“There were just two other special forms of film construction in which Italian film-makers took an equal part with the Americans in advancing technique, both to do with the use of Insert Shots. […] The first of those was a highly specialised form, where the entire film story is carried in close shots showing only part of the actors. This idea appeared very early, with G.A.Smith’s As Seen Through an Area Window (1901) […]. I have seen no sign of this technique reappearing until the Ambrosio company made La storia di Lulù in 1909, though Vitagraph’s The Story the Boots Told of 1908 does use some close-ups of feet doing this and that as part of a moralising story, but most of its narration is carried on in ordinary shots of the characters. La storia di Lulù on the other hand tells a story in several scenes by using nothing but insert shots of the feet of the actors. (Barry Salt, original version of the essay in Sperduto nel buio – il cinema muto italiano e il suo tempo (1905-1930), Bologna, ed. Cappelli, 1991)