The cinema as a graphic art : on a theory of representation in the cinema (1959)

THE CINEMA AS A GRAPHIC ART So far we have been speaking of the most primitive forms of pictorial imit ation, based on the mechanical transference of individual compositional schem of given pictorial products to the cinema. The camera-man's independent i vestigations in the direction of establishing his own representational culture beg; not here, not in the studio, but in the sphere of exterior photography. Landscape panorama, the ' paysage ' frame of the old Italian or Fren< films, was the field of the camera-man's first independent investigations, almost all the pictures of the old type, ' paysage ' shots are not characterised I the general style of * reproduction ' photography of the time, for they were tl result not of simple technical reproduction, but of definite creative tendencie These shots were frequently included in the picture as a self-sufficient pictori element, sometimes entirely without relation to the general construction of tl film, being offered to the spectator as a kind of ' emotional kick '. It is curioi to note that even in present-day films shots of this kind sometimes preserve the independent significance. They are cut in by virtue of a very remote narrath link, that serves almost as an excuse, and not infrequently only to provoke a fe rapturous exclamations from the spectators, their attention then being transferre back to the main action. The landscape shot, carried out independently, pointe the road of treatment opened by the new technical resources. Instead of tl clearly defining anastigmatic lens, the glass diffused or softening lens came int use, silk gauzes were introduced into the system of optical transmission, an several other optical attachments began to be employed. The camera-ma began to take a serious interest in problems of lighting, which were now recognise as an essential element of composition, and in this way he developed a new interes in pictorial art, particularly in that of the impressionist school. The films of 191 8 to 1920 clearly reveal this characteristic departure fror optically sharp treatment of the subject, and the endeavour to construct th expressiveness of the shot on the transmission of a momentary impressior fortuitous and unrepeatable, manifested by the finest transitions from light spot to soft semi-shadows, from sunlight to a fluid silhouette. In this regard certaii early works of the finest of the German camera-men, such as Guido Zeber, Kai Hoffman, Gunther Krampf and Wagner, are of considerable interest. If we adopt the viewpoint of purely formalistic investigation, then obviousl it is not very difficult to establish the connection and succession between th various methods of pictorial schools and analogous methods of constructing th shot in artistic cinematography. The history of the development of representational forms in the camera-man' art reveals a parallel movement of two representational elements, the evolutioi of which brought the cinema to two basic forms of optical treatment of the shot Sharp, definite optical transmission, which we may call linear or graphic treatment of the shot, is characterised by the predominance in the optical imag< of a clear, sharply defined contour. The lighting is built up usually on a narrov tonal scale, with intensively saturated tones of black and white. Semi-tones ii their pictorial aerial shades and innumerable gradations do not play any decisive part in the expressive transmission of the image. Softened optical transmission, on the contrary, is distinguished by a soft fluid contour, and a tendency towards semi-tones, which serve as the main resource in constructing the image. While in the first case we are concerned with the movement of lines, as the main object of the spectator's perception, in softenec optical transmission the tonal mass, the light spot, perceived in a more generalisec form than as a purely linear contour, becomes predominant. 156