Introduction
Before there was Cinema there were different techniques for creating narratives and movement with images. The Zoetrope was first invented in China in 180 AD, and then came the Magic Lantern. In Europe these Media diversified and became a tour-de-force. New versions of these core techniques merged with photography to create the motion picture and Cinema. From the very beginning these technologies were “Magical” or “sinister” in the way they were promoted, and in much of the content. Especially in Paris at the end of the 1900’s when diabolism and deviance were de-riguer!!
The supernatural and sinister “aura” attributed to these technologies, speaks alot about the disturbance the “moving image” created in the popular imagination. But it also is a reflection of the Sideshows and Circus Entertainments of yesteryear, where Clairvoyants, Illusionists, Bearded ladies, and Snake-oil Salesmen all created a sense of deception and wonderment.
People do love to be fooled, and this explains the media circus we all live with today. More than any other medium, the moving image, (including popular cinema and television journalism) has come to do the work of the Magician, the Illusionist, and the Snake Oil Salesman all in one. Those peddlers of phantoms that sensible men and women would turn their nose at, are the spirit of our times!