Cinema has fully integrated into our daily lives, especially now with streaming services. We watch it not only on TV but also on computers and even on mobile phones. It's part of our everyday life, yet, have we ever wondered why it's called "cinema"? Let's quickly delve into the origin and meaning of this very famous word.
The origin of the word 'cinema'
Since ancient times, cultures such as the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman were already seeking ways to represent moving images, and it was thought that the best option was through many successive drawings. Later, in the 19th century and with the invention of photography, the idea of creating movement with sequential images (frames) emerged. This led to the invention of the first cinematograph by the Lumière brothers, and with it, cinematography was born.
The word "cinematography," or its abbreviated form "cinema," is a relatively modern term that originated with the birth of this form of art at the end of the 19th century. It derives from two Greek terms: κινέ or "kiné" (which translates as "movement") and γραφóς or "grafos" (which means "image"). In this way, the term sought to capture the essence of cinema as "image in motion."
Initially, the projected films were short, did not have actors, were carried out in real settings and environments, and the camera recorded from a single fixed position. But this so-called "demonstration cinema" of the Lumière brothers soon gave way, especially thanks to the contribution of Alice Guy, to the "fiction narrative cinema" that tells stories, which later included synchronized sound, and has evolved into the cinema we know today as the seventh art.
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