAU, GEORGES CLAFLIN, HORACE BRIGHAM CLEMENCÍN, DIEGO CLAIRAULT CLEMENT (popes) CLAIRON, LA CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA CLAIRVAUX CLÉMENT, FRANÇOIS CLAIRVOYANCE CLÉMENT, JACQUES CLAMECY CLEMENTI, MUZIO CLAN CLEMENTINE LITERATURE CLANRICARDE, DE BURGH (Earl) CLEOBULUS CLANRICARDE, DE BURGH (Marquess) CLEOMENES CLANVOWE, SIR THOMAS CLEON CLAPARÈDE, JEAN LOUIS CLEOPATRA CLAPPERTON, HUGH CLEPSYDRA CLAQUE CLERESTORY CLARA, SAINT CLERFAYT CLARE (English family) CLERGY CLARE, JOHN (English poet) CLERGY, BENEFIT OF CLARE, JOHN FITZGIBBON CLERGY RESERVES CLARE (county in Ireland) CLERK CLAREMONT CLERKE, AGNES MARY CLARENCE, DUKES OF CLERKENWELL CLARENDON, EDWARD HYDE CLERMONT-EN-BEAUVAISIS CLARENDON, GEORGE VILLIERS CLERMONT-FERRAND CLARENDON, HENRY HYDE CLERMONT-GANNEAU, CHARLES SIMON CLARENDON, CONSTITUTIONS OF CLERMONT-L'HERAULT CLARES, POOR CLERMONT-TONNERRE (French family) CLARET CLERMONT-TONNERRE, STANISLAS CLARETIE, JULES ARNAUD CLERUCHY CLARI, GIOVANNI CARLO MARIA Entry: CINCINNATUS