Jan 10, 2015
Eco-Cinema
Eco-Cinema
There's an 1896 Lumiere Brothers film called Oil Wells of Baku: Close View.
Some scholars say it's the first eco-disaster film ever made:
that it presents to the viewer an image of billowing smoke; indicative of great danger for the climate.
Others say that, if you look closely, you can see a lively young man jauntily walking in front of the oil wells; totally unconcerned by the billowing smoke behind him.
Therefore these oil wells are presented as great spectacles rather than potential dangers.
It is not an eco-disaster film but a celebration of oil.
The lively young man tells us everything.
Body language is everything.
But what if he was just mental?
“Haha, oil!”