Catalogue of the exhibition arranged by David Robinson at the 10th Pordenone Silent Film Festival, 1991.

The art of animation has its own history, independent of that of the cinematograph proper. This history extends back to 1833. The terminal date chosen is 1908 - the year of Cohl's Fantasmagoria and Un Drame chez les fantoches - usually the starting point for formal histories of animation. Looking at images in Reynaud's praxnoscope, the great animator Richard Williams marvelled particularly at the animation of Le jou du corde. He pointed out that in a series of only 12 frames, Reynaud demonstrated the highest skills of animation. The bounce of the girl's hair when she lands, the sense of weight and gravity, represent the kind of qualities for which every animator strives, often without success. ... In 1987 came the discovery that the great 19th century illustrator George Cruikshank had turned his hand to animation at the advanced age of 78, with notable success. The identification of eight surviving Bing horizontal-format animation films from 1897-8 set a new date on the beginnings of animation in the cinema.

Includes Foreword, Introduction, and a comprehensive descriptive list of exhibits. 16cm x 24cm. 128pp, more than 50 pages of colour illustrations.

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