Oratio Obliqua

Walter Bayes 1869 - 1956

Summary

Painted during the First World War, it shows a music hall interior converted to a cinema and an everyday scene of a cinema audience where the viewer is positioned to the far side of the theatre. Musicians are visible in the pit to the left beneath the film screen onto which a projector throws an image of a figure dressing. An usherette stands by the front row of stalls with a tray of ices. The figures seated in the front row are depicted in some detail. There are boxes in the background with more anonymous seated figures. The passage of projected light illuminates the architecture of the theatre, exposing decorative gold gilt walls with luxurious red curtains. The title is a term in Latin grammar meaning 'indirect speech'. It underlines the lack of direct communication between actors and the audience in a cinema - a point that is depicted visually by the oblique angle of the screen image. The term can also be translated as 'reported speech' suggesting that the speech in a cinema was for the first time reported rather than delivered directly by an actor.

Display Label

Oratio Obliqua 1918 Oratio Obliqua is a term used in Latin grammar, meaning reported speech. In 1918, in the age of the silent film, the actors’ words would be written, not spoken.