Cinema is mere gadgetry without narrativity- Hugo Munsterberg

Hugo Münsterberg was born in Danzig, Germany (now Gdansk, Poland) to a merchant father and artist mother. The family had a great love of the arts, and Münsterberg was encouraged to explore music, literature, and art. Hugo Munsterberg wrote The Photoplay: A Psychological Study in 1916, he wrote without precedent, and perhaps for this reason his is not only the first but also the most direct major film theory.

Munsterberg claims that he looked at films only for about ten months prior to writing his book (he had been ashamed to be seen in a movie theater), his visual heritage in cinema was obviously restricted. His role as a self-appointed spokesman for Germany during the first World War made him a target of disdain among many and perhaps explains why his important legacy was dismissed and neglected for many years. As David Hothersall suggested, at the time of Münsterberg's death he was "hated by more Americans than any psychologist before or since." While many psychology history books devote little space to Münsterberg and his influence, his ideas continue to shape and contribute to modern psychology.

Munsterberg argues that technology provided the body of this new phenomenon and society has animated that body, forcing it to play many actual roles. Without technology there would be no moving pictures and without psychosociological pressures, these pictures would sit unprojected in attics and museums.

The history of film, then, shows an ineluctable propulsion from (stage one) the toying with visual gadgetry to (stage two) the serving of important societal functions such as education and information, and finally, through its natural affinity for narrative, to its true domain, (stage three) the mind of man. For him, cinema is indeed mere gadgetry without narrativity.