Film History as Description and Explanation

Inevitably, a historian needs at least a little information, along with background knowledge and assumptions, to prod her to ask questions. But the historian does not necessarily sift through mountains of facts and then judiciously ask a question. A historian may begin with a question, and sometimes that question might be better described as a hunch or an intuition or even just an itch.

For example, one young historian saw a few of the “anarchic” American comedies of the 1930s and noticed that their vulgar gags and absurd situations were very different from the more sophisticated comedy of the period. Suspecting that stage comedy might have been a source, he framed a question: “Might vaudeville and its performance style have shaped these particular comedies of the early 1930s?” He began to gather information, examining films, reading coverage of the comedians in the Hollywood trade press, and studying shifts in American taste in humor. The process of research led him to refine his question and to mount a detailed account of how comedians introduced a vaudeville aesthetic into sound films but then muted it in accord with Hollywood’s standards of taste. 1

Nonhistorians often visualize the historical researcher as a cousin to Indiana Jones, braving library stacks and crawling through attics in quest of the treasure-lode of documents that overturn popular opinion. Certainly new documentation has a key role to play in historical research. One scholar gained entry to the long-inaccessible files of Hollywood’s self-censorship agency, the Hays Office, and she was able to put forth a new account of the office’s procedures and functions. 2 Similarly, the increasing availability of films from cinema’s earliest era has created an entire subfield of cinema history. 3

Still, many research programs rely more on asking new questions than on unearthing new data. Sometimes the research question seems to have been answered by previous historians, but another researcher comes along and suggests a more complete or complex answer. For example, no historian disputes the fact that Warner Bros. was quick to invest in talking pictures in the mid-1920s. For a long time most historians believed that Warners took this risky step because it was on the verge of bankruptcy and was desperate to save itself. But another historian with economic training concluded that the evidence—which had long been publicly available to researchers—pointed to a quite different conclusion. Far from facing bankruptcy, Warners was quickly expanding and investing in sound films was part of a carefully planned strategy for breaking into the ranks of the major studios. 4

Our examples all indicate that the historian’s research program aims to do at least two things. First, the historian tries to describe a process or state of affairs. She asks What and who and where and when. What is this film, and who made it, and where and when? In what ways does this director’s work differ from that of others? What was the vaudeville comedic style? What evidence is there that a studio was nearly bankrupt? Who is the actor in this shot? Who was responsible for scripts at this company? Where was this film shown, and who might have seen it? Here the historian’s problem is largely one of finding information that will answer such questions.

Accurate description is indispensable for all historical research. Scholars have spent countless hours identifying films, collating versions, compiling filmographies, establishing timelines, and creating reference works that supply names, dates, and the like. The more sophisticated and long-lived a historical discipline is, the richer and more complete its battery of descriptive reference material will be.

Second, the historian tries to explain a process or state of affairs. He asks, How does this work? and Why did this happen? How did this company assign tasks, lay out responsibilities, carry a project to completion? How did this director’s work influence other films from the company? Why did Warners pursue talkies when larger companies were reluctant to do so? Why did some sound comedians adopt the vaudeville comedic style while others did not?

The film historian, like a historian of art or politics, proposes an explanatory argument. Having asked how or why, she puts forward an answer, based on an examination of evidence in light of assumptions and background knowledge. In reading historical writings, we need to recognize that the essay or book is not just a mass of facts but an argument. The historian’s argument consists of evidence marshalled to create a plausible explanation for an event or state of affairs. That is, the argument aims to answer some historical question.

Evidence

Most arguments about film history rely on evidence. Evidence consists of information that gives grounds for believing that the argument is sound. Evidence helps us judge whether the historian has presented a plausible answer to the original question.

Film historians work with evidence of many sorts. For many historians, copies of the films they study are central pieces of evidence. But this data set is partial. Although the cinema is a relatively young medium, invented only a little over a century ago, many films have already been lost or destroyed.

For decades, movies were seen as products with temporary commercial value, and companies did little to ensure their preservation. Even when film archives began to be founded in the 1930s, they faced the daunting task of collecting and sheltering the thousands of films that had already been made. Archivists had to choose what they could afford to retain. Moreover, the nitrate film stock, upon which most films up to the early 1950s were shot and printed, was highly flammable and deteriorated over time. Deliberate destruction of films, warehouse fires, and the gradual decomposition of nitrate stored in bad conditions have led to the loss of many titles.

According to rough estimates, only about 20 percent of silent films are known to survive. Many of these are still sitting in vaults, unidentified or unpreserved due to lack of funds.

More recent films may be inaccessible to the researcher as well. Films made in some small countries, particularly in Third World nations, were not made in many copies and did not circulate widely. Small archives may not have the facilities to preserve films or show them to researchers. In some cases, political regimes may choose to suppress certain films and promote others. Finding reliable copies to study is a major challenge for the historian whose questions center on the films.

Historians also rely on print sources. These may be published sources, such as books, magazines, trade journals, and newspapers, or unpublished ones, like memoirs, letters, notes, production files, scripts, and court testimony. Historians of film technology scrutinize cameras, sound recorders, and other equipment. A film studio or an important location might also serve as a source of evidence.

Usually historians must verify their evidence. Often this depends on using the sort of descriptive research we have already mentioned, such as combing primary documents, checking filmographies and reference works, and the like. The problem of verification is particularly acute with film prints. Films have always circulated in differing versions. In the 1920s, Hollywood films were shot in two versions, one for the United States and one for export. These could differ considerably in length, content, and even visual style. To this day, many Hollywood films are released in Europe in more erotic or violent versions than are screened in the United States. In addition, many old films have deteriorated and been subject to cutting and revision. Even modern restorations do not always reproduce the original release version.

Often, then, the historian doesn’t know whether the print she is seeing represents anything like an original, if indeed there can be said to be a single original version. Historians try to be aware of the differences among the versions of the films they are studying. The fact that there are different versions can itself be a source of questions.

Historians generally distinguish between primary and secondary sources. As applied to film, primary usually refers to sources the people directly involved in whatever is being studied. For example, if you were studying Japanese cinema of the 1920s, the surviving films, interviews with filmmakers or audience members, and contemporary trade journals would count as primary material. Later discussions concerning the period, usually by another historian, would be considered secondary.

Often, though, one scholar’s secondary source is another’s primary source, because the researchers are asking different questions. A critic’s 1966 essay about a 1925 film would be a secondary source if your question centered on the 1925 film. If, however, you were writing a history of film criticism during the 1960s, the critic’s essay would be a primary source.