Czech Film Theory Anthology Reveals Overlooked Avant-Garde Contributions

A dual-language anthology titled 'Cinema All The Time' makes Czech film theory accessible internationally for the first time. Edited by Jaroslav Anděl and Petr Szczepaník, the collection spans from 1908 to 1939 in its English version, translated by Kevin B. Johnson. Published in 2008 by Prague's National Film Archive, the work includes over forty texts in the Czech edition, covering 1904 to 1950. Previously obscure writings by pivotal figures like Václav Tille, Karel Čapek, and Karel Teige are presented. The volume features Jan Evangelista Purkyně's 1819 neurophysiological research on vision as a theoretical precursor. Seven thematic sections organize manifestos on photogénie, poetist machine aesthetics, and structuralist analyses from the Prague linguistic circle. International influences from French theorists Jean Epstein and Louis Delluc are traced. The anthology positions Czech avant-garde groups, particularly Devětsil, as central to defining cinema as the 'machine art of the electric century.'