The Sensationalization of Ciné-feuilleton

Both Phillipe Soupault and Jean Epstein recalled the thrill of seeing The Exploits of Elaine inParis in 1915. Soupault wrote in 1923, "We dashed into the movie house and realized that all was changed. Pearl White's smile appeared on the sceen, that almost ferocious smie announcing the upheavals of the new world. We finally understood that the cinema was not just a mechanical toy, but the terrible and magnificent flag of life. Wide eyed, we [saw] crimes, departures. phenomena, nothing else than the poetry of our age".