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1、 F Fabre, Marcel b. 1886; d. 1929 actor, Italy Originally a circus clown from Spain, Marcel Fabre began his film career with short comedies at clair and Path-Frres. Hired in 1910 by Ambrosio as the answer to Cines Tontolini (Ferdinando Guillaume) and Italas Cretinetti (Andr Deed), he became internat
2、ionally known as Robinet (France, Spain), Nauke (Germany), and Tweedledum (Britain, USA). His companion in this comic series was Nilde Baracchi, known as Robinette. Robinet was a tall and clumsy type, a shameless libertine, a figure involved in wild and destructive chases often triggered by ill-use
3、of modern means of transportation. In 1914, Fabrewho also directed at Ambrosiomade the grotesque feature, Saturnino Farandola, based on the science fiction novel by Robida. IVO BLOM facial expression films The art of distorting facial features in a grotesque manner played an essential part in popula
4、r entertainments for centuries: e.g., fair/fairground farces and circus clown acts. Closely related to caricature, these live performances created effects from hilarity to terror. Talented performers or those endowed with naturally exaggerated features provided a mobile array of uncanny facial effec
5、ts. Early cinema offered a new dimension to such performances: the possibility of enlargement whereby facial expressions filled the screen. Such early “close-ups” magnified faces and concentrated attention. Therefore, facial expression films could be considered an early film genre that exploited the
6、 unique devices of the cinema. Judging not only by surviving prints but also by their frequency in early film catalogues, facial expression films were very popular. Many early films fall into this category such as Edisons Facial Expressions (1902), or Goo-goo Eyes (1903), which show performers makin
7、g grotesque expressions or rolling their eyes in an unbelievable manner. However, we should also include in the category many less exaggerated films Encyclopedia of early cinema 322 whose close framing (sometimes a “bust shot” framing the head and chest rather than just the face) show performers in
8、typical actions, resembling character sketches. Edisons famous early close-up Kinetoscope films, The May Irwin Kiss (1896) and Fred Otts Sneeze (1894), would provide examples, as would A Dull Razor (1900) or Path- Frress Ma Tante My Aunt (1903), with Dranem in “auntie drag.” In the more grotesque fa
9、cial expression films, the performer manipulates his or her face rather than creates a character portraying a type or typical action. In such films, the performer acknowledges the camera directly, usually staring and performing for it (in character sketches, this is not always true). Most of these f
10、ilms consist of a single shot, so, although closely framed, they are not part of an edited sequence, as the term “close-up” might imply. However, the origin of the facial close-up as Figure 34 Dranem in Paths Ma Tante My Aunt (1904). an edited figure seems to come from facial expression films. Thus
11、G.A.Smiths Mary Janes Mishap (1903) repeatedly cuts into close shots of Mary Jane as she mugs while doing her chores. These close-ups do not convey dramatic revelation or narrative empathy (common motivations for later close-ups), but rather display the grotesque expressions as attractions. Edwin S.
12、Porters The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog (1905) consists of seven facial expression close-ups revealing the caricature-like physiognomies of family members, followed by two long shots in which the Dam Family dinner is interrupted by their dog. The famous shot of the moon face receiving the rocke
13、t in its eye in Georges Mlis Le Voyage la lune A Trip to Moon (1902), most likely takes its framing from facial expression films. Thus the genre became cannibalized by longer and sometimes more complex films that incorporated close framings of the face either making grimaces or presenting a physiogn
14、omic type. Entries A-Z 323 Further reading Gunning, Tom (1997) “In Your Face: Physiognomy, Photography and the Gnostic Mission of Early Film,” Modernism/Modernity, 4.1:129. Jay, Ricky (2001) “Grinners, Gurners and Grimacies,” Jays Journal of Anomalies, 4552, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. TOM GUNNI
15、NG fairs/fairgrounds: Europe The exploitation and exhibition of moving pictures by traveling fairground showmen in Europe was a significant factor in the growth of cinemas popularity. Playing to a largely rural population at the great 19th-century fairs throughout Europe, and in cities such Nottingh
16、am, Bremen, Leipzig, Paris and Milan, the early showmen presented their wondrous exhibitions to audiences that ultimately would demand permanent venues. Fairs were regulated and controlled by local authorities or landowners with final authority in the hands of the exhibitors. They occurred on dates
17、fixed by the religious, agricultural, or new industrial calendar, lasted anywhere from several days to several weeks, and were protected by national legislation or the prescriptive right of landowners to hold a fair on a particular day of the year. By the late 1800s, the traveling fair was one of th
18、e most important popular venues for entertainment in Europe. The introduction of steam-powered roundabouts and merry-go-rounds in the 1860s in England and then throughout Europe, together with the new rail system of transportation, led to the transformation of what was perceived as an antiquated and
19、 dying tradition into centers of modernity, incorporating the latest innovations of the new industrial age. By 1900, for instance, over 200 fairs were held on a weekly basis throughout Great Britain, and this pattern was repeated in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, where they we
20、re encouraged by everyone from wealthy industrialists to small shopkeepers eager to entice people and their money. This network of traveling fairs, many of which had their origins in the Middle Ages, provided a ready-made circuit for the fairground exhibitor to present a range of new attractions, in
21、cluding Ghost shows, X-ray photography and, in 1896, moving pictures. The introduction of moving pictures into a vibrant and established mode of exhibition was an immediate success. Fairground showmen were quick to see its commercial possibilities. The necessary equipment for a basic show was cheap,
22、 could be purchased in most major cities and, more importantly, could be incorporated easily into existing exhibitions. Portable booths or theaters, which may have previously exhibited human oddities, wild animals or optical and illusion displays, also could be converted for showing moving pictures.
23、 Moreover, one of the characteristics of exhibition, as least on the continent, was the fluidity of movement across frontiers. The itineraries of the showmen were dictated by festival calendars and the state of the roads and railways much more than by borders. In the case of Trieste, which remained
24、part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire until World War I, the ethnic and linguistic mix of the population Encyclopedia of early cinema 324 ensured that a showman such as Ivan Blser, born in Prussia, was known as Jean, Johann, Ivan or Giovanni Blser, depending on the audience he was addressing. In fact
25、, reflecting a dominant theme in modern Italian history, fairground exhibitors moved more easily between France, Austria, Switzerland, the Adriatic countries and northern Italy than between northern and southern Italy. Trieste also was a center from which moving pictures spread into Istria, Dalmatia
26、, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. Countries with a historic network of trade and pleasure fairs such as France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Great Britain provided a dynamic and fluid circuit for the showmen to build on. In France, for instance, nine fairs were presenting moving p
27、icture shows as early as 1896; three years later, the number had increased to forty. By 1902, no fair was without at least one moving picture show, many of them supplied with apparatuses and films by Path-Frres (whose own origins lay in the Paris fairs), and certain showmen had established regional
28、circuits: for instance, the Iunik family around Paris, the Dulaar family around Lyon. By 1905, some shows were beginning to settle permanently in town or city squares, becoming French versions of the nickelodeons in the USA. In northern Italy, the fairs included moving picture shows in increasing nu
29、mbers from 1899 onwards. The potent mixture of sonorous names such as Cinematografo Gigante, lImperale Kinematographe, or the exotic American Bioscsope, together with the novelty of steam-generated electric lighting, drew large crowds in the provinces, yet rarely farther south than Tuscany. In 1902,
30、 at one Milan fair there were three moving picture shows among the forty-two amusements; the following year, the number had increased to six; by 1906, at a neighbouring fair, to eight. The topics addressed by the shows were similar to those found elsewherethe Boer War, the Chinese War, Royal ceremon
31、ies (coronations, weddings and funerals), and the ever popular local actualits. This pattern was repeated everywhere but in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Finland, where fairground shows were limited in their success and longevity. Exhibition patterns in Great Britain were similar to thos
32、e on the continent, with the caveat that fairgrounds shows remained uniquely a British affair. The first showman known to exhibit moving pictures on British fairgrounds was Randall Williams, who included them in his converted Ghost show at the Worlds Fair Christmas show in London in 1896. By 1900, n
33、ine moving picture booths were in operation at Hull Fair, one of oldest and largest traveling fairs in Europe. By 1906, at Nottingham Goose Fair, seven of fifteen amusement booths presented moving picture. Although no European showmen attended British fairs, organ manufacturers such as Marenghi and
34、Gavioli in Paris supplied lavishly ornate organs for the fronts of the British shows. However, these soon were incorporated into purpose-built traveling moving picture booths by British manufacturers. The rate of decline for fairground exhibition was different in each European country. For the most
35、part, the emergence of distribution circuits based on renting rather selling film prints for exhibition in permanent cinemas was common throughout Europe. However, there were variations. In Italy, changes in legislation led to the development of permanent cinemas as early as 1905, whereas in Switzer
36、land itinerant exhibitors such as Willy Leuzinger continued until the 1940s. A number of exhibitorsfor instance, George Green in Scotland, Sren Nielsen in Denmark, and Jean Desmet in the Netherlands went on to establish a circuit of cinemas in areas where they would have once exhibited Entries A-Z 3
37、25 their shows. However, the majority remained on the fairgrounds and invested in the next “latest wonder of the age,” such as the electric Scenic Railway. By 1914, moving picture exhibition had all but disappeared from the fairgrounds on the continent and in Great Britain. Yet the fairgrounds impor
38、tance as a venue for moving pictures, in both Figure 35 From Mitchell and Kenyon 772: Sedgwicks bioscope showfront at Pendlebury Wakes, August 1901. James Kenyon of Mitchell and Kenyon is standing to the left of the poster. (Copyright British Film Institute.) industrial cities and rural communities,
39、 should not be underestimated. For fairground showmen laid the foundations for the emergence of permanent moving picture theaters in villages, towns, and cities throughout Europe. See also: distribution: Europe; electricity; transportation Further reading Bernadini, Aldo (2001) Cinema Italiano delle
40、 Origini: Gli ambulanti, Gemona: Le Cineteca del Friuli. Convents, Guido (1994) “Motion picture exhibitors on Belgium fairgrounds,” Film History, 6:2: 238249. Encyclopedia of early cinema 326 Deslandes, Jacques and Jacques Richards (1968) Histoire compare du cinma II: Du cinmatographe au cinma, 1896
41、1906, Paris: Castermann. Kosanovi, Dejan (1995) Trieste al Cinema 18961918, Gemona: La Cineteca del Friuli. Rossell, Deac (2000) “A slippery job: travelling exhibitors in early cinema,” in Simon Popple and Vanessa Toulmin (eds.) Visual Delights: Essays on the Popular and Projected Image in the 19th
42、Century, 5060, Trowbridge: Flicks Books. VANESSA TOULMIN Falena, Ugo b. 1875; d. 1931 playwright, theater critic, film director and scriptwriter, Italy An educated and ambitious man of the theater, Falena, in 1909, became artistic director of Film dArte Italiana. Aided by casting director Gerolamo L
43、o Savio, he attracted prominent stage actors, from Ermete Novelli and Maria Jacobini to Francesca Bertini, to produce stylized adaptations of celebrated literary and theatrical works. At Film dArte Italiana, he directed and supervised, among others, Salom Salome (1910) and Francesca da Rimini France
44、sca di Rimini (1910), before moving, in 1916, to smaller firms such as Tespi and Galatea. GIORGIO BERTELLINI Famous Players Motion Picture Company From 19121919, the Famous Players Motion Picture Company (Famous Players-Lasky by 1916) innovated some of the most significant strategies of the period,
45、from the star system and feature film programs to vertical integration. Famous Players was formed on 1 June 1912 by Adolph Zukor, Daniel Frohman, and Edwin S.Porter. The company was founded to produce high-budget, multiple- reel/feature films adapted from successful stage plays. Its first venture wa
46、s the co- financing and US release of Queen Elizabeth (with Sarah Bernhardt), which debuted in New York City in August 1912. Famous Players first production was The Prisoner of Zenda (February 1913), a critically acclaimed film that made little profit, due to difficulties with the state rights syste
47、m of feature distribution. General Film refused to distribute Famous Players product, while most other distributors were unwilling to risk a potential lawsuit from the MPPC for the distribution rights to a single film. To combat this, during July and August 1913, Famous Players joined with the Jesse
48、 L.Lasky Feature Play Company and Bosworth Film Company to release a yearly program of feature films. They also signed an agreement with five distributors, including W.W.Hodkinsons Progressive Motion Picture Company. The agreement required Entries A-Z 327 Famous Players to release thirty features pe
49、r year, which necessitated a change in production strategy. Rather than producing only expensive adaptations of successful plays, Famous Players divided its productions into Class A, B, and C features, which ranged from Queen Elizabeth-style adaptations to three-to-five reel films using Famous Players stock company. Although Class C films were ostensibly the cheapest, the stock company included such stars as Mary Pickford, who soon would become one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Famous Players an