CINEMA

The French treat freely foreign words. They would not care how other peoples, to whom they pertain, pronounce them, for they would articulate them in the way they really feel like. In that, they are guided by melody, by sonority, by harmony. Nobody else compares to them in this respect. The French spirit is a spirit of logic, of melody and of complete harmony.

The French does not like saying ‘tramway’, as the English is used to uttering, – he says ‘tram’; ‘automobile’ is way too long for him, and he prefers ‘auto’ or ‘car’. For the very same reason he does not say ‘cinematograph,’ – this sounds long and coarse compared to ‘cinema,’ and this is how he expresses himself.

Cinema – here we have a word with a big future, i.e. not the word, but that apparatus which carries the name. In the beginning since its invention, it instigated only curiosity. No one had yet thought about the role which the device would play into the future, and which has not yet fully taken shape, although its image begins to vaguely emerge. The same way no one could think of the wide spread of electricity, as we observe it today in our daily life, and of those miracles achieved through it each day. An untold number of those miracles are reserved for the near and distant future. No one could predict all of the applications throughout the life span of the photographic apparatus. They [the people] marvelled at its invention and infinitely rejoiced as it enabled keeping a long-lasting memory of dear persons and objects. Nonetheless, its role in the arts, sciences, in justice […] and who knows in what else, was not even suspected.

So it was with the cinema. Of course, it was nothing else but a revival of the camara oscura! And the photographic apparatus, too, which is also borne out of her [the camara oscura], and both of them – the camera and the apparatus – are its parents [of the cinema]. And the future stores a pedigree for that prominent family, which appears to be pretty prolific.

In the beginning we were going to watch the cinematograph just out of curiosity. Now everywhere, in all big and small cities of the west, this invention became a must for the entertainment and for the indulgence in a particular kind of artistic delight.