Chapter I: Front Matter

PICTORIAL BEAUTY ON THE SCREEN

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

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PICTORIAL BEAUTY
ON THE SCREEN

BY

VICTOR OSCAR FREEBURG, PH.D.

AUTHOR OF “THE ART OF PHOTOPLAY MAKING,” AND
“DISGUISE PLOTS IN ELIZABETHAN DRAMA.”

WITH A PREFATORY NOTE
BY REX INGRAM

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1923
_All rights reserved_

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

COPYRIGHT, 1923,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1923.

To
JAMES CRUZE

Because the Various Types of Pictorial Beauty Described in this Book May Be Seen Richly Blended with Epic Narrative and Stirring Drama in “The Covered Wagon,” a Cinema Composition That Will Live

PREFATORY NOTE

_By_ REX INGRAM, _Director of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” “Scaramouche,” etc., etc._

In this volume Dr. Freeburg contends that in order to be classified among the Arts, the Cinema must become something more than a series of clear photographs of things in motion.

In other words, a motion picture must be composed of scenes that have certain pictorial qualifications, such as form, composition, and a proper distribution of light and shade.

It is chiefly according to the degree in which these qualities are present in a picture, that it can register the full effectiveness of its drama, characterizations and atmosphere.

Dr. Freeburg handles his subject clearly and comprehensively, and I know that the majority who read this book will gain a great deal more enjoyment than previously from productions of the calibre of “Broken Blossoms,” “Dr. Caligari,” “Blind Husbands,” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “Nanook of the North,” and films more numerous than I can mention by such picture makers as Messrs. Griffith, Seastrom, Tourneur, Von Stroheim and Lubitsch.

REX INGRAM.

August 5th, 1923.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

If I look upon a motion picture as a kind of substitute for some stage play or novel, it seems to me a poor thing, only a substitute for something better; but if I look upon it as something real in itself, a new form of pictorial art in which things have somehow been conjured into significant motion, then I get many a glimpse of touching beauty, and I always see a great range of possibilities for richer beauties in future examples of this new art. Then I see the motion picture as the equal of any of the elder arts.

In other words, I enjoy the movies as pictures, and I do not enjoy them as anything else but pictures. Yet it is on the pictorial side that the movies are now in greatest need of improvement. And this need will probably continue for at least another ten years. I feel that a book such as this may prove to be of considerable help in bringing about that improvement. So far as I know, this is the first book in which a systematic analysis of pictorial composition on the screen has been attempted, although there are certain earlier books in which the pictorial art of the screen has been appraised without analysis, the pioneer work in that class being Vachel Lindsay’s “Art of the Moving Picture.” The most original things in my present volume are to be found in the chapters on “Pictorial Motions”--or, at least, they ought to be there, else I am to blame, because that is the phase of cinematic art which has hitherto received the least attention from critics.

“Movie fans” in general are my audience, my hope being that they may find something new in this discussion, something, here and there, which they had not themselves thought of, but which will help them toward a conscious and keen enjoyment of beauty scarcely observed before, and to a more certain discrimination between genuine art on the screen and mere pretentious imitations of art.

In order not to confuse the issue, I have purposely omitted discussions of plot, dramatic situation, characterization, etc., except where these matters are so intimately connected with pictorial form that an omission would be impossible. In short, it is what the picture looks like, rather than what it tells, which here occupies our attention. This study is, therefore, supplementary to my book “The Art of Photoplay Making,” which is published by The Macmillan Company.

Mr. James O. Spearing, who was for five years the distinguished motion picture critic on the _New York Times_, and is now on the production staff of the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, has been kind enough to criticize the manuscript of the present work, and I take pride in thanking him publicly for having thus served me with his extensive knowledge and cultivated taste.

V. O. F.

The National Arts Club, New York City, August 27th, 1923.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. PICTORIAL ART IN THE MOVIES 1

II. THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF PICTORIAL COMPOSITION 9

III. EYE TESTS FOR BEAUTY 25

IV. PICTORIAL FORCE IN FIXED PATTERNS 50

V. RHYTHM AND REPOSE IN FIXED DESIGN 68

VI. MOTIONS IN A PICTURE 83

VII. PICTORIAL MOTIONS AT WORK 97

VIII. PICTORIAL MOTIONS AT PLAY 116

IX. PICTORIAL MOTIONS AT REST 128

X. MASTERY IN THE MOVIES 154

XI. THE MYSTERIOUS EMOTIONS OF ART 178

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

“The Covered Wagon.” Prairie Scene _Frontispiece_

FACING
PAGE

“The Plough Girl” 11

“The Shepherdess.” By LeRolle 21

“The Spell of the Yukon.” Cabin Scene 28

A Study of Composition in “The Spell of the Yukon” 28

“Daylight and Lamplight.” By Paxton 39

A Study of Lines 39

“Audrey” 45

A Still Illustrating Misplaced Emphasis 55

A Specimen of Bad Composition 55

“The Spell of the Yukon.” Exterior 57

A Triangle Pattern 61

“Derby Day.” By Rowlandson 64

A Study of Composition in “Derby Day” 64

“Maria Rosa” 71

“Mme. LeBrun and Her Daughter.” By Mme. LeBrun 76

“Polly of the Circus” 79

“Banquet of the Officers of St. Andrew.” By Hals 79

“The Covered Wagon.” Arroyo Scene 93

A Typical Bad Movie Composition 100

“Sherlock Holmes” 100

“The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” 133

“Portrait of Charles I.” By Van Dyck 163

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” 179

Pictorial Beauty On the Screen