The Origins of the Cinema

                                                                               1- The beginning.                                    

                                                                                LIGHT AND SHADOW

                               

A candle, a hand and a wall, tools for the first shadow show.
The shadow theatre, as old as the fire, it was the first moving image show; Shapes of shadow changing over a wall.

Thousand years ago, a smart gentleman in China, took a step toward the future film, he noted that through a hole in a window blind, the outdoor image it was projected upside down on the window.

                                                                          Something similar happens with a magnifier and any light source.

 Five centuries later in Italy, Girolamo Cardano has adapted a lens to the hole, creating very clear images and always upside down.

With a simple lens, a candlelight, and a elaborate painting over a cristal, The Magic Lantern just born.
The great-grandmother of the slide projector.

                                                                          ☟ 

In the nineteenth century the Magic Lantern light source was no longer a candle but a gas lamp, and did not have a single lens, but three 
Magicians and illusionists creating special effects in their shows to the amazement of the audience.

                 

                                                                 The traditional shadow play from the far east, spread                                                               popularity to Europe in the seventeenth century

carmensantosds                                                                                  Practizing Javanese Wayang play
January 2014