The incandescent light bulb is gradually being banned across Europe and being replaced with energy-efficient alternatives. The traditional lightbulb has been dealt a mortal blow and will soon die. The demise of the traditional lightbulb has, however, encountered a surprising amount of resistence. Newspaper letters pages have been filled with arguments in the incandescent light bulb's defense and complaints about the deficiencies of their energy-efficient replacements. The incandescent bulb is, I would argue, a thing of simplicity and beauty. Switching on a lightbulb makes us visualise the electrical energy that flows around our homes. The film camera has long been atttracted to the lightbulb that symbolises the electrical dreams of modernity. This still from Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage (1936) is one of many in a film which starts with a power cut caused by a saboteur.
For the film look here: http://www.archive.org/details/Sabotage1936
--Karolina Kendall-Bush
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