Focusing on an overlooked detail or a curious oddity from cinema history can be a productive way to look anew at films that have been studied to the point of exhaustion. This video essay is an excellent example of that approach. It explores the use of aquariums in some of the earliest films ever made.

Georges Méliès’ use of aquariums is well known. He made six short films that are set, either wholly or partly, underwater. Yet the aquariums themselves have rarely been the subject of close study. Alex Zivkovic corrects that oversight in his video essay, published by [in]Transition. He offers a rich overview of the visual attraction of fish for early filmmakers. “Attraction” may be the wrong word, as the essay argues that Méliès used fish as visual “distractions” in his trick films. Zivkovic’s richly illustrated history reaches far beyond the cinema. Alongside films, he draws on historical newspaper articles, praxinoscope images, contemporary YouTube videos, and video art. Together, they demonstrate the enduring fascination of watching fish in a tank.

That fascination carries over from Méliès’ fantasy films to the documentaries of Jean Painlevé. In turn, Painlevé inspired (surrealist) filmmakers such as Man Ray and Jean Epstein. Zivkovic traces this genealogy of aquarium films with clarity. He shows how the drifting movements of fish add a sense of wonder to many different kinds of films. In keeping with the silent films he discusses, he avoids voice-over narration. Instead, his elegant and sparingly used on-screen captions recall the intertitles of silent cinema. They communicate his ideas concisely and with precision. The result is a video essay that rekindles the wonder of these early films by showing how their decidedly low-tech effects harness the unpredictable agency of underwater creatures.