In an enthusiastic article, published in 1948 after seeing Robinson Crusoe in 3-D, S.M. Eisenstein described the nature of the cinematographic system as a progressive separation of the space reserved for the audience, from the space for the representation. He traces this process back to the invention of the proscenium in 16th century Italian theater. The appearance of three-dimensionality in the cinema is connected, in his opinion, to a tendency that has never completely disappeared from the cinematic experience, but that has simply adapted to the expressive conditions of two-dimensionality. Eisenstein underscores that three-dimensional cinema offers a technical solution to a recurrent problem in the history of theater: that of the link between the stage and the audience.


Philippe-Alain Michaud, in «1895», Oct. 1997