The Imaginary Perceived as Real

Gunning aims to analyze the myth of late nineteenth century spectators' confusion of reality during the first projections of films, such as at the Grand Cafe's Salon Indien, by tracing the early history of "the cinema of attractions". This early cinema was utilized as a part of magic theatre shows, for example at London's Egyptian Hall, and its audiences were typically "sophisticated urban pleasure-seekers."

The author claims that the "illusionistic arts of the nineteenth century cannily exploited their unbelievable nature, keeping a conscious focus on the fact that they were only illusions". He then goes to further prove this statement by emphasizing how these early films were projected: a still photograph was shown until it was suddenly "brought to life" through the animation of the scene through film. Thus, the audience's sense of shock came more from the visual transformation occurring before their eyes than the belief that the illusion created was real.

Gunning dubs the cinema that develops before the dominance of the narrative, the "cinema of attractions," as it serves to engage the viewer directly and exaggerates this confrontation through a kind of assault of the senses, emphasizing the act of looking. "It is a cinema of instants, rather than developing situations."