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21346
21
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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
AA. VV., To Dazzle the Eye and Stir the Heart. The Red Lantern, Nazimova and the Boxer Rebellion, Cinematek - VDFC, Vlaamse Dienst Voor Filmcultuur, Bruxelles 2012,  1 videodisc (PAL, 165 min.)
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
13
Reviews / Comptes rendus
2013-10-01
2023-10-09
2013-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Maria Francesca Piredda
2013/10/01
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
2036-461X
21
en
AA. VV., To Dazzle the Eye and Stir the Heart. The Red Lantern, Nazimova and the Boxer Rebellion, Cinematek - VDFC, Vlaamse Dienst Voor Filmcultuur, Bruxelles 2012,  1 videodisc (PAL, 165 min.)
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/21346/18954
13
REVIEWS / COMPTES-RENDUS



AA. WV.,                                                  on the cultural context in which the film was created.
To Dazzle the Eye and Stir the Heart. The RedAlthough it is almost impossible to find all the spec-
Lantern, Nazimova and the Boxer Rebellion,                tacular elements originally included in the program
Cinematek - VDFC, Vlaamse Dienst Voor                     at the Rivoli Theatre in New York in 1919, the DVD
Filmcultuur, Bruxelles 2012, I videodisc (PAL, 165        recreates a version of the program that is very close
min.): DVD video, sound, black and white (tinted);        to the original one. This includes music and songs in
4314 in. 207 pages: illustrations (some color).           Oriental style, a ballet, a travelogue of China show-
                                                          ing life scenes in some cities of that country and a
Based on a film restoration begun in 1995, "To Daz- cartoon taken from one of the most popular animat-
zle the Eye and Stir the Heart. The Red Lantern, ed series of the silent era made by Max Fleisher. All
Nazimova and the Boxer Rebellion" is an excellent of these elements help to recreate the richness and
example of a philological reconstruction of a silent      complexity of a theatre program in which the film
movie through its relationship with the historical and    was certainly the main attraction, but not the only
cultural context of the time. The publication is ac-      one. In addition, the same elements allow us to un-
tually both a book, with twenty essays, and a DVD         derstand the nature of the Oriental imaginary in the
with two versions of the same movie and additional        early 20 century. The Red Lantern is not the only
contents. The project is representative of a trend that   film from the silent period set in the East, as the au-
in Italy, for example,can be found in certain publica-thors point out in their publication. On the contrary,
tions by the Cineteca of Bologna: the restoration of it is the result of a widespread interest in the East in
a silent film becomes an opportunity for an analysis the late 194 century, but also of the historical events
of the film itself, and historical issues related to its that led to the birth of the so-called "Yellow Peril"
creation.                                                 in Western culture. For this reason, the DVD extras
The elements of interest in the publication move          contain actuality novelties from the early 20% cen-
along three different levels. First, the film The Red     tury that try to explain the events of the Boxer Re-
Lantern (Albert Capellani, 1915), a digitized version     bellion (1900), emphasizing the bloodiest incidents,
of the original colour copy restored by the Royal         such as the attacks against the Catholic missions
Belgian Film Archive. In addition to the accurate re-     and the rebels' beheading of Westerners. All of the
construction of the original film (for example restor-    above gives us an idea of the cultural background of
ing the intertitles by comparing and translating dif-     The Red Lantern, as well as the film's appeal for the
ferent versions), the authors paid special attention to   audience of the time. Finally, some of the DVD ex-
the musical elements. Firstly through the reconstruc-     tras focus specifically on the main protagonist, Alla
tion of the original score which had never been heard     Nazimova. The DVD includes a screen test of the
again after the premiere in 1919. Then, through the actress, a newsreel showing Nazimova performing a
composition of a new sound design that corresponds        dance and songs inspired by her interpretive skills.
to the soundtrack of the second version of the film on    Actress, producer and screenwriter, Alla Nazimova
DVD. Finally, by presenting some musical themes           is one of the most fascinating figures of early cinema
 from the early 20 century inspired by the film itself,   and the focus on her work here is representative of
 its main protagonist, actress Alla Nazimova and the      recent critical interest in the female protagonists of
 contemporary interest in exoticism. In this sense, the   the seventh art.
 publication pays homage to the sound dimension of        The third level of interest in the publication lies
 silent film, following a recent trend in film studies.   in the research and analysis presented in the book.
 Secondly, the materials and documents contained inSome of the essays describe in detail the contents of
 the DVD extras focussing on the 1919 premiere and the DVD, providing technical information and ex-


CiNEMA & GIE, VOl. XII, no. 21, Fall 2013
                                                                                                          127
 plaining the criteria that informed the selection of       alizing the film, one could say making it "speak,"
 audiovisual materials. Other essays reconstruct the        through paying attention both to the culture that
 cultural context in which the film was made. The           produced it and the audience to whom the film is ad-
 contributions that analyze American Orientalism            dressed. This methodological choice allows us to see
 from a historical and antropological point of view         the publication as contributing to the field of visual
 are particularly interesting. The attraction of the East   anthropology.
 was a mix of fascination and repulsion, based on ste-      Finally, equally important is the book's rich icono-
 reotypes that form part of a long anti Chinese liter-      graphic display. In addition to promotional stills
 ary tradition which was present in Western culture,        and screenshots from the film, the authors have as
 while the allure expressed itself in the appreciation      a result of thorough research been able to use pho-
 of exotic set designs and oriental costumes.               tographs, posters, magazine pages, and postcards
 The book tries to analyze how these subjects were          from public and private collections to illustrate the
 accepted by the public and evaluate how Chinese            book. In this respect, the iconographic and historic
 culture was portrayed. Among the most important            reconstruction of the promotional campaign that an-
 topics addressed in the book are the role of Orien-        ticipated and prepared the cinematic release of the
 tal women between the 19t and 204 centuries, the           film appears particularly accurate.
 foot-binding tradition, inter-racial sex and the off-
 spring that resulted from such unions, and the social      Maria Francesca Piredda - Università Cattolica del
 and historical implications behind the Boxer Rebel-                                        Sacro Cuore, Milano]
 lion. The analysis reveals the intention of contextu-



                                                                                                            color," "sur-
Joshua Yumibe,                                              nologies that have been practiced ("film
Moving Color: Early Film, Mass Culture,                     face color,» "absent color," "optical color" and "dig-
Modernism,                                                  ital color," as stated by the five chapter headings).
                                                            In 2012 two new books promoted further reflections
Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J.
2012, pp. xvii + 192                                        on chromatic cinema from a contextual standpoint:
                                                            Moving Color: Early Film, Mass Culture, Modern-
Federico Pierotti,                                          ism by Joshua Yumibe and La seduzione dello spet-
La seduzione dello spettro. Storia e cultura del            tro. Storia e cultura del colore nel cinema by Fede-
colore nel cinema,                                          rico Pierotti.3
Le Mani, Genova 2012, pp. 296                               As the subtitle suggests, Yumibe's study focuses on
                                                            the three decades of silent cinema, broadening the
Colour was a neglected topic in film studies until          account of the four most common colour process-
recently.' Yet, since the second half of the 2000s,         es in early film (hand colouring, stenciling, tinting
the academic research on cinematic colour has bur-          and toning) to the wider horizon of mass culture and
 geoned and so have the publications pertaining to          modernism between 19t and 20th century.
 colour and cinema.? Some scholars adopt a textual          Yumibe starts from a physiological definition of col-
perspective, isolating a noteworthy canon, while            our: cinematic color is thought about primarily as a
 others choose a contestual paradigm, enlarging the         sensory experience. To make his point he refers to
viewpoint to the modes of production and consump-           two of the most authoritative theories of the past. In-
tion of colour movies. Richard Misek, for instance,         deed, while Newton described colour as an objective
joins the latter approach in Chromatic Cinema. A            and measurable feature (different hues correspond
History of Screen Color (2010), where he traces an          to different wavelengths of a dismantled beam of
unorthodox history of cinema from the beginning up          light), Goethe in his Farbenlehre (1810) claims the
to the present time through the various colour tech-        subjective and perceptual character of colour: colour


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