Animated into Being: First Dressed Bodies in Motion

How were some of the first moving-image bodies dressed, displayed and set in motion? This special screening brings together pioneering works in cinema, photography, proto-animation and scientific experimentation to explore dress at the intersection of still and moving image. From Émile Reynaud’s praxinoscope and the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey to dance, trick films and urban scenes, it follows bodies ‘animated’ by a range of cinematic and pre-cinematic devices. Though not fashion films or photographs in any straightforward sense, these works reveal clothing as a practical instrument, visual attraction and even special effect. Featuring films by Nadar, Pathé, Edison, Méliès, Jan Kříženecký, James Williamson and others, the programme presents the dressed body as measured, performed, observed and transformed.

Dedicated to early cinema scholar Tom Gunning, the programme is curated by Marketa Uhlirova and organised in collaboration with Émilie Cauquy (Cinémathèque française). With special thanks to Laurent Mannoni and participating film archives.