Animals in Film

by Jonathan Burt

From Salvador Dalí to Walt Disney, animals have been a constant yet little-considered presence in film. Indeed, it may come as a surprise to learn that animals were a central inspiration to the development of moving pictures themselves.

In Animals in Film , Jonathan Burt points out that the mobility of animals presented technical and conceptual challenges to early film-makers, the solutions of which were an important factor in advancing photographic technology, accelerating the speed of both film and camera. The early filming of animals also marked one of the most significant and far-reaching changes in the history of animal representation, and has largely determined the way animals have been visualized in the twentieth century.

Burt looks at the extraordinary relation-ship between animals, cinema and photography (including the pioneering work of Eadweard Muybridge and Jules-Etienne Marey) and the technological developments and challenges posed by the animal as a specific kind of moving object. Animals in Film is a shrewd account of the politics of animals in cinema, of how movies and video have developed as weapons for animal rights activists, and of the roles that animals have played in film, from the avant-garde to Hollywood.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2004

Reviews

[Margaryta]

I'm a bit puzzled by the structure of this book, which often veered more into close readings and case studies (the best of which revolved around Blade Runner) without the kind of clear, argumentative framework that I tend to prefer in these kinds of academic reads. The writing style is otherwise accessible and engaging and it's always easy to skim or even skip passages if you're not interested in reading about a specific film.