Blots and combinations

Film production around 1905 used procedures that subsequently disappeared or were rendered imperceptible. For example, switching from real backgrounds to painted décor. Or the combination of fiction and non-fiction: a scène de plein air is rendered partially fictitious with a slight mise-en-scène, and all those present participate with a visible and absolutely unfeigned pleasure. Or the contrast between two-dimensional, anti-realistic scenery populated by three-dimensional live actors. However, the effect caused by ladies’ underwear remained unchanged from 1905 onwards – wherever it appears on screen a blot of non-fiction spreads.

Mariann Lewinsky