Judge — August 14, 1915 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Director" (Judge, August 14, 1915) This cartoon satirizes film director James Montgomery Flagg through visual pun. On the left, a cherub (Cupid) operates a movie camera on a tripod, aiming at a couple on the right—a man and woman in romantic embrace. The title "The Director" plays on the double meaning: Flagg was an actual film director, but the joke suggests that *Cupid* (the mythological "director" of love and romance) is the true director of romantic scenes. The satire likely mocks either Flagg's directorial style or the artificial, staged nature of romantic scenes in early cinema. The composition humorously positions divine intervention as literally "directing" human romance, reducing genuine emotion to mere theatrical performance. This reflects early 20th-century skepticism about cinema's authenticity.