Watchmakers, Automata and the Cinema

Marcin Giżycki

Abstract

The history of the cinema and watchmaking are strongly related. Without the Maltese cross, the mechanism used in watches since the 18^th century, there would be no film projectors. Perhaps that is why in the cinema almost from its inception, various automata (plural of “automaton”), that is anthropomorphic machines or artificial people appear. The peak of popularity of these devices was in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, when their construction lay largely in the hands of watchmakers. Giży­cki discusses the role played by the 18^th and 19^th century automata in a few selected films, such as Hugo (2011) by Martin Scorsese, Fellini’s Casanova (Il Casanova di Federico Fellini, 1976) by Federico Fellini and The Best Offer (La migliore offerta, 2013) by Giuseppe Tornatore. Stories by Stanislaw Lem, Walerian Borowczyk and Bruno Schulz are also mentioned. In conclusion, the author states that the perfect automaton is always just a being that is unattainable, an illusion, a vanishing point, an unfulfilled desire of its creator-demiurge.