CIN201Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Cinematic Techniques, Medium Specificity, Continuity Editing
TUTORIAL NOTES FOR I-10 (NOV. 17 & 18, 2016)
1) Relationship of French Avant-Garde to Theory
2) Discussion of French Film Theory
3) Analysis of representative films
1) Ian Christie:
pudovkin and eisenstein were opposed but riding the same train
-french theorists were more eclectic
-what linked them all together was that they were outside the mainsream and opposed to it
-pursuit of what distinguishes cinema from other arts, tied to medium specificity
-potential of cinema as enhancing perception (quote) - takes us back to belasz
-heterogeneous, different objectives, but commonalities: cinema as enhanced eye, way to see the
world better
“What all the new post-war generation of filmmakers had in common was an impatience with
the existing conventions of French mainstream narrative.” (p. 60)
--Christie quotes L’Herbier: “None of us … had the same aesthetic outlook. But we had a
common interest, which was the investigation of the famous “cinematic specificity.”
--Christie: “The kaleidoscopic editing and “simultaneism” of La Glace a trois faces and the
dreamlike slow-motion of Usher can be seen as two sides of this avant-garde’s belief in the
power of cinema to create a kind of modern uncanny, which they termed photogenie. Whether it
was achieved by elaborate décor and stylized acting, or by ostentatious filmic devices, such as
swirling camera, rapid editing, slow motion or extreme close-ups, these were seen as merely
means to renew perception and enable cinema to penetrate the “mystery of things”.” (p. 61)
2) Epstein, “On Certain Characteristics of Photogenie”
--cinema should limit itself only to that which is “cinematic,” or “the purest expression of
cinema”
--photogenic: “any aspect whose moral character is enhanced by filmic reproduction” (p. 294)
--Epstein specifies that cinema will enhance the “moral” dimension of the “mobile aspects” of
the world
--“photogenic mobility is mobility in this space-time system, a mobility in both space and time.”
--moreover, film can “attribute a semblance of life to the objects it defines” (p. 295) – it endows
objects with personality
--“only the mobile and personal aspects of things, beings, and souls may be photogenic, that is,
may acquire a higher moral value through filmic reproduction.”
--“[in cinema] a new reality is revealed, a reality for a special occasion, which is untrue to
everyday reality just as everyday reality is untrue to the heightened awareness of poetry.” (p.
296)
Dulac, “The Essence of the Cinema: The Visual Idea”
--note Dulac’s initial emphasis on the “moral essence of the cinematic art”
--while initially cinema was regarded as a recording device (and therefore an extension of
scientific inquiry), Dulac makes a case for it as art; more specifically, “the art of movement, as
contained in cinema, is a unique form of expression”
--Dulac argues for cinema’s uniqueness, its separateness from other arts (p. 37): “in its
techniques, nothing links it to the pre-existing arts”
--because of cinema’s propensity for movement, it was seen as a possible extension of other
movement-based artforms
--but to fully realize cinema’s artistic potential, to have cinema capture “dynamic expression in
movement” (p. 38), it must not be tethered to other artforms
--to the extent that it has been thus far, it has seen its potential stifled
--cinema can allow us to see (in their full movement) what the eye cannot see unaided (note
affinities with Balazs’s argument)
--moreover, cinema can guide us to an inner truth through “concentrated impressions”
--“should not cinema, which is an art of vision, as music is an art of hearing, on the contrary lead
us toward the visual idea composed of movement and life, toward the conception of an art of the
eye, made of a perceptual inspiration evolving in its continuity and reaching, just as music does,
our thoughts and feelings?” (p. 41)
--“as in every art it is not the external fact which is really interesting, it is the emanation from
within, a certain movement of things and people, viewed through the state of the soul. Is that not
the essence of the seventh art?” (pp. 41-42)
--the goal of a pure cinema seeks to move beyond cinema to express cinema’s essence, which
appears to be expression of the soul through the “visual idea,” predicated on capturing
impressions, conveyed through movement
Dulac, “From ‘Visual and Anti-Visual Films’ “
--once again we see the emphasis on the visual {“optical harmonies”) and movement
--“cinema, by decomposing movement, makes us see, analytically, [and understand the]
psychology of movement” (p. 32)
--dramatic action should develop by “means of suggestiveness of expression” (p. 33)
--the suggestability of the image should be paramount, and viewers should be receiving
impressions, which may contain within themselves multiple thoughts
Impressionism
–Filmmakers moved between movements
–This grouping of films includes a diverse number of works, and the changes that
Impressionist films underwent during the 1920s are substantial.
–Impressionist films owe little to Impressionist painting, aside from the lyrical quality of the
imagery; instead, Impressionist films emphasise subjectivity by manipulating time and
depicting interiority.
–emphasis on flashbacks, fantasies, daydreams, and mental states in general.
Document Summary
Tutorial notes for i-10 (nov. 17 & 18, 2016) Ian christie: pudovkin and eisenstein were opposed but riding the same train. What linked them all together was that they were outside the mainsream and opposed to it. Pursuit of what distinguishes cinema from other arts, tied to medium specificity. Potential of cinema as enhancing perception (quote) - takes us back to belasz. Heterogeneous, different objectives, but commonalities: cinema as enhanced eye, way to see the world better. What all the new post-war generation of filmmakers had in common was an impatience with the existing conventions of french mainstream narrative. (p. 60) -christie quotes l"herbier: none of us had the same aesthetic outlook. But we had a common interest, which was the investigation of the famous cinematic specificity. -cinema should limit itself only to that which is cinematic, or the purest expression of cinema . -photogenic: any aspect whose moral character is enhanced by filmic reproduction (p. 294)
