At the end of his life, Leo Tolstoy saw a moving picture show, and wrote this about the new medium:



“It
is a direct attack on the old methods of literary art. We writers shall
have to adapt ourselves to the shadowy screen and to the cold machine.
A new form of writing will be necessary. I have thought of that and I
can feel what is coming. But I rather like it. This swift change of
scene, this blending of emotion and experience — it is much better than
the heavy, long-drawn-out kind of writing to which we are accustomed.
It is closer to life. In life, too, changes and transitions flash by
before our eyes, and emotions of the soul are like a hurricane. The
camera has divined the mystery of motion. And that is greatness.”