A Film Canon

As with the various proto-cinematic achievements that preceded them, it's hard to appreciate Edison's shorts on anything other than technological or economic grounds. They all consist of a single shot, which generally seeks to isolate the most titillating or lucrative component of some other (usually theatrical) form of spectacle: The Kiss (1896) presents an excerpt from a popular contemporary play, Sandow The Strong-Man (1894) deals with the leading male icon of the late nineteenth-century tableaux vivants, while Serpentine Dance By Annabelle (1896) depicts a prevalent exoticism of the time. For the most part, these images incline towards the comic, epitomised by such picaresque spectacles as The Cock-Fight (1894) and Glenroy Brothers (Comic Boxing) (1894). In all cases, the compositions are purely functional, recalling the most traditional daguerrotype portraiture, rather than more novel photographic experimentation with urban and natural landscapes. This tends to reduce people and objects to two dimensions, ensuring that movement only occurs from one side of the frame to the other - particularly clear in Seminary Girls (1897) - rather than towards and past the screen, as will predominate in the work of the Lumières.