Week 9 Readings

   The Bordwell reading was very strait forward and basically just gave a history of cinema, talking about what things put it in motion up until the early days of successful motion pictures.
     These readings were very interesting and I actually happen to be learning about this same thing in my Computers in Art class, where they fully buy into the myth of the audience's terror at the film of the train. The Gunning reading talks a lot about the thoughts behind early cinema and is much more thought provoking. It mentions the Lumiere's Arrival of a Train at the Station, and though he doesn't completely deconstruct the myth of the extent of people's reaction to it, ( namely running out of the theatre in terror), he does question it. He talks about the astonishment of the audience not being in fear for their lives but mainly more out of the amazement that such a display could be caught on motion picture. Gunning quotes a Montpellier journalist who says about the Lumieres' projections cause "an excitement bordering on terror." There astonishment was more due to the excitement and curiosity of the medium.
   The Gunning reading was overall good and informative, a little hard to digest at times. I liked getting to read more in depth about the thoughts of viewers and film  makers of that time, rather then just getting cut and dry facts like the Bordwell reading.