Chapter 468: Birth of Sound Film

As time came to 1908, Gao Da also ushered in another piece of good news, and that was the birth of sound film.

Speaking of sound film, one had to mention silent film; the difference between the two was only reflected in sound, and there was no difference in other aspects.

The birth of silent film could be traced back to 1895, when the Frenchman Lumière invented the film, and it quickly spread to various European countries.

The film at that time had no sound at all; people could only watch films through special film players, and whether it was the viewing experience or the spectacular nature of the film itself, it could only be said to be a mess.

The films at that time were generally not long, plus black-and-white images and relatively backward technology, watching them even carried some stuttering.

If it were people from later generations watching such films, it was estimated that they would turn them off after watching for only a few seconds.

But for the people of this era, this was a rare and unique form of entertainment. Before the birth of film, people could not imagine that a series of actions could still be recorded and played for others to see.

At the end of the 19th century, film caused a sensation throughout Europe, and various countries also quickly established film-related companies to start researching various film projectors.

During this period, Spain also established two film companies, and also filmed several historical films with educational significance, telling the story of various Spanish ethnic groups uniting to drive away the infidels and the Spanish people's heroic resistance against the corrupt rule of the Bourbon family.

These stories all adopted a narrative technique of seven parts true and three parts false; ordinary people had no ability to distinguish at all. They would only feel that the story told by the film was completely true, thereby imposing their likes and dislikes on the characters who appeared in the film.

Gao Da had also watched a silent film once, but the experience of watching a silent film was too bad, which also made Gao Da give up the idea of vigorously developing silent film.

But this did not mean that Gao Da completely gave up the film industry. After determining that the value of silent film was not that great, Gao Da immediately increased investment in Spanish film companies, ordering them to research sound film and promote the progress of the film industry in Spain.

The most primitive sound film was not that complicated; the earliest sound film could be traced back to a film played in Paris in 1900.

The sound film researched by Spain was similar to the technology adopted by this film; to put it plainly, it was adding a phonograph on the basis of silent film, playing the sound inside the phonograph while playing the film, achieving the effect of making the film possess sound.

Although such a method was somewhat cumbersome, it was indeed the simplest way to achieve sound film.

After updating the phonograph technology for several generations, the Spanish film company also formally announced the commercialization of sound film and was about to start filming Spain's first sound film.

For sound film, Gao Da's expectation was still relatively large.

The cultural propaganda role that film could play was unparalleled, and in this era, it was also the most effective means of cultural dissemination.

Apart from promoting Spanish culture to the outside world, within Spain, filming related films also helped Spain integrate all ethnic groups in the country.

The sound film technology was in the hands of the Spanish film company, so how to film the film was naturally decided by the Spanish film company.

And these Spanish film companies were all established behind the royal family; in other words, Gao Da wanted to film what type of film, he could film what type of film.

Speaking of filming, the film Gao Da most wanted to film was naturally about Spanish history, focusing on the integration of various Spanish ethnic groups. Fictionalizing the history of all ethnic groups in Spain at present, letting all Spaniards believe that whether it was Spaniards or Catalans, or Basques, Portuguese, or even those assimilated Moroccans, everyone possessed the same ancestor and naturally should belong to the same nation.

Regardless of whether these lies would be exposed in the future, anyway, at this time, with the dissemination of film, a large number of people would believe the statement in the film and recognize the concept of Spain as a unified big nation.

Spain itself was the product of the integration of Castile and Aragon, so it naturally did not possess specificity. This time was the best time to stuff various messy ethnic groups into the big national framework of Spain; if it could be realized, the future Iberian Peninsula would only have Spain as a unified big nation, and others, including Catalans, Portuguese, and Basques, would vanish.

Integrating the nation's ethnic groups into a unified big nation was also conducive to strengthening the stability within Spain and reducing the risk of national division.

In the process of national integration, cultural propaganda was a quite important means, and the role of film was also quite important.

With Gao Da's order, Spain's two film companies immediately started filming films related to Spanish history.

Still the same as the silent films filmed before, all films uniformly adopted the method of seven parts true and three parts false, increasing the credibility of the film, letting more people believe the history told by the film in a subtle way.

This was like the famous Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Records of the Three Kingdoms of later generations; one was a quite famous historical novel, and the other was true history in the true sense.

Because the former was more famous, more people would subtly bring the fictional plot of the novel into true history and believe it deeply.

Although there would be a small number of people who were well-read in true history and clear about the fictional nature of the novel, most people did not understand; when they talked about this period of history, the first thing they thought of was also the plot of the more famous fictional novel.

What Gao Da wanted to do was to use similar means to make fictional history famous within Spain, letting a history that was more favorable to the current Spain replace the original history.

Wanting to do this was still very simple; after all, the reason why people knew Romance of the Three Kingdoms was a fictional novel was because there was the true history Records of the Three Kingdoms, and the films related to history filmed by Spain had no true history to prove them false, so the public would naturally believe the content of the filmed films more.

The history of the last few decades was fine; some people had personally experienced it, so they naturally had a certain judgment ability.

But more distant history was a very blurred past for most people, and even the vast majority of people had no impression at all, and could only understand this period of history through stories passed down by word of mouth plus certain written historical materials.

With the wide dissemination of film within Spain, the stories passed down by word of mouth by the Spanish people would certainly add some plots related to the film.

And written historical materials could be directly modified by the Spanish government, and even history textbooks in schools could be modified, letting the new generation of Spanish children directly learn new history.

In this way, the Spanish government could achieve the complete modification of history related to national integration and promote the great integration of the nation. ===== CHAPTER 469 =====