''Inspiration'' is a 1915 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

by George Foster Platt and written by Virginia Tyler Hudson and starring Audrey Munson, an artist's model known at the time for posing for several statues in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and the 1915 San Francisco

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely s ...

. It is believed to be one of the first non-

pornographic Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

American films to feature full nudity, with Munson frequently appearing naked as a sculptor's model. On its reissue in 1918, the film was renamed as ''The Perfect Model''.

Plot

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

searches for the perfect

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

to inspire his work. He finally finds his ideal subject: a beautiful but poverty-stricken young woman. When she wanders off, he visits all the famous statues in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

hoping to find her again.

Cast

* Audrey Munson as The Model * Thomas A. Curran as The Artist * George Marlo as The Artist's Friend * Bert Delaney as The Artist's Friend * Carey L. Hastings * Ethyle Cooke * Louise Emerald Bates

Release

For ''Inspiration'', Thanhouser hired a lookalike named Jane Thomas to do Munson's acting scenes, while Munson did the scenes where she posed nude. The film was released on November 18, 1915. Thanhouser's publicity department issued a press statement titled "Inspiration, a Study in Thanhouser Ideals", an interview some newspapers captioned in terms that implied that the studio advocated nudity in motion pictures. Producer

Edwin Thanhouser Edwin Thanhouser (November 11, 1865 – March 21, 1956) was an American actor, businessman, and film producer. He was most notable as a founder of the Thanhouser Company, which was one of the first motion picture studios. His wife Gertrude Th ...

wrote a letter to the editor of '' The Morning Telegraph'' to correct that impression: "I wish to state that our five-reel Mutual Masterpiece ''Inspiration'' was viewed and passed on by the National Board of Censorship without a single alteration." Issuing a pass on ''Inspiration'' resulted in changes to the Board. Although the Board had passed the film without any recommended cuts, members criticized the decision, charging the Board with laxness in that ''Inspiration'' had been approved too readily. At a meeting on February 24, 1916, the Board announced that, in the future, films with nudity would "receive the most critical consideration" and passed only if the nudity was "an essential element of a drama the nature of which warrants such presentation."

Reception

"''Inspiration'' presents a decided novelty, for it is the first moving picture in which the nude figure of a woman has been used for artistic reasons only," wrote ''The Morning Telegraph'', which reported Munson's credentials as one of the most famous artist's models in the United States. The newspaper's reviewer then addressed more directly the controversial elements of the film: Likewise, a reviewer for ''

The Moving Picture World The ''Moving Picture World'' was an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, from 1907 to 1927. An industry powerhouse at its height, ''Moving Picture World'' frequently reiterated its independence from the film studios. ...

'' regarded the story as "slight and conventional", while another credited the film for "presenting a conventional but reasonably diverting story. … Moreover, it may be noted in favor of ''Inspiration'' that it possesses an artistic, and at times, even an educational value. Good taste has been displayed in the handling of scenes that might easily become coarse." Critics praised the third reel of the film, which details the difficult process of molding Munson's body in plaster for the casting of a sculpture. "At last true art has stepped into the motion field and it is all due to Audrey Munson, the Panama-Pacific model who has gained much fame about of late owing to her shapely figure," wrote '' Variety''. The New York-based trade paper then provided its overall assessment of the film's content:

Preservation

No copies of ''Inspiration'' are listed in any film archives,Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: ''Inspriation''
/ref> suggesting that it is a

lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0005551
''Inspiration''
at Silent Era 1915 films 1915 drama films 1915 lost films 1910s American films American black-and-white films American silent feature films Films about the visual arts Films directed by George Foster Platt Films set in New York City Lost American drama films Silent American drama films Thanhouser Company films Lost silent American films