Printed Page 198

With the introduction of narrative films—movies that tell stories through the series of actions depicted (later matched with sound)—the industry advanced from the entrepreneurial stage to mass medium status. And it promised to offer a far richer experience than other storytelling media—specifically, books and radio. Unlike those media, narrative films provided realistic moving images and compelling stories in which viewers became so immersed that they sometimes forgot they were watching a fictional representation.

Some of the earliest narrative films (which were silent) were produced and directed by French magician and inventor Georges Méliès, who opened the first public movie theater in France in 1896. Méliès began producing short fantasy and fairy-tale films—including The Vanishing Lady (1896), Cinderella (1899), and A Trip to the Moon (1902). He increasingly used editing and existing camera tricks and techniques, such as slow motion and cartoon animation, that would become key ingredients in future narrative filmmaking.

The first American filmmaker to adapt Méliès’ innovations to narrative film was Edwin S. Porter. He shot narrative scenes out of order (for instance, some in a studio and some outdoors) and reassembled, or edited, them to tell a story. In 1902, he made what is regarded as America’s first narrative film, The Life of an American Fireman, which included the first recorded close-up. Porter also introduced the western genre and the first chase scene in The Great Train Robbery (1903).