The Current State of Cinema

I said earlier that there are three thousand languages spoken today and that in Europe alone there are one hundred and twenty. But a simple image in cinema, without the need for any words, can reveal or describe hunger or wealth, misery and opulence, humility and envy, jealousy, cowardice or courage.

And while it's not difficult for cinema to convey states of mind, on a concrete level, in science, cinema plays a fundamental role.

The ‘microscope of time’ was the name given to a machine capable of filming 3000 images per second - that is, analysing movement at a rate of 3000,000 frames per second (what happens in one second can be seen in a projection lasting two minutes and nine seconds).

Cinema, therefore, is not just a wonderful spectacle, entertainment or party; it is also an excellent means of collaborating with science. Nothing escapes it: the life and culture of distant countries, physical phenomena of all kinds.

The great expeditions on Earth are accompanied by an operator, and even on the great expeditions in space, men know how to work a film camera. A European can see how a lion hunt is done, or an Asian can watch whale fishing in the Azores.

Cinema has entered the study of biology, mechanics, astronomy, ballistics and the underwater world. It made it possible to break down the movements of a bird's wings, the shapes of a drop of water as it falls, how an electric light bulb breaks when it smashes. Adapted to the microscope, the film camera records the life of cells, from their creation to their multiplication or destruction.

Thanks to the cinema, it was possible to study the flight of different insects, particularly the dragonfly, in order to invent the helicopter. The cinema was also the first time that horse racing judges or football referees were examined...

The cinema camera, adapted to radioscopy, allows studies of respiratory movements, heartbeats, digestive phenomena, with an advantage over still photography (which records a single moment of the problem to be studied).

Television, for its part, has gone even further, because it brings culture, festivities, entertainment, shows and the study of different sciences and experiments into people's homes. Television, for its part, has gone even further, because it brings culture, festivities, entertainment, shows and the study of different sciences and experiences into everyone's homes. Television has become a service and must use videotape or film, whichever is more practical and economical in each case.