[Gutenberg 13029] • The Art of the Moving Picture

"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.

*Contents*

A word from the Director of the Denver Art Association

BOOK I: THE GENERAL PHOTOPLAY SITUATION IN AMERICA, JANUARY 1, 1922, ESPECIALLY AS VIEWED FROM THE HEIGHTS OF THE CIVIC CENTRE AT DENVER, COLORADO, AND THE DENVER ART MUSEUM, WHICH IS TO BE A LEADING FEATURE OF THIS CIVIC CENTRE

BOOK II: THE OUTLINE WHICH HAS BEEN ACCEPTED AS THE BASIS OF PHOTOPLAY CRITICISM IN AMERICA, BOTH IN THE STUDIOS OF THE LOS ANGELES REGION, AND ALL THE SERIOUS CRITICISM WHICH HAS APPEARED IN THE DAILY PRESS AND THE MAGAZINES

The Point of View

The Photoplay of Action

The Intimate Photoplay

The Motion Picture of Fairy Splendor

The Picture of Crown Splendor

The Picture of Patriotic Splendor

The Picture of Religious Splendor

Sculpture-in-Motion

Painting-in-Motion

Furniture, Trappings, and Inventions in Motion

Architecture-in-Motion

Thirty Differences between the Photoplays and the Stage Hieroglyphics

BOOK III: MORE PERSONAL SPECULATIONS AND AFTERTHOUGHTS NOT BROUGHT FORWARD SO DOGMATICALLY

The Orchestra, Conversation, and the Censorship

The Substitute for the Saloon

California and America

Progress and Endowment

Architects as Crusaders

On Coming Forth by Day

The Prophet-Wizard

The Acceptable year of the Lord