Introduction to Film Theory Cinematic Realism vs. Montage Editing

Soviet Montage Cinema (1910s-20s) LEV KULESHOV ( )  1924: The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks  From “filmed plays” to an “assemblage of images”  Kuleshov effect: montage editing  Meaning of a particular shot determined by its relation to adjacent shots  Viewer sees A then B, thinks C

Soviet Montage Cinema (1910s-20s) LEV KULESHOV ( )  Experiment: shots of woman in coffin, bowl of soup, and a child—inserted between same shot of a man  Audience will bring their experiences to a film to try to make sense out of apparently unrelated images  Audience does not visualize “C” in his/ her mind—assumes that the actor is actually conveying that emotion

Soviet Montage Cinema (1910s-20s) SERGEI EISENSTEIN ( )  Viewed montage as the basis of cinema  Juxtaposition of contrasting elements  Constructivist emphasis upon mechanistic assemblage  Montage of attractions  “Objects in collision, producing an explosion that would arouse the viewer”  Pavlovian theory: Controlled orchestration to mold and manipulate the audience

Soviet Montage Cinema (1910s-20s) EISENSTEIN FILM THEORY  Rooted in Marxist concept of dialectic materialism--point and counterpoint  Cognitive model of artistic creation  Dominant organizing principle  Four major types of montage  MetricDifferent shot lengths  RhythmicDifferent pace  TonalAtmosphere  IntellectualSymbolic meaning

Soviet Montage Cinema (1910s-20s) Battleship Potemkin (Odessa Steps)(Odessa Steps) Allusions: Untouchables Naked GunUntouchablesNaked Gun

Two Approaches to Filmmaking MONTAGE  Eisenstein  Hollywood CINEMATIC REALISM  Bazin  Mise en scene, long takes  Kieslowski

Two Approaches to Filmmaking MONTAGE  One interpretation (no ambiguity)  Editor (director) manipulates meaning  Not “realistic”  Shot-reverse shots that violate 180 rule

Two Approaches to Filmmaking MONTAGE  One interpretation (no ambiguity)  Editor (director) manipulates meaning  Not “realistic”

Two Approaches to Filmmaking MONTAGE  One interpretation (no ambiguity)  Editor (director) manipulates meaning  Not “realistic”

Montage Manipulates! 1.Evokes emotional/visceral reaction 2.Little time to think about what you see 3.Editor controls mood, pace, tone

Two Approaches to Filmmaking CINEMATIC REALISM (Mise en scene)  Long takes  Capture “reality” as it is  Deep focus, depth of field  Less directorial control of what the viewer should focus upon  Ambiguity  More “real”

Two Approaches to Filmmaking Mise en scene “Everything that goes into the composition of the shot, including the composition itself: framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design and general visual environment.” Robert Kolker, Film Form and Culture

Two Approaches to Filmmaking CINEMATIC REALISM  Emphasis on the power of the pure image  Mise en scene, not montage  Viewer must think about what he /she is seeing  Required to look deep into the image  Experiential

Two Approaches to Filmmaking CINEMATIC REALISM  More metaphorical  Often more romantic, spiritual, and philosophical subjects  “Experience the rain, be one with the mud”

Siefried Kracauer ( )  Critic of “modernity” (Frankfurt School)  Human condition characterized by alienation  Mass culture/society manipulates individuals  Materialistic values have replaced religion, metaphysical, romantic convictions, resulting in disenchantment  People live distracted lives  Film as a “redemptive” experience that can show man damaged condition of modernity and help him transcend materialism

Siefried Kracauer ( )  Foreshadowed and predicted dehumanizing power of mass media  “Mass ornaments”--film, military parades and sporting events  “Real” world of the individual desubstantiated by spectacle and empty rituals  Film must “reengage” individual with nature and the Kantian real world

Andre Bazin ( )  Shared Kracauer’s view of modernity  Also saw film as redemptive  Kracauer: German classical philosophy  Bazin: Catholicism, Bergson, Sartre, French  Phenomenological influence  Bergson: Flux and flow of existence  Modern life and ideologies obscure the “base of life”

Andre Bazin ( ) PURPOSE OF FILM  Christian view of man as fallen  Seeking redemption and atonement  The role of cinema is to help man in his search for truth and understanding in an ambiguous and uncertain world  Man can transcend alienation and modernity  Film can be a religious experience  “Love” and “state of grace”

Andre Bazin ( )  Film image “embalms” time & wrenches phenomena from the flux of life  Best films should combine  Symbolic power of cinematic imagery  Empirical density of cinematic realism

Andre Bazin ( )  The spirit behind the “real” object  The “long hard gaze”  Disliked overly expressive, overly ornamental, or overuse of montage  (More like Kieslowski than Hollywood)  “Divining the real”

Andre Bazin ( )  Bergson’s concept of “creative evolution”  Evolution of the “vital spirit” in man  Close experiential scrutiny reveals deep structures/meanings behind phenomena  Under scrutiny of inquiry [artistic analysis] these deep structures are brought into the light  Cinema and photography are media that an artist can utilize to review the deeper meanings behind the phenomena of existence

Andre Bazin ( )  Liked films that focused on everyday psychological experience  Italian Neorealism (The Bicylce Thief)  French New Wave (Breathless)  Long takes of surrounding environment  Impact of environment on people  Disliked modernist, expressionistic films  Disliked films that imposed a political ideology on the viewer  Liked ambiguity, unresolved plots

T. S. Eliot OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE (1919) “The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an 'objective correlative'; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked."

Milan Kundera “Metaphor is a means of grasping, through instantaneous revelation, the ungraspable essence of things.”

Krzysztof Kieslowski “ In Blue Kieslowski is attempting to render complex and difficult emotional states and situations from within the confines of the cinematic language he has at his disposal. Indeed, I would certainly contend that he stretches that language as far as possible so as to open the ground of new cinematic vistas (the sugar cube receding in the coffee, the mysterious flautist). “

Krzysztof Kieslowski “There are details in Blue that seem to convey a proximity to hell, despair, dread and damnation. What Kieslowski is trying to do is to find a cinematic language that can express Julie’s dilemmas (in much the same way that Shakespeare, for example, stretched the written and spoken word to express the dilemmas and passions of his characters).” Richard Rushton, “Reading Three Colours: Blue,” Senses of Cinema

Cinematic Realism 1.Emphasis on mise en scene (the contextual environment) 2.Audience must think and participate 3.Exploits the metaphorical power of imagery 4.Spiritual/philosophical experience rather than ideological manipulation 5.Long takes rather than the “slicing and dicing” of reality 6.The flux and flow of time 7.Ambiguity

Cinematic Realism 1.Emphasis on mise en scene (the contextual environment) 2.Audience must think and participate 3.Exploits the metaphorical power of imagery 4.Spiritual/philosophical experience rather than ideological manipulation 5.Long takes rather than the “slicing and dicing” of reality 6.The flux and flow of time 7.Ambiguity (A MATTER OF DEGREE)

Contemporary Examples Mike Leigh, UK

Contemporary Examples Andrei Tarkovsky, Russia

Contemporary Examples Andrei Tarkovsky, Russia

Contemporary Examples Todd Solondz, US

Contemporary Examples Roy Andersson, Sweden

Contemporary Examples Roy Andersson, Sweden

Contemporary Examples Roy Andersson, Sweden