THE PHOTOPLAY
of the crank. It is the same street scene, and
yet in the one case everyone on the street
seems leisurely to saunter along, while in the
other case there is a general rush and hurry.
Nothing is changed but the temporal form;
and in going over from the sharp image to
the blurring one, nothing is changed but a
certain spatial form: the content remains the
same.
As soon as we give any interest to this for¬
mal aspect of the presentation, we must
recognize that the photoplaywright has here
possibilities to which nothing corresponds in
the world of the stage. Take the case that we
want to produce an effect of trembling. We
might use the pictures as the camera has
taken them, sixteen in a second. But in re¬
producing them on the screen we change their
order. After giving the first four pictures we
go back to picture 3, then give 4, 5, 6, and
return to 5, then 6, 7, 8, and go back to 7, and
so on. Any other rhythm, of course, is equal¬
ly possible. The effect is one which never oc¬
curs in nature and which could not be pro¬
duced on the stage. The events for a moment
go backward. A certain vibration goes
through the world like the tremolo of the or-
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