Celluloid Babel

Pursuing a Universal Language in Cinema

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by Ori Levin

Type

Essays

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

globalization, spoken language, theory

Publishing date

2025 (November 01, 2025)

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Collection

SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 256 pages
6 ¼ x 9 ½ inches (16 x 24 cm)

ISBN

979-8-8558-0442-3

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Book Presentation:
Traces the intellectual history of cinema's aspiration to create a universal language, examining how this vision has been articulated in both writings and films.

Celluloid Babel offers a transnational intellectual history of cinema's quest for universal language, unfolding through both writings and films. Today, algorithms and data-collection systems play a significant role in predicting the viewer's preferences and suggesting content specifically tailored to their particular interests. However, this promise of on-demand personalized media is markedly different from the promise outlined in cinema's initial promotional discourse, which celebrated the medium’s ability to appeal to a universal audience. Instead of targeting fragmented audiences, cinema was supposed to captivate and engage everyone all at once, regardless of social station, educational level, or national affiliation. The aspiration for a universal language left an indelible mark on film history, yet despite its significance, the history and theory behind it remain largely unexplored. Celluloid Babel illuminates a pivotal chapter in early film theory and establishes it as the inaugural paradigm of thought on cinema’s nature. By exploring this pursuit, the book reveals the forgotten utopian potential of mass media and uncovers complex correlations among political ideals, aesthetic preferences, material conditions, modes of spectatorship, and governance.

About the Author:
Both a film scholar and a video artist, Ori Levin is Assistant Professor in the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University. Her work focuses on early film and its relation to digital media, slapstick, and video art.

Press Reviews:
"Alert to both the ideas and the filmmaking it treats, this is a highly original work that addresses a key concept in the history of silent film, its claim to create new universal language. The vitality and wit of the author's voice is refreshing as well--although clearly a scholarly work, it is never dry or pedantic." -- Tom Gunning, University of Chicago

See the publisher website: State University of New York Press