ITALIANA - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...
ITALIANA - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...
ITALIANA - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>AIC</strong><br />
,v Filoteo Alberini<br />
il cinetoscopio Verso la fine dell'Ottocento la<br />
di t. Edison SCOperta del cinematografo si<br />
stava concretizzando. Da diverse<br />
nazioni giungeva notizia che<br />
qualcuno aveva messo a punto<br />
un sistema capace di far<br />
osservare immagini fotografate<br />
che creavano il movimento.<br />
Di tutti questi dispositivi, più o<br />
meno suscettibili di essere<br />
sviluppati sul piano pratico,<br />
quello che riscosse una vera<br />
attrazione di pubblico e di un<br />
certo successo economico fu il<br />
Kinetoscopio (dal greco<br />
Kinema, atos = movimento e<br />
skopeo — guardo) di Thomas<br />
Alva Edison. Esso contisteva in<br />
un visore applicato a un cassone<br />
entro il quale scorreva un anello<br />
di pellicola formato da brevi<br />
filmati di fatti comuni, che erano<br />
stati registrati precedentemente<br />
su negativo con una macchina<br />
da presa: la Kinetograph<br />
(sinonimo di cinematografo; dal<br />
greco Kinema, atos =<br />
movimento e grapho = scrivo)<br />
pure messa a punto nel<br />
laboratorio di Edison.<br />
Introducendo una monetina si<br />
poteva ammirare lo spettacolo<br />
guardando in una fessura posta<br />
sulla sommità del cassone.<br />
Il Kinetoscopio, brevettato nel<br />
1891, fu presentato la prima<br />
volta al pubblico nel 1893, in<br />
occasione dell'Esposizione<br />
It was almost the end of the 1800s, and the cinematograph was in the<br />
process of being invented! From different countries, the news arrived that<br />
someone or other had succeeded in putting together a system which<br />
permitted the viewing of moving photographic images.<br />
Amongst these many devices, all of which could more or less be applied<br />
practically, the one which greatly interested the public and enjoyed a<br />
certain commercial success, was the Kinetoscope (from the Greek<br />
kinema, atos = movement, and skopeo = I look) invented by Thomas Alva<br />
Edison It consisted of a screen fitted inside a large box in which a loop of<br />
film turned, composed of short filmed sequences of everyday events which<br />
had been previously recorded on a negative with a movie camera: the<br />
Kinetograph (synonymous with cinematograph; from the Greek Kinema,<br />
atos = movement, and grapho = I write), also invented in Edison's<br />
laboratory. One could watch the moving picture show in the Kinetoscope,<br />
by inserting a coin and looking through a narrow opening in the top of<br />
the large box (fig. 1)<br />
The Kinetoscope, patented in 1891, was first presented to the public at the<br />
World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. The following year, 1894, it was<br />
presented in New York, where it was a great success, and was also<br />
brought to Europe. It then arrived in Italy and, as you will read later, it<br />
was precisely the Kinetoscope which inspired the invention of the first<br />
Italian movie camera.<br />
In reality, the Kinetoscope ivas basically a film projector, but could only<br />
be used by one person at a time. It was this very limitation that inspired '<br />
the Lumière brothers to invent the "Cinematographe", which they<br />
patented on February 13th, 1895, an apparatus that functioned as a<br />
movie camera, printing machine and projector. It was this last function,<br />
more than any of the others, that permitted the images to be projected on<br />
mondiale di Chicago, e l'anno<br />
successivo a New York, ove<br />
ottenne un grande successo.<br />
Sempre nel 1894 venne portato<br />
in Europa. Giunse anche in Italia<br />
e, come si leggerà più avanti, fu<br />
proprio il Kinetoscopio a far<br />
balenare l'idea <strong>della</strong> prima<br />
macchina da presa italiana.<br />
Il Kinetoscopio era in realtà una<br />
specie di proiettore<br />
cinematografico, usufruibile,<br />
però, da una sola persona.<br />
Questa limitazione portò, il 13<br />
febbraio 1895, al brevetto dei<br />
Lumière del "Cinematogràphe",<br />
un apparecchio che fungeva<br />
contemporaneamente da<br />
macchina da ripresa, macchina<br />
da stampa e macchina da<br />
proiezione. Quest'ultima<br />
prerogativa soprattutto,<br />
permettendo di proiettare le<br />
immagini su di un grande<br />
a large screen, for any number of spectators, which gave the<br />
"Cinematographe" the edge on Edison's Kinetoscope and, after that<br />
famous first public showing on December 28th, 1895, at the "Grand Café",<br />
14 Bvld des Capucines in Paris before an audience of thirty-three,<br />
resulted in its being used in countries all over the world<br />
It was on the above date that the commercial cinematograph made its<br />
triumphant entrance and officially came into being.<br />
However, a month and a half prior to this historical event, Filoteo<br />
Alberini, the great pioneer of Italian Cinema (who was born in Orte,<br />
March 14th, 1864 and died in Rome on April 11th, 1937) applied for a<br />
patent on the "Alberini Kinematograph", and made his own cinema<br />
history! (figs. 2 & 3)<br />
Photography had been invented sometime before the cinematograoh<br />
came into being, and every photographer nurtured a secret dream of<br />
creating moving images; a deep, unconscious desire which was finally<br />
realized with the birth of the cinematograph<br />
Filoteo Alberini also started out as a photographer, and it was precisely<br />
through his passion for photography that he ivas able to invent a movie<br />
camera and projector in one, and make his entrance into<br />
cinematography.<br />
No one better than Filoteo Alberini himself, can tell us how his passion for<br />
photography was born, and reprinted below is an extra from an article<br />
(an abbreviated version of a talk he gave in Rome) which he wrote, and<br />
which appeared in the Rome newspaper "La Tribuna", on February 1st,<br />
1923, and was later published by the "Rivista Cinematografica" of Turin,<br />
on February 10th, 1923:<br />
•There was nothing I could do, that was my nature, and having given the<br />
matter considerable thought, I came to the conclusion that I would get