X-rays and the Cinema

Virgil Widrich gave a lecture on “Die Röntgenstrahlen und das Kino” (“X-rays and the Cinema”) It was the same year that cinema was invented and x-rays were discovered and from the beginning they had a lot in common: both electrified the public immediately in 1895 and created a media phenomenon and both ran into image problems when they also made it possible to show people without their clothes. Parodies on x-ray films were made as early as 1895 (“Le squelette joyeux” by Auguste and Louis Lumière or „The X-Rays“ in 1897 by G.A. Smith). Being able to look inside the human body without the need to cut it open forever changed our view of what is really inside us.