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Representations of Modernity in Early Cinema (1890s - 1945), The Melodrama…

- - - - Capitalism
        
        These three components of modernity help explain the emergence of capitalism as an economic system and a significant force in society. In broad terms, Capitalism requires a stable, measurable world and trusted systems of calculation so that costs, prices, and the value of labour can be determined consistently over time. These assumptions are rooted in the belief that reality can be judged, organized, and understood through rational thought and expertise. (Walker 2021)
        
        The emergence of capitalism can be examined as the result of:
        
        Industrial Capitalism
        
        Industrial capitalism, which relies on machinery and this complex division of labour, shifted production into factories, which were owned by a small group of people. This meant that to survive, most individuals were forced to sell their labour (Walker 2021).
        
        Environment
        
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        Changes in culture: Max Weber
        
        Weber believed that cultural changes, primarily the increasing popularity of “some sect of Protestantism,” brought about the rise of capitalism. Calvinists believed that people were either “among the elect” or they were “among the dammed.” One indication of having God’s favour and approval was a person’s success in business. Weber believed that these people were the “perfect early capitalists” as they were predisposed to “work hard, save, and reinvest (Walker 2021).”
        
        Katherine Walker, “Characteristics of Modernity | EBSCO,” EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | www.ebsco.com, 2021, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/characteristics-modernity.
        
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        Changes in labour: Carl Marx
      - The Great Depression
- - - - Varga, Darrell. 2025. “Class 5, Montage Continued, Manhatta and the Crowd.” Film History and Criticism: 1890 - 1945 AHIS 2800 2025F, October 9. https://nscad.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/24223/Home.
        
        Walker, Katherine. 2021. “Characteristics of Modernity | EBSCO.” EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | Www.ebsco.com. 2021. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/characteristics-modernity.
        
        Consumerist culture arose from the demands of capitalism, creating a culture in which products would be sold by “eroding consumers' sense of self-worth (Walker 2021).” Consumer culture has helped shape notions of:
      - Rewritten ending to appease consumers
        
        The film was originally intended to end without a positive resolution, but producers insisted on a conclusion more appealing to American audiences. As a result, the protagonist accidentally inherits a millionaire’s fortune, becoming wealthy enough to indulge in the same excess he once observed at the hotel. The film explicitly acknowledges the unreality of this ending.
        
        -(1:16:40) Food functions as a symbol of power, with an abundance of meats, caviar, and champagne signalling wealth and dominance. This emphasis on excessive consumption creates a satirical tone – the extravagance is so implausible that it becomes surreal, undermining the fantasy of drastic social mobility.
    - - According to Walker, urbanization and industrial capitalism lead to specialized production as a result of the division of labour. This saw a shift towards the “world of wage labour,” which led to the development of an ideology that divided life into two distinct spheres:
        
        The Public:
        The domain of men (paid labour and power)
        
        (Image 1 6:59 - Image 2. 7:54) Depictions in the film that show both the chaos and the organization possible in the modern city - overlapping images of pedestrians and traffic - then, the office place (a labour environment) that is regimented and organized - designed for productivity. Also, shows the lack of individuality - people are "cogs in the machine," interchangeable. We purposefully can't even distinguish our main character in this scene - reinforcing that he truly is one of many in the "crowd."
        
        Machines would now “organize and control daily existence.”
        
        Although technology has created increased convenience and improved the quality of life, it has also created a dependency:
        
        The systems of production became reliant on technology
        
        A person’s life is shaped and dictated by technology for example, appliances in the home that changed the domestic landscape, at work (whether in an industrial setting or in an office), and the ability to travel (public and private transportation that connects different areas of a person’s daily life and beyond).
        
        The optimistic belief that science and technology were emblematic of society and “humankind” shifting towards a “state of perfection.”
        The notion that science and technology had the capacity to solve social issues and improve our quality of life (for example, the development of medical science) (Walker 2021)
        
        Optimistic Belief in Science and Technology
        
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        Varga, Darrell. 2025. “Class 5, Montage Continued, Manhatta and the Crowd.” Film History and Criticism: 1890 - 1945 AHIS 2800 2025F, October 9. https://nscad.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/24223/Home.
        
        (1:05:38) Material goods are a central catalyst for the film's great tragedy, the death of their daughter, who ran across traffic to see the presents her parents bought her. This moment sent Johnny into a downward spiral
        
        Interestingly, technology also plays a role in this. Their neighbourhood was in a high-traffic area with fast cars and trucks - the relentless movement of the city played a role
        
        (41:34) Earlier in the film, during the Christmas scene, we see another example of this connection between material goods and happiness. After Johnny abandons Mary and her family in search of booze (and proceeds to drink it all while fraternizing with other women), we see that he was able to "repair" his relationship with Mary (or at least, appease her) using the presents he bought her.
        
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        (Image 1. 31:17 - Image 2. 37:10) Using mis-en-scen and cinematography to depict the division of spheres within the film. Frequently, Mary and Johnny are shot from opposing angles in different spaces: Johnny from below, on the street and Mary positioned above, out of reach, behind the window. In the apartment, they are frequently separated using cupboards and doors to further reinforce their alienation and separation (particularly in moments where their relationship is in crisis).
        
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        (Image 1 15:49 - Image 2 1:38:02) The film is essentially bookended by scenes of the characters engaging with mass entertainment. Coney Island (a space for affordable entertainment and leisure - respite from the monotony of daily life) and the vaudeville stage (solid association here with the origins of cinema - the adoption of vaudeville acts as content for early films). Everyone is having a uniform experience. Despite the hopelessness of the film's conclusion (Mary may or may not leave Johnny), the film suggests that these issues can be solved by consumerism - ignoring your problems and mindlessly engaging in entertainment...
        
        Depictions of the Public Sphere
        
        The Private:
        The domain of women (Children and domestic labour)
        
        This resulted in the
        “increasing powerlessness of women and their oppression under the guise of domestic expertise (Walker).”
        
        Depictions of the Private Sphere
      - Moral Dangers of Female Visibility Outside the Private Sphere
        
        Transgressiveness of Gender Presentation
      - Depictions of Public and Private Space Under Tension
    - - Meritocracy: that a person can achieve success (wealth and power) based on merit. If a person is driven, works hard enough and is skillful and industrious, they can climb the social ladder and be prosperous.
        The American dream: that equal opportunity to succeed is available to any American
    - - “Do you know what you will be tomorrow?”
        
        (5:16) Rest as a threat to productivity - the main character is terminated from his position as a doorman after getting written up for being seated during working hours
        
        They state that “the reason for your termination is your infirmity” - he is too old to perform the required duties and is swiftly replaced by someone younger. (tradition versus modernity).
        
        Not only does he lose his employment (how will he support himself? His family? Are there any social supports?), but he loses his sense of worth
- - - - The Unconscious
        
        (articulated by Sigmund Freud in 1899 - The Interpretation of Dreams)
        
        Individual and social forces control behaviour and allow us to exist within the confines of society
        
        This process occurs in our mind automatically - the unconscious is the site of “repression, phobias, desires, dreams, forgotten memories)
        
        Dreams (and art) can be “a window to the self.”
        
        The emergence of cinema coincided with the development of these theories
- - - - In response to the poem, I created a drawing for my Introduction to Studio Drawing Class. Eliot described his poetic process as “arranging a collage of impressions,” a methodology that strongly informed the creation of my own work. The piece incorporates fragments of receipts, chewing gum, and cigarette wrappers—remnants of coping mechanisms—into the work.I also integrated a cut-up and rearranged self-portrait, echoing Eliot’s fragmentation of voice and identity.
        I was particularly drawn to the anxieties surrounding the dirt and grime of the city: material that is abundant, persistent, and impossible to fully erase. This resonates deeply with my own struggles with mental health. In several of the squares, I included the results of a performative action—taping a square of paper to the bottom of my shoes and allowing it to collect marks as I moved through the city and my home. This gesture reflects the tension between public and private spaces and how both leave traces on the individual.
        Like The Waste Land, this piece functions as a manifestation of my anxieties, which are often exacerbated and made visible by the dirt, disorder, and sensory overload of the city.
        
        Fragments of the Waste Land, Ella Ward Crawford, 2025
- - - - Varga, Darrell. 2025. “Class 7: The Last Laugh.” Film History and Criticism: 1890 - 1945 AHIS 2800 2025F, October 23. https://nscad.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/24223/Home.
        
        The Last Laugh (1924)
        Dir. FW Murneau
        
        The Last Laugh - Exploration of the Unconscious
        
        Toys with our perception of reality - what is actually happening and what is a dream?
        
        Using cinematography to explore disconnected and warped perceptions of the world (unstable POVs, layered images, blurred forms and movement - abstraction)
- - - - (1:39) This title card establishes the satirical tone for the film
- - - - While Manhatta (1921) celebrates the scale and rhythm of the modern city, Modern Times (1936) critiques how that same modernity dehumanizes the individual.
        
        Modern Times (1936)
        Dir. Charlie Chaplin
        
        Modern Times (1936) by Charlie Chaplin was created at a pivotal moment in film history- the emergence of the “talkies.” Although the Edison Company experimented with sound film as early as 1894 using the Kinetograph, sound films were not widely popularized until 1927.
        
        Talkies arrived at an important time, as the film industry experienced an overall decline in the mid-1920s. The novelty of sound technology helped draw audiences back to theatres.
        
        Charlie Chaplin, a major silent film star, struggled, like many performers, to transition into sound cinema. With Modern Times, Chaplin aimed to demonstrate that a filmmaker could still create an engaging, witty, and complex story without relying on dialogue.
        
        As a result, the film functions as a satirical critique of both modern industrial life and the film industry’s infatuation with sound. The limited use of spoken sound is highly intentional, linking speech to technology, authority, and modernity.
- - - - (1:12:37)
        
        Sims and Mary face the unimaginable tragedy of loosing their young daughter in a traffic accident. Her death marks a turning point in the film. Sims, who is completely distraught and unable to work, quits his job. Despite his initial grand ambitions (we can infer that this might have been to work in a lucrative advertising position) he ends up only being able to keep a job as a clown/juggler/advertisement- sandwich-board-carrier. This was a job he had previously scoffed at before life shattered his previously held belief that he was uniquely destined for greatness.
        
        As explained by Professor Varga, this film, created a year before the 1929 Great Depression, shows an interesting depiction of a man's decline from comfort into poverty and desperation. Much like many Americans (and people throughout the world), they experienced massive losses and did so without any substantial social support. When the expenses of living exceed a person's income, they are no longer able to afford the necessary goods and services to maintain a "minimal standard of living" (DeCamp Analytics 2023). At the same time, the elite (who own capital and assets, such as property, stocks and businesses) earn money at a faster rate than the economy's growth. This is compounded by generational wealth - those who already have significant capital will likely continue to gain more over time. They will have a larger share of the country's total income, meaning that they will continue to get richer at a faster rate than those who depend on wages for their income. These are the people who will feel the brunt of economic decline.
        
        Crushed by Personal Tragedy
        
        Sims is clearly positioned as a member of the middle class/working class. He has access to housing, he is employed in an insurance firm and has enough discretionary income to enjoy activities of leisure, such as trips to Coney Island, and later Niagara Falls with his wife, Mary. But he wants more - a bigger house, furnished with the latest amenities. His career is stagnant, although he continually refers to some undefined future of success (continuously repeating "when my ship comes in").
        
        Potential for Success
        
        Johnny sims (Played by James Murray, a previously unknown actor) is the film's protagonist. Sims was born on the 4th of July and grew up being told that he was special, that he had the potential to make something of himself. The film shows sims as a child, being given every opportunity for success: a stable, loving home in an upper middle class neighbourhood and access to good education and plenty of extracurriculars. This likely contributed to his naive optimism that maintained a strong hold on him as he entered adulthood. Sims arrives in New York City with his name plastered on his suitcase (a visual signifier of his perceived individuality) and believes that he has every potential of finding success in a city filled with millions of people searching for the same thing.
        
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