Cinematic Perception: An Encounter Between Human Metabolic Rhythm and the Moving Image - Text 1
Perception of Movement
Careful observation is enough to reveal that the filmic object is grounded in a plurality of rhythmic sources. Whether they arise from variations in light, from the action itself, or from music, these elements contribute to establishing a cadence specific to the work. While some cinematic rhythms result from deliberate artistic choices, others are more directly linked to human physiology, and more specifically to our visual system. At times, they prove necessary for our understanding of a work and appear to be closely aligned with our internal rhythm.The notion of rhythm as applied to cinema is undoubtedly linked to movement and, by extension, to our capacity to perceive it. Today, perceiving the moving dimen
sion of a film seems self-evident. Yet this issue generated extensive debate when moving images first emerged. The theory of retinal persistence constitutes the first major attempt to elucidate this biological capacity. It attributes to the retina a residual perception of the observed object, capable of causing an impression of fusion between successive images.[1] The origin of this theory remains debated. Some scholars trace it back to the stroboscopic observations of physicist Peter Mark Roget and his 1824 text, “Explanation of an Optical Deception in the Appearance of the Spokes of a Wheel Seen Through Vertical Apertures,”[2] while others attribute it to the oneiric reflections of Roman poet Lucretius.[3] The most plausible source, however, remains the work of the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau (1801–1883), which led to the invention of his optical instrument, the phenakistiscope (its etymology deriving from Greek phenax -akos, “deceptive,” and skopein, “to examine”).[4] Subsequently, other researchers, including William Stern,[5] Karl Marbe[6] and Ernst Dürr[7] also examined this phenomenon, offering various interpretations of the effect attributed to the biological constitution of the eye.
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[1] Jean-Marc Meunier, Elisabetta Zibettin and Isabelle Carchon, Mémoires, représentations et traitements, 3rd ed. (Malakoff: Dunod, 2022), 19.
[2] Peter Mark Roget, “Explanation of an Optical Deception in the Appearance of the Spokes of a Wheel Seen Through Vertical Apertures,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 115 (1825): 131-140.
[3] Charles-Jérémie Hemardinquer, “La persistance des impressions lumineuses sur la rétine et le cinématographe,” La Revue scientifique, tome VII, no. 1 (1907): 463.
[4] Philippe Vaucher, “Les piliers perceptuels du cinéma d’animation” (PhD diss., Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 2022).
[5] William Stern, “Die Wahrnehmung von Bewegungen vermittelst des Auge,” Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane 7 (1894): 321-385.
[6] Karl Marbe, “Die stroboskopischen Erscheinunge,” Philosophische Studien 14 (1898): 376-401.
[7] Ernst Dürr, “Uber die stroboskopischen Erschein,” Philosophische Studien 15 (1900): 501-523.