Virginia Woolf, Maxim Gorky and Inception

        Virginia Woolf      Inception "Spinning Top"      Maxim Gorky

Prior Reading:

• Maxim Gorky, “Review of the Lumière Program at the Nizhni-Novgorod Fair,” 1896
• Virginia Woolf, “The Cinema” (1926)

Maxim Gorky was present at the Nizhni-Novgorod Fair to witness the “soundless spectre” of Lumiere’s cinematograph – “the Kingdom of Shadows.” After witnessing moving photography of “all too familiar scene[s]” he writes this newspaper article not expressing his awe at the invention but criticizing it – first the lack of sound and then claiming “the movement of shadows, only… shadows” is a curse. The article is riddled with cynical and negative language, and it is not until the very end of the article when he, while not yet seeing “the scientific importance,” admits it could be “applied to the general ends of science, that is, of bettering man’s life and the developing of his mind.” Gorky, surprisingly due to its novelty, looks at the Lumiere invention how people look at modern day film today – what is in the film rather than the technique of creating it (in this case, a scientific breakthrough!)

Virginia Woolf approaches the art of cinema as something which is both whimsical but also constrained by the intentions of film-makers, by the comparison of a reproduction of Anna Karenina and the depiction of non descript, almost accidental objects (and their ability to redefine emotion). She questions the intention of cinema throughout and whilst proclaiming cinema should not attempt to depict poetry or novels (because of peoples personal mental perceptions) she also appraises its potential (“while all other arts were born naked, this, the youngest, has been born fully clothed”).

The art of cinema had progressed a great deal over the 30 years between Maxim Gorky and Virginia Woolf’s critiques, but both are somewhat cynical (Gorky at the lack of sound and monotony of film and Woolf at the destruction of human emotion) as well as respectful of the potential it has in society. I wonder what, if they were alive today, they would have to say on the direction film has taken (both that of art and entertainment film {Film Art: An Introduction}).

Woolf and Gorky both probe towards how the “eye licks it all up instantaneously, and the brain, agreeably titillated, settles down to watch things happening without bestirring itself to think.” Woolf suggests this through that direct quote but Gorky suggests it through the way he constantly criticizes what he is seeing (with the lack of sound) whilst not being in awe of the invention. This is where Inception is strongly connected, as it is a blockbuster which takes you further than just watching a storyline unfold, as it takes you into a dream world of endless possibilities.