Journal article
From the Astonished Spectator to the Spectator in Movement: Exhibition Advertisements in 1920s Germany and Austria
Canadian journal of film studies, Vol.23(1), pp.2-29
03/01/2014
DOI: 10.3138/cjfs.23.1.2
Abstract
When trade fairs, a new and professionalizing phenomenon, spread after the First World War in cities such as Vienna, Frankfurt, Berlin and Düsseldorf, they often turned to film as a means of advertising, frequently employing experts in animation or avant-garde filmmakers. By examining advertising films made for these events, this essay explores some of the changing relationships in the 1920s between cinema and trade show culture. Films often adopt a strategy of astonishment that is common to print advertising, 19th century technological exhibitions and early attraction cinema. But they also tend to illustrate a new paradigm of film as a medium that can both challenge the viewer and control them. This idea of the film as a means of directing the viewer is in line with the new theories of advertising which appeared after the war and which found their testing ground precisely in the world of trade fairs.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- From the Astonished Spectator to the Spectator in Movement: Exhibition Advertisements in 1920s Germany and Austria
- Creators
- Michael Cowan - McGill University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Canadian journal of film studies, Vol.23(1), pp.2-29
- DOI
- 10.3138/cjfs.23.1.2
- ISSN
- 0847-5911
- eISSN
- 2561-424X
- Publisher
- Univ Toronto Press Inc
- Number of pages
- 28
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/01/2014
- Academic Unit
- Cinematic Arts
- Record Identifier
- 9984432552302771
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